Barbara and Tom Williams couldn't pass up a Sacramento duplex — even though it's where a woman killed her boarding house tenants in the '80s.
Would you live in the former home of a notorious serial killer?
Barbara and Tom Williams bought their Sacramento, California, duplex in 2010. But in the 1980s, their residence was a boarding house owned by Dorothea Puente, who killed her elderly and disabled tenants to steal their Social Security checks. Police found seven bodies buried on the property, and Puente is confirmed to have killed at least two more.
"This was where her first body was buried, underneath this fountain here," Tom said, showing Inside Edition. "It was distinctive because it has no head, hands or feet."
As for the room where Puente stored her victims before burying them? That's now the master bedroom where Barbara and Tom sleep.
"Right now it's our room but originally she used this area to lay out the bodies," said Tom.
So why do Barbara and Tom live here? The Williamses said they couldn't pass up the five-bedroom duplex's price tag of $215,000 — a bargain basement discount due to the house's unappealing history.
"The price was killer," Barbara said with a laugh.
"We do try to have some fun here, this is the shower curtain we chose for our bathroom," added Tom, showcasing a curtain decorated with crime scene tape.
They have memorabilia around the home and even feature a life-size statue of the serial killer right by the front door.
"This is Dorothea Puente," said Tom, gesturing to the figure. "It's to make light of everything so that people look at it and they see funny and they don't see dead bodies."
Puente was convicted of three murders in 1993 and sentenced to life without parole. She died of natural causes in prison in 2011.
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