The Mataviejitas Murders: Where is Juana Barraza now and how did she get caught?

Across seven years, a wave of murders took place in Mexico City that shocked the nation. Netflix’s latest true crime documentary Lady of Silence: The Mataviejitas Murders tells the true story of Juana Barraza and how she became Mexico’s first serial killer.

Barraza was dubbed as La Mataviejitas by the media, which translates to The Old Lady Killer, due to every victim being aged 60 or over, something that perplexed people of Mexico.

Juana Barraza was caught in 2006 after being spotted by a neighbour who chased her down before she was arrested. But where is Juana Barraza now? Here’s everything you need to know about where she is now and what happened during her trial.

Who is Juana Barraza?

Juana Barraza is a Mexican serial killer, who was a former professional wrestler and went by the name La Dama del Silenci which chillingly translates to The Lady of Silence.

Barraza was born in Mexico in 1957. Her father was a police office while her mother was a sex worker. Her mother died of cirrhosis which led to Barraza fleeing to Mexico City where she got married and later had four children.

“She is proud of being both a father and mother to her children,” her lawyer once said, as per The Guardian.

Before her killings began, Barraza worked as a masked wrestler and later moved to burgling homes after becoming desperate for money. In 1996, she devised a plan to steal from the elderly with her friend and they would dress up as nurses and rob their victims’ homes.

She later retired from wrestling 2000 and claimed her first victim in 2002, María de la Luz González Anaya. She continued to murder a number of elderly women between 2002 and 2005.

“It was perceived by both authorities and the media as worse than other types of murder cases — not because of the number of victims or the manner in which they were killed, but because of who they were: elderly women,” Susana Cervantes wrote in The Little Old Lady Killer: The Sensationalized Crimes of Mexico’s First Female Serial Killer.

How was Juana Barraza caught?

While Mexican press speculated the killer was a man, witnesses began to report that the killer wore women’s clothing to gain access to the victim’s homes.

In January 2006, Juana Barraza was arrested while escaping from the home of her last victim, Ana María de los Reyes Alfaro, who she had stabbed and strangled.

The Guardian reported Alfaro’s tenant saw Barraza leave the home just before he found her body and chased her. Neighbours and a police officer managed to stop Barraza as she tried to escape.

It was reported Barraza had a list of names and addresses of elderly women, a stethoscope and a fake social worker ID in her possession at the time of her arrest.

Fingerprint evidence linked Barraza to at least 10 murders and she is said to have confessed to murdering Alfaro and three other women, but denied all the others.

Barraza later admitted to police she would dress as a nurse or social worker and befriend her victims before gaining entrance to their homes.

“I only killed one little old lady. Not the others,” she said during her trial, according to The Guardian. “It isn’t right to pin the others on me.”

Juana Barraza was sentenced to 759 years in prison for the deaths of 11 elderly women in April 2008.

Where is Juana Barraza now?

Juana Barraza is imprisoned at the Santa Martha de Acatitla prison in Mexico City, and according to Oxygen, she makes tacos which she sells in the prison courtyard.

Barraza was briefly married to Miguel Ángel, who was imprisoned in the men’s unit.

Ángel reportedly sent a series of letters to Barraza for about a year, after which they got married. However, the pair went their separate ways after a year.

“Once we saw each other, the love vanished,” Barraza told a deputy, according to El País.

The Lady of Silence: The Mataviejitas Murders is available to watch on Netflix now. For all the latest Netflix news, drops and memes like The Holy Church of Netflix on Facebook.

Related stories recommended by this writer:

• Lady of Silence: The Mataviejitas Murders tells the true story of Mexico’s first serial killer

• The Lucie Blackman Case: Who was Carita Ridgway and what happened to her?

• Tim Blackman led a campaign to find his daughter Lucie, but what is he doing now?

Featured image credit via Netflix.