Puente had a hard life; her father was an alcoholic and her mother a prostitute. She was placed in an orphanage as a young child where she was sexually abused. She married at 16 years of age and had two children who were both later adopted. At 19 her husband died and she was sent to prison for fraud. She was sent to prison for using drugs to steal from old people. Puente said all the victims died from natural causes. She did not tell anyone they had died because she had only been let out of prison on the condition that she did not look after old people. 