WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.259 OK, let's get into this. I want you to, for a 00:00:03.259 --> 00:00:07.160 second, just imagine Mexico City, but not the 00:00:07.160 --> 00:00:09.839 one you see in a travel show. I want you to picture 00:00:09.839 --> 00:00:13.740 the Distrito Federal, the DF, right at the turn 00:00:13.740 --> 00:00:16.559 of the millennium. We're talking late 90s, early 00:00:16.559 --> 00:00:19.260 2000s. It's just a sea of humanity. I mean, you 00:00:19.260 --> 00:00:23.019 have something like 20 million people all living, 00:00:23.140 --> 00:00:27.000 working and breathing in this one massive, sprawling 00:00:27.000 --> 00:00:30.160 metropolis. It's organized chaos, really. Absolutely. 00:00:30.179 --> 00:00:32.659 And the city back then is in this huge period 00:00:32.659 --> 00:00:35.320 of change. It's modernizing like crazy, but you 00:00:35.320 --> 00:00:37.340 know, the social safety nets that are supposed 00:00:37.340 --> 00:00:40.200 to catch people, they're stretched incredibly 00:00:40.200 --> 00:00:43.000 thin. There are cracks everywhere. Big cracks. 00:00:43.079 --> 00:00:44.700 And it was inside those cracks that something 00:00:44.700 --> 00:00:47.289 really, really dark started to grow. We've got 00:00:47.289 --> 00:00:48.969 a whole stack of material here today, police 00:00:48.969 --> 00:00:51.549 reports, journalistic deep dives, court records, 00:00:51.670 --> 00:00:55.009 and they all tell the story of this wave of fear. 00:00:55.210 --> 00:00:57.630 And it wasn't a citywide panic, which is what's 00:00:57.630 --> 00:00:59.490 so interesting. It was targeted. It was very 00:00:59.490 --> 00:01:01.990 specific and frankly, an often invisible part 00:01:01.990 --> 00:01:04.230 of the population. Elderly women, specifically 00:01:04.230 --> 00:01:07.060 elderly women who were living on their own. Exactly. 00:01:07.060 --> 00:01:09.719 The grandmothers, the abuelitas, all of a sudden 00:01:09.719 --> 00:01:11.739 they were being found dead in their apartments. 00:01:12.140 --> 00:01:14.780 And this wasn't, you know, old age or sickness. 00:01:15.180 --> 00:01:18.340 This was violent. No, this was a predator. A 00:01:18.340 --> 00:01:21.739 very calculated, very patient serial killer was 00:01:21.739 --> 00:01:25.019 actively hunting in the capital. And the media, 00:01:25.099 --> 00:01:26.959 well, they just ran with it. They gave the killer 00:01:26.959 --> 00:01:30.319 a name that became infamous. La Mata Viejitas. 00:01:30.519 --> 00:01:34.299 The little old lady killer. Which, I have to 00:01:34.299 --> 00:01:36.760 say, it sounds almost... I don't know, like a 00:01:36.760 --> 00:01:38.680 character from a Grimm's fairy tale. It sort 00:01:38.680 --> 00:01:40.700 of diminishes the horror of it. It does sound 00:01:40.700 --> 00:01:43.319 like a caricature, but the reality was terrifying. 00:01:43.939 --> 00:01:46.980 And our mission today with this deep dive is 00:01:46.980 --> 00:01:49.579 to really get behind that name. and unpack the 00:01:49.579 --> 00:01:51.640 story of the person responsible. We're going 00:01:51.640 --> 00:01:53.640 to be talking about Juana Barraza. And this is 00:01:53.640 --> 00:01:56.159 where the story veers from, you know, your standard 00:01:56.159 --> 00:01:58.879 true crime narrative into something that feels 00:01:58.879 --> 00:02:01.019 like fiction. If you wrote this as a movie script, 00:02:01.159 --> 00:02:02.920 I swear the studio would send it back and say 00:02:02.920 --> 00:02:05.000 it was too unbelievable. The contradiction at 00:02:05.000 --> 00:02:07.159 the heart of it is just staggering. On the one 00:02:07.159 --> 00:02:10.219 hand, you have the killer's method, a cold, manipulative 00:02:10.219 --> 00:02:12.879 predator who gains trust by pretending to be 00:02:12.879 --> 00:02:17.300 a social worker. Right. Quiet. Methodical. On 00:02:17.300 --> 00:02:20.460 the other hand. By night, this exact same woman 00:02:20.460 --> 00:02:23.199 is a professional wrestler, stepping into the 00:02:23.199 --> 00:02:26.099 lucha libre ring. It's just, it's mind -blowing. 00:02:26.259 --> 00:02:29.439 Her stage name was La Dama del Silencio. The 00:02:29.439 --> 00:02:32.259 Lady of Silence. You cannot make this up. A wrestler 00:02:32.259 --> 00:02:34.680 called the Lady of Silence is moonlighting as 00:02:34.680 --> 00:02:38.199 a serial killer who preys on the elderly by posing 00:02:38.199 --> 00:02:41.439 as a government aid worker. So today, that's 00:02:41.439 --> 00:02:44.039 our goal. We need to understand how. How did 00:02:44.039 --> 00:02:47.599 she maintain this double life? And looking through 00:02:47.599 --> 00:02:50.180 these police files, how on earth did the investigation 00:02:50.180 --> 00:02:53.340 get it so wrong for so long? Oh, there's so much 00:02:53.340 --> 00:02:54.879 to get into. We have to talk about the victims, 00:02:54.939 --> 00:02:58.400 of course, but also the gender stereotypes that 00:02:58.400 --> 00:03:00.360 just completely derailed the police investigation. 00:03:00.419 --> 00:03:02.060 We'll get to the whole man in a dress theory 00:03:02.060 --> 00:03:03.919 later. In the childhood. I mean, her backstory. 00:03:05.099 --> 00:03:07.280 It redefines the word tragic. It doesn't excuse 00:03:07.280 --> 00:03:09.479 what she did, not for a second. But it shines 00:03:09.479 --> 00:03:11.379 a light on where all that rage came from. And 00:03:11.379 --> 00:03:13.259 we can't forget the painting. The French painting, 00:03:13.400 --> 00:03:16.479 yes. The boy in a red waistcoat. That is a bizarre 00:03:16.479 --> 00:03:18.680 detour that you will not believe. It's a whole 00:03:18.680 --> 00:03:20.939 mystery in itself. But let's start at the beginning 00:03:20.939 --> 00:03:23.680 with the crimes themselves. The foundation of 00:03:23.680 --> 00:03:27.099 this deep dive has to be understanding who exactly 00:03:27.099 --> 00:03:31.259 Lamatav Yajitas was hunting. Well, to really 00:03:31.259 --> 00:03:33.039 get the scope of the crimes, you had a lot to 00:03:33.039 --> 00:03:35.680 start with the victim profile. It was incredibly 00:03:35.680 --> 00:03:38.139 consistent. Juana Barraza was targeting women 00:03:38.139 --> 00:03:41.740 exclusively age 60 and over. But it wasn't just 00:03:41.740 --> 00:03:44.219 about age, right? It was their living situation 00:03:44.219 --> 00:03:46.819 that made them a target. That's the crucial detail. 00:03:47.080 --> 00:03:49.479 These weren't women living in those big multi 00:03:49.479 --> 00:03:51.620 -generational family homes you often associate 00:03:51.620 --> 00:03:54.139 with Mexican culture, with kids and grandkids 00:03:54.139 --> 00:03:57.180 running around. No. No. And that's a really key 00:03:57.180 --> 00:04:00.520 sociological point. In a city as dense and crowded 00:04:00.520 --> 00:04:03.120 as Mexico City, you can be profoundly isolated. 00:04:03.639 --> 00:04:06.300 These were often widows or women whose children 00:04:06.300 --> 00:04:08.340 had grown up and moved away, maybe to the suburbs, 00:04:08.580 --> 00:04:10.400 maybe they'd emigrated to the U .S. for work. 00:04:10.520 --> 00:04:13.539 They were living alone in these older, often 00:04:13.539 --> 00:04:15.680 rent -controlled apartments. They were part of 00:04:15.680 --> 00:04:17.920 the city's fabric, but they were invisible. Which, 00:04:18.040 --> 00:04:20.439 from a predator's point of view, makes them low 00:04:20.439 --> 00:04:22.879 -risk. There's nobody else in the house to fight 00:04:22.879 --> 00:04:26.389 back or be a witness. Low -risk, exactly. But 00:04:26.389 --> 00:04:29.589 also potentially high reward if robbery is part 00:04:29.589 --> 00:04:31.990 of the motive. Yeah. An older generation, they 00:04:31.990 --> 00:04:34.569 don't always trust banks. They might keep cash, 00:04:34.750 --> 00:04:37.649 jewelry, valuable religious items right there 00:04:37.649 --> 00:04:40.269 in the home. And the sheer scale of this. I was 00:04:40.269 --> 00:04:42.149 looking at the numbers in these reports and it's 00:04:42.149 --> 00:04:45.699 just staggering. It's horrific. The authorities, 00:04:45.800 --> 00:04:48.379 when they finally connected all the dots, estimated 00:04:48.379 --> 00:04:50.639 that the total death toll could be anywhere from 00:04:50.639 --> 00:04:56.800 42 to 48 victims. 48. 48 women. That is a massive 00:04:56.800 --> 00:04:59.220 number for a single serial killer operating in 00:04:59.220 --> 00:05:02.100 one city over a few years. It's almost unheard 00:05:02.100 --> 00:05:04.819 of. Now, to be clear, Barraza was ultimately 00:05:04.819 --> 00:05:08.300 convicted on 16 counts of murder. But the investigation, 00:05:08.579 --> 00:05:11.579 her modus operandi, it was linked to dozens more. 00:05:11.800 --> 00:05:13.879 So how does she do it? How does a person get 00:05:13.879 --> 00:05:15.779 close enough to kill that many people without 00:05:15.779 --> 00:05:17.459 raising alarm bells everywhere? I mean, she's 00:05:17.459 --> 00:05:18.920 not breaking down doors in the middle of the 00:05:18.920 --> 00:05:20.740 night. No, and that's what's so insidious about 00:05:20.740 --> 00:05:22.860 it. It wasn't about brute force to get in. It 00:05:22.860 --> 00:05:25.040 was all about deception. She used a disguise 00:05:25.040 --> 00:05:27.439 that was practically tailor -made to work on 00:05:27.439 --> 00:05:30.519 this specific demographic. She posed as a government 00:05:30.519 --> 00:05:33.459 official. A social worker, to be precise. Which 00:05:33.459 --> 00:05:37.720 is just... It's diabolically clever. Evil, but 00:05:37.720 --> 00:05:40.980 clever. Very. The investigators' reports detail 00:05:40.980 --> 00:05:43.660 how she'd show up at their doors, often with 00:05:43.660 --> 00:05:46.120 a clipboard and some official -looking documents. 00:05:46.540 --> 00:05:48.339 She'd tell them she was there to help them sign 00:05:48.339 --> 00:05:50.639 up for new government welfare programs, maybe 00:05:50.639 --> 00:05:53.519 a pension increase or food aid. And I want to 00:05:53.519 --> 00:05:55.300 just pause on that for a second because you have 00:05:55.300 --> 00:05:58.100 to understand why that works so well. Imagine 00:05:58.100 --> 00:06:01.560 you are one of these women. You're 80 years old. 00:06:01.639 --> 00:06:03.500 You're living on a tiny pension. You're lonely. 00:06:03.939 --> 00:06:05.980 Maybe you feel like the world has forgotten you. 00:06:06.079 --> 00:06:08.240 Right. And then there's a knock on the door. 00:06:08.899 --> 00:06:10.939 And it's a woman which feels less threatening. 00:06:11.139 --> 00:06:13.319 And she's holding a badge or an ID card. And 00:06:13.319 --> 00:06:14.860 she says, I'm from the government and I'm here 00:06:14.860 --> 00:06:16.860 to help you. You're going to open that door. 00:06:17.040 --> 00:06:20.379 100 % of the time. It's an exploitation of trust 00:06:20.379 --> 00:06:23.519 and need. Barraza weaponized the social safety 00:06:23.519 --> 00:06:26.060 net. She preyed on their financial vulnerability 00:06:26.060 --> 00:06:29.029 and their loneliness. When someone in a position 00:06:29.029 --> 00:06:32.410 of authority offers help, your guard just, it 00:06:32.410 --> 00:06:35.009 plummets. We're all conditioned to trust the 00:06:35.009 --> 00:06:37.069 person in the uniform, the nurse, the social 00:06:37.069 --> 00:06:40.269 worker. She twisted that instinct into a weapon. 00:06:40.470 --> 00:06:42.589 She absolutely did. And once she was inside the 00:06:42.589 --> 00:06:45.589 apartment, the mask came off. And the violence 00:06:45.589 --> 00:06:49.329 described in these files, it wasn't subtle. Not 00:06:49.329 --> 00:06:51.689 at all. The cause of death was almost always 00:06:51.689 --> 00:06:54.550 bludgeoning or strangulation. This was up close, 00:06:54.670 --> 00:06:56.990 physical, hands -on violence. It was brutal. 00:06:57.230 --> 00:06:59.509 And she often used items from inside the home. 00:06:59.709 --> 00:07:02.170 Here's another key detail. The reports mentioned 00:07:02.170 --> 00:07:05.089 things like telephone cords, the victim's own 00:07:05.089 --> 00:07:08.470 stockings, scarves, even a stethoscope in one 00:07:08.470 --> 00:07:10.629 case. So she's not walking in with a murder kit. 00:07:10.689 --> 00:07:12.750 It's not like she has a bag with a hammer and 00:07:12.750 --> 00:07:15.350 a rope. She's improvising. It implies a certain 00:07:15.350 --> 00:07:17.959 level of confidence, doesn't it? She was either 00:07:17.959 --> 00:07:20.360 improvising or she was so sure of her own physical 00:07:20.360 --> 00:07:22.579 strength that she knew she could find whatever 00:07:22.579 --> 00:07:25.279 she needed to get the job done right there at 00:07:25.279 --> 00:07:27.779 the scene. And on the surface, at least initially, 00:07:27.980 --> 00:07:30.600 this all looked like robberies that went wrong, 00:07:30.639 --> 00:07:33.420 correct? That was the most obvious motive. She 00:07:33.420 --> 00:07:35.579 would kill them and then rob them. She'd take 00:07:35.579 --> 00:07:38.240 small amounts of cash, maybe some jewelry, religious 00:07:38.240 --> 00:07:41.170 icons from their little altars. things she could 00:07:41.170 --> 00:07:43.069 easily carry and sell. But if it were just about 00:07:43.069 --> 00:07:45.269 money, there are a million easier ways to be 00:07:45.269 --> 00:07:47.250 a thief. You don't usually become a serial killer 00:07:47.250 --> 00:07:49.769 just to steal a few pesos and a silver crucifix. 00:07:49.889 --> 00:07:52.870 Exactly. Burglary doesn't escalate to serial 00:07:52.870 --> 00:07:56.050 murder on this scale unless there's a powerful 00:07:56.050 --> 00:07:58.970 psychological driver behind it. And that's where 00:07:58.970 --> 00:08:01.670 the profiling got really complex. Authorities 00:08:01.670 --> 00:08:03.550 later came to believe the motive wasn't financial 00:08:03.550 --> 00:08:06.089 at all. Not really. There's something else going 00:08:06.089 --> 00:08:09.189 on. A signature. A deep psychological signature. 00:08:09.370 --> 00:08:12.269 The prevailing theory among profilers was that 00:08:12.269 --> 00:08:15.370 Barraza was projecting. She associated these 00:08:15.370 --> 00:08:17.790 elderly, vulnerable women with her own mother, 00:08:17.910 --> 00:08:20.750 and in her deeply twisted logic, she believed 00:08:20.750 --> 00:08:24.790 she was helping society by killing them. Helping 00:08:24.790 --> 00:08:27.550 society? I just, that's a terrifying rationalization. 00:08:27.550 --> 00:08:29.509 That's how a person sleeps at night after doing 00:08:29.509 --> 00:08:32.389 something so monstrous. It points to a profound, 00:08:32.629 --> 00:08:35.799 deep -seated hatred. It wasn't about the women 00:08:35.799 --> 00:08:38.240 themselves. They were just stand -ins. They were 00:08:38.240 --> 00:08:40.519 symbols of the person she truly wanted to hurt. 00:08:40.700 --> 00:08:42.440 Which, of course, brings us to the investigation. 00:08:42.940 --> 00:08:45.519 Because when you have a killer leaving a trail 00:08:45.519 --> 00:08:48.740 of bodies this long over several years in a major 00:08:48.740 --> 00:08:51.320 capital city, you'd assume the police would be 00:08:51.320 --> 00:08:54.759 closing in fast. But reading through this timeline, 00:08:55.120 --> 00:08:57.419 they were looking for the wrong person entirely. 00:08:57.940 --> 00:09:00.360 This is a, I mean, it's a textbook example of 00:09:00.360 --> 00:09:02.980 how bias can completely blind an investigation. 00:09:03.819 --> 00:09:06.340 The initial profile was put together by Bernardo 00:09:06.340 --> 00:09:08.580 Batiz, who was the chief prosecutor for Mexico 00:09:08.580 --> 00:09:10.600 City at the time. And he described the killer 00:09:10.600 --> 00:09:13.580 as, what, clever? He said the killer had a brilliant 00:09:13.580 --> 00:09:16.899 mind, was clever, and careful. Which, to be fair, 00:09:16.899 --> 00:09:19.240 was accurate. She evaded capture for years. Okay, 00:09:19.279 --> 00:09:21.259 so far so good. But where did they go wrong? 00:09:21.440 --> 00:09:23.240 They went wrong on the most fundamental question 00:09:23.240 --> 00:09:26.429 of all. The gender of the killer. The authorities, 00:09:26.590 --> 00:09:28.950 the media, the public, everyone just assumed 00:09:28.950 --> 00:09:31.090 the killer was male. And this was because of 00:09:31.090 --> 00:09:33.570 the physical nature of the crimes, the strangulation? 00:09:33.889 --> 00:09:36.870 Yes, entirely. The assumption was rooted in the 00:09:36.870 --> 00:09:40.269 perceived strength required. Strangling a person, 00:09:40.409 --> 00:09:43.009 a resisting adult, is not like it is in the movies. 00:09:43.169 --> 00:09:46.149 It takes incredible upper body strength, grip 00:09:46.149 --> 00:09:49.269 strength, and sustained force for several minutes. 00:09:49.509 --> 00:09:52.509 So the thinking was, a woman couldn't do this. 00:09:52.769 --> 00:09:55.129 That was the prevailing theory. It was seen as 00:09:55.129 --> 00:09:57.330 a crime of brute force and therefore it had to 00:09:57.330 --> 00:10:00.370 be a man. It's a massive oversight rooted in, 00:10:00.409 --> 00:10:03.690 frankly, machismo and outdated gender stereotypes. 00:10:03.889 --> 00:10:06.450 They literally could not imagine a female perpetrator 00:10:06.450 --> 00:10:08.830 being capable of this kind of violence. But what 00:10:08.830 --> 00:10:11.029 about witnesses? I mean, with a crime spree this 00:10:11.029 --> 00:10:12.750 long, someone must have seen something. Someone 00:10:12.750 --> 00:10:14.850 leaving an apartment building, walking down the 00:10:14.850 --> 00:10:17.370 street. They did. They had witnesses. And this 00:10:17.370 --> 00:10:19.389 is where the story goes from a simple oversight 00:10:19.389 --> 00:10:22.529 to just. A painful case of confirmation bias. 00:10:23.419 --> 00:10:25.919 Multiple witnesses reported seeing a masculine 00:10:25.919 --> 00:10:28.419 -looking woman leaving the crime scenes. A masculine 00:10:28.419 --> 00:10:30.580 -looking woman. Or they would describe a large 00:10:30.580 --> 00:10:32.840 woman, someone with broad shoulders, maybe wearing 00:10:32.840 --> 00:10:35.559 a red blouse, which was a recurring detail. So, 00:10:35.580 --> 00:10:37.860 okay, the witnesses are literally telling them 00:10:37.860 --> 00:10:40.840 it was a big, strong woman, and the police heard, 00:10:41.019 --> 00:10:44.080 what? They heard, it must be a man in disguise. 00:10:44.580 --> 00:10:47.120 You have to be kidding me. I wish I was. The 00:10:47.120 --> 00:10:49.919 official police hypothesis became that the killer 00:10:49.919 --> 00:10:52.500 might be a man dressed as a woman. Or perhaps 00:10:52.500 --> 00:10:55.460 a transgender person? They were so locked into 00:10:55.460 --> 00:10:58.299 their male killer theory that they invented a 00:10:58.299 --> 00:11:00.700 scenario to make the evidence fit instead of 00:11:00.700 --> 00:11:02.679 the other way around. And this wasn't just a 00:11:02.679 --> 00:11:04.740 theory they kicked around the office. This had 00:11:04.740 --> 00:11:06.940 real -world consequences for people, didn't it? 00:11:07.019 --> 00:11:10.259 Horrible consequences. This flawed theory led 00:11:10.259 --> 00:11:13.059 to what journalists at the time called ham -fisted 00:11:13.059 --> 00:11:16.370 police swoops. They started rounding up and harassing 00:11:16.370 --> 00:11:19.009 Mexico City's transvestite sex workers. So they're 00:11:19.009 --> 00:11:21.570 out there arresting and terrifying a community 00:11:21.570 --> 00:11:23.789 that's already marginalized, all because they 00:11:23.789 --> 00:11:26.210 couldn't fathom that a biological woman might 00:11:26.210 --> 00:11:28.330 be the killer. That's essentially what happened. 00:11:28.389 --> 00:11:30.870 They wasted an enormous amount of investigative 00:11:30.870 --> 00:11:34.169 time, manpower, and resources. They drew heavy 00:11:34.169 --> 00:11:36.669 criticism from human rights groups. They were 00:11:36.669 --> 00:11:39.929 terrorizing innocent people, while the real killer... 00:11:40.120 --> 00:11:43.299 Juana Barraza, a cisgender woman, was continuing 00:11:43.299 --> 00:11:47.059 her spree completely undetected. It's just, it's 00:11:47.059 --> 00:11:49.879 infuriating. It's a tragedy layered on top of 00:11:49.879 --> 00:11:52.980 a tragedy. You have the victims of the killer 00:11:52.980 --> 00:11:55.080 and then you have the victims of the deeply flawed 00:11:55.080 --> 00:11:57.320 investigation. And the police were getting so 00:11:57.320 --> 00:12:00.159 lost, so confused, that even wilder theories 00:12:00.159 --> 00:12:03.019 started to emerge. At one point, they were floating 00:12:03.019 --> 00:12:05.360 a two -killers theory that maybe it was a team. 00:12:05.580 --> 00:12:07.899 Okay, I could see how they might get there. Then 00:12:07.899 --> 00:12:10.139 it gets even stranger. The police started checking 00:12:10.139 --> 00:12:12.799 the fingerprints of unidentified bodies in morgues. 00:12:12.879 --> 00:12:14.779 Why would they be doing that? It was their suicide 00:12:14.779 --> 00:12:17.120 theory. The killings would sometimes stop for 00:12:17.120 --> 00:12:19.379 a few weeks or a month, and the police started 00:12:19.379 --> 00:12:22.379 to think that maybe La Montevigites had committed 00:12:22.379 --> 00:12:25.580 suicide to escape being caught. They were completely 00:12:25.580 --> 00:12:28.279 at sea. Grasping at any straw they could find? 00:12:28.460 --> 00:12:31.320 Any straw at all. Because their primary profile, 00:12:31.600 --> 00:12:34.159 the male killer, was yielding absolutely nothing. 00:12:34.419 --> 00:12:37.039 And then, as if it wasn't confusing enough, the 00:12:37.039 --> 00:12:39.779 red waistcoat comes into play. When I read this 00:12:39.779 --> 00:12:41.740 part of the file, I had to stop and make sure 00:12:41.740 --> 00:12:43.940 I wasn't reading a Dan Brown novel. It's one 00:12:43.940 --> 00:12:45.700 of those details that's just stranger than fiction. 00:12:46.259 --> 00:12:48.399 It's the kind of bizarre coincidence that can 00:12:48.399 --> 00:12:50.679 send an entire investigation down a rabbit hole 00:12:50.679 --> 00:12:54.740 for months. So, set the scene. What is this painting? 00:12:54.919 --> 00:12:57.179 Okay, it's a piece by an 18th century French 00:12:57.179 --> 00:13:00.409 artist, Jean -Baptiste Grosse. The painting is 00:13:00.409 --> 00:13:02.830 called Boy in a Red Waistcoat. It was painted 00:13:02.830 --> 00:13:06.909 sometime around 1775, maybe 1780. A classic piece 00:13:06.909 --> 00:13:09.610 of French portraiture. What in God's name does 00:13:09.610 --> 00:13:11.190 that have to do with a serial killer in Mexico 00:13:11.190 --> 00:13:13.750 City in the early 2000s? Well, detectives on 00:13:13.750 --> 00:13:15.509 the case started noticing something very odd. 00:13:15.730 --> 00:13:18.610 They found prints. Cheap reproductions of this 00:13:18.610 --> 00:13:20.950 specific painting hanging on the walls in the 00:13:20.950 --> 00:13:23.029 homes of at least three of the victims. Three. 00:13:23.370 --> 00:13:26.389 Three different victims in a city of 20 million 00:13:26.389 --> 00:13:29.409 people all happen to own a print of the same 00:13:29.409 --> 00:13:32.789 obscure 18th century French painting. Exactly. 00:13:33.009 --> 00:13:35.090 And you can just imagine what that did to the 00:13:35.090 --> 00:13:37.029 investigation. They were already lost and now 00:13:37.029 --> 00:13:39.090 this. They thought it had to be a signature, 00:13:39.289 --> 00:13:42.490 a calling card left by the killer. Of course 00:13:42.490 --> 00:13:45.149 they did. I would too. It feels like a code. 00:13:45.930 --> 00:13:48.330 Was the killer targeting people who own this 00:13:48.330 --> 00:13:50.470 specific print? Was it a clue to their identity? 00:13:50.529 --> 00:13:52.169 Maybe they worked in an art museum or something? 00:13:52.450 --> 00:13:55.210 It was a massive red herring. It completely distracted 00:13:55.210 --> 00:13:58.690 the detectives. They spent valuable time investigating 00:13:58.690 --> 00:14:01.049 this link, talking to art dealers, looking for 00:14:01.049 --> 00:14:03.370 patterns in the art world that just weren't there. 00:14:03.610 --> 00:14:05.750 And in reality, what was it? In all likelihood, 00:14:05.769 --> 00:14:09.210 it was just a bizarre statistical anomaly. A 00:14:09.210 --> 00:14:12.090 complete coincidence. How is that possible? Well, 00:14:12.110 --> 00:14:14.970 think about it. Maybe a popular department store, 00:14:15.149 --> 00:14:17.649 like a Woolworth's equivalent, had a sale on 00:14:17.649 --> 00:14:20.149 these prints five years earlier. Maybe a street 00:14:20.149 --> 00:14:22.110 vendor who was popular in those neighborhoods 00:14:22.110 --> 00:14:25.330 had a stack of them one day. Or it was the cover 00:14:25.330 --> 00:14:27.789 of a popular calendar one year. So it meant absolutely 00:14:27.789 --> 00:14:30.309 nothing. As far as anyone can tell, it had zero 00:14:30.309 --> 00:14:32.629 connection to the killer's identity or motive. 00:14:32.909 --> 00:14:35.970 It was just a strange, random pattern that made 00:14:35.970 --> 00:14:39.769 a messy investigation even messier. Wow. So the 00:14:39.769 --> 00:14:42.289 police are out there. chasing transvestites, 00:14:42.490 --> 00:14:45.470 analyzing 18th century French art, and checking 00:14:45.470 --> 00:14:48.309 morgues for a suicide that never happened. And 00:14:48.309 --> 00:14:51.490 all the while, Juana Barraza is living this unbelievable 00:14:51.490 --> 00:14:54.429 double life right under their noses. And this 00:14:54.429 --> 00:14:56.409 is where we have to pivot and really look at 00:14:56.409 --> 00:14:59.509 who she was. Because her other life, her night 00:14:59.509 --> 00:15:02.570 job, is the key to understanding why the police 00:15:02.570 --> 00:15:04.909 were so wrong about the physical strength component. 00:15:05.169 --> 00:15:06.889 She was a professional wrestler, a luchadora. 00:15:07.149 --> 00:15:09.110 That's right. She was a fixture in the lucha 00:15:09.110 --> 00:15:11.350 libre circuit. Her ring name, as you said, was 00:15:11.350 --> 00:15:14.809 La Dama del Silencio, the Lady of Silence. Which, 00:15:14.870 --> 00:15:16.950 knowing everything we know now, just sends a 00:15:16.950 --> 00:15:19.909 chill down your spine. The Lady of Silence. The 00:15:19.909 --> 00:15:22.490 irony is profound. Now, for anyone who doesn't 00:15:22.490 --> 00:15:24.750 follow Lucha Libre, it's more than just wrestling. 00:15:24.830 --> 00:15:27.409 It's a spectacle, a form of theater. And in that 00:15:27.409 --> 00:15:30.169 theater, you have very clearly defined roles. 00:15:30.370 --> 00:15:32.529 You have the technicos. The good guys, the heroes. 00:15:32.750 --> 00:15:34.990 They're flashy. They do high -flying moves. They 00:15:34.990 --> 00:15:36.730 play by the rules. And then you have the rudas, 00:15:36.750 --> 00:15:40.230 the rough ones. The villains. The heels, as we'd 00:15:40.230 --> 00:15:41.710 call them in American wrestling. They're the 00:15:41.710 --> 00:15:44.509 brawlers, the rule breakers. They're there to 00:15:44.509 --> 00:15:47.350 be booed. And Juana always fought as a Ruta. 00:15:47.529 --> 00:15:50.470 She was cast as the villain in the ring. So just 00:15:50.470 --> 00:15:52.409 picture this for a moment. On a Friday night, 00:15:52.610 --> 00:15:55.009 she's in a wrestling ring, maybe in a sequined 00:15:55.009 --> 00:15:57.470 outfit and a mask, body slamming her opponents, 00:15:57.649 --> 00:16:00.470 playing the bad guy for a roaring crowd. And 00:16:00.470 --> 00:16:02.230 then on Tuesday morning, she's putting on a plain 00:16:02.230 --> 00:16:04.690 blouse, grabbing a fake ID card, and going out 00:16:04.690 --> 00:16:07.669 to murder a grandmother. The duality is just... 00:16:08.269 --> 00:16:11.409 It's hard to process. In the ring, she's performing 00:16:11.409 --> 00:16:14.070 violence. It's loud. It's theatrical. It's for 00:16:14.070 --> 00:16:16.669 entertainment and applause. But in her private 00:16:16.669 --> 00:16:19.009 life, she's committing this incredibly intimate, 00:16:19.169 --> 00:16:22.090 silent, real violence. And the wrestling explains 00:16:22.090 --> 00:16:24.470 the whole it must be a man theory, doesn't it? 00:16:24.549 --> 00:16:26.190 It explains it completely. To be a professional 00:16:26.190 --> 00:16:28.950 wrestler, you have to be incredibly strong. It 00:16:28.950 --> 00:16:31.690 requires immense core strength, grip strength, 00:16:31.990 --> 00:16:34.649 leverage, and a high pain tolerance. She was 00:16:34.649 --> 00:16:37.659 a trained athlete. A combat athlete. So the masculine 00:16:37.659 --> 00:16:40.259 strength the witnesses saw. Was her strength. 00:16:40.740 --> 00:16:43.480 The broad shoulders they described were the shoulders 00:16:43.480 --> 00:16:46.779 of a wrestler who spent hours in the gym. She 00:16:46.779 --> 00:16:49.200 had literally trained her body to be a weapon. 00:16:50.169 --> 00:16:52.809 And the police, in their biased view, simply 00:16:52.809 --> 00:16:54.950 failed to consider that a woman could achieve 00:16:54.950 --> 00:16:57.289 that level of physical power. But people aren't 00:16:57.289 --> 00:16:59.269 just born this way. They aren't born serial killers. 00:16:59.370 --> 00:17:02.049 There's almost always a story, a trauma, something 00:17:02.049 --> 00:17:05.049 that breaks a person. And Juana's backstory. 00:17:05.569 --> 00:17:07.970 I have to give a warning here. It is profoundly 00:17:07.970 --> 00:17:10.690 disturbing. It doesn't excuse a single thing 00:17:10.690 --> 00:17:14.140 she did. But it does help explain the rage. It's 00:17:14.140 --> 00:17:15.700 one of the most harrowing backstories I've ever 00:17:15.700 --> 00:17:17.660 come across in these cases. You have to go back 00:17:17.660 --> 00:17:20.279 to her childhood. She was born in a small rural 00:17:20.279 --> 00:17:23.019 town called Epazayucan in the state of Hidalgo, 00:17:23.079 --> 00:17:25.319 north of Mexico City. Her mother's name was Jesus 00:17:25.319 --> 00:17:27.359 Amperio. And by all accounts, the mother was 00:17:27.359 --> 00:17:29.980 an alcoholic. A severe alcoholic. And the central 00:17:29.980 --> 00:17:31.859 trauma of Juana's life, the event that seems 00:17:31.859 --> 00:17:33.660 to be the poison well from which everything else 00:17:33.660 --> 00:17:35.859 flows, happened when she was just a young girl. 00:17:36.609 --> 00:17:38.809 According to the court records and her own testimony, 00:17:39.029 --> 00:17:41.789 her mother, Justa, exchanged her for three beers. 00:17:42.009 --> 00:17:45.490 I just, I need to stop you there because we need 00:17:45.490 --> 00:17:49.210 to let that sink in. Her own mother traded her, 00:17:49.269 --> 00:17:52.910 sold her daughter to a man for three bottles 00:17:52.910 --> 00:17:55.609 of beer. That is the account. She handed her 00:17:55.609 --> 00:17:57.789 child over to a man in exchange for alcohol. 00:17:58.470 --> 00:18:01.349 It's the ultimate betrayal. The one person on 00:18:01.349 --> 00:18:03.890 earth whose job it is to protect you commodifies 00:18:03.890 --> 00:18:05.950 you for a drink. And what happened to her with 00:18:05.950 --> 00:18:08.829 that man? The abuse was unimaginable. She was 00:18:08.829 --> 00:18:11.329 repeatedly and brutally raped while in this man's 00:18:11.329 --> 00:18:13.630 care. She actually became pregnant by him and 00:18:13.630 --> 00:18:16.109 gave birth to a son while she was still, by any 00:18:16.109 --> 00:18:18.730 definition, a child herself. My God. It's just, 00:18:18.789 --> 00:18:20.970 it's a complete failure of family, of community, 00:18:21.150 --> 00:18:23.509 of everything. It is. And the tragedy just kept 00:18:23.509 --> 00:18:26.190 following her. She would go on to have four children 00:18:26.190 --> 00:18:28.769 in total, but her eldest son... The one who was 00:18:28.769 --> 00:18:31.109 born from that horrific abuse was later killed. 00:18:31.269 --> 00:18:33.529 He died from injuries he sustained in a street 00:18:33.529 --> 00:18:35.710 mugging. So her entire life is just bookended 00:18:35.710 --> 00:18:38.369 by violence. Violence from her mother, sexual 00:18:38.369 --> 00:18:40.410 violence from men, the violence of the streets 00:18:40.410 --> 00:18:43.210 that takes her son. Precisely. And if you draw 00:18:43.210 --> 00:18:46.150 a line from that past to the present of her crimes, 00:18:46.309 --> 00:18:51.049 the motive becomes terrifyingly clear. Barraza 00:18:51.049 --> 00:18:53.529 admitted in her interrogations that her motivation 00:18:53.529 --> 00:18:56.730 was a lingering resentment. about how her mother 00:18:56.730 --> 00:18:58.690 had treated her so every time she walked into 00:18:58.690 --> 00:19:01.049 an elderly woman's apartment she was walking 00:19:01.049 --> 00:19:03.069 into her mother's apartment she was killing her 00:19:03.069 --> 00:19:06.069 mother over and over and over again these victims 00:19:06.069 --> 00:19:09.609 were surrogates for her rage she saw these vulnerable 00:19:09.609 --> 00:19:12.029 older women and instead of seeing a person to 00:19:12.029 --> 00:19:14.230 be cared for she saw the person who had sold 00:19:14.230 --> 00:19:16.609 her for beer which makes that helping society 00:19:16.609 --> 00:19:19.410 comment even more twisted in her own broken mind 00:19:19.410 --> 00:19:21.769 she might have genuinely believed she was ridding 00:19:21.769 --> 00:19:24.210 the world of bad mothers it's a very disturbing 00:19:24.210 --> 00:19:27.380 but psychologically coherent possibility. It 00:19:27.380 --> 00:19:29.779 completely recontextualizes the crime spree. 00:19:29.779 --> 00:19:31.900 It was never just about robbery. It was about 00:19:31.900 --> 00:19:34.400 revenge. So she's out there killing for years. 00:19:34.440 --> 00:19:36.359 The police are chasing their tails with paintings 00:19:36.359 --> 00:19:38.779 and flawed theories. How does it all finally 00:19:38.779 --> 00:19:40.640 come to an end? Because eventually the luck runs 00:19:40.640 --> 00:19:43.839 out. It does. It all ends on January 25, 2006. 00:19:44.380 --> 00:19:46.660 Okay, take us to that day. Where are we? We're 00:19:46.660 --> 00:19:48.960 in the Venustiano Carranza borough of Mexico 00:19:48.960 --> 00:19:52.109 City. And the final victim is an 82 -year -old 00:19:52.109 --> 00:19:55.450 woman named Ana Maria de los Reyes Alfaro. And 00:19:55.450 --> 00:19:57.450 the method of killing? She was strangled with 00:19:57.450 --> 00:19:59.630 a stethoscope. A stethoscope, which fits the 00:19:59.630 --> 00:20:01.869 whole medical professional social worker disguise 00:20:01.869 --> 00:20:05.069 perfectly. It does. But this time, something 00:20:05.069 --> 00:20:07.910 went wrong for Barraza. Things didn't go as smoothly 00:20:07.910 --> 00:20:10.609 as they usually did. Barraza would later claim 00:20:10.609 --> 00:20:13.009 that she strangled Alfaro after they got into 00:20:13.009 --> 00:20:15.410 an argument. An argument about what? Her story 00:20:15.410 --> 00:20:17.970 was that it was a dispute over payment for house 00:20:17.970 --> 00:20:20.970 cleaning. For maid services. Wait, maid services. 00:20:21.109 --> 00:20:23.329 So she had switched up her disguise from social 00:20:23.329 --> 00:20:26.269 worker to maid that day. It's hard to know if 00:20:26.269 --> 00:20:28.809 that was the truth or just a story she concocted 00:20:28.809 --> 00:20:31.109 after she was caught. But whatever the reason, 00:20:31.230 --> 00:20:34.569 the result was the same. She murdered her. But 00:20:34.569 --> 00:20:36.789 this time, she didn't just melt back into the 00:20:36.789 --> 00:20:39.690 city. A neighbor saw her. Saw her leaving the 00:20:39.690 --> 00:20:42.190 apartment. A tenant in the building saw her fleeing 00:20:42.190 --> 00:20:44.809 the victim's home and immediately suspected something 00:20:44.809 --> 00:20:48.130 was wrong. He chased after her and managed to 00:20:48.130 --> 00:20:50.109 flag down some police who were patrolling nearby. 00:20:50.430 --> 00:20:52.769 So she was caught, basically, red -handed. As 00:20:52.769 --> 00:20:56.130 red -handed as it gets. The police intercepted 00:20:56.130 --> 00:20:58.410 her just down the street. And when they searched 00:20:58.410 --> 00:21:01.450 her, the evidence was damning. She was carrying 00:21:01.450 --> 00:21:03.849 the stethoscope used in the murder. She had pension 00:21:03.849 --> 00:21:06.890 forms. She had a fake social worker ID card. 00:21:07.289 --> 00:21:10.049 The complete toolkit of her deception right there 00:21:10.049 --> 00:21:12.849 on her person. And this is the real aha moment 00:21:12.849 --> 00:21:15.049 for the police. The moment where the stomach 00:21:15.049 --> 00:21:17.289 must have just dropped out of every detective 00:21:17.289 --> 00:21:19.930 on that case. When they finally got her back 00:21:19.930 --> 00:21:22.549 to the station and looked at her, really looked 00:21:22.549 --> 00:21:25.049 at her, they realized she was a near perfect 00:21:25.049 --> 00:21:27.349 match. Had a composite sketch they'd had for 00:21:27.349 --> 00:21:29.769 years. The one based on witness descriptions 00:21:29.769 --> 00:21:32.029 that they'd been ignoring? The very same one. 00:21:32.210 --> 00:21:35.539 The close cropped hair dyed blonde. The prominent 00:21:35.539 --> 00:21:38.900 facial mole. The broad, strong features. It was 00:21:38.900 --> 00:21:41.279 her. The sketch had been accurate all along. 00:21:41.559 --> 00:21:43.599 But because their minds were locked on finding 00:21:43.599 --> 00:21:45.599 a man, they'd looked right past the truth that 00:21:45.599 --> 00:21:47.500 was staring them in the face. They had her face. 00:21:47.559 --> 00:21:49.279 They just had the wrong gender attached to it 00:21:49.279 --> 00:21:51.759 in their heads. That's it exactly. So she's finally 00:21:51.759 --> 00:21:54.339 in custody. The press must have gone absolutely 00:21:54.339 --> 00:21:57.599 insane. The little old lady killer is a famous 00:21:57.599 --> 00:22:00.700 wrestler. That's a headline from a fever dream. 00:22:00.920 --> 00:22:03.220 It was a media firestorm. It was the biggest 00:22:03.220 --> 00:22:06.400 story in Mexico for months. It completely shocked 00:22:06.400 --> 00:22:09.160 the nation. But then, of course, came the legal 00:22:09.160 --> 00:22:11.440 process, starting with the interrogation. And 00:22:11.440 --> 00:22:13.980 did she confess to everything? It was. Yeah. 00:22:14.339 --> 00:22:17.599 Complicated. She immediately confessed to murdering 00:22:17.599 --> 00:22:20.059 Ana Maria Los Reyes Alfaro. I mean, she was caught 00:22:20.059 --> 00:22:22.420 right there. And she admitted to three other 00:22:22.420 --> 00:22:25.339 murders. Okay, so she gives them four. But they 00:22:25.339 --> 00:22:28.119 suspect her of what? Close to 50? Exactly. She 00:22:28.119 --> 00:22:31.180 flatly denied any involvement in the other killings 00:22:31.180 --> 00:22:33.460 that were attributed to La Mataviejitas. She 00:22:33.460 --> 00:22:35.299 tried to draw a line in the sand. It was like 00:22:35.299 --> 00:22:37.720 she was saying, yes, I do these specific things, 00:22:37.799 --> 00:22:41.200 but I am not that monster from the newspapers. 00:22:41.440 --> 00:22:43.660 But the physical evidence tells a different story. 00:22:43.900 --> 00:22:46.539 The physical evidence doesn't lie. Prosecutors 00:22:46.539 --> 00:22:48.359 were able to link her fingerprints to at least 00:22:48.359 --> 00:22:51.119 10 of the murder scenes, maybe more. The forensic 00:22:51.119 --> 00:22:53.539 evidence was overwhelming, regardless of what 00:22:53.539 --> 00:22:55.420 she was willing to admit. So we fast forward 00:22:55.420 --> 00:22:58.680 to the verdict. This was in 2008. Yes. The trial 00:22:58.680 --> 00:23:01.500 concluded in the spring of 2008. She was ultimately 00:23:01.500 --> 00:23:04.599 found guilty on 16 counts of murder and aggravated 00:23:04.599 --> 00:23:08.160 burglary. 16 convictions. And the sentence for 00:23:08.160 --> 00:23:11.809 that. The judge handed down a sentence of 759 00:23:11.809 --> 00:23:15.670 years in prison. 759 years, which is obviously 00:23:15.670 --> 00:23:17.930 a symbolic number. It is. In the Mexican legal 00:23:17.930 --> 00:23:20.309 system, there's no death penalty, and there aren't 00:23:20.309 --> 00:23:22.490 life without parole sentences in the way the 00:23:22.490 --> 00:23:25.910 U .S. has them. The maximum effective sentence 00:23:25.910 --> 00:23:28.970 a person can serve is capped. At the time, I 00:23:28.970 --> 00:23:31.269 believe it was 60 years. So for a woman who was 00:23:31.269 --> 00:23:33.950 in her late 40s when she was sentenced, 60 years 00:23:33.950 --> 00:23:36.289 is a life sentence. It's a life sentence. She 00:23:36.289 --> 00:23:37.809 will die in prison. There's no question about 00:23:37.809 --> 00:23:41.190 that. So justice is served. The case is closed. 00:23:41.670 --> 00:23:44.869 The city can breathe a sigh of relief. Officially, 00:23:44.869 --> 00:23:48.109 yes. The authorities formally closed the Matavihides 00:23:48.109 --> 00:23:51.230 investigation after her conviction. But, and 00:23:51.230 --> 00:23:54.390 it's a very big but, that left over 30 unresolved 00:23:54.390 --> 00:23:56.289 cases that were initially linked to the same 00:23:56.289 --> 00:23:58.990 killer profile. So what happens to those families? 00:23:59.049 --> 00:24:00.730 Do they just get told, well, we're pretty sure 00:24:00.730 --> 00:24:02.990 she did it, but we can't prove it. So that's 00:24:02.990 --> 00:24:06.079 that. That's essentially what happens. It leaves 00:24:06.079 --> 00:24:09.519 this lingering cloud of ambiguity for dozens 00:24:09.519 --> 00:24:11.900 of families who may never get legal closure. 00:24:12.220 --> 00:24:14.240 And you have to remember, Barraza wasn't the 00:24:14.240 --> 00:24:17.819 only suspect ever arrested. At one point in 2005, 00:24:18.039 --> 00:24:20.700 the police arrested two other people, a man and 00:24:20.700 --> 00:24:23.539 a woman, and the media even identified them as 00:24:23.539 --> 00:24:26.460 the killer for a time. So it was a messy investigation 00:24:26.460 --> 00:24:28.920 from start to finish. A very messy conclusion 00:24:28.920 --> 00:24:31.650 to a very messy case. But there was no doubt 00:24:31.650 --> 00:24:33.869 that Barraza was the one. She fit the profile, 00:24:34.109 --> 00:24:36.609 the fingerprints, the timeline, and the sheer 00:24:36.609 --> 00:24:39.329 scale of the crimes. So where is the Lady of 00:24:39.329 --> 00:24:41.990 Silence today? She's serving her sentence at 00:24:41.990 --> 00:24:44.309 the Santa Martha Acatitl Women's Prison in Mexico 00:24:44.309 --> 00:24:48.809 City. And her life behind bars is, well, it's 00:24:48.809 --> 00:24:51.089 surprisingly mundane. Mundane, after all that 00:24:51.089 --> 00:24:53.509 violence and chaos. According to reports from 00:24:53.509 --> 00:24:55.789 inside the prison, she works as a gym instructor 00:24:55.789 --> 00:24:58.109 for the other inmates. Well, I guess that makes 00:24:58.109 --> 00:24:59.650 sense. She's the wrestler. She knows her way 00:24:59.650 --> 00:25:01.609 around a gym. And she also runs a small business. 00:25:01.809 --> 00:25:04.029 She sells tacos to other prisoners. I'm sorry. 00:25:04.089 --> 00:25:07.329 She sells tacos in prison. She runs a small taqueria 00:25:07.329 --> 00:25:09.829 inside the prison to earn money to support her 00:25:09.829 --> 00:25:12.569 family on the outside. It's this bizarre return 00:25:12.569 --> 00:25:14.710 to domesticity. She's cooking. She's serving 00:25:14.710 --> 00:25:17.130 food. She even got married while in prison to 00:25:17.130 --> 00:25:18.730 another inmate, though they divorced a couple 00:25:18.730 --> 00:25:21.829 of years later. It's just... It is so hard to 00:25:21.829 --> 00:25:24.289 wrap your head around that. This person who brutally 00:25:24.289 --> 00:25:27.089 murdered at least 16 elderly women with her bare 00:25:27.089 --> 00:25:29.829 hands, and now she's known for her tacos and 00:25:29.829 --> 00:25:32.369 for running a fitness class. It brings you right 00:25:32.369 --> 00:25:34.849 back to the deep irony of her wrestling name, 00:25:35.170 --> 00:25:39.339 La Dama del Silencio. The Lady of Silence. She 00:25:39.339 --> 00:25:42.319 chose a name that evokes quiet and mystery. Yet 00:25:42.319 --> 00:25:45.240 she created more noise, more panic, more media 00:25:45.240 --> 00:25:48.539 hysteria than almost any other criminal in modern 00:25:48.539 --> 00:25:51.059 Mexican history. And that contrast between the 00:25:51.059 --> 00:25:53.700 absolute banality of her prison life, now selling 00:25:53.700 --> 00:25:56.559 tacos, and the sheer monstrosity of her crimes. 00:25:56.740 --> 00:25:58.980 Yeah. It's jarring. It's a powerful reminder 00:25:58.980 --> 00:26:00.980 that monsters don't usually look like monsters. 00:26:01.180 --> 00:26:03.400 They look like people. They have jobs and hobbies 00:26:03.400 --> 00:26:05.960 and relationships. And sometimes they sell tacos. 00:26:06.160 --> 00:26:08.029 So let's try. to pull this all together. If we're 00:26:08.029 --> 00:26:09.869 looking for the key takeaways from this whole 00:26:09.869 --> 00:26:12.470 dark saga, what are they? I think first, you 00:26:12.470 --> 00:26:14.529 have to start with the sheer audacity of the 00:26:14.529 --> 00:26:17.809 deception. A professional wrestler convincingly 00:26:17.809 --> 00:26:21.009 posing as a caring social worker. It's a masterclass 00:26:21.009 --> 00:26:23.549 in manipulation and reading people's vulnerabilities. 00:26:24.029 --> 00:26:26.650 And second, you absolutely cannot overlook the 00:26:26.650 --> 00:26:29.329 failures of the investigation. The gender bias 00:26:29.329 --> 00:26:32.109 was not just a small mistake. It was the central 00:26:32.109 --> 00:26:34.690 flaw that allowed Barraza to keep killing for 00:26:34.690 --> 00:26:37.750 years. It led to the harassment of an innocent 00:26:37.750 --> 00:26:40.630 community and let the real killer walk free. 00:26:40.769 --> 00:26:43.970 And finally, there's that tragic, vicious cycle 00:26:43.970 --> 00:26:46.990 of violence. A story that starts with a little 00:26:46.990 --> 00:26:50.240 girl being sold for three beers. That trauma 00:26:50.240 --> 00:26:52.279 doesn't just disappear. It's festered and it 00:26:52.279 --> 00:26:55.160 mutated and it turned into a rage that she then 00:26:55.160 --> 00:26:57.140 unleashed upon the most vulnerable people she 00:26:57.140 --> 00:26:59.819 could find. It's just a tragedy from every single 00:26:59.819 --> 00:27:02.039 angle for the victims, for their families, and 00:27:02.039 --> 00:27:04.319 in a very different way for the abused child 00:27:04.319 --> 00:27:06.740 the killer once was. Exactly. It's a story with 00:27:06.740 --> 00:27:08.460 no light in it, really. Before we wrap this up, 00:27:08.480 --> 00:27:10.460 I want to leave you, our listeners, with one 00:27:10.460 --> 00:27:12.519 final thing to think about. We talked about that 00:27:12.519 --> 00:27:14.980 painting, the boy in a red waistcoat. The great 00:27:14.980 --> 00:27:17.480 red herring. Yeah. The official line is that 00:27:17.480 --> 00:27:20.759 it was a random coincidence. Right. But I keep 00:27:20.759 --> 00:27:23.640 coming back to it. Three victims in a city of 00:27:23.640 --> 00:27:27.319 millions all owned a print of the same obscure 00:27:27.319 --> 00:27:30.680 18th century painting. It does nag at you, doesn't 00:27:30.680 --> 00:27:32.519 it? It feels too neat to be random. It really 00:27:32.519 --> 00:27:36.119 does. So was it truly just a statistical fluke? 00:27:36.410 --> 00:27:39.049 Or could it suggest something deeper, a pattern 00:27:39.049 --> 00:27:41.730 in the victim's socioeconomic status or their 00:27:41.730 --> 00:27:43.769 taste or even their generation that the killer 00:27:43.769 --> 00:27:46.750 was subconsciously drawn to? Maybe she saw that 00:27:46.750 --> 00:27:48.789 kind of art as a signifier of a certain type 00:27:48.789 --> 00:27:51.769 of lonely older woman. It raises a much bigger 00:27:51.769 --> 00:27:54.730 question, which is how many other patterns in 00:27:54.730 --> 00:27:57.069 unsolved cases have been missed because they 00:27:57.069 --> 00:27:59.490 were dismissed as mere coincidence? And the most 00:27:59.490 --> 00:28:02.019 chilling thought of all? How many other cases 00:28:02.019 --> 00:28:04.359 are out there right now anywhere in the world 00:28:04.359 --> 00:28:06.519 that remain unsolved simply because the person 00:28:06.519 --> 00:28:08.779 responsible doesn't fit the neat little profile 00:28:08.779 --> 00:28:10.480 the investigators have drawn up in their heads? 00:28:10.940 --> 00:28:12.799 That's the thought that will keep you up at night.