Juana Barraza Samperio

Early life and family Juana Dayanara Barraza Samperio was born in Epazoyucan, Hidalgo, a rural area north of Mexico City. Barraza's mother, Justa Samperio, was an alcoholic who reportedly exchanged her for three beers to a man who repeatedly raped her while in his care, and by whom she became pregnant with a son. She had a strong interest in lucha libre, a form of Mexican masked professional wrestling. Barraza bludgeoned or strangled them before robbing them.

Bernardo Bátiz, the chief prosecutor in Mexico City, initially profiled the killer as having "a brilliant mind, [being] quite clever and careful", and suggested that the killer probably struck after gaining the trust of the intended victim. Investigating officers suspected that the killer posed as a government official, offering victims the chance to sign up for welfare programs.

The authorities believed that Juana Barraza was a psychopath who felt no remorse. Furthermore, Barraza associated her elderly victims with her mother and believed that she was helping society by killing them. In order to gain her victims' trust, Barraza posed as a government official who worked in social welfare.

Investigation The authorities were heavily criticized by the media for dismissing evidence that a serial killer was at work in Mexico City as merely "media sensationalism" as late as the summer of 2005. Soon after setting an investigation in motion, the police incurred further criticism by launching what one journalist described as a "ham-fisted" and unproductive swoop on Mexico City's transvestite prostitutes. attributed to the killer. The wrestler is said to have confessed to murdering Alfaro and three other women, but denied involvement in all other killings. She told reporters that she strangled Alfaro after a dispute over pay for Barraza's maid services.

The arrest of Juana Barraza came two days after the capture of Raúl Osiel Marroquín, another serial killer active in Mexico City. Marroquín was known as The Sadist and The Rainbow Killer and had kidnapped and tortured six gay men, killing four of them.

Trial, verdict, and life in prison Barraza was tried in the spring of 2008, the prosecution alleging she had been responsible for as many as forty deaths. She admitted to one murder, that of Alfaro, and told the police her motive was lingering resentment regarding her own mother's treatment of her. On 31 March, she was found guilty on sixteen charges of murder and aggravated burglary, including eleven separate counts of murder. She was sentenced to 759 years in prison. Since sentences imposed in Mexican courts are generally served concurrently, but the maximum sentence under Mexican law is sixty years, she will most likely serve the full sentence in prison. Later, in October 2016, she divorced her husband while serving her sentence.