[Pantyholic]

Lady wrestler arrested for serial killings of old women
JEREMY MCDERMOTT
News.Scotsman

MEXICAN police have arrested a female wrestler who they believe is the serial killer known as Mataviejitas - the "Little Old Lady Killer".

Juana Barraza, 48, was captured by police after she was seen running out of the house of an 82-year-old woman found strangled with a stethoscope. One of the victim's tenants flagged down a police car and pointed out the fleeing woman.

"She put up fierce resistance," said one of the arresting officers, Ismael Alvarado Ruiz.

"She threw people in our way as we were chasing her. Once we reached her, my partner and I took one of her arms and she grabbed us in the groin. It took considerable strength to get her into the patrol car."

Ms Barraza showed little remorse after her capture and admitted to killing 82-year-old Ana Maria Reyes. However, she denied that she was the serial killer Mataviejitas.

"Yes I did it," she told reporters as she was in police custody. "Just because I'm going to pay for it, that doesn't mean they're going to hang all the crimes on me. This is my first killing."

However, police believe otherwise and are certain they have caught the serial killer that has preyed on elderly women since 1998. Bernardo Bátiz, the public prosecutor, said the authorities had evidence linking her to at least ten other victims.

"We have all the elements necessary to be able to prove, without room for doubt, who committed this latest murder and with a 99 per cent probability another ten killings," said Mr Bátiz.

Police sources indicated that Barraza's fingerprints were matched with those found at the sites of other elderly murder victims and at one of attempted murder. Police will question her in connection with 48 unsolved murders of elderly women in the Mexican capital.

Since the rash of killings began in 1998, police had assumed the killer was a transvestite or a man disguised as woman, due to the powerful build described by witnesses and the ferocious strength displayed in the strangling of the victims.

Barraza worked occasionally as a wrestler and is known in the ring as "the Silent Lady".

There are several similarities among the unsolved murders of elderly women . All the victims were over 60, all were strangled, and souvenirs - often religious figurines - were removed from their houses. Barraza apparently gained access to victims by posing as a social worker and related documents were found on her after her capture.

Nobody is surprised that it was luck, not police work, that resulted in the arrest. The Mexican police force is widely known for corruption and incompetence.

The Mataviejitas task force of more than 100 detectives had concentrated its search on Mexico City's transvestite population, trawling red light districts for transvestite prostitutes and taking fingerprints.