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Juana Barraza: 'La Mataviejitas,' the Wrestler Who Hunted Mexico City's Elderly

Jun 16
3 min read

Updated: Jun 25

For years around the turn of the millennium, elderly women living alone in Mexico City were dying in their own homes, strangled by a killer who left almost no trace. The public and the press assumed the murderer was a man, or perhaps a man in disguise. The truth, revealed in 2006, astonished the country: the killer was Juana Barraza, a former lucha libre wrestler known in the ring as “La Dama del Silencio” — the Lady of Silence.

This article examines how Barraza chose and approached her victims, why she eluded police for so long, and how a single arrest finally ended the reign of “La Mataviejitas.”

Juana Barraza: 'La Mataviejitas,' the Wrestler Who Hunted Mexico City's Elderly

Key Facts at a Glance

Full name: Juana Dayanara Barraza Samperio
Born: 27 December 1957, Hidalgo, Mexico
Known as: La Mataviejitas (“The Old Lady Killer”); La Dama del Silencio
Active: 1998–2006, Mexico City
Victims: Convicted of 16 murders; suspected of up to 40 or more
Sentence: 759 years in prison (2008)

From the Wrestling Ring to the Streets

Barraza grew up in poverty and profound abuse; by some accounts her alcoholic mother handed her over to a man in exchange for beer, and she suffered sexual violence as a child. As an adult she became a professional wrestler, performing under the name “La Dama del Silencio.” Some analysts have linked the resentment born of her upbringing to her later choice of elderly female victims, though her exact motivation remains debated.

The Old Lady Killer's Method

Barraza preyed on elderly women living alone. She would win their trust by posing as a nurse, a social worker offering a free check-up, or simply a helpful stranger carrying their shopping. Once inside the home, she strangled them — frequently with a ligature such as tights, a telephone cord or the stethoscope she carried as part of her nurse disguise — before taking small valuables, often religious objects and silver items, and slipping away.

A City in Fear — and a Wrong Assumption

The killings baffled investigators for years. Because witnesses sometimes described a tall, masculine-looking figure, police spent considerable effort searching for a man or a male suspect in disguise — a misdirection that helped Barraza continue. The case generated intense fear among Mexico City's elderly and one of the largest investigations the capital had seen.

The investigation produced some strange threads. Police eventually began checking fingerprints from bodies in the city’s morgues, and noticed that the killer often took small, low-value objects — many of them religious items such as crucifixes and images of saints. In several homes the victims had owned a copy of the same 18th-century print, a detail detectives chased before dismissing it as coincidence. Profilers correctly judged the killer to be methodical and patient, gaining trust before striking.

The Capture, January 2006

The breakthrough came on 25 January 2006. Barraza was seen hurrying from the home of 82-year-old Ana María de los Reyes Alfaro, who had just been strangled with a stethoscope. A man returning to the house spotted her, and her fingerprints at the scene matched evidence from earlier killings. To the shock of the nation, the long-hunted “Mataviejitas” was a woman.

Trial and a 759-Year Sentence

In 2008 a court convicted Barraza of 16 counts of murder and aggravated robbery and sentenced her to 759 years in prison — a symbolic figure, since Mexican sentences are served concurrently and capped far lower. She has continued to insist she is imprisoned by mistake, while estimates of her true victim count run as high as forty. She remains held at the Santa Martha Acatitla women's prison in Mexico City.

Aftermath and Open Questions

Barraza's conviction did not settle every question. Officially she was found guilty of sixteen murders, yet investigators had linked dozens of similar killings of elderly women to the same pattern, and estimates of her true toll ran as high as forty. She has consistently insisted she is imprisoned for crimes she did not commit. Her case also drew sharp criticism of the earlier investigation, which spent years pursuing the theory that the killer was a man, or a man in disguise — a misdirection that may have cost lives. Held at the Santa Martha Acatitla women's prison, Barraza remains one of the most studied figures in modern Mexican criminal history.