The name of the Mexican ‘luchadora’ Juana Barraza, better known as ‘La Mataviejitas’, went down in history after becoming one of the most controversial and terrifying serial killers in Mexico.
Juana Barraza was accused of at least 17 murders of elderly women, although there are theories that there were actually 40. Even with evidence, she has assured that she is in prison by mistake.
Her crimes were committed to perfection, she could have almost gone unnoticed. She posed as a nurse or as providing home services, until on January 25, 2006, she was arrested just after taking someone’s life.
The Story of Juana Barraza: The Mexican Serial Killer
That day she got up early, prepared breakfast for her children Emma and José, and then left her house to offer her services as a “domestic employee.”
Around 11:00 a.m., Juana Barraza was walking through the Moctezuma neighborhood, in Mexico City, when she encountered a woman named Ana María.
She approached to offer the old woman to carry the things she was carrying to her house. When she arrived at the apartment, she told him about her service and the woman offered her 22 pesos ($1.22 dollars) to iron a dozen clothes.
Juana told her that it was not enough money, to which Ana María responded through clenched teeth that: “That’s how maids are, they want to earn too much.” The woman thought that Barraza hadn’t heard her, and Juana didn’t say anything.
After a silence, Juana just simply took a stethoscope and used it as a weapon to choke her.
After taking her life, she escaped from the place, but she was unlucky because the young man who lived with Ana María saw her and when he entered, she was only resting her body on the ground.
He immediately called the police, and they began a short chase until they stopped her. To everyone’s surprise, the serial killer they had been looking for so long wasn’t a man, it was a woman.
The Tragic Life of Juana Barraza ‘La Mataviejitas’
Juana Barraza was born on December 27, 1958, in Pachuca, Hidalgo, and since she was a child she witnessed terrible situations in her home.
Her biological father abandoned her mother just the day she was born and took her brother. Three months later, she and her mother moved to Mexico City.
Her mother was a domestic worker and she had two children by another man. She grew up under the shadow of an alcoholic mother and a difficult economic situation.
She never went out and her stepfather forbade her from going to school because he considered that women were made to be housewives. All of her childhood she lived under the violence of her mother, who physically and verbally attacked her, a situation that her stepfather didn’t know about, although she considered him her protector.
Juana was a victim of sexual abuse one day when her mother exchanged her for three beers. The man hurt her and unfortunately she became pregnant.
Her stepfather’s brothers rescued her from that life three months after giving birth. Her mother died of cirrhosis of the liver when she was 18, but for her that was only a relief.
What did destroy her was the death of her son José Enrique, who lost his life in a fight.
Juana Barraza “La Mujer del Silencio”
Juana became interested in Mexican wrestling at age 30 and began a career as a professional. She called herself ‘La Mujer del Silencio’.
She retired from the sport when she was injured in her spine and was warned that if she continued fighting, she could become disabled.
How Everything Started
It was 2003 when all of Mexico became alert after several murders of elderly women were committed in Mexico City.
It was thought that whoever was responsible for her atrocities was a trans woman, since some witnesses described her as someone with a very broad, male-like back.
Juana was arrested in 2006 and since then the woman who pretended to be a nurse to commit the murders is serving her 759-year sentence behind bars, in the Santa Marta Acatitla women’s prison.
The woman revealed that she hated ladies because of the mistreatment she received from her mother when she was a child and she never forgave him for giving her away “to an old man.”
