Woman wrestler held for serial killings

MEXICO: Police in Mexico City have arrested a female wrestler known as the "Silent Lady" whom they believe is Mexico's most-…

MEXICO: Police in Mexico City have arrested a female wrestler known as the "Silent Lady" whom they believe is Mexico's most-wanted serial killer sought in the strangling or beating deaths of dozens of elderly women.

Police said they caught Juana Barraza as she fled the scene of her latest crime on Wednesday, the strangling of a woman in her 80s with a stethoscope.

Fingerprint evidence makes it almost certain that Barraza, is the feared "Little Old Lady Killer" responsible for at least 10 other murders in recent years, Bernardo Batiz, Mexico City's chief prosecutor, said yesterday.

A broad-framed woman in her mid-40s, Barraza may have killed about 40 elderly women in a murder spree that began in the late 1990s, police said. Standing at a news conference wearing a bright red sweater and with short ginger hair, she resembled a bust previously created by forensic artists to identify their suspect. She dabbled in professional wrestling and fought under the name the "Silent Lady", said police.

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Barraza admitted to Wednesday's killing in the Venustiano Carranza area of Mexico City but not to any of the other murders.

A neighbour saw her running from the home of her latest victim and flagged down passing police officers who arrested Ms Barraza, authorities said.

"Only I know my motives for doing this, and I'll give them when I make my statement," Ms Barraza was quoted by a national paper as saying after she was detained.

Police had been unsure if the killer they were hunting was a man, a woman or possibly a transvestite, as witnesses had given conflicting reports.

Detectives had suspected the murderer may have posed as a doctor or nurse to win the confidence of victims.

The killer stole symbolic "trophies" such as ornaments or religious items from some of the old women's homes.

In four cases last year that police said were linked, the victims were strangled by women's tights, a curtain cord or a phone cable after they opened their doors to the killer.

Criminologists had suggested the killer may have had a disturbed family history, possibly of child abuse, and the killings were a way of taking revenge on a mother or grandmother. - (Reuters)