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Mexico City, Jan 26 (EFE).- Mexican authorities say they have arrested a 48-year-old woman who had worked occasionally as a professional wrestler and that she appears to be the "old lady killer" responsible for the slaying of at least 11 people in this capital.
More than 30 elderly women - most of whom lived alone - have been murdered in Mexico City over the past few years, killings that alarmed residents presumed had been carried out by a man they dubbed the "mataviejitas," or "old lady killer."
But the serial killer apparently was Juana Barraza, who was arrested Wednesday while rapidly leaving the scene of the murder of an elderly woman, Mexico City Prosecutor Bernardo Batiz said.
He said Barraza, who worked as a popcorn vendor at a wrestling venue and occasionally competed in the matches, admitted to carrying out Wednesday's murder and at least 10 others.
"Police found among her clothing a stethoscope she presumably had used to kill an 81-year-old woman named Maria de los Angeles Alfaro minutes before," a spokeswoman at Mexico City's attorney general's office told EFE.
The spokeswoman said police officers found the victim's body inside the ransacked house, which is located in the working class Moctezuma neighborhood of this capital.
The suspect allegedly won the elderly women's confidence by pretending to be a nurse, only to kill them after entering their homes - sometimes strangling the victim with a stethoscope - and stealing their belongings.
Authorities said the suspect may have had an accomplice and also warned the public about possible copycat killers. EFE
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