Netflix’s 2022 roster of true crime documentaries included Tinder Swindler and Bad Vegan, both shows about jilted lovers who were conned into losing money. There was so much online noise created around the supposed gullibility of the women in the two shows that a more sinister set of crimes got lost in the cacophony. We are talking about the four stories documented in Worst Roommate Ever where the events in question involved death and near-death experiences.
There is a reason why Dorothea Puente’s story is the first episode of the show –– it shakes up your faith in humanity so well that you feel prepared for what’s to come. Call me Grandma is the story of Dorothea Helen Gray who had a turbulent childhood that made way for an abusive nature. She married multiple times using aliases and was judged guilty for running a brothel and gambling away one of her husband’s money. However, it was her final alias using one of her ex-husband’s name, Puente, that Dorothea emerged as a righteous Christian woman who took in homeless boarders only to murder them and bury them in her backyard. She would then collect their social security money with no one coming to enquire about her unfortunate boarders. Puente’s crimes were so diabolic that it took years to form a solid case against her. So unbelievable were her appearance, actions and demeanour that no one suspected her of any possible crimes. That is until they went digging in her backyard. One of the most bone-chilling stories ever recorded in true crime history because of the supposed innocence of the perpetrator, Call Me Grandma ensures that you think four times before calling someone your grandma!
The true fear of co-existing under the same room with someone you feel increasingly threatened by is driven home in the second story of the docu-series –– Be Careful of the Quiet Ones. It doesn’t matter if you are an Iraq war veteran, as was the case of Maribel Ramos; safety is still a concern and your life could change when you choose to trust. Quiet and affable K.C.Joy answered an advertisement for a roommate by Ramos and promptly moved in. Shown through rotoscope illustrations, the threatening scenes are recreated, tempered with actual police footage of Joy. What perhaps works for this show, despite the rapid frequency of long shots of police officers and narrators staring into the camera with faux intensity, is the vast difference between the perpetrator’s persona and the intensity of their crime. It makes you look over your shoulders and raise a suspicious eyebrow at every old and new acquaintance in your life.
Youssef Khater’s story in The Marathon Man left us slightly disappointed as death sets a large precedent that embezzlement can never match up to. A fraudster who duped people of money by aspiring to run marathons for Palestine, led to an attempted murder by him. However, fortunately, the woman was saved. Director of the show Domini Hofmann expends tremendous energy into building a strong narrative for the ‘marathon man’ but the third episode largely leaves us dissatisfied. A quick google search on the case after the episode (as is mandatory for all true crime fans!) shows that his whereabouts are unknown since the release of this particular show this year! More reasons to keep looking over your shoulder? We think yes!
The last case of the show is divided into two episodes but hardly skims the surface of the character it is about –– Jamison Bachman. Bachman was a serial squatter with a law degree. He would sub-lease an apartment and then refuse to move out, throwing unaffordable legal nitty-gritty in the way of his roommates. Taking the account of three of his victims, the two episodes narrate the kind of traumatic experiences he inflicts on his roommates. However, there is so much fodder about Bachman available, from his witnessing of his best friend’s murder to his subsequent death in jail, that the show misses an easy opportunity. Roommate Wanted I and II is an anti-climatic end to a show that kicked off to a great start. Would that prevent us from urging every true-crime aficionado to watch the show? We think not!