Bringing furniture and other things back to life is something Bill Clausen loves doing. Though he’ll never be able to bring back the thing he wishes for the most.
“I wouldn’t change anything in life,” he said. “Well, I would change my mom’s death.”
In the 80s, Clausen’s mother, Ruth Monroe, was a business partner of Dorothea Puente, who police said buried seven people around her house. Puente was ultimately charged with the murder of nine people, one of those being Clausen’s mother.
Clausen says that news of the seven recent murders in Stockton and the Oakland area brings back a range of emotions. He said he feels for the families affected.
“They’re being tortured just like we were,“ he said. “Especially going through the trial. That’s where things get … (it) really pulls on your heartstrings.”
Wesley Brownlee has been arrested and charged with five murders in Stockton and two in the Oakland area. A trial date has yet to be set.
During his latest appearance on Jan. 3, Brownlee’s lawyer waived entering a plea on any of the charges against him, saying he hasn’t been able to read any documents because of vision issues and needs to see an optometrist.
Former Sacramento detective John Cabrera investigated over 300 murders, including many serial killers, and was the lead detective on the Dorothea Puente case. Revisiting Puente’s old house, Cabrera said he remembers vividly piecing together all her murders and said Borwnlee may be arrested for the Stockton murders, but the hardest part for investigators still lies ahead.
“It becomes very tedious,“ he said. “Along with the district attorney, looking and being able to put everything in a perspective that they are going to be able to present to a jury, and that the jury understands.”
Brownlee’s lawyer has already begun mounting a rigorous defense. However, if he chooses to use mental health as a defense, Cabrera said it will be a tall task. This is because of the thought and time between the first murders in the Oakland area, and the Stockton murders almost a year later.
“He gave it a rest period. And I believe he did so to see if someone would follow him back, but it didn’t. And I think when he felt comfortable, he started doing it again,” Cabrera said.
In the Puente case, she was only convicted of three murders. Clausen’s mother was not one of them. He said his mother didn’t receive justice in its entirety.
“It hurts, it really, really does,” Clausen said. “Over time, you have to learn to live with it.”
He hopes investigators and prosecutors are more successful in the Stockton case for all the devastated families living with pain.
Brownlee’s lawyer has filed to exclude some of his educational history, that motion is set to be argued on his next appearance on Jan. 17.