The Gray children were now orphaned, and the seven kids were split up among family members (via Murderpedia). Dorothea Puente moved to Napa, California, when she was 13. Bustle reports that Puente was moved between different foster homes. And according to the Los Angeles Times, she experienced sexual abuse after being placed in an orphanage.
But there are conflicting accounts about her childhood. According to Murderpedia, Puente actually went to school in Los Angeles through her teenage years. Her deceit became clear for the first time when at age 16, she began telling people she was 30 years old. She began going by a fake name, Sherri, in 1945.
According to Murderpedia, Puente sometimes lied that she had 18 siblings, and they grew up in Mexico, not California. Her husbands and friends believed that she embellished her life to seem more interesting: she told people that she was related to Rita Hayworth, that her sister was the Ambassador of Sweden, that she lived through the Hiroshima bombing, and plenty of other falsehoods.
