SAN FRANCISCO—On Wednesday, April 1 Lisa Gonzales, 55, was found guilty of second-degree murder of his 61-year-old roommate Margaret ‘Maggie’ Mamer from 2018 and personal use of a knife.
In mid-April 2018, Gonzales gave Mamer a 30-day move-out notice of their apartment on the 200 block of 14th Street in the Mission District after arguments over rent and missing items.
Officials suspect the murder transpired in May 2018. A third roommate heard sawing noises for approximately 4 hours, coming from the bathroom and smelt a metallic odor in the apartment.
Gonzales used a hacksaw, dismembering Mamer’s body, concealing her crime after an argument over unpaid rent and Mamer’s refusal to move. The weapon was later discovered underneath the bathroom sink. On May 16, 2018, Gonzales was still in the bathroom. When she eventually came out, the apartment smelt of vinegar and bleach.
On Friday, June 1, 2018, Mamer’s friends officially reported her missing after noticing her absence for several weeks. On Saturday, June 2, 2018, the SFPD was dispatched to the apartment, where Gonzales claimed Mamer moved.
Officers found Mamer’s dismembered body in a storage unit in the building’s basement. When they found the body, it was decayed and maggots covered it. There were several remains, including arms and legs as well as many false starts, in plastic bags that were placed into large, blue, plastic, storage bin, belonging to their other roommate.
After Mamer’s decomposed body was found, it was sent to Chico State University Human Identification Laboratory Thursday, July 12, 2018, where anthropologists took five and half months, examining the body, because it had long been decomposed. She died from multiple injuries to the head, face, skull and chest and then was dismembered with a hacksaw. Mamer’s autopsy report was released August 2019.
On June 8, 2018, Gonzales made her first court appearance, entering a not guilty plea. Gonzales’ murder trial was delayed for almost 8 years.
The motive for the murder was frustration over unpaid rent. She will face 16 years to life in state prison. Her sentence hearing is Friday, April 24, 2026.
