Latest / NO FILTER / Deadly Deception_ Daniel Perez_s Cult of Terror _ Cult Justice _ True Crime Central(M4A_128K)

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Deadly Deception_ Daniel Perez_s Cult of Terror _ Cult Justice _ True Crime Central(M4A_128K) · NO FILTER

• 0:13
  Speaker 1: He claimed he was an angel.
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: He could predict the future, and he had direct connection
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: with God.
• 0:19
  Speaker 3: He had angels one, two, three, four on the license
• 0:23
  Speaker 3: tags of all his corvettes that he bought.
• 0:25
  Speaker 4: His word was sacrosanct, and no one challenged it, and
• 0:28
  Speaker 4: then he had a complete authority.
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: He began rap being my sister and I and he
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: just always told me that I was broken and he
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: needed to fix me.
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: It was so surreal to know this was happening in
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: our own backyard to these little girls who were so innocent.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: It's just a very bad feeling to just feel like
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: you're trapped and he can't tell anybody, and there's no
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: way to get out.
• 0:51
  Speaker 4: And that's the stuff that happens in California that doesn't
• 0:53
  Speaker 4: happen around here.
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: It's just nine one man, I'll give you. It's been
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: a huge break out here from our house, nump.
• 1:00
  Speaker 5: Truck and the car and you get had on.
• 1:03
  Speaker 6: It's pretty apparent that she committed suicide, that she intentionally
• 1:07
  Speaker 6: drove into that truck.
• 1:09
  Speaker 4: He had convinced this woman that he was an angel,
• 1:12
  Speaker 4: that he had the power to bring people back from
• 1:15
  Speaker 4: the dead, and that she would die today and that
• 1:18
  Speaker 4: he would bring her back tomorrow.
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: He would just say that their time was coming to
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: go to the other side, but that they would be
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: back eventually, which that never happened. Nobody ever came back.
• 1:32
  Speaker 6: What's going on? What's happening here? I knew something was wrong.
• 1:35
  Speaker 6: I can't sleep until I know what it.
• 1:37
  Speaker 7: Is to die.
• 1:41
  Speaker 8: I well, Daniel Perez, it's taking the stand in his
• 1:44
  Speaker 8: own defense today. He's accused of killing a woman and
• 1:47
  Speaker 8: having sex with minors.
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: He was much smarter and calculated than you would expect,
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: did you anyway?
• 1:55
  Speaker 7: Four sex? Like anyway.
• 2:01
  Speaker 4: A house to define this other than as a cult
• 2:05
  Speaker 4: with a cult leader at the center of it who
• 2:06
  Speaker 4: benefited from his cult members devotion.
• 2:12
  Speaker 9: I am glogg, I'm the all my guilty.
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: Amen.
• 2:18
  Speaker 9: Amen.
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: It was out in the middle really of nowhere, just
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: along a rural road. There were about three houses there.
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: It was known as Angels Landing. Made it seem like
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: it was a beautiful, peaceful place to live.
• 2:53
  Speaker 6: When I started this investigation, I was in undercover narcotics.
• 2:59
  Speaker 6: Everything I heard from beginning was that Lou was in
• 3:01
  Speaker 6: charge of the group, this person named Lou. I was
• 3:04
  Speaker 6: told that it was Lou Castro, but I couldn't find
• 3:08
  Speaker 6: any record of a Lou Castro that lived at that location.
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: He had his own religious beliefs. It was very different
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: from anything that I had really heard. He believed in
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: angels and he believed in a higher power.
• 3:29
  Speaker 4: His word was sacrosanct and no one challenged it, and
• 3:33
  Speaker 4: then he had a complete authority.
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: Blue always claimed to be hundreds of years old, that
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: his body was taken over by different angels. Those angels
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: were named Arthur, Daniel, and Amber. Amber was the angel
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: of death.
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: He could predict the future, and he had direct connection
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: with God, and so he felt like everybody who lived
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: there was part of a special group of angels under
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: his power.
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: We were just all a big family. My mom was
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: a real estate agent for as long as I can remember,
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: and she had met Lou through some friend. He was
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: a smooth talker. He seemed just to be nice. He
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: seemed to be charismatic, and you know, my mom said
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: he was okay, so he must have been okay when
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: he claimed he was an angel. I didn't believe him,
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: but my mom did, so I just kind of, you know,
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: went along with it. He was always talking about how
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: much money he had and very generous and trying to
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: like buy our love. Anything I ever wanted, he made
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: sure I had it. He was just trying to keep
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: us happy the way that he knew how so that
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: we would stay and do anything and everything that he wanted.
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: I mean, it was nice to live that lifestyle, but
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: there was definitely a price that you paid for it.
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: He had angels one, two, three, four on the license
• 5:31
  Speaker 3: tags of all his corvettes that he bought. This is
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: his group. They liked their angels and they lived like
• 5:38
  Speaker 3: one big family.
• 5:42
  Speaker 4: Anybody who buys new cars every six months and always
• 5:46
  Speaker 4: Corvettes and Camaros and you know, flashy cars, is going
• 5:50
  Speaker 4: to draw some attention out in the middle of the
• 5:51
  Speaker 4: country north of witch Talk. I mean, how does that
• 5:54
  Speaker 4: guy have all these cars and have this lavish lifestyle
• 5:57
  Speaker 4: and no visible means of support.
• 6:00
  Speaker 6: They had a model airplane remote control airplane hobby. They
• 6:04
  Speaker 6: were large model airplanes, an expensive hobby for someone that
• 6:10
  Speaker 6: didn't work.
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: The detectives originally thought that this guy must be dealing
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: drugs to have this kind of money, but it ended
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: up being so much more.
• 6:23
  Speaker 6: It was very hard to know where the money was
• 6:24
  Speaker 6: coming from. At first, I would go out and do surveillance.
• 6:28
  Speaker 6: I even picked up their trash a few times and
• 6:30
  Speaker 6: dug through their trash to see if I could see
• 6:33
  Speaker 6: any signs of what might be going on there, and
• 6:36
  Speaker 6: it was unsuccessful. He gave us the lou Castro name,
• 6:41
  Speaker 6: and he used a social Security number belonging to someone
• 6:43
  Speaker 6: I believe, a ninety some year old female in another state.
• 6:47
  Speaker 6: And we knew he was hiding either from something he
• 6:50
  Speaker 6: was wanted for or he was hiding because he was
• 6:53
  Speaker 6: committing crimes at Angels Landing.
• 6:57
  Speaker 4: Lou Castro was the name he was going by here,
• 7:00
  Speaker 4: anybody knew him by for a number of years.
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: After we moved here to wichital and everything got settled in,
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: he just began being not so nice of a person.
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: He began great being my sister and I. I didn't
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: actually know at the time that it was wrong, and
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: I didn't realize that that was what was happening to me,
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: but it was just a very uncomfortable situation that I
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: really did not like. I just wanted to run away.
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: I asked him what he was doing, and he just
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: always told me that I was broken and he needed
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: to fix me. He said that if I ever told
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: anybody or anything like that. He would kill my dad.
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: He had pointed a gun at me at one point
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: in time and fired it.
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: It all started when a woman who lived on that
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: property had drown and it had been ruled in accidental drowning.
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: It was June two thousand and three. A twelve year
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: old girl called nine one one to say Patricia Hughes
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: had fallen into the pool, hit her head and drowned
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: while trying to save her two year old daughter. Authorities
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: ruled it an accidental drowning.
• 8:41
  Speaker 4: Her explanation was that she had seen Patricia go into
• 8:44
  Speaker 4: the pool, hit her head and drowned, and that the
• 8:46
  Speaker 4: girl herself was not strong enough to help her out.
• 8:49
  Speaker 4: This is a swimming pool that she could have easily.
• 8:51
  Speaker 9: Stood up in.
• 8:52
  Speaker 4: The only way for her to have drowned was either
• 8:54
  Speaker 4: to be rendered unconscious or to be held under water.
• 9:00
  Speaker 6: Patricia Hughes was a daughter, a sister, a mother, a wife.
• 9:06
  Speaker 3: The woman who drowned in the pool accidentally was one
• 9:12
  Speaker 3: of his first followers, so to speak. She did everything
• 9:15
  Speaker 3: for him.
• 9:16
  Speaker 6: There's evidence that lou had a real strong control over Patricia.
• 9:23
  Speaker 6: So when Patricia died, you know what's going on what's
• 9:28
  Speaker 6: happening here. I knew something was wrong and I didn't
• 9:32
  Speaker 6: want Lou Castro to get away with this. There is
• 9:37
  Speaker 6: no doubt in my mind. There's something that's just not right,
• 9:39
  Speaker 6: and I can't sleep until I know what it is.
• 9:51
  Speaker 6: We knew there was this person, lu Castro. We'd seen him,
• 9:55
  Speaker 6: we'd talked to him. We knew who he was, but
• 9:58
  Speaker 6: we didn't know who he was. I know it's true identity.
• 10:03
  Speaker 6: Lou was from Beeville, Texas. He had lived there and worked,
• 10:08
  Speaker 6: had several jobs, had been in the military, had worked
• 10:11
  Speaker 6: in a couple of different prisons down there in that area.
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: That's where Patricia Hughes was originally from, and they kind
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: of just traveled together around until she died.
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: Trish had been with Leu since she was in high school,
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: like they were just together for a long time.
• 10:29
  Speaker 6: He was named a suspect in some child sexual cases,
• 10:32
  Speaker 6: one of them being his niece. There's evidence that Patricia
• 10:36
  Speaker 6: may have helped Lou hide from the authorities in South
• 10:40
  Speaker 6: Texas when he committed the crimes that he committed in
• 10:43
  Speaker 6: the nineties. When he was arrested awaiting his sentencing, he fled.
• 10:49
  Speaker 6: He fled to North Dakota, where he befriended a fourteen
• 10:52
  Speaker 6: year old girl. We found the record of where he
• 10:55
  Speaker 6: was arrested in North Dakota under another name, deported to Mexico,
• 11:00
  Speaker 6: and then a short time later was able to get
• 11:02
  Speaker 6: back across into Texas. He eventually got a Kansas ID
• 11:08
  Speaker 6: card that actually had the name Lucastro on it with
• 11:11
  Speaker 6: a birth date that was far from his original birthdate.
• 11:21
  Speaker 6: He had a small group of people always recruiting attempting
• 11:26
  Speaker 6: to recruit, and he had total control over them. Mona Griffith,
• 11:32
  Speaker 6: Patricia Hughes, and Brian Hughes, her husband. Mona Griffith actually
• 11:38
  Speaker 6: wrote in her diary that he portrayed himself as over
• 11:41
  Speaker 6: one hundred year old dead man who was now an angel.
• 11:47
  Speaker 4: And then we had Jennifer, who was the mother of
• 11:49
  Speaker 4: our victims.
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: He would say that he was a seer, meaning that
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: he could see into the future and be able to
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: tell people the things that he saw. I think most
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: people in the group believed him.
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: And in their near future it was time for them
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: to die, including killing themselves or putting themselves in a
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: position to where they would die.
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: He predicted Tricia's death.
• 12:21
  Speaker 4: He had convinced this woman that he was an angel,
• 12:25
  Speaker 4: that he had the power to bring people back from
• 12:28
  Speaker 4: the dead, and that she would who hadn't die today,
• 12:32
  Speaker 4: and that he would bring her back tomorrow.
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: When he predicted that somebody was going to die, he
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: would just say that their time was coming to go
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: to the other side, but that they would be back eventually,
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: which that never happened. Nobody ever came back. Tricia's husband, Brian,
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: died in an accident. He was working on his sister's
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: car when the jack slipped out from underneath the car
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: and the cars question.
• 13:06
  Speaker 4: He had five hundred thousand dollars in insurance policies, He
• 13:11
  Speaker 4: knew how to take safety precautions, and he knew how
• 13:14
  Speaker 4: to not let a car fall on top of him.
• 13:16
  Speaker 4: I mean the idea that he would let it slip
• 13:18
  Speaker 4: and crush him like that.
• 13:19
  Speaker 6: In Asinine, it was at the same time that we
• 13:26
  Speaker 6: had heard stories about a plane crash in South Dakota.
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: And there were three people on board.
• 13:37
  Speaker 6: We were able to find an article in the South
• 13:40
  Speaker 6: Dakota newspaper that detailed that plane crash. In that article,
• 13:44
  Speaker 6: the name that stood out was Louke Castro, and he
• 13:46
  Speaker 6: called himself, a brother to Mona Griffith.
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: Mona had a life insurance policy.
• 13:54
  Speaker 4: There was seven hundred thousand dollars worth of insurance proceeds.
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: All that money went to Luke Castro.
• 14:02
  Speaker 6: Then Jennifer Hudson dies. I find out that she is
• 14:05
  Speaker 6: killed in a car wreck on a nearby roadway near
• 14:09
  Speaker 6: Angels Landing.
• 14:10
  Speaker 9: And it's suspicious to.
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: Me, one man, there's been a huge wreck out here
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: from my house to the ambulous for sure.
• 14:18
  Speaker 8: Okay, hold on just a minute.
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: There was a dump truck in there were the cars
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: pulled out and they get head on.
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: I talked to the sheriff out there in Butler County.
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: He says, Hudson crossed the center line, hitting a gravel truck.
• 14:32
  Speaker 9: Head off the line of sight. Bothered me because I
• 14:37
  Speaker 9: start thinking.
• 14:40
  Speaker 6: If there was an illness, something like that, distraction of
• 14:45
  Speaker 6: some sort, there shouldn't have been any reason for this collusion.
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: And he said they thought it was odd at the
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: time because there were no signs that she tried to stop,
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: like no skid marks, no sign that she turned to
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: try to avoid the truck.
• 15:04
  Speaker 6: It's pretty apparent that she committed suicide, that she intentionally
• 15:10
  Speaker 6: drove into that truck.
• 15:13
  Speaker 9: It was not an accident.
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: Blue did predict her death, probably a year before it happened.
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: It was late one night, and Lou told my sister
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: and I that my mom was going to die because
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: it was her time to go.
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: And he of course got her life insurance policy.
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: I think he convinced her to kill herself so that
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: he could benefit from her life insurance money.
• 15:44
  Speaker 4: It is hard to come up with a rational explanation
• 15:47
  Speaker 4: for all these people who just happened to have died
• 15:48
  Speaker 4: from all these very bizarre accidents around him, all of
• 15:53
  Speaker 4: whom had life insurance policies that he directly benefited from.
• 15:58
  Speaker 6: That gave me the ability he convince prosecutors that we
• 16:01
  Speaker 6: needed to open a case. There was something going on
• 16:05
  Speaker 6: with this group. They packed up and moved to Tennessee.
• 16:20
  Speaker 6: He was worried that we were looking for him. He
• 16:23
  Speaker 6: had some sense that something was going on. He didn't
• 16:25
  Speaker 6: know what it was, but he wasn't going to take
• 16:28
  Speaker 6: any chances. Now, the new alias for lu Castro was
• 16:35
  Speaker 6: Joe Venegas. He actually had a driver's license and he
• 16:39
  Speaker 6: had a Social Security card belonging to the real Joe Venegas.
• 16:44
  Speaker 6: So he told the family members, you need to call
• 16:46
  Speaker 6: me Joe now, and they did and they went along
• 16:51
  Speaker 6: with it. It was at that point where he actually
• 16:56
  Speaker 6: entered the bank with several of the members of the
• 16:58
  Speaker 6: family and signed a bank document as Joebnagas. So I
• 17:06
  Speaker 6: contacted the bank immediately and I asked them about this account,
• 17:12
  Speaker 6: and I said, by chance, do you guys still have
• 17:14
  Speaker 6: the video footage of the opening of that account. And
• 17:19
  Speaker 6: as soon as we got it and looked at it,
• 17:22
  Speaker 6: then we knew that that's lu Castro opposing as Joevenagas
• 17:25
  Speaker 6: opening that bank account. When I see that, I'm elated.
• 17:30
  Speaker 6: I'm I'm I'm so happy that right there he's committing
• 17:35
  Speaker 6: a crime right in front of our eyes by opening
• 17:38
  Speaker 6: this bank account. So Lucastro was charged with the bank
• 17:41
  Speaker 6: fraud and it'll give us a chance to get a
• 17:43
  Speaker 6: hold of lou and finish our investigation.
• 17:46
  Speaker 7: Before we asked me, I watch you got life for
• 17:51
  Speaker 7: man chilt anything, said the court, I understriend it.
• 17:58
  Speaker 4: He was in custody in Tennessee for his federal conviction.
• 18:01
  Speaker 6: The federal prosecutor charged him with the two year mandatory
• 18:04
  Speaker 6: identity fraud, where he had used a social security number
• 18:08
  Speaker 6: and committed the identity fraud. We knew that we only
• 18:11
  Speaker 6: had two years to get charges on him in Kansas,
• 18:15
  Speaker 6: to hold him and to send him to prison, so
• 18:19
  Speaker 6: our backs were against the wall. Have to once we
• 18:28
  Speaker 6: put him in custody, that was the plan. Let's get
• 18:30
  Speaker 6: his fingerprints and find out who he is, what's his
• 18:33
  Speaker 6: true identity, And we ran him through the national database,
• 18:37
  Speaker 6: but they came back not on file, which we we
• 18:40
  Speaker 6: didn't understand.
• 18:42
  Speaker 7: You're in handcout and department.
• 18:51
  Speaker 10: I want to go to some of the stuff to
• 18:54
  Speaker 10: give you out, make sure that.
• 18:56
  Speaker 11: We know where you are.
• 18:57
  Speaker 12: Okay, coming back and Kate, and you're using your Nation Reason.
• 19:04
  Speaker 7: Insurance, okay you were.
• 19:09
  Speaker 12: I'm able to get medical insurance before your right.
• 19:14
  Speaker 9: This is not a guy who has ever the loss
• 19:16
  Speaker 9: for words.
• 19:17
  Speaker 4: You know, He's used to talking his way in and
• 19:19
  Speaker 4: into what he wants and out about any bad situation,
• 19:22
  Speaker 4: and so he had long explanations.
• 19:23
  Speaker 12: For his behavior. And I'll talk to figure out who
• 19:28
  Speaker 12: you are. Well I am, and I hope you haven't write.
• 19:38
  Speaker 6: It was later after his arrest when I actually reached
• 19:41
  Speaker 6: out to Patricia Hughes family in Texas, and that was
• 19:45
  Speaker 6: with a phone call to Patricia's mother, because we knew
• 19:48
  Speaker 6: Patricia had been with Luke Castro since high school. She
• 19:51
  Speaker 6: gave me a name of a person, Daniel Perez. I
• 19:55
  Speaker 6: really couldn't get off the phone quick enough to immediately
• 19:58
  Speaker 6: get a hold of the authorities and Beville, Texas to
• 20:01
  Speaker 6: find out who Daniel Perez was. They were able to
• 20:05
  Speaker 6: send me a booking photo of Daniel Perez. Then once
• 20:08
  Speaker 6: I saw that booking photo, I knew that's who lu
• 20:11
  Speaker 6: Castro was.
• 20:14
  Speaker 4: That's when we first realized that there is no lu Castro.
• 20:17
  Speaker 4: His true name is Daniel Perez.
• 20:19
  Speaker 11: I'm the least I was born.
• 20:25
  Speaker 7: What do you want me to stay?
• 20:32
  Speaker 6: We started talking to Sarah the day we arrested Lou.
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: My boyfriend at the time had met Lou a couple
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: of times and had an uneasy feeling about him. It
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: was my boyfriend's mother who helped me come to the
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: realization that I was being She said, Sarah, Honey, did
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: Lou ever you? And I said I don't. I don't
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: really know what that is. I don't know. And she
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: said did he have sex with you? And I said yes.
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: And she said did you like it? And I said no.
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: She said did he force you to do those things?
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: And I said yes he did, and she said, sweetheart,
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: that's called me. You were right. I just felt sick
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: to my stomach. And then my boyfriend sent an email
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: to the FBI explaining everything that was going on. I
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: was very upset, and I said, that was dumb. You're
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: going to get us all killed. He's going to kill me,
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: He's going to kill you and your family. That was dumb.
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: Early the next morning, a couple of detectives knocked on
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: my front door and they took me downtown and they
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: questioned me for hours.
• 21:50
  Speaker 6: He still has such a control over the family that
• 21:53
  Speaker 6: it was an uphill battle to get them to come
• 21:56
  Speaker 6: out of that control and to cooperate with us.
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: It took a lot for me to feel safe. But
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: Ron told me he wasn't going to let anything happen
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: to me, and that Lou would be handcuffed and not
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: be able to get to me.
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: It was just so surreal to know this was happening
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: in our own backyard to these little girls who were
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: so innocent.
• 22:28
  Speaker 6: Sarah was seventeen when she first met Lou. It wasn't
• 22:32
  Speaker 6: a child sexual crime.
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: It was.
• 22:36
  Speaker 6: Him controlling and convincing her that she had to do that.
• 22:39
  Speaker 4: This was not an anecdotal situation. It didn't happen one time.
• 22:42
  Speaker 4: You talk about a pattern abuse that was that someone
• 22:45
  Speaker 4: was subjected to over a long period of time.
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: It's just a very bad feeling to just feel like
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: you're trapped and you can't tell anybody and there's no
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: way to get out.
• 22:58
  Speaker 7: What they thought about How am I responsible for anything?
• 23:05
  Speaker 7: I could see the sevestigation for a long time. I'm
• 23:08
  Speaker 7: the father figure, yeah, but I'm not. I'm not even controlling.
• 23:12
  Speaker 7: I don't tell everybody this the way he's going to
• 23:13
  Speaker 7: get the fun figure that you know, sir, and I
• 23:17
  Speaker 7: do not controlling anything.
• 23:18
  Speaker 4: I was fairly confident that we could proven that we
• 23:21
  Speaker 4: could establish a great number of these sex crimes, and
• 23:23
  Speaker 4: that'd be enough to at least get him off the streets.
• 23:25
  Speaker 4: I didn't think there was any way to get behind
• 23:27
  Speaker 4: the homicide. It was cold in the respect that the
• 23:30
  Speaker 4: time had passed and that the initial assessment from the
• 23:33
  Speaker 4: corner had been and what must have been accidental.
• 23:36
  Speaker 7: Tell me about trishes yet I was a neighbor's point.
• 23:41
  Speaker 7: They said that she asked there when she were going in.
• 23:45
  Speaker 9: To the baby.
• 23:46
  Speaker 11: Upon the two year old fell under the pool.
• 23:51
  Speaker 7: Chick right under the.
• 23:51
  Speaker 11: Pool to get her out. She ship going in. She
• 23:54
  Speaker 11: hear her head, definite, they shared because that was the
• 24:00
  Speaker 11: paramid to show that pop story.
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: Who all was dropped.
• 24:07
  Speaker 4: There The whole tenor of the investigation and of the
• 24:13
  Speaker 4: case had changed dramatically when she decided to come forward.
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: My sister said that she heard Trisha scream and Lou
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: had actually beat her over the head and drowned her
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: in our pool, and then he instructed my sister to
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: call nine one one and give them a story that
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: Trisha had slipped and fallen and in her head while
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: trying to get the little girl out of the pool.
• 24:46
  Speaker 6: Prior to Patricia's death, Lou had called Patricia and Sarah's
• 24:51
  Speaker 6: sister into a room and discussed it in front of them,
• 24:56
  Speaker 6: what was going to happen, That Patricia was going to die,
• 25:00
  Speaker 6: but that.
• 25:01
  Speaker 9: It's okay because I can bring her back.
• 25:04
  Speaker 6: You know, you just can't really believe it's that you're
• 25:06
  Speaker 6: saying it that's true, that that's what's happening, but that
• 25:09
  Speaker 6: is what happened.
• 25:11
  Speaker 7: You're obviously in control of these people, because it was
• 25:13
  Speaker 7: talking to people you didn't actually say what you're saying.
• 25:16
  Speaker 7: You control the people, You control the insurance policies or
• 25:20
  Speaker 7: life yours policies. You helped set all this up.
• 25:23
  Speaker 2: I never said that.
• 25:24
  Speaker 7: I said that. I have always been that. You've always
• 25:26
  Speaker 7: been there in control and all in you hadn't said it.
• 25:32
  Speaker 7: You were the one who stood out in the mind.
• 25:34
  Speaker 11: You were the want to have control over the group.
• 25:36
  Speaker 5: You weren't want to make a cap up.
• 25:37
  Speaker 7: You didn't want to hold how money in the ground
• 25:40
  Speaker 7: for six years old. She has no job, no new job,
• 25:45
  Speaker 7: and has a one point two million dollar life insurance poetry.
• 25:49
  Speaker 7: So I haven't the money of lutricious eyes.
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: I don't know.
• 25:53
  Speaker 6: You just had to track the money back and follow
• 25:56
  Speaker 6: it through the different accounts.
• 25:58
  Speaker 7: Mona, you didn't have any money. Who did played bankruptcy
• 26:01
  Speaker 7: Right before that she bought the insurance policy. You just
• 26:06
  Speaker 7: happened to sign the date will before she.
• 26:14
  Speaker 6: Understand They went together to the insurance agent and went
• 26:19
  Speaker 6: into the insurance agent's office one day, showed up unannounced,
• 26:24
  Speaker 6: and she purchased a very large life insurance policy. You
• 26:29
  Speaker 6: could see Mona Griffith's policy proceeds being transferred to other
• 26:34
  Speaker 6: bank accounts to move it around to make it harder
• 26:39
  Speaker 6: to tell where it came from.
• 26:40
  Speaker 12: I don't remember.
• 26:41
  Speaker 7: I'm pad that will we have an insurance policy. That
• 26:44
  Speaker 7: just must before she died. I don't said Will that
• 26:48
  Speaker 7: you talked to the agent able that you witnessed, and
• 26:52
  Speaker 7: you witnessed the sameful.
• 26:53
  Speaker 11: I really don't remember a lot that.
• 26:54
  Speaker 6: I really upon interviewing that agent later, some of the
• 26:58
  Speaker 6: first things he said was there was no doubt that
• 27:01
  Speaker 6: lou Castro was the person in charge.
• 27:04
  Speaker 7: You did you didn't, I don't remember, and then you
• 27:07
  Speaker 7: did it and you could pool the money.
• 27:09
  Speaker 6: He had these documents drawn up, and he had everything
• 27:11
  Speaker 6: in order for these people to die and then for
• 27:14
  Speaker 6: the money to be distributed.
• 27:17
  Speaker 7: You didn't want that to die after I knew you
• 27:20
  Speaker 7: wanted to.
• 27:21
  Speaker 11: I would.
• 27:24
  Speaker 7: They would have been a sub didn't didn't put it,
• 27:27
  Speaker 7: or he would do? You know yourself.
• 27:34
  Speaker 6: I think Louke pushed Brian to do what he did.
• 27:36
  Speaker 6: It was not so surprising once you talked to his
• 27:39
  Speaker 6: family that lou Castro wouldn't leave him alone.
• 27:42
  Speaker 7: Oh, she's only understand that. She definite was that I
• 27:45
  Speaker 7: see it easier. I seemed him dying.
• 27:48
  Speaker 11: I just see and die yourself that you could looked
• 27:51
  Speaker 11: at it and you.
• 27:52
  Speaker 6: Felt that lose control caused Brian's death. We don't have
• 27:56
  Speaker 6: any direct evidence to say that, but the life insurance,
• 27:59
  Speaker 6: the estate planning, all those things were in place.
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: Sure denying that, I don't know.
• 28:09
  Speaker 7: Look at me, you know what, I don't know?
• 28:12
  Speaker 9: If you were there, why don't you tell me?
• 28:15
  Speaker 3: He was much smarter and calculated than you would expect.
• 28:20
  Speaker 3: This was a very long term plan of what he
• 28:23
  Speaker 3: did for years only very gentle.
• 28:26
  Speaker 7: You know, you can't excuse the fact that.
• 28:31
  Speaker 3: No, it does look and I understand that they.
• 28:35
  Speaker 10: Had had happened around me, not necessarily physically around me,
• 28:40
  Speaker 10: but if all these people were associated with me, you know,
• 28:42
  Speaker 10: these people that are very close to I understand that.
• 28:46
  Speaker 7: Yeah, you are to being and others for recording depths
• 28:49
  Speaker 7: of all these people.
• 28:51
  Speaker 3: They all had missing pieces, you know, they needed what
• 28:54
  Speaker 3: he would give them. Every single one of them had
• 28:57
  Speaker 3: something that he could offer, and he knew that, and
• 29:00
  Speaker 3: that's who he prayed upon.
• 29:02
  Speaker 4: I think he had to know either then or certainly
• 29:04
  Speaker 4: that shortly thereafter, that his ability.
• 29:07
  Speaker 9: To walk away from this was going to be significantly impacted.
• 29:11
  Speaker 7: We then looking at this investigation for a number of
• 29:15
  Speaker 7: years now. We've got a number of documents not just
• 29:19
  Speaker 7: on utube, but on your family, on everybody involved. We
• 29:24
  Speaker 7: know the answers of what has to do and getting
• 29:28
  Speaker 7: fairly clothes to tell him a few things. But he's
• 29:30
  Speaker 7: not quite telling the whole story. The story is slowly
• 29:33
  Speaker 7: coming out doing coming to his story.
• 29:36
  Speaker 11: Other than what I told you, there's there's more rest okay,
• 29:42
  Speaker 11: and if there is, I don't annoy it.
• 29:45
  Speaker 7: So we're getting the opportunity right today, right now to
• 29:49
  Speaker 7: put it on the rador and help yourself out for
• 29:53
  Speaker 7: all your ings. Fat people, you don't have quite a
• 29:57
  Speaker 7: short cash out.
• 29:58
  Speaker 11: So you're gett I had some visuals with his debts
• 30:02
  Speaker 11: or however involved around me.
• 30:04
  Speaker 7: I'm sorry, I don't know it. We believe it, we
• 30:08
  Speaker 7: think we improve it, and other people are telling sort
• 30:11
  Speaker 7: So this is a perfect opportunity for you to explain
• 30:14
  Speaker 7: exactly what happened here.
• 30:16
  Speaker 9: But when these other people put their share.
• 30:17
  Speaker 7: Up, when we deal with other person, well you put
• 30:19
  Speaker 7: this thing on it, you do whatever you need to do.
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: But I enjoyed it too.
• 30:22
  Speaker 3: This is what happened.
• 30:23
  Speaker 7: I wasn't there.
• 30:24
  Speaker 8: I don't know.
• 30:25
  Speaker 4: I remember coming back and telling some of my other attorneys,
• 30:28
  Speaker 4: this will be the strangest case I've ever been a
• 30:29
  Speaker 4: part of it.
• 30:30
  Speaker 9: I think, I said, word's the fact that this is
• 30:32
  Speaker 9: a made for TV movie.
• 30:38
  Speaker 7: He calls me behavior there.
• 30:46
  Speaker 4: I don't know how else to define this other than
• 30:48
  Speaker 4: as a cult with a cult leader at the center
• 30:52
  Speaker 4: of it who benefited sexually financially from his cult member's devotion.
• 30:59
  Speaker 4: That's the stuff that happens in California. You know that
• 31:02
  Speaker 4: doesn't happen around here.
• 31:05
  Speaker 3: Anytime you hear, oh man, there's a cult in our community,
• 31:07
  Speaker 3: and there people are dying, and millions of life insurance
• 31:10
  Speaker 3: policies are coming out, and there's sex involved.
• 31:13
  Speaker 9: It had all the.
• 31:14
  Speaker 3: Things that made a community go I kind of want
• 31:17
  Speaker 3: to pay attention to what's happening.
• 31:19
  Speaker 9: Next, he was.
• 31:22
  Speaker 2: Charged with murder, and then there were more and more accounts.
• 31:27
  Speaker 8: Wos it's also accused of child sex crimes and told
• 31:30
  Speaker 8: them he can see into the future and even spend time.
• 31:34
  Speaker 2: When he made his first appearance, we were just stunned.
• 31:37
  Speaker 2: He's a little man, he's short, and he kind of
• 31:40
  Speaker 2: had long hair in the back, but just very confident.
• 31:47
  Speaker 3: I got appointed the case and everybody said, oh, you
• 31:52
  Speaker 3: got that case. And I didn't quite understand the magnitude
• 31:56
  Speaker 3: of what was happening to me until I read just
• 31:59
  Speaker 3: this summary of what the charges were, and I'm like, Okay,
• 32:02
  Speaker 3: this was a big case.
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: This was a big deal.
• 32:05
  Speaker 3: I didn't know what to expect when I went over
• 32:07
  Speaker 3: to see him in the jail. Right, I have this guy,
• 32:09
  Speaker 3: he's supposed to be a cult leader, and he just
• 32:12
  Speaker 3: seemed like an ordinary person to me. But he's not.
• 32:19
  Speaker 4: He was somebody who's exercising complete dominion and control over
• 32:23
  Speaker 4: his small group of followers, that is, allowing him to
• 32:25
  Speaker 4: have direct sexual access to their children, as well as
• 32:30
  Speaker 4: convincing these folks that they needed to either take their
• 32:33
  Speaker 4: own lives or sacrifice their lives. That was the sort
• 32:37
  Speaker 4: of the overarching theme of the case.
• 32:44
  Speaker 5: The state, mister Bennett, and I will ask you.
• 32:48
  Speaker 2: To hold him responsible and find him guilty. They called
• 32:55
  Speaker 2: him evil, and they said that he had just persuaded
• 32:59
  Speaker 2: all all these people to think that he was a prophet,
• 33:03
  Speaker 2: which he was not. He was living off their life
• 33:07
  Speaker 2: insurance policies and basically killing them or asking them to
• 33:12
  Speaker 2: kill themselves so he could be rich. The defense said
• 33:15
  Speaker 2: you know, he did not have anything to do with
• 33:18
  Speaker 2: their deaths, and they were all just one big, happy
• 33:21
  Speaker 2: family there on Angels Landing.
• 33:23
  Speaker 3: I tried to stay on the track that it was
• 33:26
  Speaker 3: an accidental homicide discriuntled group against him. The sexual assault
• 33:32
  Speaker 3: component of the case.
• 33:34
  Speaker 5: Made it.
• 33:36
  Speaker 2: More difficult today. Probably the prosecution star witness took the stand.
• 33:42
  Speaker 6: Sarah's sister had been lou Castro's favorite person, if you will.
• 33:47
  Speaker 6: He was enamored with her, and she was enamored with him,
• 33:53
  Speaker 6: and she would have done anything for him.
• 33:57
  Speaker 4: She had a front review to everything he was doing,
• 34:00
  Speaker 4: was the victim of some of his most egregious behavior.
• 34:04
  Speaker 3: There's a picture that I remember to this day with
• 34:08
  Speaker 3: his arm around the victim when she was young, and
• 34:12
  Speaker 3: he's holding a long neck beer bottle. Later we learned
• 34:16
  Speaker 3: that he would sexually assault her with that, But to
• 34:19
  Speaker 3: see how young she was with that bottle in the hand.
• 34:23
  Speaker 4: And so the thing that I remember with her that
• 34:26
  Speaker 4: was the real concern was can she do it. That's
• 34:29
  Speaker 4: a lot to ask of anybody to do, especially somebody
• 34:32
  Speaker 4: who had been through what she had been through. But
• 34:34
  Speaker 4: there were a lot of tearful meetings beforehand to convince
• 34:37
  Speaker 4: her that she was strong enough to do this, walk
• 34:39
  Speaker 4: into a courtroom and be some twenty feet away from
• 34:42
  Speaker 4: the person who did all of these things to you,
• 34:45
  Speaker 4: while twelve strangers are staring at the side of your
• 34:47
  Speaker 4: face and tell your story. And when she came into court,
• 34:50
  Speaker 4: she knocked it out of the park. She was fantastic And.
• 34:53
  Speaker 3: I can't forget her testifying because she believed he made
• 34:56
  Speaker 3: it rain. It was a clear sky where it in
• 35:00
  Speaker 3: the forest. He says he's going to make it rain,
• 35:02
  Speaker 3: and he made it rain. He was very proud of her,
• 35:08
  Speaker 3: even though she was accusing him of sexually assaulting her.
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: To be in the same room with Lou as I
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: was testifying was very terrifying. During the whole trial, Lou
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: would rattle his handcuffs around the table or just do
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: anything he could to try and gain my attention. It
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: was very, very difficult to stand up and testify against him.
• 35:38
  Speaker 4: With any sex crimes victim, specifically child sex crimes victim,
• 35:42
  Speaker 4: the childhood trauma.
• 35:44
  Speaker 9: That they went through is profound.
• 35:46
  Speaker 4: Everybody deals with things differently, but that has a profound
• 35:49
  Speaker 4: impact on folks.
• 35:51
  Speaker 2: The two girls nearly brought everyone in that courtroom to tears.
• 35:55
  Speaker 2: They were the best witnesses. They were very solid, talked
• 36:00
  Speaker 2: about how he would convince them that they needed to
• 36:05
  Speaker 2: be with him because he was an angel. They would
• 36:11
  Speaker 2: describe how they would lay there and close their eyes
• 36:15
  Speaker 2: and just wait.
• 36:16
  Speaker 7: For it to be over.
• 36:18
  Speaker 6: Sarah and her sister's testimony at trial were probably some
• 36:22
  Speaker 6: of the most important testimony it was in this whole case.
• 36:26
  Speaker 4: I think there was probably an air of disbelief that
• 36:30
  Speaker 4: they were really there, really talking. I don't think in
• 36:34
  Speaker 4: his wildest dreams he thought that they would ever testify
• 36:37
  Speaker 4: against him in an open corner, and they did.
• 36:44
  Speaker 8: Daniel Perez's taking the stand in his own defense. Today,
• 36:47
  Speaker 8: he is the leader of a local commune that lived
• 36:49
  Speaker 8: off the life insurance payouts of his dead members. He's
• 36:52
  Speaker 8: accused of killing a woman and having sex with miners.
• 36:56
  Speaker 3: I don't know if it ever helps a defendant to
• 36:58
  Speaker 3: make a statement to law enforcement or the I left
• 37:01
  Speaker 3: that up to him. I always left it up to him,
• 37:03
  Speaker 3: and he made that choice to testify.
• 37:08
  Speaker 7: You do sole amos part of the testimony you're about
• 37:10
  Speaker 7: to be ever be the truth.
• 37:11
  Speaker 2: Yes, didn't seem afraid, didn't seem like anything was bothering him,
• 37:17
  Speaker 2: did you anyway or sets like she said, right, anyway,
• 37:24
  Speaker 2: four sets a time by.
• 37:27
  Speaker 3: Force, they cried. We said, no, it's all consensual. This
• 37:33
  Speaker 3: is something they want to do. They're in this family.
• 37:36
  Speaker 3: But one was under age, so that's problematic, they said
• 37:43
  Speaker 3: in the.
• 37:43
  Speaker 4: Trial, whe's the effect that the reason he needed one
• 37:48
  Speaker 4: of the young girls around him as much as she
• 37:50
  Speaker 4: was helping him remodel Angel's landing. I'm like she was eleven.
• 37:55
  Speaker 4: I mean, I'm sorry I didn't realize she was handy
• 37:57
  Speaker 4: with a saw. He's obviously been able to talk his
• 38:01
  Speaker 4: way into and out of situations his whole life. I
• 38:04
  Speaker 4: was beaten years ago, and I have their terrible memory,
• 38:08
  Speaker 4: you know, and I, oh, woe was me? Essentially, his
• 38:12
  Speaker 4: defense was, I'm misunderstood and everybody's lying about me.
• 38:15
  Speaker 3: Did you any way plan to order that you should shoot?
• 38:21
  Speaker 7: Do you any way killed that you should huot?
• 38:25
  Speaker 2: Was that anx you were?
• 38:27
  Speaker 7: You were even there? Who have passed?
• 38:30
  Speaker 4: And our theory the case was that he had taken
• 38:32
  Speaker 4: her out into the water she'd gotten in, probably voluntarily,
• 38:36
  Speaker 4: and that he held her head down when they found
• 38:38
  Speaker 4: her and pulled her body from the water. She had
• 38:41
  Speaker 4: a plastic clip on top of her head, and there
• 38:45
  Speaker 4: was a corresponding bruise in the scalp where that clip
• 38:49
  Speaker 4: had been.
• 38:50
  Speaker 5: Basically, all I can tell is the injury. Blund Ford's
• 38:54
  Speaker 5: injury is mainly from the in this case her head
• 39:00
  Speaker 5: hitting an object or her being struck by a blunt object.
• 39:04
  Speaker 4: Can't drown yourself. You can't just jump in a pool
• 39:07
  Speaker 4: and hold your breath till you die.
• 39:10
  Speaker 13: Did you tell the adminstration's time to die? No, tell
• 39:18
  Speaker 13: that she had to help me because you couldn't be
• 39:21
  Speaker 13: too close. And so absolutely the other side, you know,
• 39:25
  Speaker 13: because you get suddenly because you rang.
• 39:28
  Speaker 3: You know, it's just too fanatical. And these are the
• 39:31
  Speaker 3: same people that believe he can make it rain right.
• 39:35
  Speaker 3: Something not quite right with them.
• 39:40
  Speaker 7: You must determine whether the definement or not.
• 39:45
  Speaker 4: We had twenty eight counts they had to go through,
• 39:46
  Speaker 4: and so there was there was a little bit of time,
• 39:48
  Speaker 4: but I don't remember it being a particularly long wait.
• 39:51
  Speaker 3: I could see it coming. There were no negotiations on
• 39:56
  Speaker 3: this case. You know, it was one where it just
• 39:58
  Speaker 3: had to be tried. There's I think that we could
• 40:01
  Speaker 3: resolve short of putting it in the hands of a jury.
• 40:07
  Speaker 4: Guilty guilty of some twenty eight counts, guilty of the
• 40:13
  Speaker 4: murder charge, which carried a life sentence, guilty of some
• 40:16
  Speaker 4: of the child's sex abuse cases, some of which are
• 40:19
  Speaker 4: under Kansas law.
• 40:20
  Speaker 8: A judge decide the fate of a leader of a
• 40:22
  Speaker 8: Kansas commune convicted of dozens of crimes, including the murder
• 40:27
  Speaker 8: of one of its members. Two of the victims spoke
• 40:29
  Speaker 8: before the court, one abuse victims saying I was ten
• 40:32
  Speaker 8: and my childhood was over, another saying he convinced my
• 40:36
  Speaker 8: mom to get life insurance policies and then killed her.
• 40:40
  Speaker 2: Perez was offered a chance to speak before the court,
• 40:43
  Speaker 2: to which he only replied.
• 40:47
  Speaker 11: Conclusively yess used people.
• 40:53
  Speaker 8: As the judge sentence Paradas to the maximum two life sentences,
• 40:58
  Speaker 8: which will be served consecutively.
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: You know, when somebody like that is sent to prison
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: and you get to finally have a sense of relief,
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: you just pick up the pieces the best you can
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: and you just keep going every day and know that, yeah,
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: life's going to be hard, but eventually it'll get better.
• 41:21
  Speaker 4: So at the end of the day, he's doing two
• 41:22
  Speaker 4: life sentences. You know, they say justice delayed is justice denied,
• 41:27
  Speaker 4: But in this particular case, I felt we've broke that
• 41:30
  Speaker 4: rule and we're able to achieve justice and get a
• 41:34
  Speaker 4: particularly bad character off the streets for the.
• 41:36
  Speaker 9: Rest of his life.
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: I just hope that I can help just one person
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: to get out and to know that there's life beyond
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: all that chaos, and you can go on to live
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: a happy, healthy life. I have a great life.
• 41:55
  Speaker 6: Daniel Perez was a cult leader and a serial killer
• 41:59
  Speaker 6: at the same time. I certainly wish I could have
• 42:01
  Speaker 6: moved in earlier to stop so much of this awful
• 42:06
  Speaker 6: and terrible events that Sarah and her sister went through
• 42:09
  Speaker 6: over these years. I'm very glad that they've been able
• 42:13
  Speaker 6: to get on with their lives and live the best
• 42:16
  Speaker 6: life they can live and as normal as you can
• 42:19
  Speaker 6: be with all the things that have happened to them