Episode Transcript
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Now let's dive into today story. Unlucky.
0:43
Thirteen. It
0:49
was a rainy Friday afternoon. April.
0:51
Thirteenth Twenty twelve when Brittany kill
0:53
go rest began packing her bags.
0:57
Britney online profile name was thirteen
0:59
my lucky number, but this Friday
1:02
the thirteenth was going to be
1:04
anything but lucky. Just
1:07
three days earlier, she had filed for
1:09
divorce from her husband, Lance Corporal Corey
1:12
Kilgore. Corey had
1:14
been a Marine station to Camp Pendleton
1:16
just north of San Diego, but had
1:18
recently been transferred for a tour of
1:20
duty in Afghanistan. Leaving Britain the
1:22
alone in the small military town of
1:25
Four Brooke, California. As
1:28
a teenager, Bring Me had dreamed of
1:30
marriage and wrote about it on her
1:32
blog. I want to be Married I
1:35
want to love that person. But.
1:37
The divorce rate is so high. She
1:40
also wrote candidly of her insecurities
1:43
and struggles with depression. Three.
1:46
Years later she was married, but the marriage wasn't
1:48
what she had hoped it would be. Both.
1:52
britney inquiry were only twenty when they
1:54
married but by the time they were
1:56
twenty two they mutually called it quits
2:00
Forbrook was a small town that sat
2:02
immediately east of the entrance to US
2:04
Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton. With
2:07
a population of just 30,000 people,
2:10
most of the town was comprised of military
2:12
families. Brittany
2:14
lived at the La Galliana de Cortes Apartments
2:16
in a small upstairs apartment just a short
2:18
walk from the entrance to the base. She
2:23
had grown up in the Ozarks in Missouri,
2:25
but her family had since moved to Pennsylvania.
2:29
Once her divorce was finalized, she would have
2:31
no reason to stay in the military town,
2:34
so on that rainy afternoon she and
2:36
her friend Chani Tal were packing boxes
2:38
for her move to Pennsylvania. That
2:42
same afternoon, another of Brittany's
2:45
friends, Elizabeth Hernandez, had stopped by
2:47
the home of Dorothy Maraglino and
2:49
Louis Perez to return a camera
2:51
charger she had borrowed. In
2:54
casual conversation, Elizabeth mentioned that her
2:56
friend Brittany was moving away from
2:58
Fullbrook. She
3:00
told Dorothy that she was planning to take her
3:03
to the marina in San Diego and treat her
3:05
to a horn blower dinner cruise before she left.
3:09
Dorothy was familiar with Brittany. In
3:11
fact, she had a deep hatred of the girl.
3:15
Although she barely knew her, Dorothy
3:17
often called Brittany the disease or
3:20
the herpes. Dorothy
3:23
was in a polygamous open relationship
3:25
with US Marine Staff Sergeant Louis
3:28
Perez, a 16-year veteran of the
3:30
3rd Marine Aircraft Wing stationed at
3:32
Camp Pendleton. The
3:35
couple had agreed that they were free
3:37
to see other people, but despite the
3:39
open relationship, Dorothy felt threatened by Brittany
3:41
Kilgore. Brittany was
3:43
young and beautiful. Dorothy believed
3:46
she was too flirty with 45-year-old Perez.
3:50
She often asked Elizabeth why she hung out
3:52
with Brittany at all and once jokingly told
3:55
her, I could get rid of her for you.
3:58
Dorothy Maraglino was a young woman who had been in the military For a long time. Leno
4:00
and Louis Peres's relationship was far
4:02
from normal. The. Fact
4:04
that their relationship was polygamous, however, may
4:07
have seemed like the most normal part
4:09
of the relationship. The
4:12
To lived as master and slave
4:14
in a twisted Bdsm. Bondage.
4:16
And discipline/domination and submission
4:18
slush, sadism, the masochism
4:21
relationship. For.
4:23
Years Perez lived as the
4:25
dominant master of the household,
4:27
while Dorothy lived as the
4:29
submissive slave. Dorothy.
4:32
Was also a switch. Meaning. She
4:34
was submissive to per as, but would
4:36
also be a dominant mistress to her
4:39
own slaves. Together,
4:41
the two of them took part in
4:43
that Bdsm lifestyle with I Live In
4:45
Slave Jessica Lopez. Each
4:48
participant in the three way relationship
4:50
had their respective Bdsm name's. Louis
4:53
Perez was ivan. Dorothy.
4:55
Married Leno was d. And
4:58
Jessica Lopez was Roslin. Within.
5:02
The household Dorothy established strict
5:04
written rules, including the house
5:06
manual. Perfect. Slave check list
5:08
and a slave contract. Dorothy.
5:12
Day also had a contract that
5:14
professed others the sole property of
5:16
pariahs Ivan. The.
5:18
Contract entitled feed to d
5:20
was signed in Dorothy's bloody
5:22
some print. The.
5:25
Vanity License plate on Dorothy's truck
5:27
read I V M S Katie
5:29
and. Ivens Kitten. Dorothy.
5:34
Merrick Leno controlled everything the
5:36
Jessica Lopez Rosalyn did in
5:38
life. Both. Inside the home and
5:40
out. Jessica.
5:43
Wore a red dog collar at all
5:45
times with a heart shaped dog tag
5:47
engraved with a text Roslyn. Property.
5:49
Of Miss De. And eight her meals
5:51
out of a double. Louis
5:54
however as these master had
5:56
control over both Dorothy and
5:58
Jessica. Louis.
6:01
Perez was a sadist. He
6:03
lived to inflict pain on others. In.
6:06
Prior relationships, he choked his partner every
6:09
time they had sex either with his
6:11
hands or with a leather belt. Occasionally
6:14
he suggested having estate kidnapped
6:17
and a stranger's held prisoner
6:19
and tortured. Knives,
6:21
And chains were coming. Sex toys in
6:24
his relationships. Perez.
6:26
Can videos of himself beating women as
6:28
they begged him to stoop. One.
6:31
Such video showed him beating a
6:33
woman into unconsciousness. On.
6:36
Another occasion, Perez and Dorothy acted out
6:38
an abduction fantasy why they picked up
6:41
a young woman in a parking lot
6:43
and took her to that dungeon in
6:45
the basement of Dorothy's home for Bdsm
6:47
play. Later.
6:50
That rainy Friday at four thirty
6:52
eight pm, Louis Perez knocked on
6:54
the door of Britney department. Has
6:56
she enchanting? We're packing boxes. It
7:00
surprise Britney to see him considering she barely
7:02
knew him and she asked how he knew
7:04
where she lived. He
7:06
replied I asked around. Perez.
7:10
Explained that he had purchased two tickets for
7:12
a Hornblower dinner cruise later that night and
7:14
wanted to know if she'd like to go
7:16
with him. He
7:18
was an odd request considering they weren't
7:21
close friends. There
7:23
was a twenty three year age difference and
7:25
she knew he was in a relationship. Britney.
7:29
Was noticeably uneasy about the proposition
7:31
and politely declined his offer, explaining
7:33
that she needed to pack boxes
7:35
for her move. Perez.
7:39
Wrote down his phone number and handed it
7:41
to her. Call. Me if
7:43
you change your mind. When.
7:45
Perez left the apartment complex. He
7:48
sent a text to Dorothy reading
7:50
that wasn't successful. She
7:53
replied. Tomorrow is another
7:55
day. Just
7:57
minutes later, Perez got a text
7:59
message from Britney. She
8:01
wanted to know if he knew anyone that could
8:03
help her with her move. Perez.
8:06
Was quick to reply. Party.
8:08
With me tonight and you'll have five guys there
8:11
in the morning. Still,
8:13
Uncomfortable Britney messaged him saying that she
8:15
would love having help with a move,
8:18
but felt weird parting with him because
8:20
she knew he was in a relationship
8:22
with Dorothy. He.
8:24
replied. She's. Okay with
8:26
it, his her phone number. Give.
8:28
Her coal. Twenty
8:31
cents. A brief texts to Dorothy to
8:33
immediately called her back. On
8:36
speakerphone, Britney friend Johnny heard
8:38
the conversation. Dorothy.
8:41
Encouraged her to go on the dinner cruise with
8:43
Per as. She.
8:45
Told her they'd already paid for the
8:47
tickets and explain not as she was
8:49
pregnant with perez baby. Being on a
8:51
boat would probably make her sea sick
8:53
anyway. After
8:56
hanging up with Dorothy, Britney told Tiny
8:58
that she still didn't feel entirely comfortable
9:00
with it and had no interest in
9:02
Paris romantically but really liked the idea
9:05
of champagne and a three course meal
9:07
sailing on a yacht beneath the Coronado
9:09
Bay Bridge. By.
9:11
Six ten Pm for it Me had
9:13
changed her mind. She.
9:16
Sent a text to Per as agreeing to
9:18
go with him to which he quickly responded.
9:21
Be. Ready at seven thirty. More.
9:24
Brittany didn't know was that the home blow it
9:26
in a cruise. Left the doc at seven pm.
9:29
And the doc was an hour away from full brooke.
9:32
There was no chance they would make it. But.
9:35
That didn't matter, Perez. Never
9:38
had tickets. Know any intention
9:40
on taking her on the cruise. He
9:43
had other plans. Britney.
9:46
Borrowed to evening dresses from Chinese for
9:48
the dinner and decided on a dark
9:50
purple one with a glittery purple flower
9:52
pot and. still
9:55
feeling awkward about the situation she gave
9:57
channy the cell phone numbers of both
9:59
parade and Dorothy. Just
10:01
in case. At
10:05
6.38pm, Brittany messaged Elizabeth Hernandez to
10:07
let her know about her date
10:09
with Perez. Elizabeth
10:12
was confused. She
10:14
had planned on being the one to take Brittany on
10:16
the dinner cruise as a gift. She
10:18
had even mentioned her intentions to Perez and
10:21
Dorothy earlier in the day. She
10:24
also thought it was strange because she knew
10:26
that Brittany barely knew Perez. Brittany
10:30
received a text at 7.31pm
10:32
from Perez. I'm running
10:35
late. Be there in five minutes. Can
10:37
you meet me at the curb? Brittany
10:40
replied, At the curb? It's
10:43
raining, you know. I'd appreciate
10:45
it if you drove into the complex. It's
10:48
not. I don't want to miss our boat.
10:51
Perez responded. He
10:54
knew there were security cameras throughout the
10:57
complex and wanted to avoid them but
10:59
drove through anyway. At
11:02
7.36pm, surveillance cameras showed his
11:04
white Ford Explorer entering the
11:07
complex. One minute
11:09
later he texted, I'm here. At 7.39pm,
11:12
Brittany messaged
11:15
another friend, Jessica Perry, that lived
11:17
in her same apartment complex. I'm
11:20
going on a dinner cruise with Louis Perez tonight.
11:23
I might stop by to see you when I get back. One
11:27
minute later, the apartment security cameras
11:29
showed the Explorer leaving the apartment complex
11:32
with Brittany in the passenger seat. Just
11:36
10 minutes after Brittany left the apartment
11:38
complex, Chani received a one-word
11:40
text message from Brittany's phone. It
11:44
simply read, Help. At
11:47
approximately the same time, Perez
11:49
messaged Dorothy. Kitten?
11:54
The message gave Chani Powell a sudden
11:56
twinge of fright. She
11:59
immediately replied, to Brittany. What?
12:02
Are you okay? There
12:04
was no reply, so she messaged
12:06
again. Brittany, are
12:09
you okay? I'm freaking out here. Still
12:12
no reply. Chani
12:15
messaged one more time before she finally got
12:17
a reply at 8.05pm. Yes,
12:21
I love this party. Chani
12:24
knew the reply was not genuine. Brittany
12:27
would never have used the word yes in
12:29
a text message. She had always just used
12:32
yeah. After
12:34
trying to call Brittany several times with no
12:36
answer, Chani sent another message
12:38
demanding her to call back. Call
12:41
me back now. I need to hear
12:43
your voice. At
12:46
8.07pm, Chani received another text.
12:49
In a few. Hot guys. Chani
12:53
was certain this wasn't Brittany and insisted
12:55
that she call her immediately. At 8.09pm
12:58
and 8.10pm, Chani received two
13:01
short phone calls. Both
13:04
calls were only a few seconds long with
13:06
loud music in the background. The
13:09
calls were followed by another text message.
13:12
It's okay. Music too loud.
13:17
Over the next several minutes, Chani
13:19
contacted Brittany's other friends, Jessica
13:21
Perry and Elizabeth Hernandez. After
13:25
trying Brittany's phone with no answer, Elizabeth
13:28
called Perez's girlfriend, Dorothy. Dorothy
13:32
Maraglino told Elizabeth she knew nothing about
13:34
a dinner cruise and hadn't spoken to
13:36
Brittany at all that day. An
13:39
obvious lie. At
13:41
8.40pm, Jessica Perry
13:43
called Perez, who answered the call.
13:47
He told Jessica that he and Brittany
13:49
had driven to downtown San Diego and
13:51
went to the Whiskey Girl Club in
13:53
the Gaslamp District. He
13:56
told her that Brittany had met a couple of Marines
13:58
there and he'd left her there. Jessica
14:01
Perry knew this couldn't possibly be true.
14:04
That would have been completely out of character for
14:06
Brittany. The
14:08
truth was that she never made it out of
14:10
Fullbrook. Louis
14:13
Perez and Dorothy Maraglino took efforts
14:15
to cover their tracks. Dorothy
14:18
had worked for a cell phone company in
14:20
the past and knew that cell phones were
14:22
traceable. She
14:24
instructed Perez to drive toward downtown
14:26
San Diego with Brittany's phone. During
14:30
the drive, he sent text messages to
14:32
her phone reading, Where
14:34
are you? and Your friends are
14:36
calling me worried. He
14:38
also messaged Dorothy asking how her night
14:41
was going, to which she replied, Just
14:43
having a quiet night at home. At
14:48
10.10pm, Chani tried to call
14:50
Brittany one more time. When
14:52
she got no response, she sent a
14:55
text. Should I just call the
14:57
cops? Chani
14:59
received a text reply, I'm
15:01
okay. Perez
15:03
then dumped Brittany's phone on the streets
15:05
of downtown San Diego. As
15:09
he drove back to Fullbrook from
15:11
San Diego, Perez called Brittany's friend,
15:13
Jessica Perry. Trying
15:15
to establish an alibi, he told her
15:18
he had been driving around the Gaslamp
15:20
District looking for Brittany, but finally gave
15:22
up. Saturday
15:25
morning was agonizing for Chani,
15:27
Elizabeth and Jessica Perry. There
15:30
was still no word from their friend. Jessica
15:33
called Dorothy and told her she knew she
15:35
had lied to her. She
15:38
knew that she had spoken to Brittany the previous day.
15:41
Nervous, Dorothy stammered an excuse and
15:44
handed the phone to Perez. He
15:48
hadn't planned his alibi very well and
15:50
mumbled several conflicting scenarios of what had
15:52
happened the previous night. Chani
15:56
and Elizabeth went to Brittany's apartment, but there
15:58
was no trace of her. and they
16:00
called the sheriff's department. When
16:03
the sheriff's deputy called Perez, he was
16:05
clearly startled, but offered to come to
16:07
Brittany's apartment to talk. When
16:10
Perez arrived at the apartment, Chani
16:12
and Elizabeth were still there speaking to
16:14
the deputy. Perez
16:17
claimed that when he had picked Brittany up
16:19
that night, she had already been drinking and
16:21
was very flirty with him. Chani
16:24
and Elizabeth immediately rebuffed this and let the
16:26
deputy know that this was a lie. Perez
16:30
claimed that he had left Brittany at a
16:32
club in the Gaslamp district, where she flirted
16:34
with a few Marines. He
16:37
said that when he couldn't find her, he
16:39
texted her before he left, and she replied
16:41
with a text saying, I'm okay. The
16:46
deputy's suspicion grew when he asked Perez to
16:48
show him the text on his phone, where
16:50
the text wasn't there. There
16:53
was also the question if his white Ford
16:55
Explorer was parked outside. The
16:58
bumper and running board of the vehicle were caked
17:00
with mud. The
17:02
deputy asked for his consent to a voluntary
17:04
search of the vehicle, and Perez agreed. Inside
17:08
the vehicle was an AR-15 assault
17:10
rifle, which had been stolen from
17:12
Camp Pendleton and was illegal in
17:14
California. Perez
17:16
was arrested on the weapons charge. That
17:20
Saturday afternoon, Brittany's mother, Michelle Rest,
17:22
got a phone call from her
17:25
daughter's cell phone. Her
17:27
stranger on the other end of the phone explained
17:29
that a homeless man had found her phone on
17:32
the streets of San Diego and was attempting to
17:34
sell it. Brittany's
17:36
mother was unaware that her daughter was missing,
17:39
but assumed the worst and called authorities.
17:43
On April 15th, deputies began their
17:46
search of the home at 317
17:48
East Fullbrook Street, where Louis Perez,
17:50
Dorothy Maraglino, and Jessica Lopez lived.
17:55
Maraglino and Lopez stood in the front yard
17:57
and watched. When
17:59
police... arrived the following day to continue the
18:01
search, Maraglino and Lopez were
18:04
gone as was Maraglino's truck. Detectives
18:08
noticed that several items that were in
18:10
the house the previous day had been
18:12
removed. Law
18:15
enforcement throughout Southern California were alerted
18:17
to be on the lookout for
18:19
Maraglino's Nissen Titan with the license
18:22
plate IVNS-KTN. Meanwhile,
18:25
forensic teams were analysing Perez's
18:27
Ford Explorer. Inside
18:30
his SUV police found blue latex
18:32
gloves, a large piece of
18:34
clear plastic sheeting with smeared blood on
18:36
it, a plastic bag and a stun
18:38
baton. Brittany
18:41
Kilgore's DNA was found on the plastic
18:43
sheeting and latex gloves. Perez's
18:46
DNA was found on the strap and handle
18:48
of the stun baton, while more
18:50
of Brittany's DNA was found on the prongs. The
19:20
morning of April 17th, Maraglino's truck was spotted in the parking lot
19:22
of the Romada Inn near the
19:38
San Diego Airport. According
19:41
to the front desk, room 105
19:43
was registered to Dorothy Maraglino. When
19:47
police knocked on the door, there was no
19:49
answer, but officers could hear
19:51
faint sounds. It
19:53
sounded like the liked cries of a woman. When
19:57
the door was forced open, they found a naked
20:00
woman wearing only a red skirt and
20:02
combat boots. She was
20:04
bleeding from several deep, self-inflicted wounds on
20:06
her neck and wrist. The
20:09
bedsheets were soaked with blood. Several
20:13
large knives and an orthodontic scalpel were
20:15
found near the sink next to an
20:17
empty bottle of Chambord liqueur. At
20:20
the foot of the bed was a red dog collar
20:22
with a tag that read Rosalyn, property
20:25
of Ms. D. It
20:28
wasn't Dorothy, it was
20:30
Jessica Lopez, Dorothy's slave. Lopez
20:34
was rushed to the hospital and
20:36
subsequently arrested. In
20:39
the room was a clothes hanger above the
20:41
vanity desk with a note clipped to it
20:43
that read, Pigs, read this. Below
20:47
the notes were three envelopes. One
20:50
was addressed to Master Ivan, another
20:52
to My Parents and the
20:54
third to a local television station. Each
20:57
envelope contained a copy of a seven
21:00
page suicide note penned by Lopez. In
21:04
the suicide note Lopez claimed it
21:06
was her that killed Brittany, not
21:08
Perez or Maraglino, stating, You've
21:10
got the wrong fucking person. The
21:14
letter claimed that Maraglino and Perez
21:16
were asleep upstairs while she alone
21:18
murdered Brittany. She
21:20
described Brittany as a miserable cunt that
21:22
came between Perez and Maraglino and went
21:25
into detail of how she killed her.
21:29
According to Lopez, she used a
21:31
taser to knock her down, then
21:33
restrained her legs and wrists before gagging
21:35
her mouth. She
21:37
then claimed to have tied a rope around
21:40
her neck where she repeatedly applied and released
21:42
pressure until she was dead. She
21:46
then attempted to dismember her body with power
21:48
tools, washed her body with bleach
21:50
and dumped her on the side of a road near
21:53
Lake Skinner. Officers
21:55
were immediately dispatched to the Lake Skinner
21:57
area. Lopez's
22:00
letter went on about her love
22:02
for Dorothy Maraglino, her mistress. Using
22:06
the hotel's surveillance cameras, police were able
22:08
to see that Maraglino had been in
22:10
the room when Lopez wrote the notes.
22:14
Lopez took the first copy of the notes to
22:16
the hotel receptionist to make the copies. Maraglino
22:20
left the hotel that morning and boarded
22:22
a plane to Virginia. Certain
22:26
statements in the note, however, made
22:28
no sense. Lopez
22:30
wrote that the murder happened after 11.15pm. From
22:35
the string of text messages, police already
22:37
knew that was unlikely. Lopez
22:40
also claimed that Brittany, who
22:42
didn't drive, suddenly appeared at
22:44
the house at 317 East
22:46
Fullbrook Street unannounced and demanded
22:48
sex from Perez. Later
22:52
that day, a maintenance worker clearing
22:54
brush about a mile south of Lake Skinner
22:56
found the nude body of Brittany Kilgore dumped
22:59
in a ditch. The
23:03
bruising on Brittany's wrists revealed that she had been bound
23:05
with handcuffs. Five
23:08
small marks on the left side of her face were
23:10
an exact match for the pins of the stun baton.
23:15
Deep post-mortem wounds on her knee showed that
23:17
someone had unsuccessfully attempted to dismember her body
23:19
parts with a power saw. The
23:23
cartilage surrounding her trachea had been crushed. By
23:28
examining the hemorrhaging in her eyes, the
23:30
medical examiner could tell that pressure had been
23:33
applied and released repeatedly over a long period
23:35
just as Jessica Lopez wrote in her suicide
23:37
note. Ultimately,
23:40
the cause of death was ligature strangulation. As
23:46
lead detective Brian Patterson drove to the spot
23:48
where the body was dumped, he
23:50
received a call from Dorothy Maraglino, who was still on the run. Attempting
23:55
to establish an alibi, she told him that she and
23:57
Lopez were home that night and rented a house. the
24:00
adventures of Rin Tin Tin. Paterson,
24:03
however, was more interested in the
24:05
flaws in both Perez's and Lopez's
24:08
stories. When he questioned
24:10
her on the inconsistencies, she hung
24:12
up. Two
24:14
days after they found the body, police
24:17
searched Maraglino's house once again. This
24:21
time they found the roll of plastic that Lopez mentioned
24:23
in her note and a
24:25
blade from a reciprocating saw. Detectives
24:29
also found several BDSM
24:31
photos, videos, documents, sex
24:34
toys and bondage equipment. One
24:37
document recovered was a release of liability
24:39
form. It was
24:41
a contract stating that Dorothy Maraglino agreed
24:44
to voluntarily endure Luis
24:46
Perez's beatings, whippings and asphyxia,
24:49
and that he held no responsibility in the
24:51
case of injuries or loss of life. They
24:55
also found a document in which Maraglino
24:57
released her anger to Perez, encouraging
25:00
him to deliver justice on her
25:02
behalf. The
25:04
letter, riddled with strange spellings, was
25:06
written by Maraglino on the day
25:08
Brittany had been murdered. I,
25:12
D, do hereby give to Ivan all
25:14
my grudges and revenge from my birth
25:16
till now. I
25:18
release my anger and entrust justice into
25:21
Ivan's hands. I
25:23
accept Ivan will decide, design
25:25
and dispense the measure of
25:27
retribution he deems appropriate to
25:29
my enemies, tormentors and violators.
25:32
Signed, D. Another
25:35
document read, Please
25:37
consider accepting this gift. I
25:40
leave all methods of retribution to you. Please
25:43
destroy them all. Rape the
25:46
women. Destroy their reputation.
25:49
Take their possessions. When
25:51
you deem, take their last breath.
25:55
I release all I carry from
25:57
my rapist, abuses and tormentors to
25:59
you. you. I'll
26:02
join in where you direct me and allow,
26:04
but I rels my own will and
26:06
agenda in these matters." Signed,
26:09
Kitten. Yet
26:12
another document written by Maraglino detailed a
26:14
fantasy she had of coming up behind
26:16
a person and slitting their throat. Other
26:20
items found in the house included nylon rope
26:23
with hairs embedded in it, duct
26:25
tape, plastic bags, a rope
26:27
and pulley system, a blackened deca
26:29
sabersaw and a red skill saw.
26:34
Dorothy Maraglino was arrested on May 10th
26:36
2012 and returned
26:38
to San Diego. Perez
26:40
was still in custody on the weapons charge. All
26:44
three suspects were charged with
26:46
first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit
26:48
kidnapping, kidnapping, torture and
26:51
attempted sexual battery by restraint.
26:55
With the three defendants in custody, the
26:57
prosecution began their analysis of the evidence
27:00
to prepare for trial. Detectives
27:03
found profiles for both
27:05
Perez and Maraglino on
27:08
BDSM websites, bmehookups.com and
27:10
tsrenetwork.com where Ivan described
27:12
himself as Lord and
27:15
Master and Dee as
27:17
slave lover confidant and partner.
27:21
On another website he wrote, I
27:23
am Lord and Master, Dom and
27:25
Daddy of my house. My slave
27:28
Ms Dee is a slave to no
27:30
one but myself. Dee's
27:33
profile described herself as an
27:35
alpha slave to Master Ivan. Their
27:39
profiles showed that they were looking for additional
27:41
sex slaves and other couples to join their
27:43
family. We have
27:45
a poly home in which I own two slave
27:47
girls, life is good. Poly
27:51
is referring to a polyamorous relationship
27:53
involving multiple sexual partners, in this
27:55
case one which is open to
27:57
new individuals. Dorothy
28:01
Maraglino was pregnant with Perez's baby
28:03
when police arrested her. Perez
28:06
requested that when the baby was born, she
28:09
give custody to a friend of his named
28:11
Becky Zaga. Zaga
28:13
visited both Perez and Maraglino in prison
28:15
regularly before the baby was born and
28:18
Maraglino agreed to give custody of the
28:20
baby to Zaga. According
28:23
to Maraglino, the agreement was that
28:25
she would continue to live in the San
28:27
Diego area and bring the child in for
28:29
weekly jail visits. When
28:32
the baby was born, however, Zaga
28:34
took custody of the baby and moved
28:37
to Central California. The
28:39
prison visits stopped. Maraglino
28:43
tried in vain to regain custody of the
28:45
child and give custody to her family on
28:47
the east coast, but the courts sided with
28:49
Zaga. From
28:52
one of Zaga's visits to Perez, he
28:54
admitted to her that, Everybody had
28:56
a role to play that night, including
28:58
myself. Although
29:01
Perez later claimed he was referring to
29:03
the cover-up, not the murder, that
29:05
statement would later be used against all three of
29:07
them in court. The
29:10
prosecution had a dilemma. Jessica
29:13
Lopez's confession letter was an important
29:16
piece of evidence, but her intention
29:18
was to exonerate Perez and Maraglino.
29:22
Introducing the letter into evidence was risky.
29:25
They needed to establish that the letter
29:27
was evidence of Lopez's guilt, but also
29:29
proved that it wasn't evidence that Perez
29:31
and Maraglino were innocent. Another
29:35
document the detective seized was initially thought to
29:37
be useless, as it was written in some
29:39
sort of code. Using
29:42
a forensic document examiner and the
29:44
FBI cryptoanalysis unit to decipher the
29:46
code, it revealed a detailed
29:48
plan to kidnap, torture and
29:51
murder a friend of Jessica Lopez.
30:00
During jury selection, potential jurors were warned
30:02
of the unspeakable horrors they would
30:04
hear of during testimony. During
30:08
the jury selection process, many potential jurors
30:10
broke down in tears and asked to
30:12
be relieved of duty. The
30:16
murder trial started on September 8, 2015,
30:19
and all three defendants were tried together. The
30:23
prosecution was careful not to take Lopez's
30:25
admission of the murder as absolute truth
30:28
and never indicated who exactly was
30:30
responsible for Brittany's death. Instead,
30:34
they placed equal blame on each
30:36
defendant. Ultimately,
30:38
it was cell phone records that were the key
30:40
piece of evidence against the three of them. Cell
30:44
phone data showed that Brittany did not show
30:47
up at Maraglino's home unannounced, as Lopez claimed.
30:51
The text messages that were sent to
30:53
Brittany's friends that evening were all sent
30:55
from inside Maraglino's house. Video
30:59
evidence from the apartment complex also proved that
31:01
Perez picked her up that evening and she
31:03
never made it out of Fullbrook. She
31:06
was taken straight to their home at 317 East
31:08
Fullbrook Street. During
31:12
the trial, Perez took the stand in
31:14
his own defense. He
31:17
admitted that he tricked Brittany into believing they were
31:19
going on a dinner cruise. He
31:22
also admitted that he took her cell phone
31:24
to downtown San Diego and dumped it. He
31:27
denied, however, the accusation that he'd dumped
31:29
the phone to give Maraglino and Lopez
31:31
more time to clean up the crime
31:33
scene. Each
31:36
defendant eventually turned on the other. Jessica
31:40
Lopez claimed she was just playing the
31:42
role of the obedient slave and her
31:44
only crime was writing the suicide confession
31:46
letter to protect her master and mistress.
31:50
Dorothy Maraglino claimed that because she was
31:52
pregnant, she had put all of her
31:54
BDSM activities on hold. She
31:57
claimed that she only helped cover up the crime
31:59
and that Lopez was the sole killer. Perez
32:03
also blamed Lopez, citing the
32:06
confession letter. He
32:08
argued that he only helped with the cover-up. The
32:12
trial lasted six weeks and the jury
32:14
deliberated for three days. Eventually,
32:17
the jury found Dorothy Maraglino,
32:19
Louis Perez and Jessica Lopez
32:22
each guilty of first-degree murder,
32:24
torture and kidnapping. Perez
32:27
and Maraglino were also found guilty
32:29
of conspiracy to commit kidnapping. The
32:32
death penalty was initially considered but later
32:35
ruled out. All
32:37
three received two life sentences in
32:39
California State Prison without the possibility
32:41
of parole. Dorothy
32:44
Maraglino writes on prisonwriters.com of
32:46
her complaints of the California
32:49
prison system, bemoaning her bunkmates
32:51
body odor, bad food and
32:53
her suicide attempts. Maybe
32:56
she should have thought about what prison might be
32:58
like before she snuffed out the life of an
33:01
innocent girl. Years
33:03
later, the house at 317
33:06
East Fullbrook Street fell into foreclosure. It
33:09
later sold to a couple in their 30s for $212,000 who
33:14
had no idea that there had been a savage murder
33:16
in the house. Unfortunately,
33:18
there was nothing they could do once
33:20
they found out and kept the house
33:23
despite its brutal history. will
33:50
give you the peace of mind you desperately need
33:53
or not.
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