WICHITA, Kan. (AP) – A man who led a Kansas commune that collected millions of dollars in life insurance payouts from dead members was convicted of premeditated murder Wednesday in the 2003 drowning death of a female member.
Daniel Perez, 55, also was found guilty of 27 other counts, some alleging that he sexually abused minor daughters of the commune’s members and devised a scheme to receive life insurance payments from members who lived on a 20-acre site in suburban Wichita known as Angels Landing.
Witnesses testified during the trial about sexual violence and the death of six people as the group wandered over 15 years into several states and Mexico before settling at the elaborate compound. Perez, who went by Lou Castro, was charged only with the death of 26-year-old Patricia Hughes, who died in the commune’s pool.
For nearly a decade, Hughes’ death was considered an accident. But a woman who was 12 at the time told authorities in 2011 that Hughes and Perez arranged her death so the compound could receive $1.24 million from her life insurance policy.
The woman, whom The Associated Press isn’t identifying because she says she is a victim of sexual assault, said during a pretrial hearing that Hughes kissed her daughter goodbye and reassured another child that she would return from the dead.