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The three people accused of kidnapping and murdering the wife of a Marine as part of a BDSM fantasy have been found guilty and each face life sentences.Prosecutors say that 22-year-old Brittany Kilgore of Fallbrook, a community in San Diego County, was strangled to death by a rope or cord before her body was found in April 2012 in a ditch in Riverside County. They alleged that Louis Ray Perez, 49, Dorothy Maraglino, 40, and Jessica Lynn Lopez, 28 were acting out an abduction fantasy on Kilgore, who was an unknowing or unwilling participant. According to the L.A. Times, San Diego County Deputy District Attorney Patrick Espinoza told the jury that the three defendants killed Kilgore "for their own sadistic pleasure."
During the trial, prosecutors say that Perez was in a dom-sub relationship with Maraglino, and witnesses identified Lopez as their slave. Several individuals from the BDSM lifestyle were called to testify during the trial. "We owe a great debt of gratitude to these individuals who basically exposed parts of their personal life to come forward and to offer testimony in hopes that ultimately justice could prevail," Espinoza said after the verdicts were read, according to The San Diego Union Tribune.
Kilgore was not involved in the world of BDSM. She had just filed for divorce from her husband, a Camp Pendleton Marine who had just been deployed to Afghanistan, and was in the process of moving out of the state when Perez invited her to a dinner cruise on the night of April 13, 2012. Perez, who was also a Marine from Camp Pendleton, persuaded her to go to the event by telling her that he could have his fellow Marines help her move the next day.
Kilgore had texted "Help" to a friend only 13 minutes after she left with Perez that night and prosecutors say she was strangled to death at Maraglino's home in Fallbrook. Her body was found near Lake Skinner in Riverside County on April 17 and showed evidence that someone had tried to dismember her limbs. A plastic sheet in Perez's car also had Kilgore's blood on it.
"Our daughter was a beautiful young woman inside and out, and unfortunately she ran across people that were not good, were monsters, and took her life," Kilgore's mother Michelle Wrest said, after the verdict was read. "She is going to be missed for the rest of our lives and we've got a lot of family that had to deal with this on a daily basis. We love her very much."
Perez, Maraglino, and Lopez will be sentenced next month and are expected to each receive life in prison without the possibility of parole.
