Three members of sex bondage ring to stand trial for murder of Marine's wife

• Brittany Killgore, 22, was found naked and dismembered in a ditch last April
• Prosecutors believe she was lured to her death when asked to attend a dinner cruise
• She had packed up was planning to move back to Missouri just before she was murdered
• Louis Perez is accused of luring her into his car then kidnapping, raping and torturing her
• Dorothy Maraglino and Jessica Lopez also charged in alleged conspiracy
  
• Her blood was found on S&M objects seized from Perez's home

By Daily Mail Reporter and Associated Press Reporter

PUBLISHED: 00:02 EST, 19 March 2013 | UPDATED: 00:02 EST, 19 March 2013

Three members of a sex bondage ring were ordered to stand trial Monday after six days of lurid testimony during which investigators outlined how they believe a Camp Pendleton Marine's wife was unwittingly lured to a violent death when she agreed to go on a dinner cruise.

Superior Court Judge K. Michael Kirkman said evidence suggested that 22-year-old Brittany Killgore was the victim of a plan to act out a fantasy.

He ordered Louis Perez, 46, Dorothy Maraglino, 37, and Jessica Lopez, 25, to face trial on charges of murder, kidnapping, torture, attempted sexual battery and conspiracy.

Going forward: Louis Perez, 46, Dorothy Maraglino, 37, and Jessica Lopez, 25, will face trial on charges of murder, kidnapping, torture, attempted sexual battery and conspiracy

Tricked: Brittany Killgore, 22, never wanted to participate in the bizarre sex games that she was subjected to before her murder, prosecutors say

Despite the discovery of Killgore's blood in Perez's car the day after her disappearance, defense attorneys argued that physical evidence was lacking.

Lopez's attorney, Sloan Ostbye, called her client 'the perfect slave' in the triangle and said her role explained why Lopez authored a handwritten letter taking full blame for Killgore's death.

In the letter, Lopez claimed she killed Killgore out of fear that the woman would steal Perez, whom she described as her 'master.'

 

More...

• Murder suspect 'says he killed New York mother in Istanbul because she spurned his lecherous advances as it's revealed their fatal struggle lasted 30 minutes'
• EXCLUSIVE: Steubenville football coach may face charges for failing to report rape after he 'told two star players he'd "make it go away"'

'It's not a confession letter, it's an exoneration letter ... to help mistress and master,' Ostbye said.

Killgore disappeared in April 2012 after borrowing a purple evening gown for the cruise, according to prosecutors.

Her nude, strangled body was four days later near Lake Skinner, north of San Diego.

Defendant: Dorothy Maraglino, also known as 'Dee', owned the San Diego house and was responsible for most of the decision making, even though Louis Perez was her 'sex master'

Contract of terms: Maraglino ran the household when Louis Perez - who was only there sporadically - was away

Defendant: Jessica Lopez is also accused of the kidnap and murder of Brittany Killgore, 22, wife of a Camp Pendleton Marine

Earlier Monday, the lead detective testified that a document attributed to Maraglino identifies her as a participant in a beating and asphyxiation.

'We had the best of intentions and any injury or loss of life should be considered an accident,' read the document recovered from a CD.

Detective Brian Patterson, who read the document aloud, said investigators also found whips, paddles, videos and other evidence of a sex bondage activity at Maraglino's home in Fallbrook, north of San Diego.

Another San Diego County sheriff's detective, Daniel Pierce, testified that cellphone towers traced Lopez's phone to the area where Killgore's body was found.

The phone was located in the area shortly before 4 a.m., several hours after Killgore disappeared.

Alternate lifestyle: Prosecutors say Louis Ray Perez led a bondage sex ring and was active in playing out violent sex fantasies with his two lovers

Suspects: Prosecutors say Dorothy Maraglino (left) and Jessica Lynn Lopez (right) were part of a bondage sex ring and helped to torture and murder Killgore

Last week, Elizabeth Hernandez, who was identified in court as the victim's best friend, testified that she and Killgore became acquainted with the defendants in 2011 after Hernandez responded to an ad selling a fertility monitor on a website used by military families.

She said they used to socialize with them but never participated in their alternative lifestyle in which Perez played the master, Maraglino was the mistress and Lopez was the slave.

Hernandez testified that she and Killgore had a falling out in 2012 as the victim prepared to divorce her husband, Lance Cpl. Cory Killgore, who was serving in Afghanistan at the time of his wife's death.

She said Brittany Killgore started dating Hernandez's brother, and they started referring to her as 'the disease.'

A woman who lived in the same house testified Tuesday about the bizarre relationship between the trio - including who was the 'master' and who controlled the house.

The unidentified woman said that defendant Dorothy Maraglino, also known as 'Dee', owned the San Diego house and was responsible for most of the decision making, even though Louis Perez was her 'sex master'.

All three defendants are believed to have participated in an alternative lifestyle that included bondage and sadomasochism.

They engaged in those activities in the house, prosecutors have said, the same house where Killgore is believed to have been killed.

'I believe that Dee did most of the controlling in the house,' the witness testified on the second day of a preliminary hearing, and added that there was a 'contract' that laid out the rules of their relationship.

Estranged: Brittany Killgore, right, filed for divorce from husband Cory, left, three days before her disappearance

Fears: Cory, right, returned from Afghanistan after hearing about the disappearance of his wife, left

Maraglino ran the household when Perez - who was only there sporadically - was away.

'It’s her house so she would make the rules in his absence,' the woman said.

Prosecutors and investigators have said that Killgore was not involved in the alternative lifestyle described in court, according to UT San Diego.

The three have pleaded not guilty to killing Killgore, who vanished last year while her estranged husband was serving in Afghanistan.

Prosecutors contend that Killgore met the trio when she and a friend went to a home in Fallbrook, north of San Diego, to buy an item being sold online, according to the North County Times.

Killgore turned down Perez's offer. However, later in the day, she sent him a text message asking if she knew anyone who could help her move.

'Party with me tonight & you’ll have five guys there in the morning,' he replied.

Killgore was last seen April 13 in a borrowed purple evening gown, three days after she filed for divorce from Lance Cpl Cory Killgore. Authorities have cleared him of any involvement in her death.

Authorities contend that Killgore was kidnapped and made an unwilling participant in bondage and torture before she was strangled and her nude body left in a ditch near Lake Skinner in Riverside County.

San Diego County sheriff's detectives said they found 'bondage-type sex apparatuses, toys and tools' in the Fallbrook home where the trio lived.

Missing: Brittany Killgore lived in Fallbrook, California, not far from Camp Pendleton US Marine base

Unsealed Court documents previously revealed that police seized whips, sex toys, rope and pulleys, a document titled 'Slave Rules', duct tape, a stun baton and other bondage instruments from the house.

Investigators found Killgore's blood and hair on several of the items.

Investigators said they believe all three were with Killgore at the home shortly after she apparently sent a desperate text message to a friend that simply said: 'Help'.

In an affidavit filed in court last year, a detective said the trio may have targeted Killgore for 'unusual sexual fetishes'.

Perez was arrested on April 15 on suspicion of possessing a stolen assault rifle and was later charged with murder.

Lopez was arrested on April 17 at a San Diego hotel where she was discovered with self-inflicted cuts.

They also found a letter in which Lopez allegedly claimed that she killed Killgore out of fear that the woman would steal away Perez, whom she described as her 'master'.

Lopez said she tried to chop up Killgore's body with power tools before dumping it near the lake, but the body was found hours later.

The letter also contended that Perez and Maraglino weren't responsible for the killing. However, prosecutors said both were involved.