Angel’s Landing is a 20-acre compound in Sedgwick County, Kansas. Daniel U. Perez, who went by the name Lou Castro, was the leader of a commune living there. He was recently arrested for killing Patricia Hughes, one of the young women who lived under his control. His followers/captives considered Perez/Castro “a seer” who could foretell the future. “He claimed to be hundreds of years old, to have three different personas and to need sex from someone pure, like young girls, to survive.” Hughes’ body was found floating in a pool on the compound. Some say she drowned trying to rescue her 2-year-old daughter who had fallen into the pool. Some say she committed suicide although “her autopsy showed she suffered three blunt force injuries to her head.” The Sedgwick County District Attorney’s Office thinks she was killed for $2 million in life insurance money.
Daniel U. Perez (aka Lou) is facing a total of 37 criminal charges including first-degree murder, rape, sexual exploitation of a child, aggravated assault, and directing false information be put on life insurance and car credit applications. Why after nearly 12 years since Hughes’ death, is her case being reopened? Because one brave young woman from the compound escaped and told the police Hughes had been murdered. According to Kansas.com, Hughes was one of about a dozen people who were killed for life insurance money. Hughes’ husband was also one of them. He was crushed to death by a car after a jack slipped. Dateline NBC will air a special report on Angel’s Landing on Friday, May 1 at 9pm.
