Angels and Demons: Psychic Daniel Perez murdered follower for insurance money

Friday night’s Dateline delves into the world of self-proclaimed psychic and seer Daniel Perez, who was convicted this year in the 2003 murder of one of his followers. The woman, 26-year-old Patricia “Trish” Hughes, was told by Perez that he saw she was going to die, and because she believed in him, she participated in her own death.

Two sisters who were a part of the group as children, are speaking out about their life with Daniel Perez, who they knew as Lou Castro. The small, tight-knit group moved from state-to-state often, living off of life insurance money from its deceased members. Before Patricia Hughes was drowned by Perez, five other followers had died, including her husband, who was crushed under a car.

One of Perez’s 28 counts he was found guilty of (which included child rape and exploitation,) included falsifying life insurance documents. Hughes’ policy alone was worth $2 million, but the group was said to have blown through all their cash and assets. Perez himself would splash millions of dollars on cars for himself and the rest of the group. He’s also throw huge parties, and even made friends with the local cops. One particular cop got suspicious of all of his wealth, and thought there was maybe a drug case on their hands. The group had settled in Kansas at a sprawling ranch estate called “Angel’s Landing,” when Patricia Hughes died.

Sarah who was eight years older than Emily, said that Lou controlled everyone’s life, and stepped into their life and acted like her dad. She feels that her family got pulled into a cult. He told his followers that he had three angel alter egos: Daniel, Angel, and Arthur. Arthur was mean and Daniel was kinder, and Amber was the angel of death. He said that he had the power to see who was going to die. Emily says when he was foretelling someone’s death he “wouldn’t blink.” He predicted that their mom was going to die.

Perez claimed he was a psychic and a seer, and told Sarah and Emily’s mom that he was hundreds, maybe thousands of years old. This information made Emily feel cool and special because it felt like she was around something that no one else got to be around.

Perez would have gotten away with Hughes’ carefully planned murder (he’s not been charged in the deaths of any of the other members,) if a child witness had not come forward to the police. Emily, who was featured on tonight’s Datelines, was just 11 years old when the murder took place. She said she saw Hughes kiss her 2-year-old daughter goodbye, and tell them she would return from the dead. She even helped situate the pool vacuum in the pool to make it look like an accident.

The girl and Hughes’ baby daughter could hear Perez drown Hughes. He then came to get the children so they could help stage the death. The girl was told to wait 20 minutes, then bring herself and the toddler into the pool. After they dipped in, she was instructed to call the police and say Hughes hit her head while trying to rescue the baby from drowning. Emily followed his orders because he had power over her, and because she was just a child, but the incident devastated her. Perez calmed her down by telling her he had put in a time warp with his powers a seer, and managed to convince her that she wasn’t even at the house when Trish drowned. He also convinced her that Trish would eventually come back to life.

Emily revealed on Dateline that she shared Perez (who she called Lou)’s bed when she was 10 years old every single night. “He convinced me that this is what I needed to do to take care of him. This was my job,” she said. “He said that for a seer, he needed to have a pure little girl to have sex with him so he could survive. He would validate it with old Biblical stories.”

She said that at the time she didn’t think there was anything odd with the situation. “It’s hard to explain,” she said. “But, I loved Lou. I loved him quite a bit, so I did it. It was uncomfortable and it was painful, and it breaks my heart now. It’s really hard for me to look at pictures of myself from when I was little.”

When Perez got engaged and had a child, he didn’t stop abusing Emily, but he did kick her out of the bedroom, which hurt her at the time. She said that she felt jealous and felt like she was getting divorced at age 12.

Her sister Sarah said she felt jealous of Emily because he treated her with more kindness. He raped Sarah “hundreds of times,” as punishment, and justified his actions because he was an angel. He would tell Sarah and others that he would take their souls to purgatory if they disobeyed him. He’d claim that it was the angels who inhabited his bodies who made these threats, and would wake up the next morning as “Lou,” apologize for the actions of the night before.

He made Sarah videotape an 8-year-old little girl in the bathroom twice, threatening to kill her dad if she didn’t do it. The girls explained that they didn’t leave because the “thought of leaving” was scarier than staying. They didn’t feel like they had the strength to leave, even though looking back, they know they did.

The group disbanded a while ago after Perez served time for identity fraud. He’s currently serving life for murder and the other 27 counts.