California woman strangled after refusing to take part in rough sex, detectives say

Brittany Killgore, wife of a Marine stationed in Afghanistan, was killed when she wouldn’t take part in a bondage session, investigators say.

2010 photo of Cory Killgore and wife Brittany Dawn Killgore from his Facebook page.

The young wife of a Marine stationed in Afghanistan was killed after refusing to participate in “sadomasochistic sexual activity,” investigators said in a new batch of unsealed court documents.


Brittany Killgore, 22, was apparently unaware that she had been targeted by her new friend, Staff Sgt. Louis Perez, to participate in a bondage session, the court documents released Wednesday said. Investigators called her an “unwilling participant” in Perez's sexual habits that included bondage, cutting and restraint, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported.

Perez, along with two of his companions, Dorothy Marie Maraglino, 37, and Jessica Lopez, 25, have been charged with murder, torture and conspiracy in connection with Killgore’s death. All have pleaded not guilty.

Killgore was found murdered April 17 near a Southern California lake. She was nude and had been strangled, possibly days earlier, police said.

Killgore had recently filed for divorce from her Marine husband when she disappeared. He was in Afghanistan at the time of her murder and was not a suspect.

She was last seen April 13, after agreeing to go on a dinner cruise with Perez in exchange for his help moving her belongings from her apartment.

Perez had “boasted” to his bondage community that he planned to hold a sadomasochism session on the weekend of April 14, according to police warrants.

Investigators believe he killed Killgore after she refused to participate in his plans.

Perez then called Maraglino and Lopez to “join him.”

The three suspects had previously held an unknown woman hostage in the house until she cooperated with their sex play, earlier court documents said.