Thursday,  June 7, 2012 • Vol. 12--No. 329 • 21 of 36 •  Other Editions

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• Perez has not been charged in the other deaths. Sedgwick County Capt. Greg Pollock has said investigators reviewed all associated deaths, but filed charges in the only death that occurred in their jurisdiction.
• Last week's testimony showed commune members took out hefty life insurance policies on themselves and named other group members as beneficiaries. Everyone in the group lived off the payouts when one of them died. A retired insurance salesman testified Perez always di

rected the amounts and beneficiaries for the policies, but he is not named in any of them.
• Hughes had been the beneficiary on a $700,000 life insurance policy taken out by group member Mona Griffith -- who was killed in a 2001 plane crash near Norris, S.D., along with her 12-year-old daughter and her boyfriend. Hughes later took out a $2 million life insurance policy on herself, naming other group members as beneficiaries.
• Investigators initially believed Hughes' death was an accidental drowning -- despite a coroner's finding showing she also had three blunt force injuries to the head -- based on the story told by a 12-year-old girl. The girl claimed at the time that Hughes hit her head when she slipped while trying to reach the toddler, who had fallen into the pool.
• But in shocking testimony, the now-grown woman told the court that she had helped Perez stage the drowning and told authorities the false story Perez had concocted. She also testified that Hughes willingly went to the pool knowing she would

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