More details about the murder of Camp Pendleton Marine wife Brittany Killgore emerged at yesterday's arraignment of the third person accused in the crime. Prosecutors say Dorothy Grace Marie Maraglino, charged Tuesday with first-degree murder, helped lure the 22-year-old Killgore to her death.
The U-T San Diego reports Killgore initially met Maraglino, 36, when the young Marine wife went to the suspect's house to purchase an item for sale that had been posted online. Maraglino later contacted Killgore and persuaded her to accompany Pendleton Marine Staff Sgt. Louis Ray Perez, 45, to a dinner cruise. Perez has also been charged with murdering Killgore.
Not long after Perez picked up Killgore in his car, according to the U-T, Killgore sent a haunting text one-word text to a friend:
"Help"
Deputy District Attorney Patrick Espinoza told CNS Killgore was then murdered in Maraglino's home:
"That is the location that the investigation revealed information that the killing took place.''
The third person charged in the crime, 25-year-old Jessica Lynn Lopez, lived with Perez and Maraglino. Lopez wrote in a would-be suicide note that she alone is responsible for Killgore's murder.
