What happened to María Ángeles Molina, the killer in Netflix's 'Angi: Fake Life, True Crime'
María Ángeles Molina — aka Angi — took out numerous loans in Ana Paez's name.
At the time, the media described it as "the near-perfect crime."
"Angi: Fake Life, True Crime" tells the story of a woman who murdered her coworker but tried to make it appear as though she died during a sex game gone wrong in order to steal her identity.
The Netflix documentary, which was released on Friday, adds to the streamer's vast library of true crime content, which includes "American Nightmare," "Monster," and "Gone Girls: The Long Island Serial Killer."
In 2008, María Ángeles Molina — also known as Angi — invited her coworker Ana Páez, a fashion designer, to her apartment in Barcelona, where she drugged her with chloroform before putting a sealed bag over her head. She also planted semen samples from two male sex workers at the scene.
In 2012, Spanish outlet El Pais reported that a man testified at Molina's trial that she had visited his brothel where the sex workers were employed.
"She said she didn't want sex but had made a bet with friends that she would sleep with a gigolo," Juan Manuel D. told the court.
El Pais reported that Molina masqueraded as Páez for two years before killing her. She took out several life insurance policies and lines of credit in Páez's name between April 2006 and November 2007, El Confidencial reported, and was seen on CCTV in a Barcelona bank wearing a wig to impersonate Páez in 2007.
Molina's boyfriend at the time also gave the authorities documents he found belonging to Páez, including her passport, hidden in the their bathroom.
The case was referred to by the media as "the near-perfect crime," according to Netflix.
In March 2012, the Barcelona High Court sentenced Molina to 22 years in prison, which the Supreme Court later reduced to 18 years, El Confidencial reported. She was convicted of homicide and the falsification of documents.
She is serving her sentence in the Mas D'Enric prison in the Tarragona province, northeast Spain.
She was originally set for release in 2027. However, in March 2025, Molina was arrested a second time while on leave from prison. The authorities alleged Molina planned another homicide from inside the prison and used her temporary release to target someone else, El Confidencial reported.
The Spanish news site reported that the police suspected Molina was planning to use a hitman to carry out the killing, but did not say who the intended target was.
El Confidencial reported Molina had chosen not to testify before a judge in this new case.
Read the original article on Business Insider
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Los Angeles Times
13 minutes ago
- Los Angeles Times
Trump's federal law-enforcement crackdown ripples through D.C. neighborhoods
WASHINGTON — The main drag in Washington's Columbia Heights neighborhood is typically crammed with people peddling pupusas, fresh fruit, souvenirs and clothing. On Tuesday, though, things felt different: The white tents that bulge with food and merchandise were scarcer than usual. 'Everything has stopped over the last week,' said Yassin Yahyaoui, who sells jewelry and glass figurines. Most of his customers and fellow vendors, he said, have 'just disappeared' — particularly if they speak Spanish. The abnormally quiet street was further proof of how President Trump's decision to flood the nation's capital with federal law enforcement and immigration agents has rippled through the city. Although troop deployments and foot patrols in downtown areas and around the National Mall have garnered the most attention, life in historically diverse neighborhoods such as Columbia Heights is being reshaped as well. The White House has credited Trump's crackdown with hundreds of arrests, while local officials have criticized the aggressive intervention in the city's affairs. The confrontation escalated Tuesday as the top federal prosecutor in the District of Columbia opened an investigation into whether police officials have falsified crime data, according to a person familiar with the situation who wasn't authorized to comment publicly. The inquiry could be used to bolster Trump's claims that the city is suffering from a 'crime emergency' despite statistics showing improvements. The mayor's office and the Police Department declined to comment. Blocks away from where Yahyaoui had set up shop, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and local police stopped a moped driver delivering pizza. The agents drove unmarked cars and wore tactical vests; one covered his face with a green balaclava. They questioned the driver and required him to present documentation relating to his employment and legal residency status. No arrest was made. The White House said there have been 465 arrests since Aug. 7, when the federal operation began, including 206 people who were in the country illegally. The Trump administration has ramped up immigration enforcement and the president signed an executive order on Aug. 11 to put the Police Department under federal control for 30 days; extending that would require congressional approval. Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said Trump was 'unapologetically standing up for the safety of law-abiding American citizens.' Glorida Gomez, who has been working a fruit stand in Columbia Heights for more than a decade, said business is worse now than during the COVID-19 pandemic. She said many vendors stopped coming because they were afraid of encountering federal agents. Customers seem less willing to spend money too. Reina Sosa, another vendor, said that 'they're saving it in case something happens,' like getting detained by immigration enforcement. Ana Lemus, who also sells fruit, said that 'we need more humanity on that part of the government.' 'Remember that these are people being affected,' she said. 'The government is supposed to protect members of the community, not attack or discriminate against them.' Bystanders have recorded some arrests on video. On Saturday morning, Christian Enrique Carias Torres was detained in another part of the city during a scuffle with ICE agents, and the video ricocheted around social media. An FBI agent's affidavit said Carias Torres kicked one of the agents in the leg and another was injured when he fell during the struggle and struck his head on the pavement. A stun gun was used to subdue Carias Torres, who was charged Tuesday with resisting arrest. An alphabet soup of federal agencies have been circulating in the city. In the Petworth neighborhood, roughly 20 officers from the FBI, Homeland Security, Park Police and U.S. Marshals descended on an apartment building on Tuesday morning. A man extended his hands out a window while officers cuffed him. Yanna Stelle, 19, who witnessed the incident, said she heard the chatter from walkie-talkies as officers moved through the hallways. 'That was too many police first thing in the morning — especially for them to just be doing a warrant,' she said. From his actions and remarks, Trump seems interested in ratcheting up the pressure. His administration has asked Republican-led states to send more National Guard troops. Mississippi, Tennessee, Louisiana, West Virginia, South Carolina and Ohio have agreed to deploy a total of 1,100 troops to the city, on top of the 800 from the D.C.-based National Guard. Resistance to that notion is starting to surface, both on the streets and in Congress. On Tuesday, Democratic Rep. Sam Liccardo (D-San José) introduced a bill that would require a report outlining the cost of any National Guard deployment unrelated to a natural disaster, as well as its legal basis. It would also require reporting on any Guard interactions with civilians and other aspects of the operation. Forty-four Democrats have signed on in support, including Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, Washington's nonvoting delegate in the House of Representatives. Although the measure stands little chance of passing while Republicans control the chamber, it's a sign of a wider Democratic response to Trump's unprecedented moves in Washington. 'Are L.A. and D.C. a test run for a broader authoritarian takeover of local communities?' Liccardo asked. He added that the country's founders were suspicious of 'executive control of standing armies.' Abigail Jackson, a White House spokeswoman, said that 'Democrats continue to side with criminals over law-abiding Americans.' It's unclear what kind of help the National Guard will be able to provide when it comes to crime. 'The fact of the matter is that the National Guard are not law-enforcement trained, and they're not going into places where they would be engaged in law enforcement activity,' said Jeff Asher, a crime analyst and consultant at AH Datalytics. 'So I don't know that it's fair to expect much of it.' Trump declared in a social media post that his initiative has transformed Washington from 'the most unsafe 'city' in the United States' to 'perhaps the safest, and getting better every single hour!' The number of crimes reported in D.C. did drop by about 8% this week as compared with the week before, according to Metropolitan Police data. There was some variation within that data, with crimes such as robberies and car thefts declining while burglaries increased a bit and homicides remained steady. Still, a week is a small sample size — far from enough time for data to show meaningful shifts, Asher said. Referring to the monthlong period that D.C.'s home rule law allows the president to exert control over the Police Department, he said: 'I think 30 days is too short of a period to really say anything.' Brown, Whitehurst and Megerian write for the Associated Press. AP writers Michael Kunzelman, Alanna Durkin Richer, Jacquelyn Martin and Ashraf Khalil contributed to this report.


NBC Sports
an hour ago
- NBC Sports
Way breaks down 'America's Team' documentary
Maclain Way joins Dan Patrick to unpack "America's Team: The Gambler and His Cowboys" and the many stories featured in the new Netflix documentary series.


San Francisco Chronicle
2 hours ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Exchange student sues Bay Area nonprofit alleging she was placed in home of an abusive ‘predator'
A Spanish exchange student has sued the private high school she attended as well as the Bay Area nonprofit that arranged the girl's experience in the U.S., alleging they negligently placed her in the home of a man with a criminal record who drugged her and sexually assaulted her. The lawsuit, filed on Aug. 11, alleges that San Rafael-based Cultural Home International, or CHI, committed fraud, negligence and breach of fiduciary duty by placing Claudia Gutierrez in the home of John and Roberta Woods for her educational year abroad in New Hampshire. The suit also names Bishop Brady High School, located in Concord, N.H., claiming it failed to properly vet the host family and monitor the teen during her stay, according to the civil allegations filed in Merrimack Superior Court. 'Bishop Brady and CHI instead served Claudia up to a home she believed had a husband and wife living in it — John and Robert Woods — but which, in fact, housed only John Woods, an elderly predator with a criminal record,' according to the suit. Roberta Woods reportedly was living in San Diego and had been for some time, Gutierrez's lawyers said. Neither CHI nor the school responded to requests for comment on the lawsuit. Officials from the Diocese of Manchester, which oversees the high school, said they had not yet seen the lawsuit. 'Protecting the safety of children and young people is one of the highest priorities of the Diocese of Manchester and its schools,' officials said in a statement. 'As we were just made aware of this suit and have not been served, we are unable to comment without the opportunity for further review.' John Woods, 78, was arrested after Gutierrez called her parents in Spain in March 2022, leaving disturbing messages reportedly while still under the influence of 'clandestine drugging,' prompting them to have friends take her to the hospital, according to her co-counsel, Matin Emouna. An examination found she had been sexually assaulted and drugged with Ambien. In October 2024, Woods was convicted of aggravated sexual assault, facilitated by an intoxicating substance, with a maximum 20-year sentence. Cultural Home International, founded in 1980, brings young people from around the world to the United States for educational, cultural, travel or work experiences, including home stays for high school and university students. It is an official J-1 visa sponsor, which provides nonimmigrant visas to individuals participating in an international exchange program in the U.S. In Gutierrez's case, CHI arranged enrollment at Bishop Brady and the home stay, and according to the lawsuit, the organization assured her family they had checked backgrounds and references and had conducted a visit to the Woods' home. 'At the time of the sexual abuse and assaults described in this complaint, CHI charged Claudia and her family thousands of dollars for the privilege of participating in this cultural exchange program and residing in New Hampshire with a host family, in an allegedly comfortable and nurturing home environment,' her attorneys claimed in the lawsuit. 'CHI owed and agreed that it owed Claudia a duty to do everything within its power to protect her from sexual abuse by a properly vetted family.' The claims against Bishop Brady were similar, alleging the private high school charged the family $19,000 for the academic year, $5,000 more than local students, while promising to vet the host family and then failing to monitor and supervise her while she was living in the home. The lawsuit alleges Gutierrez complained of dizziness and at one point passed out in the Woods' home and she had been absent or tardy 'a notable number of times' from school, but neither the school nor CHI intervened or inquired about her symptoms. Both John and Roberta Woods were also named in the lawsuit, the husband for the injuries caused to the victim as well as emotional distress, and his wife for negligence in presenting a safety risk to a foreign exchange student. Messages left for Roberta Woods regarding the lawsuit were not returned. The suit claims Gutierrez continues to suffer from physical and emotional issues, including nightmares, severe anxiety, depression, vomiting and other issues. She is asking for compensatory and enhanced compensatory damages, punitive damages, interest, attorney fees and any other relief deemed 'just and equitable.' Emouna said he believes there are more cases like Claudia's in the international exchange industry in the United States, with organizations failing to property vet where the young people live, opening the door to predators. 'I thought this was an isolated incident,' he said. 'I think there's a bigger problem at large.' In Gutierrez's case, the Marin County nonprofit literally showed the 16-year-old girl pictures of a 'beautiful family' in New Hampshire, smiling grandparents with grandchildren on their laps and another of a two-story, white house, the grandpa waving as he stands next to an American flag hanging out front. 'That family was nonexistent,' Emouna said. 'This guy was a predator. He did it on purpose.'