logo
What happened to María Ángeles Molina, the killer in Netflix's 'Angi: Fake Life, True Crime'

What happened to María Ángeles Molina, the killer in Netflix's 'Angi: Fake Life, True 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.
María Ángeles Molina is serving time in prison
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.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Meta's AI voice translation feature rolls out globally
Meta's AI voice translation feature rolls out globally

Engadget

time27 minutes ago

  • Engadget

Meta's AI voice translation feature rolls out globally

On Tuesday, Meta rolled out its new voice dubbing feature globally. The Reels feature uses generative AI to translate your voice, with optional lip-syncing. Mark Zuckerberg first previewed the feature at Meta Connect 2024. At launch, the translations are only available for English to Spanish (and vice versa). The company says more languages will arrive later. At least at first, it's restricted to Facebook creators with 1,000+ followers. However, anyone with a public Instagram account can use it. The tool trains on your original voice and generates a translated audio track to match your tone. The lip-syncing add-on then matches your mouth's movements to the translated speech. The demo clip the company showed last year was spot-on — eerily so. You can choose whether to add lip syncing and preview before posting. (Meta) To use the feature, choose the "Translate your voice with Meta AI" option before publishing a reel. That's also where you can choose to add lip syncing. There's an option to review the AI-translated version before publishing. Viewers will see a pop-up noting that it's an AI translation. Meta says the feature works best for face-to-camera videos. The company recommends avoiding covering your mouth or including excessive background music. It works for up to two speakers, but it's best to avoid overlapping your speech. The company frames the feature as a way for creators to expand their audiences beyond their native tongues. As such, it included a by-language performance tracker, so you can see how well it's doing in each language. YouTube launched a similar feature last year. Apple has gotten in on the action, too: Messages, Phone and FaceTime apps have live translation tools in iOS 26.

What's behind the TikTok accounts using AI-generated versions of real Latino journalists?
What's behind the TikTok accounts using AI-generated versions of real Latino journalists?

NBC News

time28 minutes ago

  • NBC News

What's behind the TikTok accounts using AI-generated versions of real Latino journalists?

A network of nearly 90 TikTok accounts has been using artificial intelligence to create fake versions of high-profile Spanish-language journalists and spread falsehoods online for potential financial gain. Over a third of the accounts used AI-generated versions of Jorge Ramos, one of the best-known Latino journalists in the United States, to front fabricated news stories. One of them featured an AI avatar of Ramos falsely claiming that President Donald Trump's son Barron Trump stormed into the United Nations to denounce the deportation of his mother, first lady Melania Trump. "I never said that," Ramos himself said in Spanish last month when he debunked the false narrative in a TikTok video posted on the account of this new independent news program. Ramos launched the show, 'Así Veo las Cosas,' on social media this year following his exit from Univision in December after nearly 40 years at the network. "There are things that are impossible to stop, and we can't stop artificial intelligence right now," Ramos said in his video. "There are tons of videos of me where I'm supposedly saying things I have never said." The accounts point to the challenge of stopping or controlling the surge in fake images and misinformation as AI technology advances and is increasingly used by those who want to spread false information online. Alexios Mantzarlis, director of the Security, Trust, and Safety Initiative at Cornell Tech, Cornell University's graduate campus in New York City, found 88 TikTok accounts that routinely used AI-generated versions of Ramos and other Latino news anchors from the Spanish-language networks Telemundo and Televisa to spread misinformation online targeting Spanish-speaking audiences in the United States. NBC News reviewed the contents of the 88 accounts before TikTok shut them down after it learned of Mantzarlis' findings. Most of the 88 accounts were created this year and used AI avatars of Ramos, Noticias Telemundo and NBC News anchor José Díaz-Balart and Televisa anchor Enrique Acevedo. (Telemundo and NBC News are owned by NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast Corp.) Their AI avatars, some of which were more realistic than others, were used to front false stories about divisive topics such as immigration, as well as conspiracy theories about Trump, Jeffrey Epstein and Sean "Diddy" Combs. The most recent videos posted by the now-deleted accounts had the AI avatars talk about a fabricated story of an orca attack that went viral and a nonexistent curfew for children based on a false law authorizing the abduction of children in the United States. The comments on a video about the false storyline fronted by Acevedo's AI avatar showed that while some users seem to have identified the content as false, other expressed distress over it, suggesting they believed the misinformation being spread. "These deepfakes hijack my voice, my image, and — more importantly — the trust I've built with audiences over the years. I'm leaning on transparency, calling them out publicly, but the scale of this threat is bigger than any one journalist," Acevedo told Mantzarlis, who wrote about his findings on his . A TikTok spokesperson told NBC News in a statement that the company 'banned these accounts for violating our Community Guidelines and continue[s] to vigilantly protect our platform from harmful misinformation and deceptive AI-generated content." Mantzarlis said there are probably hundreds more such accounts on the platform. He first began researching the trend more than six months ago. In March, Mantzarlis discovered a network of nearly 40 TikTok accounts posing as Telemundo and Univision that used AI-generated content and the voices of well-known professional journalists to spread misinformation about topics that tend to go viral on social media. The accounts went undetected for about a month before TikTok shut them down. But the trends Mantzarlis found on TikTok have evolved as more social media platforms integrate AI tools into their apps, making it easier to generate credible AI avatars, he told NBC News. Based on his research, Mantzarlis said the creators behind such TikTok accounts are constantly trying different ways to generate content that creates large viewership numbers to accumulate at least 10,000 followers — which is the minimum required to monetize videos under TikTok's Creator Rewards Program. The creators have 'determined that sensationalist news in Spanish, targeting a U.S. audience, does numbers, so they'll try to feed that niche,' he said. That's why some of them have even used AI-generated versions of non-native Spanish speakers — including a Brazilian journalist and comedians from 'The Daily Show,' an American satirical TV program — to spread Spanish-language misinformation. Mantzarlis said he found "very strong evidence" suggesting that such TikTok accounts are being built up to garner enough followers to monetize their videos. The monetized TikTok accounts are then sold to other people "who can change the topic and theme and find another niche' they can profit from. Mantzarlis found an encrypted chat group managed by Brazilian TikTok creators who claimed to sell monetized social media accounts that came pre-loaded with AI-generated clickbait content. In it, he saw someone claim to be selling a monetized TikTok account named "Tv Telemundo" for 300 Brazilian reals, or about $55. The account had posted AI-generated news and religious content to gain 11,000 followers under the previous name. The account now shares AI-generated wellness content. Marta Planells, Telemundo's vice president of digital news and streaming, told NBC News that the network has been reporting TikTok accounts impersonating Telemundo and their anchors for over a year. Once the accounts are reported, Planells said, TikTok has been proactive in shutting them down. But when that happens, more accounts come up, she added. Even after Mantzarlis published his research last week based on the initial sample of 88 TikTok accounts, he found six other accounts publishing misinformation fronted by AI avatars of real Latino journalists. TikTok also shut down those accounts. TikTok did not tell NBC News whether any of the accounts Mantzarlis identified were part of the Creator Rewards Program. TikTok claimed in a company report published this year to have proactively removed more than 94% of the content that it identified as violating its policies about AI-generated content and misinformation. Despite the efforts to remove false content, Ramos still encouraged his followers on TikTok to remain "vigilant, because misinformation is everywhere." "There are tons and tons of fake videos that appear to be real," he said. "This, of course, creates a lot of confusion."

‘Splitsville' Duo Michael Angelo Covino & Kyle Marvin Challenge Conventional Wisdom On Comedy's Global Reach – Comedy Means Business Podcast
‘Splitsville' Duo Michael Angelo Covino & Kyle Marvin Challenge Conventional Wisdom On Comedy's Global Reach – Comedy Means Business Podcast

Yahoo

time32 minutes ago

  • Yahoo

‘Splitsville' Duo Michael Angelo Covino & Kyle Marvin Challenge Conventional Wisdom On Comedy's Global Reach – Comedy Means Business Podcast

As multi-hyphenates who together have premiered a pair of acclaimed indie comedies at Cannes — first The Climb in 2019, and more recently, Splitsville — Michael Angelo Covino and Kyle Marvin have a unique perspective on the old adage that comedies don't travel internationally. 'At the advent of cinema, what were the first blockbusters?' asks Covino in an appearance alongside Marvin on our Comedy Means Business podcast. 'It was like Charlie Chapman and Buster Keaton and a ton of Pre-Code stuff where everyone was naked. But for the most part, it was slapstick. It was silent films where people were falling down or crashing into things or a hose was spraying them in the face, and that is universal and goes worldwide.' More from Deadline From Touring With Vampire Weekend To Helming Tribeca Prize-Winner 'On A String': Isabel Hagen On Forging A Unique Career Synthesizing Music & Comedy – Comedy Means Business Podcast Leanne Morgan & Chuck Lorre Defy Decline Of The Stand-Up-Driven Sitcom With Netflix's 'Leanne' – Comedy Means Business Podcast Joe List & Manager Chris Burns Talk Building Direct-To-Consumer Career & Going Theatrical With 'Small Ball' Special - Comedy Means Business Podcast In the case of 'very specific, topical comedy that is of a place and speaking to zeitgeist only, then sure,' Covino can see a case being made that a comedy might not translate. 'But universal comedy, I think, translates better than any other genre.' Covino and Marvin's films together jointly embody an interest in absurdist comedy elevated by sharp writing and dynamic visuals, which focuses on relationships. While The Climb focuses on a revelation emerging from a long-distance bike ride and the strain that it puts on the relationship between two friends, Splitsville tells the story of two evolving marriages, and another revelation that complicates the relationship between those two couples. When Ashley (Adria Arjona) tells Carey (Marvin), abruptly during a road trip, that she's been repeatedly unfaithful and wants a divorce, Carey turns for solace to married friends Paul (Covino) and Julie (Dakota Johnson), learning that the key to their personal happiness has been to open up their relationship. In a last-ditch attempt to salvage his marriage, Carey pitches Ashley on a similar situation, and chaos ensues. Covino tells me on the podcast that a driving force behind his films with Marvin has been an interest in 'strong point of view' — stories embodying a unique juxtaposition between 'grounded emotions and characters' and 'absurd…and farcical situations.' From Marvin's perspective, the film also highlights their very simple goal of making sure that 'people are entertained' if they take the time to check out their work, in a moment where there are seemingly unlimited options, as far as what people can be consuming or doing with their time. 'I think for us, that means not holding back,' Marvin explains. 'If you can make everything interesting and compelling and believable, why would you hold back on the scenarios or situations that are fun to watch or have things going on that put pressure on character? I think we talk a lot about that entertainment value — what the experience of viewing the movie is going to be, and how we make that experience as fun as possible.' A joke a minute, with some really memorable visual gags, Splitsville is certainly that. It's a film with no clear comp, which while complicating conversations around marketing, affirms to Covino that he and Marvin hit on something good. In their appearance on our podcast, Covino and Marvin discuss the process of creating indie comedies unlike any you'll find elsewhere — one that was helped along, in this case, by Adam Newport-Berra, the cinematographer on the rise who's coming off his first Emmy nomination for his work on The Studio. The pair also discuss test screenings, the idea of cultivating 'future nostalgia' through the theatrical release, their desire to tackle a Christmas movie, and more. Covino directed Splitsville from his script written with Marvin, with the pair also producing. Neon releases the film in limited theaters on August 22 and will go wide with it on September 5. Alongside the podcast, I release a Comedy Means Business newsletter for Deadline — chronicling the latest happenings in the comedy space — twice a month, on Mondays. Sign up to receive that here. View a video clip from the conversation with the Splitsville creatives above and listen to the full cut below. { pmcCnx({ settings: { plugins: { pmcAtlasMG: { iabPlcmt: 1, }, pmcCnx: { singleAutoPlay: 'auto' } } }, playerId: "32fe25c4-79aa-406a-af44-69b41e969e71", mediaId: "1377cfec-ba3f-480a-9612-458b693b51e2", }).render("connatix_player_1377cfec-ba3f-480a-9612-458b693b51e2_3"); }); Best of Deadline Everything We Know About 'The Boys' Prequel Series 'Vought Rising' So Far Everything We Know About 'Gen V' Season 2 So Far 2025-26 Awards Season Calendar: Dates For Emmys, Oscars, Grammys & More

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store