it turns out trish, monnau and lindsey and emily and sarah s mother who died in a car crash had all two things in com. daniel perez had predicted each of their deaths and each had juicy life insurance policies, payouts totaling $1.2 million were made to commune members. every time the coughers were low, someone would die? abshoutly. get down to sometimes less than 5,000 and that s around the time somebody was going to die. and the d.a. summed up their case against 55-year-old daniel perez. it s a story of domination, control and manipulation of the most vulnerable. spans 15 years. multiple victims, multiple deaths.
just i guess the answer is you help one person at a time. reporter: some residents are already planning on rebuilding. promising not to leave their homes behind. mainly a retirement community. i m not sure it s going to be that same kind of commune. we ll see. paradise has always been a community that is a can do, found its way to get back on its feet. just might be a different group of people. reporter: this community was worth saving and they are hoping that a lot of commune members will come together to save paradise. but they also know that when people see this for the first time they are going to be heartbroken. it s going to take some time to put it all back together. heartbreaking, no doubt. thank you. an update on a truly remarkable story from wildfires. this is alan s truck after his daring escape during the camp fire. he helped evacuate patients and staff before fleeing himself but he ran into gridlock on his way
trust of the community is going to be an important step. were you surprised that the mcdonald family didn t want the video coming out? because a lot of times, the reaction is, hopefully the death could be used for good. i wasn t surprised. after trayvon martin, we saw his family agonizing in front of the cameras, that became the model. you get out in front, make the statements, get on all the news shows, you let all the evidence be aired out in public. yet at the same time while there may be an agenda from commune members and activists for the greater good of the public, that family is still grieving and hurting. so when we see this young man being shot down, it s kind of hard for any of us to watch, whether you re a journalist or a citizen, you can only imagine what that family is going through. we ve looped it several times each show. and every network is doing it.