By ROXANA HEGEMAN ~ Associated Press

WICHITA (AP) – The daughter of a Kansas commune leader charged in a group member’s 2003 death says her father could not have hurt the woman because she had done so much for him.

Windy Aleman told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview that Daniel U. Perez had fled sentencing on a Texas case several years earlier with the help of Patricia Hughes, the woman he’s accused of killing.

Police had believed the 26-year-old Hughes drowned while trying to rescue her 2-year-old daughter from a swimming pool at the Valley Center compound where the commune once lived.

Now, prosecutors must show they have evidence to prove her death was premeditated murder perpetrated by the leader of a group that lived off millions of dollars in life insurance payouts from dead members.