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

Business Insider

05-05-2025

"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.