FALLBROOK, Calif. (CBS 8 ) -- Imagine buying your dream home only to find out later it is a house of horrors. That's what happened to one local couple when they purchased a two bedroom home in Fallbook earlier this year.
Little did they know, the home was the scene of the gruesome murder of a young Marine wife who was allegedly killed in a sex dungeon in the basement.
The 2012 murder of Brittany Killgore allegedly involved sadomasochism and bondage.
Three defendants who lived in the home are expected to go to trial next year.
Shortly after Louis Perez, his mistress Dorothy Maraglino, and the couple's self-described sex slave Jessica Lopez were arrested on murder charges, the Fallbrook home fell into foreclosure.
Online real estate photos show the basement -- which, according to prosecutors, was used as an S&M sex dungeon -- where Killgore, 22, was allegedly strangled to death before her naked body was dumped in Riverside county.
Real estate records show the house sold in January for $212,000 to a couple in their 30's, who told CBS News 8 that they had no idea the home was the scene of a murder.
The couple did not want to be interviewed on camera for this report, but told us they found out about Killgore's murder from neighbors after the house was already in escrow.
“A death in a home, especially a tragic death, can impact its value by 25% or more, according to Roy Condrey, who runs the web site diedinhouse.com. The site allows prospective home buyers to run a search and find out if somebody has died in a home.
For a fee of $15, the house address is run through a database of past residents and crossed checked with national death records.
“We also provide you a list of everyone that's been associated with that home and then out of that list we find who has been found deceased,” said Condrey.
We ran a search on the Fallbrook home and, initially, Killgore's death did not come up, probably because the young victim never actually lived at the address.
The names of the three defendants did come up, however, which allowed to Condrey to find online news reports about the murder.
“So you get an instant report, you get some manual research and then you'll get a second follow up report,” said Condrey.
By law in California, home sellers and real estate agents are supposed to disclose if somebody has died in a home over the past three years.
The agent who listed the Fallbrook home, James Dozois, did not want to speak on camera. He sent us the following written statement instead:
"Turnkey Homes and Loans both as representatives for the seller and the buyer had no knowledge of any past activities, criminal or otherwise at the subject property... (We) received this listing via the foreclosure process."
“If you ask your agent and they know, they're supposed to tell you. But if they don't know, how can they tell you?” said Condrey.
Because the home was in foreclosure, the bank that sold it was not under any legal obligation to disclose a death in the house.
The new owners said they plan on keeping the home despite its history.