Kriti Mehrotra
It was November 13, 2021, when everything turned upside down for two families as Hilda Marcela Cabrales-Arzola and Christy Lee Giles Cilliers failed to return home after a night out. As explored in CBS’ ’48 Hours: Christy and Hilda’s Last Dance’ and ’48 Hours: Dead Girls Don’t Talk,’ the two women were relatively new friends and were last seen leaving the VIP section of a warehouse party in Hollywood. Over 12 hours later, they were dropped off at two different hospitals one by one, where it became evident that something terrible had transpired as they both tragically lost their lives.
Hilda and Christy Were Killed Just Months After Meeting
At nearly 27 years of age, Hilda Marcela Cabrales-Arzola was thriving in Los Angeles, California, after leaving her family and her hometown of Durango, Mexico, just months before to pursue her dreams. The travel enthusiast had graduated summa cum laude at the top of her class from the prestigious University of Monterrey in 2019, only to then live in South Korea for a while. She was focused on establishing a career as an architect and interior designer. She also loved exploring the world and had visited 22 countries before she ever stepped foot in California.
It was here that Hilda first came across 24-year-old Alabama native Christy Lee Giles Cilliers, a happily married fashion model who had started studying interior design to expand her wings. They reportedly got along like two peas in a pod, so it wasn’t unsurprising when they planned a girls’ night out on Friday, November 13, 2021, starting at the Soho House in West Hollywood. Both these young women liked having a good time, yet they were also quite family-oriented and responsible, which is why their loved ones became worried when they failed to hear from them for over 12 hours. It turned out that while Hilda was fighting for her life at Kaiser Permanente Hospital, Christy had been declared dead at the Southern California Medical Center.
They had been dropped off around 2 hours apart at the respective hospitals by two men in a black Prius without license plates — Christy was first at roughly 4:30 pm, followed by Hilda. According to reports, Christy was almost immediately pronounced dead, whereas Hilda was eventually unplugged by her family a day before her 27th birthday — on November 24, 2021 — owing to a lack of brain activity. It turns out that both women had overdosed — they had lethal amounts of cocaine and fentanyl in their systems, with Christy also having the date rape drug (GHB) and Hilda having MDMA or ecstasy. Along with all other details, this had their families insist that there had to be foul play from a third party involved since neither woman would have ever willingly consumed such an extreme cocktail of these hard drugs.
Officials Zeroed in on Hilda and Christy’s Killer Within Hours
While Hilda and Christy’s loved ones were beside themselves over what was transpiring on that fateful day, the authorities already suspected foul play owing to the way they had been dropped off. The ER staff from both hospitals had told them that the two men who claimed to be “good samaritans” trying to help out the “passed out” girl they had seen “on the curb” nearby seemed far from it, especially with their covered/disguised looks and refusal to even give their names. This was their first clue about something being awry and then came the families’ insistence and Christy’s husband’s statement about her phone being at a strange location when he last checked.
According to Jan Cilliers, he had checked his wife’s location via her phone when she hadn’t replied to his texts on the morning of November 13, only for it to be at 8641 West Olympic Boulevard. It was strange since he didn’t think she knew anyone who lived around this area, he said, but he let it go under the assumption she was sleeping in despite the uneasy feeling in the back of his mind. The next thing he knew, he conceded, the phone was at Southern California Medical Center, and he was hearing the news that his wife had died from a drug overdose, shattering everything he had planned for their future.
Detectives immediately went to this address in the hopes of figuring out precisely what had happened to the two women, just to find a black Prius with no license plate sitting right outside. They knew then they were on the right track, so they retraced Hilda and Christy’s steps, which is how they learned that the duo had arrived at this apartment with its owner at around 5:11 am on the fateful morning. They were with self-proclaimed Hollywood producer David Pearce, his roommate Brandt Osborn, and their friend Michael Ansbach, unaware that the former had a reputation for being a possible drug dealer and sexual predator.
Hilda and Christy’s Perpetrator Has Since Been Arrested
According to official records, investigators did not find any fentanyl-laced drugs or cocaine inside David and Brandt’s apartment when they searched it, but they did find drug paraphernalia. However, this left them frustrated since just paraphernalia alone wasn’t enough for them to accuse or charge the men of anything, but they later learned that the drugs were apparently hidden in their car. As per an affidavit, it was Brandt himself who led them to this by telling co-workers that he would have been in “big trouble” if they had found the “drugs hidden underneath the cash” inside their vehicle.
It is imperative to note that per Hilda and Christy’s phone records and surveillance footage, they had left Soho House for a warehouse party around midnight, and they indeed consumed cocaine there. David was allegedly the one who provided them with the same before offering to take them back to his place for more, where they remained for several hours. According to records, Christy texted Hilda, “Let’s go,” with a wide-eyed emoji at 5:30 am from inside his home, to which she responded that she’d call an Uber and it’d arrive in 10 minutes. The cab reportedly came, it waited for 5 minutes, and then it left with no passenger.
David’s neighbor reportedly also heard someone moaning in pain on and off “during the hours of 10:30…until 4 pm” on the fateful day, but they never contacted the police for reasons unknown. Even security cameras from across the apartment caught the two roommates carrying Christy down the stairs at 4:19 pm while disguised, just to leave, come back, and do the same with Hilda a couple of hours later. David, Brandt, and Michael were all arrested in connection with the double homicide in February 2022, but the latter two were ultimately released while the former was held on unrelated charges of sexual assault.
As time passed, more and more women came forward with accusations of sexual assault against David Pearce, which painted a picture of how he allegedly used drugs to trap and then rape women. Although neither Hilda nor Christy’s autopsy indicated signs of such trauma, nurses at Kaiser Permanente Hospital had reportedly noticed blood from a small abrasion in Hilda’s vagina. In light of this evidence, in July 2022, David was charged with two counts of murder, too, and the state later decided to combine all the charges against him in one trial. He was convicted of nine counts — seven of sexual assault and two of murder — on February 4, 2025, and is facing 148 years to life behind bars. As for Brandt and Michael, while the former has been charged with accessory to murder after the fact, the latter has never been indicted and is reportedly cooperating with officials.
Read More: Where is Christy Giles’ Family Now?
