This blog is in chronological order – scroll down for updates.
On November 12, 2021, Christy Giles (24) and her friend Hilda Marcela Cabrales-Arzola (26) made the fateful decision to spend a night out on the town together in LA.
Christy was married to a South African man – Jan Cilliers (40). They lived in LA where she worked as a model and Jan worked as a visual effects artist.
Christy has 23k followers on insta, Jan has 6k. For almost three years (I assume this is when they met), almost every single post on Jan’s insta features Christy.
You can view Christy’s page at Fox Models here.
Hilda was slightly more lowkey, with 2.3k insta followers. Her account is private and her bio reads:
Hilda was an architect who obtained her degree from Universidad de Monterrey, in San Pedro Garza García, Mexico.
Since November 2019, she has worked as the Lead project manager in execution at Atrio Interiores.
In May 2021, Hilda posted online about wanting to move to Canada.
As an introduction, my name is Hilda Marcela, I’m a Mexican architect, graduated in 2019, I’m 26 years old and I’m focused on the area of interior design.
All of my career as a student I worked as an intern in different design firms in Mexico, deciding to settle in the area of interior design.
I graduated CUM LAUDE and was one of the top students at my university, which granted me several scholarships to help me get my degree, I’m very kind of international experiences and I had the opportunity to study abroad at Yonsei University in Seoul, I can easily adapt to new environments.
I’m advanced in English and can understand french, I took 2 years at the french alliance and I want to continue learning.
My main goal is to fully migrate to Canada, and establish there, I love the country and the opportunities it offers, I’m a very versatile person who can easily adjust to new circumstances, I love to learn, and I’m open to learning all kind of new skills.
I have experience in rendering, custom design furniture and right now I’m part of the executive team which is the bridge into design and construction.
I’m also learning how to code because I want to expand my opportunities.
I’m ready for a new adventure and I promise if you let me be part of your team you will not regret it.
Jan was away in San Francisco when this all happened, visiting his father.
Christy and Hilda went out together to a party in LA on November 12. I believe the first party they went to was a warehouse party. Hilda apparently met a guy at this party who invited them to an after party in the Hollywood Hills. Both women agreed to go.
What happened next was unclear at the time. Jan and other friends tried frantically to get in touch with both Christy and Hilda to no avail – read out the texts he sent in the image.
At 5pm on November 13, CCTV at Southern California Hospital in Culver City showed men in masks and hats pulling up in a black Toyota Prius with no license plate and dumping Christy’s body – and another two hours before Hilda was left at nearby Kaiser Permanente hospital in West LA.
Christy was pronounced dead at the scene on November 13. Hilda was still alive and was taken into hospital. She was placed on life support and there was said to be little chance of recovery.
Hilda remained in hospital until she was declared brain dead on November 26. Her father spoke to the media at that time and said “My girl was diagnosed brain dead yesterday,” he said. “We were already expecting it to be bad news and we’re trying to take it with a lot of strength.”
He continued, “I asked God to return Hilda to me in 100% good health but if she was going to be left impaired it is better for her to leave and go by His side.”
Hilda was taken off life support and she passed away. The LA Medical Examiner has her death date as November 24, but I believe she passed away a few days later after her organs were donated.
Surprisingly, this case took a few days to start getting media attention. There were some vague details emerging on social media, with friends of Christy and Hilda making posts.
The media began to pick up the story on November 17.
Jan spoke to the media and said that heroin had been found in Hilda’s system but that she would never have taken that drug.
Christy’s mother Dusty Giles has said that Christy sometimes took cocaine or ecstasy. She said that Christy would never do heroin after an overdose killed her close friend’s ex and sent her cousin in and out of rehab. Dusty said Hilda’s friends and family told her she had the same attitude.
‘My daughter by no means was an angel. She lived her life very unapologetically, and was brutally honest and truthful with her family, regardless if we agreed with it or not, because she knew that we loved her unconditionally,’ she said.
‘She would have no reason to lie. We actually spoke regarding [heroin]. My daughter said “Hell no, the heroin out here is laced with fentanyl, people are dropping like flies.”
People share these amazing videos that they have with her, and it just brings back her energy, and I know I’ll never get to see her or kiss her or touch her again, and it’s just so heartbreaking,” said Jan.
‘We had one of the most fairytale romantic relationships. Our first date was on Valentine’s Day 2019. We got married by September that year,’ he said.
‘She’s obviously beautiful on the outside. But really, her beauty is just who she is as a person on the inside.’
Jan said that he and Christy shared their locations with each other, as a safety measure. He also insinuated that he knew who the pair were with that night. He said he had access to all the texts that Christy sent that night, and the last one sent to her was 5.36am. Christy never replied to that message.
Hilda ordered an Uber but the pair never got into it. The Uber waited for a bit and left.
Christy’s friend Eddie sent a message to her at 5.36am. This message was never read or replied to.
Jan believes that in the 6 minute gap between the final texts, something happened to Christy and Hilda that made them incapacitated.
As Jan had Christy’s last location and he made it very public, online sleuths started looking to see who was linked to the apartment where they were known to be.
Jan was not shy about publishing names of the alleged offenders. One of them is Dave Bryant aka Dave Pearce. Many people came forward to discuss their experiences with Dave.
Insurance records were found by the media and they showed that a Black Prius was registered at the apartment. A Black Prius was also caught on CCTV dumping the women at the hospitals on November 13.
The apartment was said to be linked to Dave Bryant/Pearce.
A neighbor came forward and said they heard moaning from the apartment on November 13.
“I heard someone moaning in pain for five, six or seven hours, all day on Saturday from David Pearce’s apartment.
“I was wondering what it was because there are always very loud noises coming from that apartment.
“But this was moaning and it was weird to me but he’s a weird guy and I don’t want to get on his bad side so I never confront him.
“On Sunday police came and spoke with him (David Pearce), I’m not sure if they went up to his apartment.
“Then the police came and spoke with me and they said there had been an incident but they didn’t give any more detail.
“They showed me a picture of him and his black Prius car.
“I told them that I had heard moaning all day and they took notes.
“I haven’t seen his car for a few days now.”
The reporters showed the neighbor photos of David Pearce and they confirmed it was the same man who lived in the apartment on Olympic Blvd.
There are lots of comments online about the Dave’s character. He even made The Dirty back in 2012.
THE DIRTY ARMY: Nik, this guy is the biggest douche bag in LA, he apparently steals money from people, he got my friend drunk and took advantage of her. I met him and he grabbed my phone and put his number inside my phone as Dave my new husband. I told my girlfriend about this guy who did that, and she said is his name Dave? I replied back yes it turns out that this guy is a real douche bag. I have heard stories from a lot of people in Hollywood that this guy stole money from them and gave someone my close girlfriends DRD. I think every girl should watch out for him.
On November 20, Christy’s friends gathered to hold a memorial on the beach for her.
By that point, a GFM that Jan had started had raised over 80k.
We appreciate any donations that will provide the resources needed in order to put a concrete case together to bring justice for both of these beautiful, innocent young women. Moreover, to protect every other female out there who has been or could be grossly affected in a similar way.
These funds will be received by Jan Cilliers, who is Christy’s Husband. He will be using the funds to pay for:
• Private autopsy
• Private investigators (multiple)
• Witness Reward Money
• Whatever other costs are incurred in the pursuit of justice for the death of Christy.
Not surprisingly, David Pearce (37) was one of them. The other two are Mike Ansbach (47) and Brandt Osborn (42) .
David Pearce was charged with manslaughter and is being held on $1 million bail. Brandt and Mike were each charged with accessory to manslaughter. Their bail was set at $100k each.
“It is believed that both women were given drugs and overdosed,” the LAPD said in announcing the arrests.
“Based on the investigation, the LAPD is concerned that there could be other victims in our community who could have been drugged by one or more of these men.”
According to actors Alexandra Creteau and David Murrietta Jr., Brandt Osborn had divulged to them while on a shoot in November about partying with women and later dumping their bodies.
“I have had the craziest weekend of my life,” Murrietta said the actor told him.
“He told me how they’d partied, two girls came back to their place, and the girls had a bunch of drugs.”
Murrietta said Osborn told him he left his apartment to get a COVID-19 test for the commercial shoot, and when he returned his roommate informed him that Giles was dead.
“He checked her pulse, freaked out, decided not to call 911, and they decided what to do with the body,” Murrietta told The Post.
“Then they didn’t know what to do, they didn’t want to call 911 and get in trouble, so they decided to drive and drop her body at Culver City hospital.“He was like, ‘we dropped the first girl off, we came back to our place’ then he checked the second girl’s pulse and it was very faint, so they tried to decide what to do with the second girl.
“Got her in the car and decided to drop her off at a second hospital so they didn’t get caught.”
Alexandra Cruteau said “I had that feeling that like sometimes in movies, when a serial killer calls a radio station and tells everything… it was kinda that vibe — because he was proud of it in my opinion,” “The energy was not like ‘I’m embarrassed, I want to hide it,’ it was ‘oh my gosh, look how much fun I had, crazy night…’”
Brandt was arrested while on the set of NCIS: Los Angeles”. His imdb entry shows three whole acting roles for him – https://www.imdb.com/name/nm7602403/
Brandt also worked at the Hotel Americano for 15 years as a bartender — he claims he “created my own cocktail called the ‘Sunblazer.’”
His Facebook page also shows him at various LA events. In one photo, he’s seen alongside Paris Hilton. In another, he’s posing on a hill overlooking Los Angeles.
“Bad decisions make great stories,” his shirt reads.
Osborn refused to comment when contacted by The New York Post in November.
“I don’t have a comment, all right? Goodbye,” he said.
Brandt’s biggest concern at the time that Christy and Hilda died was that they had pee’d the bed at some point.
Mike Ansbach works/ed as a camera operator and had worked on shows such as as “Vanderpump Rules,” “Punk’d” and “The Amazing Race.”
On Instagram he describes himself as a ‘cinematographer’ and ‘voice over artist’.
He has set up companies including P7 Media Group and Adrenaline Media Group LLC.
The friend, who asked not to be named, said she saw four men and a woman arrive, talk their way into a VIP area at the event and begin hugging strangers as if they knew them.
She said two of the men acted ‘obnoxiously’, with David taking off his shirt and flailing around.
Mike seemed ‘completely sober’, had a professional camera and took a particular interest in Hilda, the friend said.
The men managed to insinuate themselves in conversation with Hilda and one even put a jacket on her.
‘They walked in acting very confident, and people are very easily fooled by confidence,’ said the friend.
‘They were able to weasel themselves into that area, they must have been there for maybe about 30 minutes or so until somebody noticed they didn’t have the right wrist bands and kicked them out. But I had already left by that point.”
Following his arrest for his involvement in Christy and Hilda’s case, Dave Pearce was charged with sexually assaulting four other women.
Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón announced David was being charged with two counts of forcible rape and one count each of rape of an unconscious or asleep person and sexual penetration by a foreign object.
He is also accused of sexually assaulting a woman in August 2010, as well as raping a woman in February 2019, and two other women in separate incidents last year.
“My office takes violence against women very seriously. By aggressively prosecuting sexual assault cases, we make our community safer and protect others from becoming victims in the future,” the DA said in a statement.
“This case is evolving and we continue to work with law enforcement in developing evidence of other possible crimes. If you have any information, please contact the Los Angeles Police Department immediately.”
Jan spoke of the relief he felt following the three arrests:
“I sighed a sigh of relief,” he tells PEOPLE. “But I also understand that this is just the beginning of the battle. There’s going to be a lot of stuff to get through in order to get these guys in prison.”
“I know that I have to be strong, and I’m going to do everything that I can to make sure that my wife gets the justice she deserves, even though no amount of justice is ever going to bring her back to life, and she’s still going to be gone,” he says. “But hopefully, it stops these guys from doing anything else to any other woman.”
“We definitely think that there are other victims out there. And we’d love for them to come forward and just add their voices to this case, to help get these guys off the street,” he tells PEOPLE. “And that stops these guys from being able to victimize any other woman.”
He also spoke about his marriage to Christy –
“I’ve never felt love so deeply, and I doubt I ever will again. She’s a really incredible, incredible human,” Cilliers says.
The GoFundMe that Jan started raised over 130k before donations were disabled.
Following Dave Pearce’s arrest, more information about his past has come out.
Scarface actor Steven Bauer has said that he lived with David for a short time in 2010. David allegedly told him then that he had drugged women in an attempt to have sex with them.
Steven also spoke about a party where David disappeared for a while with a young woman, and her female friend became concerned.
Steven said that as he and the female friend started looking for the missing woman, she burst out of a room sobbing. David was right behind her.
‘He was trying to hustle me out of the party so that nobody else would hear,’ Steven told the media. ‘He said, “Don’t listen to her. This is a stupid party, let’s get out of here… Get in the car, get in the car”.’
The woman told Steven – ‘She said “he cornered me and he locked the door. And I told him I didn’t want to do anything. I didn’t like him. And he said yes you like me. And he forced himself on me.”
‘I said, “Did he hurt you?” And she said, “He raped me.”
‘So I asked him straight out… I said “Answer me. What she’s saying is that you raped her.”
‘He goes, “She’s a liar. What, you’re going to believe her? She’s a f***ing maid. She’s gonna brag about this later.”
‘He goes, “Stop being a p***y. She’s a liar. She’s a housekeeper or something.”
‘I said, “I’m going to start walking, and I’m going to tell the police where you live. If you don’t let the girl out, I’ll get her home.”
‘He called me all kinds of names. He called me a p***y and that I was a party pooper and I was a hypocrite and that I knew all along what was going on.
On April 3, 2022, the causes of death for Hilda and Christy were made public.
Christy’s cause of death was ruled a homicide. You can read her Medical Examiner entry here.
Cause of Death for Christy:
MULTIPLE DRUG INTOXICATION (COCAINE, FENTANYL, GAMMA-HYDROXYBUTYRIC ACID, AND KETAMINE)
Hilda’s cause of death was also ruled homicide. You can view her Medical Examiner entry here.
Cause of Death for Hilda:
Cause A
MULTIPLE ORGAN FAILURE
Cause B
MULTIPLE DRUG INTOXICATION (COCAINE, METHYLENEDIOXYMETHAMPHETAMINE, AND PROBABLE OTHER UNDETERMINED