Dead girls don't talk—the words that sealed a predator's fate
Two young women died after being given dangerous drug combinations at Pearce's apartment; he then transported their bodies to separate hospitals without calling for help. Seven survivors came forward to testify about Pearce's pattern of drugging women without consent and sexually assaulting them while incapacitated over a 15-year period.
- Christy Giles, 24, and Hilda Marcela Cabrales, 26, died from drug overdoses after being drugged at Pearce's apartment on November 13, 2021
- David Pearce convicted of first-degree murder and seven sexual assaults; sentenced to 146 years to life in October 2025
- Seven women testified about Pearce's pattern of drugging and sexually assaulting them over 15 years; detective estimates approximately 100 unreported victims
- Pearce transported both women's bodies to separate hospitals without calling for help; claimed to be a 'good Samaritan' who found them on the street
David Pearce was convicted of first-degree murder in the deaths of Christy Giles and Hilda Marcela Cabrales, who died from drug overdoses after being drugged at his apartment. Seven additional women testified about sexual assaults, establishing a pattern of predatory behavior.
On a November morning in 2021, detectives Jonathan Vander Lee and Calvin You arrived at a Los Angeles emergency room to find a woman's body being wheeled through the doors. She had been dropped off by two masked men in a black Prius with no license plates. The woman was Christy Giles, 24 years old. She was dead from a drug overdose. Two hours later, at another hospital just two miles away, a second woman arrived in the same car, left by the same men. That was Hilda Marcela Cabrales, 26, an architect from Mexico who had recently moved to Los Angeles to start her dream job. She was still alive, but barely—intubated, fighting for her life on machines.
Christy had been a high fashion model for Wilhelmina, an adventurer who traveled the world before settling in Los Angeles. She had married Jan Cilliers, a South African artist, after meeting him at Burning Man. Hilda was the eldest daughter of a doctor in Durango, Mexico, a cum laude graduate from a prestigious university in Monterrey who had just begun her career. The two had become friends through their interior design studies in LA. On the night of November 13, 2021, they went out together—a girl's night that started at Soho House and moved to a warehouse party after midnight to see a favorite DJ. At some point that evening, they met David Pearce for the first time.
Cilliers, who was out of town, began piecing together what happened by tracking Christy's phone and messages. At 5:30 a.m., Christy sent Hilda a wide-eyed emoji and the words "let's go." Hilda replied that she would call an Uber. The messages showed they were both at the same address—8641 West Olympic Boulevard—and wanted to leave. An Uber arrived, waited five minutes, and drove away empty. That was the last text either woman ever sent. Christy's autopsy revealed a lethal cocktail in her system: ketamine, cocaine, fentanyl, and GHB, the date rape drug. Hilda's toxicology showed cocaine, MDMA, and elevated levels of fentanyl. Neither combination suggested voluntary consumption. "That combination of drugs sounds deadly to me," Cilliers said. "So, like, no."
Detectives traced the address to the apartment of 39-year-old David Pearce, who lived there with his roommate Brandt Osborn, 42. Police found the black Prius parked behind the building, matching the car seen at both hospitals down to the black rims. When Vander Lee knocked on the door late that night, the lights inside went out. After fifteen minutes of silence, Pearce and Osborn emerged. Pearce immediately lied, denying he owned a Prius. Inside the apartment, detectives found two stripped beds, a washing machine still wet from recent use, and a safe containing baggies of narcotics. Pearce claimed they were for arts and crafts. Vander Lee knew something terrible had happened, but he didn't yet have enough evidence to arrest anyone. Pearce smiled and thanked the detectives as they left.
But Detective Calvin You knew something else. He had investigated Pearce in 2020 for sexually assaulting a 19-year-old woman who had been raped while unconscious. That case had stalled. There was also a rape charge from 2014 that was never prosecuted. You recognized a pattern: Pearce found victims through dating apps, bars, and events. He introduced himself with lies—producer, doctor, whatever worked. Then he drugged them, incapacitated them, and raped them. The detectives moved quickly. On December 15, 2021, they arrested Pearce and Osborn. During interviews, police secretly recorded Pearce saying, "I hope Ansbach is not up there telling him I gave them drugs and wine." He had also mentioned fentanyl—information that had not been released to the public. Two months later, Michael Ansbach, a friend who had been at the apartment that night, came forward with details. He said Pearce had insisted the women stay for a drink, then gave all three of them what he called "special cocaine." Ansbach said he got violently ill and passed out. When he woke, he saw Christy appearing lifeless. Hilda was in Pearce's bedroom. According to Ansbach, Pearce then said repeatedly: "Dead girls don't talk."
Meanwhile, Hilda's family had made the decision to donate her organs after two weeks on life support. Her mother, Dr. Hilda Marcela Arzola-Placencia, remembered the medical staff lining the halls, clapping to honor her daughter as she was taken to the operating room. A downstairs neighbor had heard someone "in pain and moaning on-and-off" for six hours while Christy and Hilda were in that apartment. Police believed that was Hilda. Neither Pearce, nor Osborn, nor Ansbach called for help. The prosecutor, Catherine Mariano, made a public appeal for other women to come forward. Twenty women responded. Pearce was charged with seven sexual assaults.
At trial, which began in January 2025, the women testified one by one. Jackie, who had been a 24-year-old law student in 2010 when she met Pearce at his apartment while looking for a room to rent, described how he offered her a drink that tasted strange. She became disoriented, and he attacked her. When she tried to call for help, he punched her in the face and threw her to the floor. She crawled down the stairs, disoriented and screaming, and made it to her car. She had never reported it until she heard about Christy and Hilda. As each woman testified, the jury watched Pearce's face. The defense attorney, Jeff Voll, saw it too: the jurors' expressions asking silently, how could you do this?
On February 4, 2025, after two days of deliberation, the jury returned guilty verdicts on both counts of first-degree murder and all seven sexual assault charges. Brandt Osborn's jury deadlocked, resulting in a mistrial. In October 2025, Pearce was sentenced to 146 years to life. Detective You, when asked how many other victims he believed existed, answered without hesitation: "A hundred." Dusty Giles, Christy's mother, stood outside the courthouse with a final plea for families everywhere: share your location with loved ones. You never know when you won't be able to get in touch with somebody. Two young women who loved their families, their animals, and their lives were gone. The hole they left would always be there.
Citas Notables
That combination of drugs sounds deadly to me. So, like, no.— Jan Cilliers, Christy's husband, on whether she would voluntarily take the drugs found in her system
Dead girls don't talk.— David Pearce, allegedly said to witness Michael Ansbach after realizing Christy was dying
La Conversación del Hearth Otra perspectiva de la historia
What made this case so difficult to prove, even with the bodies and the evidence?
The women had used drugs voluntarily that night before meeting Pearce. The defense could argue they overdosed on their own choices. But the toxicology told a different story—the combination was lethal and deliberate, and the pattern across seven other women showed this wasn't accident. It was method.
How did the detectives know to look for other victims?
Calvin You had already investigated Pearce years before. When he heard the name again, his first thought was: who did he assault this time? That institutional memory—that pattern recognition—is what broke the case open. One detective's hunch became twenty women's voices.
Why did it take so long for women to come forward?
Stigma. Fear. Shame that shouldn't exist but does. Jackie waited fifteen years. She only spoke up when she heard about Christy and Hilda, when she realized her silence might mean more women would suffer. That's the weight survivors carry.
What does "dead girls don't talk" actually mean in this context?
It's a confession disguised as a threat. Ansbach heard Pearce say it when he realized Christy was dying. It suggests Pearce understood the stakes—that if the women died, they couldn't testify against him. Whether he intended to kill them or just didn't care if they did, the law calls that murder.
How does a man do this for fifteen years?
Lies, compartmentalization, and a system that didn't connect the dots until it was too late. He moved apartments, changed his story, had lawyers cycle through. Each victim was isolated. The detective's estimate of a hundred unreported victims suggests most never came forward at all.
What does justice look like here?
Cilliers said it best: there's no justice for Christy. There's only preventing him from doing it again. That's all the families could ask for—that he never hurt anyone else. The real justice would have been catching him after the first assault, or the second, or the third.