48 Hours - Dead Girls Dont Talk

Episode Date: January 11, 2026

Man charged with murder for poisoning two women tells a friend, “dead girls don’t talk.” Brave survivors speak out on their behalf. Jonathan Vigliotti reports. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Powerful opening statements in the Hollywood overdose murder trial. David Pierce and Brand Osborne on trial for the deaths of two women, model Christy Giles and her architect friend Hilda Cabrales. This trial will not change what happened and will not bring my sister back or Christy. Christy's plan for the evening was to go out with some friends and have a fun night. Aloha! My name is Jan Selya and Christy was my wife. Christy loved to spread joy and laughter wherever she went.

Kilda Marcella just moved from Mexico. She seemed very lovely and they were becoming fast friends. My sister did enjoy going out to parties. She liked dancing and the music. I remember seeing her Instagram. She was posting stories. of that night. She sent me a couple of text messages.

Her last text message to me was around 1 or 2 a.m. And throughout the day, I was trying to text her, and there was no response. You're tracking Chrissy's phone. Yeah. Is this an address that you recognize? It's not an address I know. Around 5 p.m.

I saw her location had suddenly moved to an emergency room hospital. My level of panic is growing and growing. I just knew that I had to try and get to the bottom of. What happened? You blast out this address, and very quickly you get responses. Yeah. What are those responses? That there's somebody that lives at this location that is a very unsavory person.

David Pierce. Yeah. He passed himself forth as a big shot Hollywood producer, but he was a con man with an alleged history of sexual assault. It wasn't clear what happened. We just knew she overdosed, and to me, my reaction was, who did this to her? So when you heard overdose, you immediately thought drugged. Yeah, drugged.

Yeah. Definitely not something that she would have done to herself ever. That's just not her. Got a call at home, apparent overdose. Christie, she was deceased. Hilda was still on life support at that time. I give as much information as I can to the detectives. Yon had put a number of things out on social media,

and it spread like wildfire. People recognize this guy right away. and they were urged to call us. Authorities say seven more women have come forward claiming Pierce sexually assaulted them as well. Jay Doe No. 1. J.O. Number two. Jane Doe.

Number three. Number four. Number five. Number six. Number seven. Being a Jane Doe, we are the voice of both Christy and Hilda because they can't talk.

Defendant Pierce wanted them to know. He wanted them to die because dead girls don't talk. John Convigliani reports, dead girls don't talk. For a fresh case, it's all on you. There's no one else is going to solve this thing for you. It's you and your partner. That's it. And in November 2021, Detective Jonathan Vanderley and Detective Calvin Yu

had to figure out why a lifeless woman was left at this emergency room. This video from Southern California Hospital shows staff pulling a woman out of a black Prius and helping her onto a stretcher while two men look on. When the stretcher moves into the ER, it becomes clear the car has no license plates. Detective Vanderly would later learn that the two men told the staff they found the woman, quote, passed out on the curb somewhere nearby, and they were trying to be good Samaritans. They left without giving their names or phone numbers. They were masked, disguised.

This must be adding up to something that sounds very sketchy to you. Very sketchy, but then you still have to figure out if an actual crime occurred. The woman was Christy Giles, and her mother, Dusty, will never forget the call that came from the hospital, telling her her 24-year-old daughter was dead from a drug overdose. And I said, what do you mean? And she didn't make it. And then I hung up and I fell apart. Two hours later, at a hospital just two miles away,

a second woman was left at another emergency room by the same two men, also in a black Prius and wearing masks. They never give their names, never leave their phone numbers, license plates, anything like that. That was Hilda Cabrales, the 26-year-old architect, was still alive in the ICU and fighting for her life. And in Durango, Mexico, her mother, Hilda Marcella Placencia, was getting the news about her eldest daughter and namesake.

She was very bad. She was intubated. You are a doctor. What was going on in your mind at the time? What happened? What happened to her? Why is she that bad? And in the earliest hours of the investigation, there were, only questions. How could this happen to Christie? It was an unimaginable ending to a life bursting with exuberance. Christy was an adventurer, traveling the world as a high-fashioned model for Willamina. She ultimately made L.A. her home. Chrissy Giles, I live in Venice, California, and I am an artist. At 21, her life took a dramatic turn.

She met Jan Silié, a South African-born artist, photographer, and special effects editor, 17 years her senior. They'd been together seven months when the couple went to Burning Man, an arts festival in the Nevada desert, where impulsively they took a big leap. We just decided to elope. We just got married right there. We said to each other that, you know, life's very short, so we kind of rarely just proposed to each other and the next day we got married. After they got married, Christie started studying interior design in Los Angeles, which led to a new friendship with Hilda Marcella. Hilda had just moved there to start her dream job, recalls her father, Luis.

I feel very happy for her, but very sad for me, because we are very close. No one was surprised that the cum laude graduate of the prestigious university in Montere, Mexico, was thriving in L.A., especially her sister Fernanda. She was always making a lot of friends, talkative, outgoing, just having a good time, and meeting people that they also like the music, that they are also enjoying, dancing. Dancing, as this video shows, is what the two friends were doing that night. Christy's husband, Jan, was out of town visiting his father. He knew she and Hilda had planned a girl's night.

out, starting at Soho House, and then onto a warehouse party after midnight to see a favorite DJ. A friend who was with them said they did ketamine, a popular club drug. But by the next day, Jan was on his way home, knowing Christy was gone. In less than 24 hours, your world was turned upside down. Shaded. Yeah. Hilda's father and mother rushed to be by her side. When they arrived, they found their daughter on life support. My heart broke in thousand pieces because I saw my baby and conscience. I'm fighting for her life.

I said, is this real? Am I dreaming? I took her hand. and I said, Mom's here with you. You're not alone. Christy's autopsy revealed that in addition to ketamine, she had cocaine, fentanyl,

and GHB, known as the date rape drug, in her system. Are these drugs that Christy would take willingly? I mean, that combination of drugs sounds deadly to me, so, like, no. Jan needed answers, so he began to be able to be. filled a timeline based on the digital trail Christy left behind. Information gathered from her messages and phone, which she was able to track. I wanted to get to the bottom of exactly what happened that night.

He already knew what she'd been doing before she went out for the evening. She was enjoying a lovely sunset. She took our cat for a walk on the beach. Sand Panther, Oh, whoa. Those were the last pictures she sent me of herself. And she said, I wish you were here, and I will forever wish that I was there too. Jan was able to track Christie's phone to a residence located at 8641 West Olympic Boulevard.

At 5.30 a.m., Christy sends Hilda a wide-eye emoji and says, let's go. Hilda replies, I'll call on Uber, 10 minutes away. The fact that they're both in the same house text messaging each other they need to leave is very worrying. That was the last text message that Christy or Hilda ever sent. That Uber arrived, waited five minutes, and drove away empty. How did you process that? I mean, it's just confirming my worst fears again that they were there at that place against their will.

What's going on in your mind from that detective standpoint when you're about to arrive at a scene? You don't want to form an opinion prior to getting there, but you are kind of mulling over the evidence. You're thinking about it, you're thinking about what questions you want to ask. Acting on information supplied by Yon, LAPD Detective Jonathan Vanderley and his partner headed here to 8641 West Olympic Boulevard, a little after midnight, on November 14th, only a few hours after getting that call from the second hospital.

And this is where the Uber that Christian Hilda called that night would have waited. Right off front, yep. Ten minutes between life and death. It's all it takes. It was the home of 39-year-old David Pierce. Police would learn Christy and Hilda had met him for the first time at that warehouse party. Police also discovered Pierce had a registration for a black Prius and found it parked behind the building. It matched the car scene at both hospitals down to the black rims.

Pierce lived on the second floor with a roommate, Brandt Osborne, 42. There was a light on in the upstairs where the two men live. So I just went up, knocked on the door. Immediately the lights go out. You identify yourself? Yes, completely. LAPD, open the door, and then just complete silence. After about 15 minutes, he says, Pierce and Osborne came out.

Pierce denied owning a Prius. So I immediately get a lie. Do you leave? No, I interview Mr. Osborne. At first, he says, Osborne denied seeing Christy and Hilda at all. You could change you the stories numerous times. At first, there's no girls had been at that location whatsoever. I tell them on the interview.

I listen, I know you're lying. It's extremely obvious. You're very nervous. Vanderley says Osborne eventually admitted the women had been at their apartment, but said he'd been asleep and when he woke up realized Christy and Hilda were in distress. He said he and Pierce chose to go to two separate hospitals because, quote, we didn't know how it would look. Pierce, police say, did later admit he owned the Prius, but lied again,

saying his license plates had been stolen. Vanderley says he saw those plates on the ground by the vehicle. Then, the men agreed to let detectives inside. Two beds have been stripped. There was a washing machine that had been recently used. It was still wet. Anything else that stands out to you? There was a safe in his room with baggies, which is indicative of narcotics.

He said they're for crafts, for arts and crafts. By now, Van der Lees says he knew Pearson Osborne. had dropped Hilda and Christia off and believed Pierce had drugged them, but he didn't have enough evidence to make an arrest. He thought he beat us that night for sure. He was happy. He smiled and said goodbye. Yeah.

Thanks, detectives. Yep. But that wasn't where it ended for you. No, not by a long shot. Vanderleyn knew he needed more evidence and turned to his colleague, Detective Calvin U. You hear the name David Pierce. What goes on? in your mind. Well, the first thing is who did he sexually assault this time?

Detective You had investigated Pierce in 2020 for sexually assaulting a 19-year-old. She was raped while she was unconscious. The victim said Pierce had given her drugs to knock her out during a date, but the investigation had stalled and wasn't prosecuted at the time. Detective U knew Pierce had other prior charges, including another rape charge from 2014 that was also not prosecuted. He has a pattern. His first step is trying to find his victim. So that could be through a dating app, through online listings, or meeting them at bars or events. When he picks his victim, he goes to step two, which is bragging about himself. Pierce relies on lies, detectives say, to set his trap.

They need to introduce himself as a producer, as a doctor, all these different things. He's none of these things. I think he might have been an intern at the time or something at a production company. An intern. Yeah. They say his next step is to drug his victims and incapacitate them, often with a drink. After they take this drink, he goes to step four, which is the sexual assault. Police would learn both Christy and Hilda showed signs of sexual assault, but they feared they

they would face challenges making the case. How difficult is it to prove a crime took place when the victims were recreationally using drugs? This makes the case extremely hard. I told you on early on that this was going to be a near impossible case to prove. Yeah, at first it's who done it. It just became what actually happened. And that's what was the difficulty in this case. Jonathan Vanderley says the pressure was on to locate any evidence of what happened after

Christy and Hilda met David Pierce that night. Video starts expiring. These DVRs, it's a consonant. You got to get this evidence before it disappears. Police did have some luck, starting with this footage from outside that warehouse party, which they say shows the women leaving with Pierce, Osborne, and a friend of theirs, 47-year-old Michael Onsbach on their way to Pierce's apartment. Police also uncovered this text exchange from moments earlier

when the women were still inside that party. Do you want Coke? asks Hilda. Yes, replies Christy. Hilda texted back, I'm in the kitchen. Let's do a line. Witnesses say Pierce supplied that cocaine, which Jan says was not a common choice for Christy. Maybe it was late at night and she wanted to get less hot.

It's not something she would do regularly. Police determined the group arrived at Pierce's apartment a little after 5 a.m. The women aren't seen again until 11 hours later, when at 4.30 in the afternoon, a security camera recorded this grainy image, showing Pierce with Christie over his shoulder at the top of the stairs. Police say Osborne is carrying her bag. 35 minutes later, at the high,

In the hospital, Pierce wearing a black sweatshirt, helps take Christie's body out of the car. Osborne looks on. A full hour and a half later, this dark image shows the men leaving the apartment again, with Hilda. Police say Pierce is carrying her, and Osborne has her boots and coat. Half an hour later, the Prius arrives at that second hospital, where the men take Hilda out of the car together. It had been more than 13 hours since Christy texted Hilda, Let's Go.

For two weeks, Hilda was on life support. With no hope of regaining consciousness, her family gathered to say their goodbyes. Hilda, what were your final moments with your daughter? They were so hard, you know, and I just was asking God to not let her suffer more. I remember telling her that you can leave. And just thanking her for being my sister.

I told her maybe when I pass away, I will see you again. And I give you a big hug, a kiss, The family decided to donate Hilda's organs. Her mom remembers the medical staff lining the halls as the family accompanied Hilda to the OR. The medical team was clapping to honor her, to say thank you for giving life to others.

Like Christy, Hilda had suffered a drug overdose. Toxicology reports would later reveal that she had cocaine, MDMA, or X, and elevated levels of fentanyl in her system. Police would also learn that while the women were in that apartment, the downstairs neighbor heard someone in pain and moaning on and off for six hours. Police believe that was Hilda. Neither Pierce nor Osborne nor Ansbach called for help.

It makes me get angry because she was suffering and nobody. Nobody helped her. How hard is it to prove this narrative when the victims can't even testify on their own behalf? If we were just investing Christy and Hilda's alone, very difficult. But the district attorney at the time went public, asking other women who knew Pierce to call in so police could better understand what he did to Hilda and Christy.

If you feel comfortable, moving forward so that we can evaluate your case and charge you. We're here for you. We started getting a lot of calls. As police continued building their case, Jan received a call that Pierce and Osborne were on the move. He recorded this video of the men loading up a moving van the day after Hilda died.

Police say Pierce had also changed his phone number, and it took them a week to locate him again. So the pressure is on, you've got to get this guy. I got to come up with something quick, yes. Police have arrested three men in connection with the deaths of a model and her friend last month. On December 15, 2021, David Pierce, Brandt Osborne, and Michael Onsbach were arrested in connection with Hilda and Christy's deaths. The detectives still knew next to nothing about what had happened inside that apartment. Vanderley says they decided to take a game.

gamble and bring the men in. This is the only way we're going to get the info we need. Once the men were in custody, police conducted interviews with them, one by one. Kind of played with a rotation, and it worked out exceedingly well. They secretly recorded Pierce and Osborne while Onzbach was talking to police. Pierce says, I hope Onsbach's not up there telling him I gave them drugs and wine. When it was his turn, Pierce denied giving the women drugs. This was a very bad batch of fentanyl that was in the room.

This was suspicious because information that the women had likely died from fentanyl had not been released. I knew these girls died from fentanyl, but nobody else knew. Two months after his arrest, Ansbach reached out to police with details of what he says he witnessed that night. He says Pierce had offered the women a ride to an after-party and then said he needed to make a quick stop at his house. Ansbach says Pierce was very insistent they stay and have a drink. And after the women talked about leaving, Pierce gave all three of them, so-called special cocaine. Ansbach says he, Christy, and Hilda got sick immediately, and when he woke up hours later, he saw Christy without any signs of life.

Ansbach says he told Pierce to take Christy and Hilda to the hospital and says Pierce then said repeatedly, quote, Dead girls don't talk. I wouldn't say survivor. I'm a fighter. That's what I am. But police had at least one woman who could talk about David Pierce at his upcoming trial. He asked me if I wanted to drink, but it tasted really funny. And then I don't remember the next several hours after that.

Do you have a dark curiosity? Heart starts pounding, horrors, hauntings, and mysteries is a weekly podcast hosted by me, Kailen Moore. Each week, I'll take you on a dark journey through terrifying true urban legends, bizarre, true crime cases, chilling tales of backwoods horror and more. So if you're looking to join a passionate community of the Darkly Curious, Check out Heart Starts Pounding on the free Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. And remember, stay curious.

January 9th, 2025. Opening arguments begin in the trial of David Pierce, charged with felony murder, and Bran Osborne, charged with accessory after the fact. The evidence will show that the defendant knowingly gave Hilden and Chrissy, G.HP. and Fennell, knowing that it was dangerous. to their lives knowing that it could kill them, but he just didn't care. Defendant Osborne helped him get rid of any evidence to implicate defendant Pierce in the deaths of Christie and Hilda.

Prosecutor Catherine Mariano has marshaled the forensic evidence to make her case. The toxicology results that found fentanyl in both women and the date rape drug, GHB and Christie. Also, Pierce's DNA discovered on Chris. Christy's body and under Hilda's fingernails. This is no accident. This is no mistake. But in order to prove felony murder, she must show that Pierce incapacitated Christy and Hilda to rape them.

Without their testimony, she needs to establish he had a history of doing this to other women, putting drugs in their drinks, and then sexually assaulting them. He didn't care whether they lives or die. All he cared about was taking advantage of them. Here's where there's a problem. But defense attorney Jeff Vall says the fact that Christy and Hilda were using drugs before meeting Pierce that night means there is no case for murder. These young ladies unfortunately ingested fentany off and they died.

It's a shame. Mr. Pierce didn't kill him. Vol is sixth in a long line of lawyers who have represented David Pierce in this case. He knows his client is problematic. He's very demanding. He's very sure of himself. What David Pierce wants, David Pierce gets. He pushes her onto the bed.

Mariano has her own version of who David Pierce is, based on the accounts of the women who talked to investigators and chose to be anonymous. Jane No. 1. J-Doh number 2. Jane No. 3. Number 4. 5 or 6.

Number 7. It was important for me to come forward and get any information I could regarding this vile man. Jackie is Jane Doe No cameras were allowed in the courtroom for any of the testimony, but she agreed to talk with us about her experience with Pierce in 2010, when she was a 24-year-old law student looking for a room to rent. She testified about her meeting with Pierce at his apartment on West Olympic. Boulevard where he gave her a tour and offered a drink. I started to spin and, you know, I just became like disoriented.

You drink this drink, you start to feel dizzy, I'm sure, confused. What happens next? So the next thing I know, he was, you know, basically trying, I would say trying to rape me. So I started fighting him back. According to Jackie, he continued to assault her. He threw me onto the floor. He punched me in the face. When she tried to take her phone out, he grabbed her arms so hard, the phone flew and smashed into the wall.

Unsteady on her feet and unable to call for help, she did everything she could to escape. I had to crawl down the stairs. I was so disoriented and crawled down West Olympic Boulevard to my car, screaming for help. Though seriously injured and traumatized, she did not report it. There's a huge stigma that surrounds women that come forward with sexual assault. But when she heard about Christy and Hilda, she decided to act. In all, 20 women came forward.

Pierce was charged with seven sexual assaults. Detective Calvin Yu thinks that's just a fraction of those who suffered at the hands of David Pierce. Are there more Jane Does out there? Yes, I would definitely say so. How many do you believe? As a hundred. A hundred.

That's incredible, and that's just based on the people that you have spoken with directly. Yes. I'm just so grateful that they came forward, and I can't even imagine how the level of bravery that you have to have in order to testify to a room of strangers that you were so intimately violated. And as the women testified one by one, defense attorney Vol could see what was happening.

The prosecution strategy was working. The victims coming to court testifying, some who broke down in tears, all gave the same testimony, and I am watching the jury. They're looking at him, and the expression on the juror's faces are like, how could you? How could you do this? After the Jane Does testified, the prosecution called Pierce's friend, Michael Ansbach, who was in the apartment that night and later arrested along with Pierce and Osborne. Ansbach took this video of Christie and Hilda minutes after Pierce gave them wine and cocaine at the apartment.

Christy's lying on the couch. It looks like she's on her way to becoming unconscious. In his testimony, Ansbach again says, he also used the same cocaine, got violently ill, and then passed out. When he woke up, he said, Pierce asked him to check on Christie, and when he did, Ansbach said, it looked like she was not breathing. Hilda, he said, was in Pierce's bedroom. According to Ansbach, this is when Pierce told him, Dead Girls don't talk. Like Pierce and Osborne, Ansbach never called for help. His charges were later dropped. On day 11, and against the advice of his attorney, David Pierce, who pleaded not guilty, was sworn in and testified. So he got on his stand,

and he did his best to try to say everybody was wrong and he was right. He was apparently the only one telling the truth at the entire trial. On the 12th day, Pierce's roommate Brandt Osborne, who also pleaded not guilty, takes the stand. So Osborne's role was to help get rid of the bodies, first and foremost. He helped carry the girls at first. He helped formulate the plan in terms of what they're going to tell the security guards. Osborne testified he was dumbfounded by Pierce's behavior and was emotional, crying more than once on the stand, saying he played no part in a cover-up

because he didn't have a complete picture of what was really going on. Yon, for one, was not buying it. He's basically claiming to be an innocent bystander in the situation and that he's also a victim in the situation, but there are facts that prove that he helped David Pius covered up. The question is whether the jury will believe either man. After three weeks, the trial took a toll on Christie's family. We sat and had to hold our mouth closed.

Well, they battered, and I feel like they destroyed my daughter's reputation. It was definitely difficult being in the same room as them. Did I have an overwhelming urge to throw something really hot at their heads? Yeah. In closing, Prosecutor Mariano hits back at the defense. Just because Christy and Hilda did drugs on their own that night, doesn't make them responsible for their own deaths. David Pierce took care of that, Mariano argued.

He didn't care about violating them in the most awful way. He didn't care that by drugging Christy and Hilda that they could talk. And she repeats the words of Bondsbach attributed to David Piers, the words that rang in the ears of everyone who loved Christy and Hilda. He wanted them to die because dead girls don't talk. Good afternoon, everybody. Attorneys for Osborne and Pierce told jurors there simply was not enough direct evidence linking them to the crime and that there's a strong case for reasonable doubt. Now it's up to the jury to draw its own conclusion about Brandt Osborne and David Pierce.

Justy Giles made her decision a long time ago. Pierce is a sick, slimy lizard that sits and preys and sneaks and his bite is deadly. As we're sitting here waiting on the voting for the case, I just want to, um, I'm here for it until the end. For Christie's family, it's been a long and wrenching road. to get here. For you, what does justice for Christy look like? I mean, there's no justice for Christy. There's only preventing him from doing it again, I think.

That's the only justice we can get up. And for Hilda's mother, who could not travel to be in court, the last three years without her daughter have been its own trial. Nothing can bring her back again. But the whole she lives in, our lives will be always there. February 4th, 2025, after two days of deliberations, the jury is back. The matter of the people of the state of California versus David Brian Pierce,

we, the jury in above entitled action find the defendant, David Brian Pierce, guilty of the crime of first-degree murder upon Christy Giles. David Pierce, guilty. We get that guilty on the first one. and sigh of relief. Guilty of the crime of first-degree murder upon Hilda, Marcella Cabraeus Arzola. Hilda comes up, guilty again, another side of reliefs.

And then guilty of all the sexual assaults of seven Jane Does. I don't think I brief that all until I heard a guilty on every single one. A lot of relief, not just for my sake, but definitely for all of the victims. Jane Doe's finally had their day in court and were believed, I felt this huge weight released off me. It was almost like a euphoric feeling. We showed the jury what kind of man this is. But the jury is deadlocked when it comes to Brandt Osborne.

A mistrial is declared. I was surprised, definitely disappointed at the hung jury. I thought the trial made clear that he had definitely a hand. in their desk. What is there to question? He was aware of Christy's and Hilda's condition. He's a grown man that stands on his own two feet. He withheld medical help from Hilda and Christi until they were dead.

I'm not happy. They perfectly could save her life, and they chose to not do it. For me, that's not justice, at least in that part. I am here standing for me. And killed his mom, Marcel. Now, there's an unbreakable bond between the mothers who must live without their daughters. Our daughters individually were like soul sisters, both of them lost their souls at the hand of the same man, same way. and that will be forever entwine.

And before she leaves the courthouse, there is a final plea from Dusty. As much as it hurts to lose my baby girl, her body was able to tell the story and her sharing her location. Technology told us where she was, how long she was. So please, within your own families, share location.

You never know when you're going to not be able to get in touch with somebody. When you look at photos of Christy and Hilda, what do you see? I see beauty. I see myself when I was 24. I will remember them as strong, independent, women. I'll remember them as beautiful souls, free spirits, women that were coming to LA to pursue their dreams. Two young women who loved their families, Sand River,

their animals, and their lives. I want to remember her as the bright, beautiful soul that she was. Fernando, how do you hope your big sister is remembered? As someone who had a lot of dreams, ambitions, very intelligent, funny, She was happy to be alive. It pierce is awaiting sentencing. He faces a minimum of 148 years in prison.

The district attorney has not announced if Brandt Osborne will be retried. If you or someone you know is a victim of sexual assault, the national hotline is 800-656-4673 or online at r-a-in-n-n.org.