"Dead Girls Don't Talk"

Speaker 1 Studies show that 100% of everybody in the world wants to curl up indoors and do nothing because it's so darn cold out there.

Speaker 1 That's why many people are turning to Bambas, whose pillowy plush slippers and warm merino wool socks have been said to be the most comfortable in the history of feet.

Speaker 1 Bombas' products have been found to boost coziness by up to 1 million percent. Okay, enough fake statistics, but could bomba socks and slippers really be the cure?

Speaker 1 Go to bombas.com/slash audio and use code audio for 20% off your first purchase. That's bombbas.com and use code audio.

Speaker 3 It's never too early for Lowe's Black Friday deals. Snag some of our biggest savings of the season right now, like 25% off select pre-lit artificial Christmas trees.

Speaker 3 And get yourself free select DeWalt, Cobalt, or Craftsman tools when you buy a select battery or combo kit before the Black Friday rush. Because everyone loves free stuff, right? Lowe's, we help.

Speaker 3 You save. Valenter 12-3 while supplies last.
Selection varies by location.

Speaker 4 Powerful opening statements in the Hollywood overdose murder trial. David Peer sent Brand Osborne on trial for the deaths of two women, model Christy Giles and her architect friend Hilda Cabralis.

Speaker 8 This trial will not change what happened and will not bring my sister back or Christy.

Speaker 10 Christie's plan for the evening was to go out with some friends and have a fun night.

Speaker 6 Aloha!

Speaker 10 My name is Jan Silia and Christie was my wife.

Speaker 10 Christy loved to spread joy and laughter wherever she went.

Speaker 10 Hilda Marcella just moved from Mexico. She seemed very lovely and they were becoming fast friends.

Speaker 8 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.

Speaker 10 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.

Speaker 13 You're tracking Chrissy's phone.

Speaker 6 Yeah.

Speaker 13 Is this an address that you recognize?

Speaker 10 It's not an address I know.

Speaker 10 Around 5 p.m. I saw her location, had suddenly moved to an emergency room hospital.
My level of panic was growing and growing.

Speaker 10 I just knew that I had to try and get to the bottom of what happened.

Speaker 13 You blast out this address, and very quickly you get responses. Yeah.
What are those responses?

Speaker 10 That there's somebody that lives at this location that is a very unsavory person.

Speaker 15 David Pierce. Yeah.

Speaker 10 He passed himself off as a big shot Hollywood producer, but he was a con man with an alleged history of sexual assault.

Speaker 8 It wasn't clear what happened. We just knew she overdosed, and to me, my reaction was, who did this to her?

Speaker 13 So when you heard overdose, you immediately thought, drugged.

Speaker 11 Yeah, drugged.

Speaker 10 Definitely not something that she would have done to herself ever.

Speaker 10 It's just not her.

Speaker 14 Got a call at home, apparent overdose.

Speaker 6 Christy, she was deceased.

Speaker 14 Hilda was still on life support at that time.

Speaker 10 I give as much information as I can to the detectives.

Speaker 14 Jan had put a number of things out on social media, and it spread like wildfire.

Speaker 14 People recognized this guy right away, and they were urged to call us.

Speaker 16 Authorities say seven more women have come forward, claiming Pierce sexually assaulted them as well.

Speaker 17 J. Doe number one.

Speaker 9 J-Doe number two.

Speaker 17 Jane Doe, number three.

Speaker 12 Number four.

Speaker 18 Number five. Number six.
Number seven.

Speaker 19 Being a Jane Doe, we are the voice of both Christie and Hilda because they can't talk.

Speaker 17 Defendant Pierce wanted them to die. He wanted them to die because dead girls don't talk.

Speaker 17 Jonathan Bigliani reports, dead girls don't talk.

Speaker 14 For a fresh case, it's all on you. There's no,

Speaker 14 no one else is going to solve this thing for you. It's you and your partner.
That's it.

Speaker 6 And in November 2021, Detective Jonathan Vanderly and Detective Calvin Yu had to figure out why a lifeless woman was left at this emergency room.

Speaker 6 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.

Speaker 6 When the stretcher moves into the ER, it becomes clear the car has no license plates.

Speaker 6 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.

Speaker 6 They left without giving their names or phone numbers.

Speaker 14 They were masked, disguised.

Speaker 13 This must be adding up to something that sounds very sketchy to you.

Speaker 14 Very sketchy, but then you still have to figure out if an actual crime occurred.

Speaker 6 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.

Speaker 12 And I said, what do you mean she didn't make it? And then I I hung up and I fell apart.

Speaker 6 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.

Speaker 14 They never give their names,

Speaker 14 never leave their phone numbers, license plates, anything like that.

Speaker 6 That was Hilda Marcela Cabrales. The 26-year-old architect who is still alive in the ICU and fighting for her life.

Speaker 6 And in Durango, Mexico, her mother, Hilda Marcela Placencia, was getting the news about her eldest daughter and namesake.

Speaker 11 She was very bad. She was intubated.

Speaker 6 You are a doctor.

Speaker 13 What was going on in your mind at the time?

Speaker 11 What happened?

Speaker 11 What happened to her? Why is she that bad?

Speaker 6 And in the earliest hours of the investigation, there were only questions. How could this happen to Christy? It was an unimaginable ending to a life bursting with exuberance.

Speaker 12 Let's do some donuts.

Speaker 6 Christy was an adventurer, traveling the world as a high-fashion model for Wilhelmina.

Speaker 6 She ultimately made LA her home.

Speaker 24 Christie Giles, I live in Venice, California, and I am an artist.

Speaker 6 At 21, her life took a dramatic turn. She met Jan Silier, a South African-born artist, photographer, and special effects editor, 17 years her senior.

Speaker 6 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.

Speaker 10 We just decided to elope. We just got married right there.

Speaker 10 We said to each other that, you know, life's very short, so we kind of really just proposed to each other, and the next day we got married.

Speaker 6 After they got married, Christie started studying interior design in Los Angeles, which led to a new friendship with Hilda Marcella.

Speaker 6 Hilda had just moved there to start her dream job, recalls her father, Luis.

Speaker 25 I feel very happy for her, but very sad for me, because we are very close.

Speaker 6 No one was surprised that the cum laude graduate of the prestigious university in Monterrey, Mexico

Speaker 6 was thriving in LA,

Speaker 6 especially her sister Fernanda.

Speaker 8 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.

Speaker 6 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.

Speaker 6 He knew she and Hilda had planned a girls' night out, starting at Soho House, and then on to a warehouse party after midnight to see a favorite DJ.

Speaker 6 A friend who was with them said they did ketamine, a popular club drug.

Speaker 6 But by the next day, Jan was on his way home, knowing Christy was gone.

Speaker 13 In less than 24 hours, your world was turned upside down.

Speaker 6 Shattered.

Speaker 10 Yeah.

Speaker 6 Hilda's father and mother rushed to be by her side. When they arrived, they found their daughter on life support.

Speaker 12 My heart broke in thousand pieces because I saw my

Speaker 12 baby and conscience.

Speaker 12 I'm fighting for her life.

Speaker 21 I said, is this real?

Speaker 11 Am I dreaming?

Speaker 11 I took her hand and I said, mom's here with you. You're not alone.

Speaker 6 Christy's autopsy revealed that in addition to ketamine, she had cocaine, fentanyl, and GHB, known as the date rape drug, in her system.

Speaker 13 Are these drugs that Christie would take willingly?

Speaker 10 I mean, that combination of drugs sounds deadly to me.

Speaker 12 So, like,

Speaker 12 no.

Speaker 6 Jan needed answers, so he began to build a timeline based on the digital trail Christy left behind. Information gathered from her messages and phone, which he was able to track.

Speaker 10 I wanted to get to the bottom of exactly what happened that night.

Speaker 6 He already knew what she'd been doing before she went out for the evening.

Speaker 10 She was enjoying a lovely sunset. She took our cat for a walk on the beach.
Sand Panther.

Speaker 10 Those were the last pictures she sent me of herself.

Speaker 5 And she said, I wish you were here and I will forever wish that I was there too.

Speaker 6 Jan was able to track Christie's phone to a residence located at 8641 West Olympic Boulevard. At 5.30 a.m., Christie sends Hilda a wide-eye emoji and says, let's go.
Hilda replies, I'll call an Uber.

Speaker 6 10 minutes away.

Speaker 10 The fact that they're both in the same house text messaging each other they need to leave is very worrying.

Speaker 6 That was the last text message that Christie or Hilda ever sent. That Uber arrived, waited five minutes, and drove away empty.

Speaker 13 How did you process that?

Speaker 10 I mean, it's just confirming my worst fears again that they were there at that place against their will.

Speaker 2 It's 3 a.m. You're wide awake, soaked in sweat.
You're not broken. You're just a hot sleeper.

Speaker 2 The Perfectly Snug Smart Tumper actively cools your bed all night long, keeping you at the perfect temperature. We even have a burst mode for focus cold air.

Speaker 2 No more songy sheets, just deep, cool, uninterrupted sleep. Shop now at our biggest sales event of the year and save up to $330.
Use code Black Friday.

Speaker 2 Visit perfectly snug.com and finally sleep like the cool person you are.

Speaker 1 FSA HSA payment options available.

Speaker 13 What's going on in your mind from that detective standpoint when you're about to arrive?

Speaker 14 at a scene. You don't want to form an opinion prior to getting there, but you are kind of mulling over the evidence.

Speaker 14 You're thinking about it, you're thinking about what questions you want to ask.

Speaker 6 Acting on information supplied by Jan, LAPD detective Jonathan Vanderly 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.

Speaker 13 And this is where the Uber that Chris and Hilda called that night would have waited.

Speaker 12 Right off front, yep.

Speaker 13 10 minutes between life and death.

Speaker 12 Tall tech.

Speaker 6 It was the home of 39-year-old David Pierce. Police would learn Christie and Hilda had met him for the first time at that warehouse party.

Speaker 6 Police also discovered Pierce had a registration for a Black Prius and found it parked behind the building. It matched the car seen at both hospitals down to the black rims.

Speaker 6 Pierce lived on the second floor with a roommate, Brant Osborne, 42.

Speaker 14 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.

Speaker 13 You identify yourself.

Speaker 14 Yes, completely. LAPD opened the door, and then there's just complete silence.

Speaker 6 After about 15 minutes, he says Pierce and Osborne came out. Pierce denied owning a Prius.

Speaker 14 So I immediately get a lie.

Speaker 6 Do you leave?

Speaker 14 No, I interview Mr. Osbourne.

Speaker 6 At first, he says Osbourne denied seeing Christy and Hilda at all.

Speaker 14 He changes his stories numerous times. At first, there's no girls had been at that location whatsoever.
I tell him on the interview, I listen, I know you're lying. It's extremely obvious.

Speaker 14 You're very nervous.

Speaker 6 Vander Lee 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.

Speaker 6 He said he and Pierce chose to go to two separate hospitals because, quote, we didn't know how it would look.

Speaker 6 Pierce, police say, did later admit he owned the Prius, but lied again, saying his license plates had been stolen. Vanderly says he saw those plates on the ground by the

Speaker 6 Then the men agreed to let detectives inside.

Speaker 14 Two beds had been stripped. There was a washing machine that had been recently used.
It was still wet.

Speaker 13 Is there anything else that stands out to you?

Speaker 14 There was a safe in his room with baggies, which is indicative of narcotics. He said they're for crafts, for arts and crafts.

Speaker 6 By now, Vanderly says he knew Pierce and Osborne had dropped Hilda and Christie off and believed Pierce had drugged them. But he didn't have enough evidence to make an arrest.

Speaker 14 He thought he beat us that night for sure.

Speaker 12 He was happy.

Speaker 13 He smiled and said goodbye. Yeah.
Thanks, detectives. Yep.
But that wasn't where it ended for you.

Speaker 12 No, not by a long shot.

Speaker 6 Vanderlee knew he needed more evidence and turned to his colleague, Detective Calvin Yu.

Speaker 13 You hear the name David Pierce. What goes on in your mind?

Speaker 15 Well, the first thing is, who did he sexually assault this time?

Speaker 6 Detective Yu had investigated Pierce in 2020 for sexually assaulting a 19-year-old.

Speaker 15 She was raped while she was unconscious.

Speaker 6 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.

Speaker 6 Detective Yu knew Pierce had other prior charges, including another rape charge from 2014 that was also not prosecuted.

Speaker 15 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.

Speaker 15 When he picks his victim, he goes to step two, which is bragging about himself.

Speaker 6 Pierce relies on lies, detectives say, to set his trap.

Speaker 14 He needed 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.

Speaker 13 An intern.

Speaker 12 Yeah.

Speaker 6 They say his next step is to drug his victims and incapacitate them, often with a drink.

Speaker 15 After they take this drink, he goes to step four, which is the sexual assault.

Speaker 6 Police would learn both Christie and Hilda showed signs of sexual assault, but they feared they would face challenges making the case.

Speaker 13 How difficult is it to prove a crime took place when the victims were recreationally using drugs?

Speaker 14 This makes the case extremely hard. I told Jan early on that this was going to be a near impossible case to prove.

Speaker 14 Yeah, at first it's who'd done it.

Speaker 14 It just became what actually happened. And that's what was the difficulty of this case.

Speaker 6 Detective Jonathan Vanderly says the pressure was on to locate any evidence of what happened after Christy and Hilda met David Pierce that night.

Speaker 14 Video starts expiring. These DVRs, it's a continent.
You got to get this evidence before it disappears.

Speaker 6 Police did have some luck, starting with this footage from outside that warehouse party,

Speaker 6 which they say shows the women leaving with Pierce, Osborne, and a friend of theirs, 47-year-old Michael Ansbach, on their way to Pierce's apartment.

Speaker 6 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.

Speaker 6 Let's do a line. Witnesses say Pierce supplied that cocaine, which Jan says was not a common choice for Christy.

Speaker 10 Maybe it was late at night and she wanted to get less high. It's not something she would do regularly.

Speaker 6 Police determined the group arrived at Pierce's apartment a little after 5 a.m.

Speaker 6 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.

Speaker 6 Police say Osborne is carrying her bag. 35 minutes later at the hospital, Pierce, wearing a black sweatshirt, helps take Christie's body out of the car.

Speaker 6 Osborne looks on.

Speaker 6 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.

Speaker 6 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.

Speaker 6 For two weeks, Hilda was on life support.

Speaker 6 With no hope of regaining consciousness, her family gathered to say their goodbyes.

Speaker 13 Hilda, what were your final moments with your daughter?

Speaker 11 They were so hard, you know.

Speaker 11 And I just was asking God to not let her suffer more.

Speaker 12 I remember telling her that

Speaker 12 you can leave

Speaker 12 and just thanking her

Speaker 12 for being my sister.

Speaker 12 I told her, maybe,

Speaker 12 when I pass away, I will see you again.

Speaker 6 And I gave you a big hug, a kiss.

Speaker 6 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.

Speaker 11 The medical team was clapping to honor her, to say thank you for giving life to others.

Speaker 6 Like Christy, Hilda had suffered a drug overdose. Toxicology reports would later reveal that she had cocaine, MDMA or ecstasy, and elevated levels of fentanyl in her system.

Speaker 6 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.

Speaker 6 Neither Pierce nor Osborne nor Ansbach called for help.

Speaker 11 It makes me get angry because she was suffering and nobody, nobody helped her.

Speaker 13 How hard is it to prove this narrative when the victims can't even testify on their own behalf?

Speaker 15 If we were just investigating Christie and Hilda's alone, very difficult.

Speaker 6 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 it we're here for you we started getting a lot of calls

Speaker 6 as police continued building their case jan received a call that pierce and osborn were on the move he recorded this video of the men loading up a moving van the day after hilda died

Speaker 6 Police say Pierce had also changed his phone number, and it took them a week to locate him again.

Speaker 13 So the pressure is on. You got to get this guy.

Speaker 14 I got to come up with something quick, yes.

Speaker 27 Police have arrested three men in connection with the deaths of a model and her friend last month.

Speaker 6 On December 15th, 2021, David Pierce, Brant Osborne, and Michael Ansbach were arrested in connection with Hilda and Christie's deaths.

Speaker 6 The detectives still knew next to nothing about what had happened inside that apartment. Vanderly says they decided to take a gamble and bring the men in.

Speaker 14 This is the only way we're going to get the info we need.

Speaker 6 Once the men were in custody, police conducted interviews with them one by one.

Speaker 14 Kind of played with the rotation and it worked out exceedingly well.

Speaker 6 They secretly recorded Pierce and Osborne while Ansbach was talking to police.

Speaker 14 Pierce says, I hope Ansbach's not up there telling him I gave them drugs and wine.

Speaker 6 When it was his turn, Pierce denied giving the women drugs.

Speaker 12 He was told it was like a very bad batch of fentanyl that was going around.

Speaker 6 This was suspicious because information that the women had likely died from fentanyl had not been released.

Speaker 12 I knew these girls died from fentanyl, but nobody else knew.

Speaker 6 Two months after his arrest, Ansbach reached out to police with details of what he says he witnessed that night.

Speaker 6 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.

Speaker 6 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.

Speaker 6 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,

Speaker 6 Dead girls don't talk.

Speaker 19 I wouldn't say survivor. I'm a fighter.
That's what I am.

Speaker 6 But police had at least one woman who could talk about David Pierce at his upcoming trial.

Speaker 19 He asked me if I wanted a drink, but it tasted really funny. And then I don't remember the next several hours after that.

Speaker 29 It's okay not to be perfect with finances.

Speaker 28 Experian is your big financial friend and here to help.

Speaker 29 Did you know you can get matched with credit cards on the app?

Speaker 28 Some cards are labeled no ding decline, which means if you're not approved, they won't hurt your credit scores. Download the Experian app for free today.

Speaker 28 Applying for no ding decline cards won't hurt your credit scores if you aren't initially approved. Initial approval will result in a hard inquiry, which may impact your credit scores.

Speaker 30 This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Do you ever find yourself playing the budgeting game?

Speaker 30 Well, with the name Your Price tool from Progressive, you can find options that fit your budget and potentially lower your bills. Try it at progressive.com.

Speaker 30 Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and Affiliates. Price and coverage match limited by state law.
Not available in all states.

Speaker 6 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.

Speaker 17 That is will show that the defendant knowingly gave Hilda and Chrissy GHB and fennel, knowing that it was dangerous to their lives, knowing that it could kill them.

Speaker 21 But he just didn't care. Defendant Osborne helped him get rid of any evidence to implicate Defendant Pierce in the deaths of Chrissy and Hilda.

Speaker 6 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 in Christie.

Speaker 6 Also, Pierce's DNA discovered on Christie's body and under Hilda's fingernails.

Speaker 20 This is no accident.

Speaker 20 This is no mistake.

Speaker 6 But in order to prove felony murder, she must show that Pierce incapacitated Christie and Hilda to rape them.

Speaker 6 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.

Speaker 9 He didn't care whether they lived or died.

Speaker 20 All he cared about was taking advantage of them.

Speaker 5 Here's where there's a problem.

Speaker 6 But defense attorney Jeff Fall says the fact that Christie and Hilda were using drugs before meeting Pierce that night means there is no case for murder.

Speaker 18 These young ladies unfortunately ingested fentanyl and they died. It's a shame, but Mr.
Pierce didn't kill them.

Speaker 6 Vall 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.

Speaker 5 He's very sure of himself.

Speaker 5 What David Pierce wants, David Pierce gets.

Speaker 20 He pushes her onto the bed.

Speaker 6 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.

Speaker 20 Jane number one.

Speaker 9 Jane Doe number two.

Speaker 17 Jane Doe number three.

Speaker 18 Number four, five or six. Number seven.

Speaker 19 It was important for me to come forward and

Speaker 19 get any information I could regarding this file, man.

Speaker 6 Jackie is Jane Doe number two.

Speaker 6 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.

Speaker 6 She testified about her meeting with Pierce at his apartment on West Olympic Boulevard, where he gave her a tour and offered a drink.

Speaker 19 I started to spin and,

Speaker 19 you know, I just became like disoriented.

Speaker 13 You drink this drink, you start to feel dizzy, I'm sure, confused.

Speaker 14 What happens next?

Speaker 19 So the next thing I know,

Speaker 19 he was, you know, basically trying,

Speaker 19 I would say trying to rape me. So I started fighting him back.

Speaker 6 According to Jackie, he continued to assault her.

Speaker 19 He threw me onto the floor. He punched me in the face.

Speaker 6 When she tried to take her phone out, he grabbed her arm 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.

Speaker 19 I had to crawl down the stairs. I was so disoriented and crawled down West Olympic Boulevard to my car, screaming for help.

Speaker 6 Though seriously injured and traumatized, she did not report it.

Speaker 19 There's a huge stigma that surrounds women that come forward with sexual assault.

Speaker 6 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.

Speaker 6 Detective Calvin Yu thinks that's just a fraction of those who suffered at the hands of David Pierce.

Speaker 13 Are there more Jane Does out there? Yes, I would definitely say so. How many do you believe?

Speaker 15 I say 100.

Speaker 13 100. That's incredible.
And that's just based on the people that you have spoken with directly.

Speaker 15 Yes.

Speaker 10 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.

Speaker 6 And as the women testified one by one, Defense Attorney Vall could see what was happening. The prosecution strategy was working.

Speaker 5 The victims coming to court testifying, some who broke down in tears, All gave the same testimony. And I am watching the jury.

Speaker 5 They're looking at him him and the expression on the jurors' faces are like, how could you?

Speaker 5 How could you do this?

Speaker 6 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.

Speaker 6 Ansbach took this video of Christie and Hilda minutes after Pierce gave them wine and cocaine at the apartment.

Speaker 14 Christie's lying on the couch. It looks like she's on her way to becoming unconscious.

Speaker 6 In his testimony, Ansbach again said he also used the same cocaine, got violently ill, and then passed out.

Speaker 6 When he woke up, he said, Pierce asked him to check on Christy, and when he did, Ansbach said, it looked like she was not breathing.

Speaker 6 Hilda, he said, was in Pierce's bedroom. According to Ansbach, this is when Pierce told him, dead girls don't talk.

Speaker 6 Like Pierce and Osborne, Ansbach never called for help. His charges were later dropped.

Speaker 6 On day 11, and against the advice of his attorney, David Pierce, who pleaded not guilty, was sworn in and testified.

Speaker 15 So he got on the stand and he did his best to try to say everybody was wrong and he was right.

Speaker 14 He was apparently the only one telling the truth at the entire trial.

Speaker 6 On the 12th day, Pierce's roommate Grant Osborne, who also pleaded not guilty, takes the stand.

Speaker 14 So Osborne's role was to help get rid of the bodies first and foremost.

Speaker 6 He helped carry the girls at first.

Speaker 14 He helped formulate the plan in terms of what they're going to tell the security guards.

Speaker 6 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.

Speaker 6 Jan, for one, was not buying it.

Speaker 10 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 Pierce cover it up.

Speaker 6 The question is whether the jury will believe either man.

Speaker 6 After three weeks, the trial took a toll on Christie's family.

Speaker 12 We sat and had a hold.

Speaker 12 Our mouth closed while they battered.

Speaker 4 And I feel like they destroyed my daughter's reputation.

Speaker 10 It was definitely difficult being in the same room as them.

Speaker 10 Did I have an overwhelming urge to throw something really hot at their heads? Yeah.

Speaker 6 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.

Speaker 6 David Pierce took care of that, Mariano argued.

Speaker 20 He didn't care about violating them in the most awful way.

Speaker 20 He didn't care that by drugging Christy and Hilda that they could die.

Speaker 6 And she repeats the words of bonsbach attributed to david pierce 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

Speaker 6 hey 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

Speaker 6 Now it's up to the jury to draw its own conclusion about Brant Osborne and David Pierce.

Speaker 6 Justy Giles made her decision a long time ago.

Speaker 12 Pierce is a sick, slimy lizard that sits and prays and sneaks,

Speaker 10 and his bite is deadly.

Speaker 10 As we're sitting here waiting on the verdict for the case, I just want to

Speaker 10 let me until the end.

Speaker 6 For Christie's family, it's been a long and wrenching road to get here.

Speaker 13 For you, what does justice for Christie look like?

Speaker 12 I mean,

Speaker 10 there's no justice for Christie. There's only preventing him from doing it again, I think.
That's the only justice we can get.

Speaker 6 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.

Speaker 23 Nothing can bring her back again.

Speaker 23 But the hole she leaves in our lives will be always there.

Speaker 6 February 4th, 2025, after two days of deliberations, the jury is back.

Speaker 31 Matter of the people of the state of California versus David Brian Pierce, we, the jury in the above entitled Action, find the defendant David Brian Pierce guilty of the crime of first-degree murder upon Christy Giles.

Speaker 6 David Pierce, guilty.

Speaker 15 We get that guilty on the first one and sigh of relief.

Speaker 31 Guilty of the crime of first-degree murder upon Hilda Marcela Cabreas Arzola.

Speaker 15 Hilda comes up. Guilty again.
Another sigh of reliefs.

Speaker 6 And then guilty of all the sexual assaults of seven Jane Does.

Speaker 15 I don't think I breathe at all until I heard a guilty on every single one.

Speaker 20 A lot of relief, not just for my sake, but definitely for all of the victims.

Speaker 22 Jane Does finally had their day in court and were believed.

Speaker 19 I felt this huge weight released.

Speaker 12 Off me.

Speaker 19 It was almost like a euphoric feeling. We showed the jury what kind of man this is.

Speaker 6 But the jury is deadlocked when it comes to Brandt Osborne. A mistrial is declared.

Speaker 20 I was surprised, definitely disappointed at the hung jury. I thought the trial made clear that he had definitely a hand in their deaths.

Speaker 22 What is there to question? He was aware of Christie's and Hilda's condition.

Speaker 22 He's a grown man that stands on his own two feet. He withheld medical help from Hilda and Christy until they were dead.

Speaker 23 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.

Speaker 22 I am here standing for me

Speaker 22 and...

Speaker 22 Hilda's mom, Marcella.

Speaker 6 Now, there's an unbreakable bond between the mothers who must live without their daughters.

Speaker 12 Our daughters individually were like soul sisters.

Speaker 32 Both of them lost their souls at the hand of the same man, the same way, and that will be forever entwined.

Speaker 6 And before she leaves the courthouse, there is a final plea from Dusty.

Speaker 22 As much as it hurts to lose my baby girl, her body was able to tell the story.

Speaker 22 And her sharing her location, technology, she told us where she was, how long she was. So please,

Speaker 22 within your own families, share locations. You never know

Speaker 22 when you're going to

Speaker 22 not be able to get in touch with somebody.

Speaker 13 When you look at photos of Christy and Hilda, what do you see?

Speaker 11 I see beauty.

Speaker 19 I see myself when I was 24.

Speaker 19 I will remember them as strong, independent women.

Speaker 19 I will remember them as beautiful souls, free spirits, women that were coming to LA to pursue their dreams.

Speaker 6 Two young women who loved their families.

Speaker 12 Sand pamphlets.

Speaker 6 Their animals

Speaker 6 and their lives.

Speaker 12 I want to remember her as the bright, beautiful soul that she was.

Speaker 13 Fernanda, how do you hope your big sister is remembered?

Speaker 8 As someone who had a lot of dreams, ambitions, very intelligent, funny.

Speaker 17 She was happy to be alive.

Speaker 33 David Pierce is awaiting sentencing. He faces a minimum of 148 years in prison.

Speaker 33 The district attorney has not announced if Brand Osborne will be retried.

Speaker 33 If you or someone you know is a victim of sexual assault, the national hotline is 800-656-4673 or online at rainn.org.