‘She was somebody’s daughter': Mother of Gardendale model killed by Hollywood producer shares story

JEFFERSON COUNTY, Ala. (WBRC) - The death of Christy Giles in 2021 at the hands of a Hollywood producer made national headlines.

Giles, a Gardendale native, was a model living in Los Angeles when she and her friend Hilda Cabrales-Arzola were killed.

Christy’s parents, who still live in North Jefferson County, say the pain of losing their beloved daughter Christy was unimaginable, but their battle for justice over the past three years has only added to that pain.

“She was somebody’s daughter, she was somebody’s wife, sister, best friend, cousin, that had dreams of hopefully one day moving back to Alabama,” said Dusty Giles, the mother of Christy Giles.

While model Christy Giles found success internationally, the girl from Gardendale never forgot her roots.

“She would come home for what she would call her relaxing recharging and re-centering herself,” Dusty Giles said. “She said, you know I just need to get away.”

For those who loved Christy most, their world came crashing down in November 2021 when she went out with friends and crossed paths with David Pearce, a self-proclaimed Hollywood producer who Dusty says took interest in Christy’s friend, Hilda.

“She was taught you never leave without the ones you came with,” Giles said.

Giles says Christy’s husband, Jan Cilliers, who was out of town the night she died, had been texting with Christy and keeping an eye on her location immediately noticed when her location changed from where she had said she was going to be.

“He sees she detours and goes to another address. She stays there and it keeps pinging and pinging, and this is early in the morning and it was in West Hollywood, and Christy used to live there with friends and still had a lot of friends who lived there in the area, but when he woke up the next morning it was still pinging,” Dusty Giles said.

The next location of Christy’s phone was a hospital. When Dusty called, she got the worst news a mother could get.

“I said Christy is dead, and he screamed out,” Giles described. “I’m like ‘I know what she didn’t make it means, but I’m asking you what, how, why was she stabbed, was she ran over, car accident, what’s going on, and he said she was dropped off by two individuals wearing masks in a car with no tags and basically dumped on the street like garbage.”

Dusty described getting law enforcement to dig deeper into the case was an uphill battle.

“My plea was for the coroner to look for what was in her system and when and why it’s in her system and how much is in her system,” Giles said. “The coroner’s office and the police department to not just look at this as two overdosed girls that were partying and dropped off by the people they were partying with, that these were not those girls.”

Over the last three years, the details of what went on in the West Hollywood apartment slowly came to light.

“The last text that was sent was Christy sent Hilda a text while sitting in the living room with David and all of them around, but instead of talking to each other, Christy texted Hilda ‘lets get out of here’ with a wide eye emoji and Hilda said ‘agreed, Uber called be here in ten minutes,” Giles said.

According to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office, while at the apartment with two other men, Pearce gave Christy and Hilda GHB, also known as the ‘date rape drug’, and fentanyl, causing Giles and Cabrales-Arzola to fatally overdose.

“He immediately offered them a glass of wine, and in the wine was the GHB. He immediately took both of their willpower, both of their independence, both of their reasoning and a way to defend themselves,” Dusty Giles said.

As law enforcement investigated, more women who had survived similar experiences with Pearce began to come forward.

“I think 11 women testified in all and were brave enough to get on the stand and tell their horrifying embarrassment, their story,” Giles said. “Every single one of them were given GHB or some other drug.”

While Dusty Giles felt some relief with Pearce’s conviction, she says it will never undo what he did to her daughter.

“Two men decided to let her lay there until she was dead long enough that they thought that the other one wouldn’t get in trouble, because David Pearce kept saying he already had two case records, that he cant get another one,” Giles said. “If they just had called 911, an ambulance, taken them when they first started going out, but the thing is they chose for both of the girls when it was time for them to vacate their apartment, and that was when they were dead.”

Prosecutors in Los Angeles say Christy’s story helped bring Pearce’s dangerous pattern to light.

“When I say how important was Christy’s case in particular, I think it showed just how dangerous his conduct was and how it could ultimately cost someone’s life,” said Catherine Mariano, a Los Angeles County deputy district attorney in the sex crimes division.

On February 5, Pearce was convicted by a jury on two counts of first degree murder in the deaths of Christy and Hilda, as well as the sexual assaults of seven other women between 2007 and 2021. He faces 148 years in prison. A sentencing date will soon be announced.

The jury was unable to reach a unanimous verdict on accessory charges that Brandt Osborn faces in the case. Osborn will soon return to court for a pretrial hearing.

Dusty and her husband have accrued considerable expenses traveling back and forth to Los Angeles in the last three years getting justice for Christy. If you’d like to help them, you can donate to their GoFundMe by clicking or tapping here.

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