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First Watch: “Dead Girls Don’t Talk”: Fake Hollywood Producer Will Serve 146 Years
00:27:22
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- [00:02]
Katie Ring
Hi, it's Katie. I'm excited to let you know that you can watch video episodes of Crime House Daily Night Watch on Spotify. It's the same gripping true crime stories you've been getting here now with added videos and photos that give you even more depth and detail into each case. Search Night Watch on Spotify and hit follow so you never miss an episode. This is Crime House. Dead girls don't talk. These are the words the suspect in our first case allegedly said when his friend was trying to convince him to take the two victims in the case to the hospital to save their lives. And that isn't the only allegation that speaks to this guy's character. Our second case takes us across the pond where one man's life was completely unraveled after his own wife tried to have him murdered. Let's get into it. With two women dead and seven others sexually assaulted, a jury in February found David Pierce to not only be a.
- [01:12]
Narrator/Interviewer
Serial rapist, but a murderer as well. He let Christy actually die and kept her for a very, very long. Wasn't a junkie some type of plaything for you to take home and shove all the drugs in her that you could and then leave her and let her die and then basically throw her out like garbage?
- [01:42]
Katie Ring
Hi, welcome to Crime House Daily. I'm your host Katie Ring. Here we're following the cases making headlines now, where justice is still unfolding. Follow us wherever you're listening and if you want ad free episodes, subscribe to Crime House plus on Apple Podcasts. As a disclaimer, this episode discusses active criminal cases and breaking news. The information we share is based on what's publicly available at the time of recording and may change as new evidence comes to light. We aim to inform, not to decide, guilt or innocence. So everyone mentioned is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
- [02:24]
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- [02:57]
Katie Ring
In November 2021, a pair of men dropped off 24 year old Christy Giles and 26 year old Hilda Cabralis Arzola at two different hospitals in LA. The men were wearing masks and the car they were driving had no license plates. Hospital staff scrambled to save the women who were unresponsive. But unfortunately, there was nothing they could do. Christy and Hilda, who were longtime friends, were declared dead at the hospital. And now LA investigators had to figure out who was behind it. Soon, a man with a sordid past landed on their radar. A 42 year old so called Hollywood producer named David Pierce. And when authorities uncovered more about David's alleged past crimes, it was only a matter of time before he was brought to justice. On October 29, 2025, David was sentenced to 146 years to life in prison after being convicted of two counts of murder and multiple counts of sexual assault. And while Chrissy and Hilda can never get back the beautiful lives they were building for themselves, hopefully no one else will ever suffer at the hands of David Pierce. So who were Christy and Hilda? Let's dive in. In 2019, Hilda graduated at the top of her class from a university in Mexico where she studied architecture. That same year, she moved to Los Angeles to start working, her dream job. And that's where she met Christy, a model from Alabama. Chrissy had a husband named Yan Silliers, an actor who she married at a ceremony at the Burning Man Festival. Chrissy and Hilda became fast friends and when they weren't working, they liked to blow off a little steam together at parties, especially where they could dance to their favorite music. That was their plan. On November 12, 2021. Chrissy spent the day relaxing at the beach. She even brought her beloved cat along and sent Jan videos of them together. Jan was in San Francisco visiting family, so Kristy had plans with Hilda that night. Later on in the day, she met up with Hilda and they got ready for their night out on the town. They started off at an art exhibit at the Soho House in West Hollywood, then met up with a third friend to go to a warehouse party about 20 miles southeast of the exhibit. Christy's favorite DJ was performing at the party and as soon as they stepped into the purple glow of the club lights, the three friends were living it up. They danced together and after a little while, the third friend left. Then, as Christy and Hilda kept enjoying themselves, three men approached them. 39 year old David Pierce, his roommate, 41 year old Brandt Walter Osborne, and an acquaintance of theirs, 47 year old Michael Onsbach. David introduced himself to Christy and Hilda and told them he was a Hollywood producer. However, this was a total lie. His friends knew this was just a pickup line and he used this strategy on Hilda, who chatted with David for a while. Before going into the VIP section with him. Meanwhile, Kristi broke away from the group to text yan sometime between 1 and 2am yawn was already asleep, so he wouldn't see his wife's good night message until the next day. Then around 4.30am, Chrissy and Hilda got into a car with David and two other friends and they left the venue together. When Jan woke up the next morning, he texted Kristi good morning. But Chrissy didn't respond. And at first, Yan wasn't too worried. He knew Chrissy had been out partying the night before and figured she was just sleeping in. But then hours passed and Yan still hadn't heard from her. On November 14, he checked her location. And that's when he noticed that she was at an unfamiliar address in west la. When even more time passed without hearing from her, Yawn checked Chrissy's location again. This time she was at the hospital located just south of the strange address in west la. Now, Jan was alarmed. He immediately called Chrissy's parents in Alabama to ask if they had heard from her, but they hadn't. So then Jan called the third friend who had been with Chrissy and Hilda the night before. But she said she hadn't spoken to either of them since she last saw them. Not only that, the friend also had checked Hilda's location earlier that day and noticed the strange address. At this point, Jan knew something was seriously wrong. So he packed his bags and raced back to la. Meanwhile, some horrifying revelations were unfolding for Hilda's loved ones. Hilda's mother had received a call in the middle of the night from another hospital about two miles away from where Kristy seemed to be located. Hospital staff told Hilda's mom that she was severely ill and had to be intubated. And that morning, around the same time Jan was trying to track down Kristy, Hilda's mom and other family members rushed to her bedside. Troubles kept mounting from there because Christy's family also got a call from the hospital where she was. However, this call was more dire because, tragically, Christy was dead. As Hilda's family sat by her bedside, it became clear that she wouldn't make it either. Two weeks later, Hilda passed away. Both women's autopsies showed toxic levels of cocaine and fentanyl in their systems. Christie's system also contained ketamine and ghb, also known as the date rape drug. And someone else's DNA was found under her fingernails, indicating some kind of struggle. Authorities were already looking into the matter, and shortly after the autopsy results came in, they shared even more disturbing details with the women's families. Chrissy and Hilda had each been dropped off at their respective hospitals by two men in masks driving a black Prius with no license plates. At the time of their drop offs, they were both already unresponsive. However, hospital staff never even had a chance to try and save Kristi because tragically, she was already dead when she was left outside of the hospital. Baffled and heartbroken, the families began digging into what happened that fateful night. Social media videos showed the women dancing, and surveillance footage showed them leaving in a car with David and the other men around 4:30am Witness testimony also supported these details, but this wasn't much for detectives to go on, especially since they didn't know who David and the other men were at this point. So to try and help piece things together, Yawn logged on to Kristi's laptop and found her last text with Hilda from the night and early morning, and their messages revealed some clues that were haunting.
- [09:45]
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- [10:49]
Katie Ring
Jan had access Kristy and Hilda's text messages leading up to their mysterious deaths. Chrissy and Hilda's messages suggested that the women regretted their decision to leave the party with David and the other men. At 5.30am, after the women had been at David's house for about 35 minutes, Christy texted Hilda, let's go. With a scared looking emoji. Hilda responded, I'll call an Uber. Then, shortly after, she said it was 10 minutes away from there. Uber records showed that Hilda did order a ride, but when the car arrived, it waited outside for a while before leaving. Investigators and the women's loved ones were at yet another dead end in their search for answers. Desperate for more clues, Yan took to social media. On November 14, he posted on his Instagram story, sharing the details about the masked men and the black Prius and asking for anyone with information to come forward. For the next month, Yan continued posting about the investigation on social media, and at the same time, the case was making headlines. While investigators haven't provided the full details of how they started zeroing in on the suspects, there are a couple things that have been confirmed. First, investigators poured through video evidence and were able to identify David Brandt and Michael as the men Kristi and Hilda were with that night. From there, as the story of Christy and Hilda's death made waves, other women in the area began reaching out to investigators with some crucial information about David. These women told detectives that he had drugged and assaulted them as well. In the past, there were several accusations going all the way back to 2005, and they involved accounts of David drugging, assaulting, and raping his accusers. A woman that David used to live with in 2010 even told detectives that that he had a lot of women in and out of the apartment, and some seemed to be too drunk to give consent. David was even investigated in 2014 for one of these incidents, but he was never charged. After piecing together all of these clues, investigators determined that David sold Hilda on his lies about a Hollywood career. Then he invited both women back to his place, where he proceeded to heavily drug them. He may have even spiked their drink so they wouldn't realize what was happening, and he may have done this when he realized they were trying to leave. Then, after a few hours, David realized the young women were completely unresponsive and made a desperate attempt to get away with what he'd done by enlisting the help of one of his friends to secretly drop them off at hospitals. On December 15, 2021, a month after Kristi and Hilda were killed, David was arrested, and so were Brandt and Michael. Brandt was charged with two counts of accessory to murder after the fact and pleaded not guilty. David was initially arrested on suspicion of manslaughter, but soon the deaths were officially classified as homicides, and he was then charged with two counts of murder as well as seven counts of sexual assault for his past crimes. The sexual assault charges included three counts of forcible Rape. Two counts of sexual penetration by use of force, one count of rape of an unconscious person, and one count of sodomy by use of force. And that's not all. Once David was in custody, his DNA was compared to samples found on Chrissy and Hilda's bodies, including some underneath Hilda's fingernails, and it was a match. Now authorities wondered if the women had in fact realized what David was up to and tried to fight back. Unfortunately, we may never know the full truth. But other key details would soon come to light because Michael played a crucial role in David and Brandt's trial. David remained behind bars from December of 2021 until his first court appearance in February of 2025, where he and Brandt were tried as co defendants. At trial, seven of David's past victims testified to his violent and predatory tendencies. Not only that, but Michael took the stand to explain that David had also drugged him that night. Michael said that David gave him a suspicious drink and he provided everyone with cocaine, which made Michael's nose burn and caused him serious pain. He said he vomited for hours after using the cocaine and David simply laughed. According to Michael, David looked like the devil personified. Hours passed like this, and it wasn't until Michael's symptoms started to subside that he realized Kristi and Hilda were unresponsive. He said he immediately tried to convince David to bring them to the hospital. But David's response was quote, dead girls don't talk. In other words, Michael was suggesting that David wanted Kristy and Hilda to die so they couldn't tell anyone that he drugged and maybe even assaulted them. Eventually, though, Michael persuaded David to drop them off at the hospital. But not before David removed the license plates from his black Prius. Michael's testimony was damning. Following two days of deliberations, on February 4, 2025, the jury found David guilty on all charges. However, they remain deadlocked on branch charges of accessory after the fact and the judge declared a mistrial. As of this recording, Brandt is still awaiting a retrial. And then on October 29, 2025, David was finally sentenced to 146 years to life in state prison. Most likely, he'll never be able to prey on an innocent woman ever again. And hopefully now Christy and Hilda's families can feel a sense of closure and remember these two young women for everything they were before they crossed paths with David Pierce. Our next case takes place on September 20, 2024, when 48 year old Christopher Mills took his wife on vacation in the Welsh countryside. While he thought they were spending quality time together. In reality, danger was just around the corner and soon after a speedy investigation, Christopher would learn the truth about the woman he'd entrusted with his life. In October 2025, Christopher's wife, 46 year old Ethel Mills and another defendant were found guilty of conspiring to murder Christopher. Both of them plus another defendant who is charged in relation to the crime will be sentenced in December. So what led to Christopher Mills life crumbling beneath him? Let's get into it. In the fall of 2024, 48 year old Christopher Mills of Wales just wanted to make his wife happy. 46 year old Ethel Mills, who went by her middle name Michelle, had been under a lot of stress at work for the last three months. Michelle worked at a homeless shelter for veterans which was understaffed, so she'd been working long hours. Plus she'd been telling her husband about a client, 46 year old Garant Berry, who had been utilizing a lot of the shelter services. Christopher could tell that Michelle had been pouring a lot of her time and effort into helping Garant. She'd been going into work around 7am each day and not getting home until after dark. Christopher could see how the constant stress was starting to weigh on her. As a way to start alleviate some of the pressure Michelle was under, Christopher planned a quiet vacation in the countryside. He and Michelle owned a camper so he wanted to spend time out in nature, just the two of them. So on Friday, September 20, 2024, they packed their things and loaded up the camper. Once they were out in the scenic countryside, Christopher put on some music and he and Michelle enjoyed dinner and a few drinks inside their camper. After they ate, Michelle pulled out her phone and started looking at it for a while. But then around 11:30pm Their quiet evening was interrupted by a knock on the door and they had no idea that soon chaos would ensue.
- [19:09]
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- [20:06]
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- [20:54]
Katie Ring
Christopher Mills and his wife Michelle were hanging out in their camper when they heard a sudden knock at the door. Christopher opened the door and that's when he saw a man in a gas mask. Before Christopher could say or do anything, the man hit him in the face with the butt of a gun. While Christopher tried to regain himself, a second man barged into the camper and tried to restrain him with zip ties. That man also had a gun. Even though both intruders were tall and bulky, Christopher was almost 300 pounds, so as he fought back, he managed to overpower them. He disarmed both of them, then punched them repeatedly. Adrenaline flowed as Christopher fought to protect himself and Michelle. Eventually, the intruders gave up and ran away into the nearby hills. Fortunately, even though Christopher was pretty beaten up, he wasn't severely injured and Michelle was completely unharmed. Once the men were gone, she called the police and authorities quickly descended upon the area with police dogs as well as helicopters overhead in search of the assailants. At the same time, officers spoke to Christopher and Michelle. Michelle seemed in shock and told police she had no idea why someone would want to break into their camper. She said there weren't any valuables there, plus she and Christopher didn't have any enemies. From there, Michelle tried to provide helpful information and described the main attacker as being 59 with a slight to medium build. Pretty soon, helicopters spotted two men hiding in the bushes. Both men were apprehended and police immediately found Some suspicious things. Inside one of the men's backpacks, There were gas masks, zip ties, pliers, cloths, and guns. This was disturbing enough, but the real shock came when Christopher and Michelle learned the names of the men who had been arrested. One was 46 year old Stephen Thomas, and the other was Michelle's client, Garant Berry. This was alarming enough, but things only got weirder the next day when officers brought Christopher down to the station for questioning. There, they told him about something else they found in Garant's possession. A suicide note signed by Christopher. Christopher was stunned because the thing is, he didn't write that note. Investigators seemed to believe Christopher didn't have anything to do with it and let him go. And later that day, he would finally piece together what was actually going on. When Christopher looked inside the trunk of Michelle's car, he discovered some things that caused him to make a harsh realization. Michelle had stashed zip ties, three pairs of gloves, and a roll of duct tape. Christopher immediately knew his own wife was involved in the attack. And in that moment, he pieced together something else. Just a month earlier, the $160,000 life insurance policy he received from work had gone into effect, and Michelle was the sole beneficiary of the payout. Now, Christopher wondered if Michelle wanted him killed so she could get the money, and she enlisted Garant's help. Christopher promptly told the police about what he had found, as well as his suspicions. Then, as investigators unearthed more clues, they realized that while Christopher's theory was correct, it was only half of the story. Between the evidence that Christopher had found, the fact that Michelle knew Barry from her workplace, and the inaccurate description of the attacker she provided, Authorities agreed that Michelle had tried to help Garant carry out the attack. In order to know for sure, they needed to access Michelle and Garant's private conversation. So with Garant in custody, they searched his cell phone records. And that's when they uncovered more than 2,000 text messages between him and Michelle plotting Christopher's murder. Because three months before, Michelle and Garant had struck up a love affair. Their plan was to kill him so they could collect the life insurance money and could be together. And in the messages, investigators found several plans Michelle and Garant had come up with to try and kill Christopher, including drugging him with sleeping pills, smothering him with a pillow, Putting poisonous herbs in his food, or sneaking antifreeze into his food. And that wasn't all. Garant had apparently also called a local army supply store to ask for advice on how to blow up A Mini Cooper S, which was the car Christopher drove. From there. Detectives also discovered that Garren and Steven had tried to ambush Christopher at the camper three times before, but it fell through for different reasons. That is, until September 20th. All the while, Christopher had been completely oblivious. The nail in the coffin was a text that Michelle had sent Garant immediately after calling the police on the night of September 20, saying, quote, police have been called. Get away. Delete all contact on both phones. I love you. With the evidence against her piling up, Michelle was arrested the day after Barry's arrest on suspicion of conspiracy to commit murder and kidnap. And this apparently put her in shock again because when officers arrived at her home, Michelle smiled when she heard she was under arrest. After that, she was taken into custody and almost a year went by until October 7, 2025, when she and Garrett went to trial. In court, Michelle claimed that she and Garrett were only fantasizing about killing Christopher, but that her only real intention was to divorce him. She also admitted to printing out the fake suicide note for Garant, but claimed she didn't read it before giving it to him. She told the jury, quote, I didn't want to believe it was them. Garrett wouldn't kill anyone. Nevertheless, on October 21, 2025, Michelle Mills and Garrett Berry were found guilty of conspiracy to murder Christopher Mills. Garrett's accomplice, Stephen Thomas, had previously pled guilty to the weapons charge he faced when he was initially apprehended. All three are set to be sentenced on December 19, 2025. And as always, we'll be bringing you all of the updates on the case as they come in. Right now the most important thing is that Christopher Mills is safe and that his would be killers are facing justice. What did you think of today's cases? Drop your thoughts and theories in the comments. See you next time if you haven't already. Follow us wherever you're listening Rimehouse daily and make sure to follow us on social media rimehouse247 for real time updates because the pursuit of justice never stops.
- [27:55]
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- [28:18]
Katie Ring
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- [28:21]
Katie Ring
New customer offer for first 3 months only. Speed slow after 35 gigabytes of networks busy taxes and fees extra. Cmnobile.com Looking for your next crime house? Listen, don't miss Crimes of With Sabrina, Deanna Roga and Corinne Vian, Crimes of. Is a weekly series that explores a new theme each season from Crimes of the Paranormal, unsolved murders, mysterious disappearances, and more. Their first season is Crimes of Infamy, the true stories behind Hollywood's most iconic horror villains. And coming up next is Crimes of the Paranormal, real life cases where the line between the living and the dead gets seriously blurry. Listen to Crimes of every Tuesday on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you listen to your podcasts.