The Deaths of Christy Giles and Hilda Marcela Cabralez-Arzola

On November 13, 2021, aspiring model and social media influencer Christy Giles, age 24, was found dead on a sidewalk outside Southern California Hospital in Carver City. Earlier that evening, she had been out at a warehouse party in Los Angeles with her friend Hilda Marcela Cabralez-Arzola. Two hours after Christy’s body was found, 26-year-old Hilda was found at another hospital located in West Los Angeles. She was alive but in critical condition.

Christy began her modeling career at the age of fourteen. After coming in as a runner-up in the Alabama Teen USA pageant, she had been signed to Wilhelmina Modeling Agency and worked in London for about two months. Her mother, Dusty Giles, described Christy as free-spirited and athletic. She played soccer from the age of three, was an all-county track star two years in a row, and ran at least five miles a day. Her mother says:

“She is her daddy’s daughter, she was a daddy’s girl. She’s the rugged outdoors type who rides horses, likes to fish, and likes to go shoot guns with her dad. She was a Southern girl but non-traditional. She should have been a flower child at Woodstock.”

Giles went on to say that Christy’s father, Leslie, was a military police officer who had served in Iraq. She says he raised his daughter to be tough, suggesting she was very familiar with even some more unorthodox defense tactics like how to kill someone with a ballpoint pen. Giles feels that the only explanation for the gap between when the two women’s communications and their being deposited outside of hospitals was that someone had tied them up or drugged them against their will:

“My daughter would have fought like hell and from my understanding from speaking to the emergency room doctor and nurse, they did not see any visible bruises, scratches, or any indication of an altercation.”

Christy’s husband, a visual effects supervisor and artist, Jan Cilliers was in San Francisco when the incident occurred. It was only when he failed to get any response on the phone and returned home to find his wife not there that he grew concerned. He had already begun searching for her when he received word that she had been found and was deceased.

A tribute on his Instagram page addresses his late wife directly:

“I can’t believe you’re gone. Taken from us. From me. How can this world be so cruel. How can people be so evil.”

Cilliers has disclosed that there is footage showing his wife’s body being dumped outside the hospital by three men wearing masks and hats. The black Toyota Prius they were driving did not have any license plates.

Cilliers also revealed that he had retrieved the messages that Christy sent or received from anybody else that night from their iCloud. Her last message was to Hilda at 5:30 a.m. It said, “Let’s get out of here” and included a wide-eyed emoji. Hilda agreed and replied that she had ordered them an Uber. Moments later, she let Christy know their driver was 10 minutes away.

That was their last exchange. Minutes later, a friend named Eddie texted Christy to ask where they were at since they’d not shown up at the party where he was expecting them. That message and all that followed were never read. The women never got into the Uber they had called. Ten hours later, Christy’s body would be left outside the hospital. Twelve hours later, a comatose Hilda was left outside another.

Cilliers says that the doctors indicated that heroin was found in his wife’s system but he insisted that neither of the women would take the drug on their own and expressed his heartbreak at the loss of his wife. It is his belief that Christy and Hilda were drugged without their knowledge.

The same men and vehicle seen leaving Christy at the hospital were later seen dropping off Hilda at Kaiser Permanente Hospital. When discovered, she was alive. Hospital staff did their best to attend to her and placed her in intensive care, but no brain activity was detected and she was removed from life support two weeks later as her 27th birthday approached.

Hilda was an architect who obtained her degree from Universidad de Monterrey, in San Pedro Garza, Mexico. For the two years prior to her death, Hilda had worked as the lead project manager in execution for a Los Angeles interior design firm. She had recently been learning to code in hopes of expanding her opportunities. She had her eye on relocating to Canada on a permanent basis.

As soon as news of Hilda’s condition reached her parents in Mexico, they flew in to be by her side. They were heartbroken when told by her doctors that she was in a coma and would likely not recover. They had expected bad news but still found it hard to swallow that their daughter had overdosed. Hilda’s father, Luis Cabrales Rivera, insisted that Hilda would not have taken a drug like heroin of her own free will. He claimed that her mother and stepfather are doctors who have always cautioned her against the effects of opioids.

Prior to her death, the hospital had been given permission to harvest her organs for donation. It would become her final gift to nine strangers. Rivera feels Hilda would have wanted it that way and said that it gives the family peace to know she would live on through others.

According to Hilda’s father, detectives told the families that the people who did this have done it before, but this is the first time it has gone so far. He says that they have asked the families to be patient while they try to piece together what has happened.

The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) has currently indicated that their preliminary investigation shows the women may have died from fatal overdoses, but the official cause of death can’t be determined until additional toxicology results come back. That usually takes six to eight weeks. Rape kit tests are also pending.

In the meantime, investigators have spoken with two of the three men with whom the women spent their final hours. Though no suspects have been named and it is uncertain if these men are believed to be involved after their interviews, many tips have been coming in about the case — not only to the LAPD, but also directly to Christy’s husband and her friends.

Christy’s husband says that he knows the men who were last seen with Christy and Hilda. Cilliers and Christy’s best friend, Sandy Robinson, have said they are receiving messages from other women who’ve experienced bad nights at the hands of these men. One such woman is purportedly the ex-girlfriend of one of them. She claims that he is a “dangerous person” and that a number of women had told her they had also experienced abuse from him.

The men in question live in a West Hollywood apartment Christy’s phone showed was her last location per the GPS. The men have allegedly admitted that they took the girls home from the warehouse party, but insisted that they took the drugs on their own and overdosed, so the men took them to the emergency room.

A GoFundMe campaign has been established by friends of Jan Cilliers to raise funds for “for private investigators, funeral and memorial costs.” The funds will go to pay for further investigations into both Christy and Hilda’s cases.” The campaign has currently raised $133,540 of its $100,000 goal.

A separate GoFundMe has been set up by friends of Hilda’s parents to help them cover the “costly medical expenses of being on life support for many days, her family’s travel expenses to and from LA, as well as Marcela’s own safe travels back to her home in Mexico and her funeral costs.” The campaign has currently raised $66,796 of its $150,000 goal.

The months and days ahead will likely reveal more details about the case and hopefully bring some closure for the families who’ve experienced this horrible tragedy. Whether accidental or foul play, the deaths of these two young women have devastated the friends and families who loved them.