“American Idol” music supervisor Robin Kaye and her rock musician husband, Tom DeLuca, have been returning to their $4.5-million Encino dwelling Thursday afternoon and found a housebreaking in progress.
Although the home was effectively fortified, police mentioned, the suspect managed to get in via an unlocked door. He allegedly confronted the couple after they entered. Regulation enforcement sources instructed The Occasions that Kaye and DeLuca have been shot a number of instances in separate rooms earlier than the gunman fled on foot.
It was not till Monday that their our bodies have been found.
The Los Angeles Police Division arrested a suspect on Tuesday — Raymond Boodarian, 22.
However that has not calmed questions on what occurred.
In keeping with police, officers obtained a name at 4 p.m. the day the couple was killed reporting a attainable housebreaking within the space. Police went to the house, sources mentioned, however didn’t get any response and noticed nothing misplaced.
By then, the couple had already been killed, officers mentioned. Boodarian locked the door after he left, police mentioned.
Whereas crime is considerably down throughout Los Angeles, a collection of lethal burglaries inside San Fernando Valley houses has some residents on edge.
Los Angeles Police Division officers safe the house the place Robin Kaye as killed.
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Occasions)
Menashe Hidra’s physique was discovered April 26 inside his fifth-floor Valley Village condominium after an assailant broke right into a neighboring unit, jumped from the balcony to his unit and attacked him, investigators mentioned.
Three days earlier than, neighbors had known as 911 and reported listening to shouting and a wrestle coming from the condominium. Officers responded to these calls, knocked on the door and left with out discovering something.
Erick Escamilla, 27, was finally charged with the killing, together with an unrelated murder from 2022.
The identical day that Hidra’s physique was found, police discovered the physique of Aleksandre Modebadze, who was crushed to loss of life inside his Woodland Hills dwelling. In that case, a lady inside the house known as LAPD about 12:30 a.m. and reported three folks had damaged into her dwelling and have been beating her vital different earlier than the decision instantly lower out, in response to regulation enforcement sources. The 911 operator tried to name again a number of instances with out success. Shortly earlier than 1 a.m., officers arrived on the dwelling however nobody answered the door, there was no noise coming from inside the house and the blinds have been down, the sources instructed The Occasions.
Modebadze was later discovered by officers badly crushed with a traumatic head harm and finally died from his accidents.
Authorities discovered Modebadze’s suspected killers hours after the incident.
The LAPD mentioned they’re nonetheless investigating the circumstance round Kaye and DeLuca’s deaths.
Boodarian was apprehended Tuesday with out incident by LAPD and FBI officers, regulation enforcement sources mentioned. The killings gave the impression to be random, the sources mentioned, however investigators have been in search of any connection between the suspect and DeLuca and Kaye, and whether or not Boodarian was concerned in any previous requires service on the White Oak Avenue residence.
The suspect has a historical past of alleged felony offenses, in response to courtroom data, together with fees of battery, exhibiting a lethal weapon and threatening to commit against the law with the intent to terrorize. Expenses have been later dismissed after hearings associated to psychological competency and a conservatorship.
The house the place Robin Kaye has killed.
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Occasions)
On Monday, officers responded round 2:30 p.m. to a welfare examine within the 4700 block of White Oak Avenue the place they found two folks inside the house, LAPD Det. Meghan Aguilar mentioned. Paramedics responded and declared the pair lifeless on the scene. Kaye and Deluca, the owners, have been each 70.
Kaye notably served as a music producer for “American Idol” from 2009 to 2023, engaged on almost 300 episodes, in response to IMDb. Her credit additionally included a number of “Miss Universe” TV specials, quite a few NAACP Picture Awards ceremonies, “The Singing Bee” and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.”
DeLuca was a singer-songwriter greatest recognized for his 1986 album “All the way down to the Wire.” His most up-to-date launch was the album “Avenue Rock,” which got here out in 2022.
In an announcement shared with The Occasions on Tuesday, a spokesperson for “American Idol” mentioned the workforce behind the singing competitors was “devastated” by information of the couple’s deaths and remembered Kaye as “a cornerstone of the ‘Idol’ household.”
The assertion continued: “[Kaye] was really beloved and revered by all who got here in touch together with her. Robin will stay in our hearts eternally and we share our deepest sympathy together with her household and mates throughout this tough time.”
New information present homicides throughout Los Angeles fell by greater than 20% within the first half of the yr, leaving the town on tempo to finish 2025 with its lowest whole for that crime class in almost 60 years.
