That’s because of the amount of drugs found. In fact, authorities said they found enough fentanyl to kill 500,000 people.
Three other kids were hospitalized after being exposed to fentanyl that was allegedly being processed at the site in the Bronx.
Police said they found a kilogram of fentanyl in a hallway closet at the day care, stacked on top of children’s play mats. They also said they found three kilo press machines, which are used to package drugs.
Federal officials held a news conference to discuss the federal charges Tuesday. We brought that news conference to you live on CBS News New York.
“This case is different. We allege the defendants poisoned four babies, and killed one of them, because they were running a drug operation from a day care center. A day care center – a place where children should be kept safe, not surrounded by a drug that can kill them in an instant,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said.
Williams said Grei Mendez tried to cover up the fentanyl operation before calling emergency responders. Mendez and her husband’s cousin Carlisto Acevedo Brito, who was renting a bedroom at the day care, are under arrest on murder and drug charges. They now face federal charges of conspiracy to distribute narcotics resulting in death and possession with intent to distribute narcotics resulting in death.
Williams said the federal charges carry a range of 20 years to life in prison.
Investigators said evidence proves Mendez and Brito were active participants in the drug-running scheme.
“As alleged in the complaint, before emergency personnel arrived at the day care, before they arrived, Mendez and a co-conspirator tried to cover up what happened. Seconds before Mendez called 911, she called a co-conspirator. Minutes later, a co-conspirator arrived at the day care. Minutes later, he left the day care and fled out the back alley, carrying two full shopping bags. And all of that happened while the children, the babies, were suffering from the effects of fentanyl poisoning and in desperate need of help,” Williams said.
“In my 32 years of government service, 25 of which has been spent serving with the DEA, there is no more devastating news or tragedy than the loss of a child, and every New Yorker should be outraged by this senseless tragedy,” DEA Special Agent in Charge Frank Tarentino said.
Officers are searching for Mendez’s husband, who’s described in court records as a co-conspirator.
Williams was asked how confident they were they would find the co-conspirator.
“We’re going to get him,” Williams said.
Investigators say as Mendez was talking to officers she messaged her husband that police were asking about him and suggested he find a lawyer.
Police also searched Brito’s phone. They said Brito received messages in August and September that they believe were related to the distribution of drugs from the day care.
When questioned by detectives, both Brito and Mendez denied having any knowledge of the drugs.
The criminal complaint also says Mendez deleted more than 21,500 messages from an app on which she communicated with her husband between March of 2021 and this month.
Fentanyl is “the most urgent threat in our nation”
Tarentino said more 110,000 Americans have died as a result of drug poisoning.
“Fentanyl is a killer. Fentanyl crept into our illicit drug supply like a cancer, slowly and deceptively, and it is now in everything, everywhere, killing victims instantly and indiscriminately. Fentanyl is the most urgent threat in our nation and the tragedy that unfolded in the Bronx at the Divino Nino day care center demonstrates the danger that fentanyl poses to every New Yorker,” Tarentino said.
“This is a tragedy, and my heart breaks for the children and their families. But I promise you this: We’re going to keep fighting for justice, in this case and every other case involving this deadly poison,” Williams said. “I also have a message for anyone out there who is selling fentanyl: Stop pushing this poison. It kills. It ruins lives, and it will ruin yours too when we catch you, convict you, and send you to federal prison.”
Williams called fentanyl a “public health crisis.”
“I’m a lawyer, I’m the United States Attorney here, but I’m a father,” Williams said. “Common sense dictates when you drop off your baby, you expect the baby to be kept safe. I don’t think there’s any other way to look at it other than it being incredibly reckless, one of the most reckless things that a human can do, to endanger the life of a child like that.”
We also have new photos of what police said are drugs and paraphernalia from inside the day care.
Federal authorities say this picture shows a kilgoram of fentanyl found at Divino Nino day care, where toddler Nicholas Dominici died.
U.S Attorney’s Office
The pictures show what is allegedly a kilo of fentanyl and a kilo press.
Authorities said this is a kilo press device found at Divino Nino day care in the Bronx, where toddler Nicholas Dominici died.
U.S Attorney’s Office
Watch: Adams blasts fentanyl problem after Bronx day care death
City officials defended their inspectors, who had given the center the OK days earlier.
“I’m very sorry, but one of the things my child care inspectors are not trained to do is look for fentanyl. But maybe we need to start,” said New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Ashwin Vasan.
“That little piece, that little corner, about less than the size of a fingernail. A tenth of a size of a fingernail can kill an adult. So imagine what it could do to a child,” said Mayor Eric Adams, highlighting the drug’s potency.
Federal drug conspiracy charges were filed Tuesday in connection with the death of a child who authorities say was exposed to fentanyl at a New York City day care. Officials say the day care center was being used as a front to distribute drugs. Jessica Moore reports.
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A 1-year-old boy who died at a home-based day care in the Bronx was exposed to fentanyl, police say. Two people are facing murder charges and police are looking for a third suspect in connection with the alleged drug exposure that affected three other children. Jessica Moore reports.
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In an unmarked building at an undisclosed location in California — hidden in a vault and locked behind security gates — are the spoils of the war against drugs.
“The drugs are right here with the fentanyl,” said a U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer, as CBS News was taken inside a U.S. government bunker at a secret location.
Chief among the stacks is 8,500 pounds of fentanyl and the chemical precursors used to make the deadly drug, all of which will soon be destroyed by being burned.
But before fentanyl — which can be up to 50 times more powerful than heroin — is destroyed, officers have to find it. The process includes scouring packages taken off cargo flights at Los Angeles International Airport. Many of the packages originate from China.
In June, Drug Enforcement Administration agents seized more than 200 kilograms of fentanyl precursor chemicals and the Justice Department charged four China-based companies and eight Chinese nationals with distributing fentanyl in the U.S.
Last October, a traveler tried to get 12,000 suspected fentanyl pills through security at LAX by hiding them inside candy boxes.
“This literally is ground zero for our fight against fentanyl precursors,” said Troy Miller, acting commissioner for U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
Miller oversees Operation Artemis, the U.S. counter-narcotics mission that intercepted 8,000 pounds of chemical precursors in the last three months.
“This is an emergency. It’s an opioid epidemic where we need to go after the transnational criminal organizations,” Miller said.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Thursday that he will increase the number of California Army National Guard troops at the U.S.-Mexico border by about 50% to support CBP’s efforts to block fentanyl smuggling.
Synthetic opioids like fentanyl were responsible for more than 70,000 overdose deaths in the U.S. in 2021 — about two-thirds of all fatal drug overdoses that year — according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In September of 2022, 15-year-old Melanie Ramos was found dead from a fentanyl overdose in a Helen Bernstein High School bathroom in Los Angeles.
Her aunt, Gladys Manriques, calls fentanyl the “devil’s pill.”
“It’s poisonous,” Manriques told CBS News. “It’s poison. It’s playing roulette with your life.”
Miller said a troubling trend is the hundreds of fentanyl pill presses seized this summer alone, a sign that drug gangs are making pills on U.S. soil.
“You can literally press pills in an apartment complex,” Miller said. “You can press thousands of pills. There’s no growing season. It’s purely a synthetic made from chemicals.”
The DEA said it seized more than 50 million fentanyl-laced pills in 2022, and over 10,000 pounds of fentanyl powder. It said the seized fentanyl would be enough to cause more than 379 million fatal overdoses.
The effects of fentanyl are considered the cause of death for Adam Rich, the child actor known as “America’s little brother” for his role on the hit family dramedy “Eight is Enough.”
The former television star’s death this January has been ruled an accident by the Los Angeles County Medical-Examiner Coroner’s office, according to an autopsy report. Rich died in his Los Angeles home at age 54.
His stardom came at just eight years old as the mop-topped son raised by a widower newspaper columnist, played by Dick Van Patten, in ABC’s “Eight is Enough.” He went on to appear in other shows, including “Code Red” and “Dungeons & Dragons” in the 1980s. He also appeared in single episodes of popular shows like “Baywatch” and “The Love Boat,” and reprised his “Eight is Enough” role in two TV movie reunions.
Adam Rich, here in 1978, starred as Nicholas in “Eight Is Enough.”
ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content/Getty Images
Rich had multiple run-ins with police related to drug and alcohol use. He was arrested in April 1991 for trying to break into a pharmacy and again that October for allegedly stealing a drug-filled syringe at a hospital while receiving treatment for a dislocated shoulder. A DUI arrest came in 2002 after he struck a parked California Highway Patrol cruiser in a closed freeway lane.
Rich had publicly discussed his experiences with depression and substance abuse in the months before he died. He tweeted in October that he had been sober for seven years after arrests, many rehab stints and several overdoses. He urged his followers to never give up.
When Rich died in January, his publicist, Danny Deraney, said that he had suffered from a type of depression that resisted treatment. He had tried to erase the stigma of talking about mental illness, Deraney said, and sought experimental cures to treat his depression.
“He was just a very kind, generous, loving soul,” Deraney said in a statement. “Being a famous actor is not necessarily what he wanted to be. … He had no ego, not an ounce of it.”
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Washington — Federal prosecutors charged four China-based companies and eight Chinese nationals with allegedly supplying the precursor chemicals of fentanyl for the purpose of creating the deadly drug for distribution in the United States, the Justice Department announced Friday.
Across three indictments unsealed in the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York, investigators say the Drug Enforcement Administration seized more than 200 kilograms of the precursor chemicals, enough to kill 25 million Americans.
According to the Justice Department, the indictments were the first ever levied by federal prosecutors against companies in the People’s Republic of China related to the creation and delivery of the ingredients that make up fentanyl.
“We are targeting every step of the movement, manufacturing, and sale of fentanyl from start to finish,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in announcing the indictments.
DEA agents conducted an undercover operation against Amarvel Biotech, a chemical manufacturing company based in the city of Wuhan in China’s Hubei province. According to the indictment from the Southern District of New York, company executives marketed their products to fentanyl manufacturers in Mexico, writing “Mexico hot sale” online and guaranteeing “100% stealth” international shipments. In this case, investigators said the DEA sources, communicating in recorded conversations, asked the company to ship the chemicals directly to the U.S.
“The Defendants shipped these precursors to the United States expressly intending that the chemicals would be used to produce fentanyl,” prosecutors alleged in charging documents, “even though they were under the impression that Americans had died after consuming fentanyl produced from their precursor chemicals.”
Amarvel employees ultimately shipped 200 kilograms of fentanyl precursors to the U.S. over an eight-month period, investigators said.
Two Amarvel Biotech employees, Qingzhou Wang, 35, and Yiyi Chen, 31, were arrested and charged with fentanyl trafficking, precursor chemical importation and money laundering offenses. They were expelled from Fiji on June 8, and arrested by the DEA. Another defendant remains at large.
The news comes two months after four Chinese nationals and one Guatemalan national were charged with supplying fentanyl ingredients to Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel. They were charged in April along with three sons of former drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, accused of orchestrating a transnational fentanyl trafficking operation into the United States. The individuals targeted in April were apparently business competitors of the newly charged defendants, court filings said.
According to the Justice Department, between August 2021 and August 2022, 107,735 people died of drug overdoses in the United States, two-thirds from fentanyl. Nearly 200 people die every day from fentanyl poisoning, which is now the leading cause of death for Americans between the ages of 18 and 49.
Investigators described a highway of fentanyl production, beginning mainly in China, where the ingredients are manufactured. They are shipped to Mexico and sometimes to the U.S., for the production of fentanyl typically distributed north of the border.
“PRC companies are selling vast quantities of precursor chemicals to the drug cartels,” Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said Friday. “The United States has urged the PRC to address the serious problem of illicit synthetic drug production and trafficking. We renew that call today.”
Monaco also said the Justice Department is working with social media companies to combat the illegal marketing of fentanyl on their sites.
Prosecutors allege in charging documents that Amarvel Biotech executives and employees acknowledged the illegality of their products, made deceptive shipping labels and ads and utilized a network of contacts and warehouses across Mexico and the U.S.
In one exchange between a defendant and a DEA source about the sale of fentanyl, Amarvel Biotech was allegedly told the drug was “not safe,” to which the defendant replied “I know,” court documents revealed.
“I know it’s normal to be cautious before embarking on a new partnership. But I’m sure you’ll be happy with our product. Not only will you be able to synthesize fentanyl, you’ll save a lot of money compared to the raw materials you’ve purchased before,” the individual also allegedly promised undercover agents.
The shipment of fentanyl-related chemicals ultimately made its way to Los Angeles in May, where it was seized by DEA agents.
DEA Administrator Anne Milgram said Friday that certain companies in China provide “blueprints” for fentanyl manufacturers across the globe, allegedly employing chemists to assist with questions and providing suggestions for new ingredients.
Indictments unsealed out of the Eastern District of New York reveal other charged companies — including Anhui Rencheng Technology Co. and Hefei GSK Trade Co. Ltd — worked to hide the fentanyl ingredients they were shipping by applying “masking molecules” to the batches. Investigators allege such procedures allowed for the temporary alteration of the chemical makeup of the substances to avoid detection during the transport process. Upon receipt, the companies allegedly provide their customers with instructions for unmasking the chemicals to then process into fentanyl.
“There is more bad news coming. With every investigation, with every indictment, we are coming after you,” Milgram said.
The House on Thursday approved a bill that would classify all fentanyl as a Schedule 1 substance, the most dangerous classification of drugs. The GOP-led legislation, backed by the White House, passed the House 289-133.
The classification of all fentanyl substances as a Schedule 1 drug — currently, only some fentanyl-related substances are Schedule 1 — will allow for tougher penalties and spur more research related to a drug that has claimed thousands of American lives. Schedule 1 drugs do not have any medical use, and are highly lethal. Rep. Morgan Griffith, a Republican from Virginia, and Rep. Bob Latta, an Ohio Republican, introduced the Halt All Lethal Trafficking of Fentanyl Act.
The White House threw its support behind the bill, noting that its provisions were critical components of the Biden-Harris administration’s 2021 recommendations to Congress.
“The HALT Fentanyl Act would permanently schedule all fentanyl-related substances not otherwise scheduled into Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act as a class and expedite research into fentanyl-related substances, which the administration has long supported,” the Office of Management and Budget said. “… The administration calls on Congress to pass all of these critical measures to improve public safety and save lives.”
An image of what is known as “rainbow fentanyl” pills.
Drug Enforcement Administration
The opioid and fentanyl crisis that was already tearing apart families before the COVID-19 pandemic worsened when the coronavirus hit the U.S. Overdose deaths soared from 70,630 in 2019 to 91,799 in 2020 and 106,699 in 2021, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
The Drug Enforcement Administration says fentanyl is involved in more deaths of Americans under 50 than any other cause of death. That includes heart disease, suicide, homicide and cancer, among other causes.
“With today’s bipartisan vote in the House to advance the HALT Fentanyl Act, we are one step closer to curbing the devastating fentanyl poisoning crisis and saving American lives,” Latta said in a statement. “For too long, our nation has battled an opioid epidemic fueled in recent years by illicit fentanyl and its analogs, which claimed the lives of more than 5,000 Ohioans and 70,000 Americans in 2021. … I now urge the Senate to take up this bill and send it to the president’s desk to be signed into law. Our constituents need this solution; lives are on the line if we do not act. It’s time to get this bill across the finish line.”
ST. LOUIS – With recreational marijuana for people 21 years of age and older now legal in Missouri, a now problem is surfacing. Doctors are seeing cases of marijuana being mixed with fentanyl.
Dr. Michael Wenzinger, a staff psychiatrist at Washington University School of Medicine, has seen a few cases where teenagers have inadvertently consumed the combination. He doesn’t want to alarm people about this, but says parents need to have it on their radar.
Wenzinger says among his practice and his peers, he’s seeing more kids who thought they were just smoking marijuana when drug screens showed fentanyl.
The marijuana-fentanyl mixture cases are very recent. Overall, marijuana use among teens is up. Doctors say the general feeling is that since it’s sold in dispensaries, it’s safe to consume. But those people are not taking into consideration what others are doing with the drug after being it from legal businesses.
The Biden administration is preparing for the expiration next week of Title 42, the pandemic-era police that allows the U.S. to expel immigrants. Border Patrol officials say the U.S. could see an influx of immigrants when the policy expires. Omar Villafranca has more.
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The Drug Enforcement Administration is using a new method in its fight against fentanyl by targeting the entire trafficking network. Nancy Cordes has details.
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Most likely, the person’s skin color will change. An ashy tone might creep in, or they could turn a shade of blue. If too much fluid pools in their mouth or lungs and mixes with air, foam will appear at their lips. There might be a sound, too—that of light snoring. These are some of the main symptoms of an overdose. Although the drug causing the reaction might be different, the symptoms look the same. “An overdose is an overdose,” Soma Snakeoil, a co-founder of the Sidewalk Project, a harm-reduction organization, told me.
But although overdose symptoms have not shifted, the ability to treat it has, most notably because of the availability of naloxone, the medication that can quickly reverse an overdose and that was approved in late March to be sold over the counter, as Narcan. This move happened at least in part because in the past few decades, the entire context of an overdose in the United States has changed. The U.S. has entered its fourth wave of the opioid crisis, and the death toll is different now: Overdoses have been steadily increasing for many years, but this wave, also known as the “era of overdoses,” has seen the highest number of fatal overdoses yet. “I think what makes this current crisis so unique is the volume” of overdoses, John Pamplin II, an epidemiologist at Columbia’s school of public health, told me. And that is happening because the drugs have changed too. “It’s not necessarily that more people are using drugs,” Emilie Bruzelius, an epidemiology researcher at Columbia’s school of public health, told me. “The opioids that people are using now are incredibly strong, and they’re more likely to cause an overdose.”
The result is that any person using drugs has a higher chance of overdosing than ever before. “There’s no population segment that is insulated,” Bruzelius said. “It’s really affecting everybody now.”
The origins of the opioid crisis can be traced back to 1999. As doctors prescribed opioids more and more—OxyContin prescriptions for non-cancer-related pain alone increased from about 670,000 in 1997 to 6.2 million in 2002—related deaths rose swiftly. In that same period, the number of deaths increased almost 30 percent, to nearly 9,000. This first wave largely affected white people: By 2010, the opioid mortality rate was more than two times higher for white people than Black people.
That year, a second wave began, in which overdose deaths involving heroin grew most dramatically. By 2015, heroin overdose deaths surpassed the number of deaths attributable to opioid pills. This time, the total opioid mortality rate grew for both Black and white populations; death rates increased by an average of at least 30 percent a year beginning in 2010, and accelerated even faster after 2013. In this same period, illicitly manufactured fentanyl—a synthetic opioid approved for pain relief—was being slipped into heroin, counterfeit pills, cocaine, and other drugs. Many of the people taking these drugs did not realize that they were taking fentanyl at all, leading to a third wave of overdoses. Mortality skyrocketed. In 2017, synthetic opioids were responsible for more than 28,000 deaths, while opioid-pill and heroin overdose deaths had leveled off at about 15,000. The demographics of the crisis continued to shift too, and in 2020, the fastest increases in death rates was experienced by Black and Indigenous Americans, surpassing the death rate of white Americans, Pamplin told me.
The new, fourth wave is characterized by more mixing of different drugs. “People are overdosing from cocaine and fentanyl or methamphetamines and fentanyl or methamphetamines and fentanyl and heroin,” Bruzelius told me. Recently, xylazine—a non-opiate sedative also known as “tranq”—has infiltrated the fentanyl supply, resulting in what the DEA has deemed the deadliest threat yet.
This is the context in which the FDA approved Narcan to be sold over the counter. Narcan packages naloxone as a nasal spray, and the FDA argued that its approval could “help improve access to naloxone, increase the number of locations where it’s available, and help reduce overdose deaths throughout the country.” By binding to opioid receptors, naloxone blocks the effects of opiates in the system. This reverses the impact of an overdose, restoring normal breathing.
But drug policies in America tend to swing, pendulum-like, from one extreme to the other, David Courtwright, a historian at the University of North Florida, told me: A response focused on care for drug users might give way to a more punitive policy. Already, some critics of Narcan’s availability have pushed to restrict its use on the grounds that an effective overdose treatment could encourage drug use—even though there’s “just no kind of scientific or empirical backing” for those arguments, Bruzelius said. Here, the simplest logic holds: If overdoses are affecting every community in America, better to have an accessible treatment everywhere.
Auburn, Maine — Employees of a Maine restaurant got a surprise when they opened a large wooden crate they thought was a shipment of mugs they’d recently ordered.
Photo provided by Maine’s Auburn Police Department shows Jeremy Mercier
Auburn Police Department via AP
Instead, they found a plastic tote that contained what law enforcement suspect is 31 pounds of the powerful synthetic opioid fentanyl with an estimated street value of $3 million, Auburn police Deputy Chief Timothy Cougle said in a statement Saturday.
The tote had a shipping label with the restaurant’s address but the name of someone who did not work there. Employees who opened it saw what they thought looked like drugs, so they contacted police, Cougle said.
The crate from Arizona that arrived in the Maine town about 30 miles north of Portland was taken to the police department, where a chemical field examination confirmed it contained fentanyl.
About an hour later, the man whose name was on the shipment showed up looking for the crate and was arrested, police said.
Jeremy Mercier, 41, of Auburn, was charged with drug offenses and for violating bail conditions. He was being held in a county jail without bail. It couldn’t be determined if he had an attorney.
Mercier previously spent time behind bars on a 2007 federal drug conviction, Cougle said.
The investigation is ongoing, and Cougle said he anticipates state and federal law enforcement getting involved.
Mike Peters, the co-owner of Mac’s Grill, told WMTW-TV in an email that he is glad the drugs didn’t make it to the streets.
“The instances of overdose in our, and surrounding, communities is awful, and fentanyl seems to be front and center when it comes to fatalities,” he said. “It is very sad.”
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Officials are warning about a drug combination of fentanyl and the animal sedative xylazine. Known as “tranq,” the combination has been found in 48 states, and xylazine-related deaths have jumped from 15 in 2020 to 183 last year. Jericka Duncan reports.
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Officials are seeing a rise in cases in which xylazine, an animal tranquilizer, is being mixed with fentanyl. The drug cocktail often leads to deadly results. Jericka Duncan has more.
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In July of 2019, I took an Amtrak train from my home in Boston to my father’s apartment outside of New York City. I had one intention for this visit: to help my father, who is an active crack cocaine user, prevent a fatal drug overdose. Specifically, I was traveling to New York to provide him Narcan (the opioid overdose reversal medicine) and fentanyl testing strips, as well as to teach him how to use them effectively.
I had been spurred to action after he had shared with me that his most recent batch of cocaine had likely been spiked with fentanyl, the potent synthetic opioid fueling our nation’s overdose crisis. Rather than produce its usual, energetic high, the cocaine he had taken caused him to immediately black out. He had woken up hours later on the chilly concrete floor of his basement apartment, unaware of the time that had elapsed. Fearing for his life, I quickly booked a ticket.
That weekend, I distributed several boxes of Narcan and a bagful of testing strips to my father. I showed him, for example, how to break down samples of his crack cocaine with vitamin C to ensure accurate testing. We passed the time by chatting about harm reduction, drug policy and my own burgeoning advocacy work in the addiction and mental health fields. It wasn’t a conventional parent-child visit by any means. However, it was a necessary one to protect his health and safety.
Though I returned home to Boston comforted by the knowledge that I had acted positively to improve my father’s well-being, I would soon come to understand how important this brief visit truly was: Not only did it set the foundation for a fundamental transformation in our relationship, it also began to engender my father’s own advocacy and sense of empowerment as a drug user.
Prior to making this trip, my interactions with my father regarding his substance use were fraught, secretive and argumentative. I had spent most of my adolescence alternating between periods of feeling actively hostile toward him and periods defined by my desperate attempts to “save” him by pleading with him to become abstinent. Though I was acting from a place of sincere worry and deep love, this pattern often drove us into conflict. We yelled at, we fought with and we spoke profoundly hurtful words to each other.
My behavior was fueled by the messages I had received (from my family, from our culture) about my father’s substance use, which were unambiguous: that it was his fault, that it was a reflection of his character or his commitment to me, that he could stop if he wanted to ― if he would only love us enough. Ultimately, I came to believe that his continued substance use and our ability to build a relationship were fundamentally dichotomous. From my perspective, if we were to have a chance at an authentic relationship, he would first need to stop using.
Yet, when I boarded that train to New York City, I made the choice to flip this corrosive script. By choosing to practice harm reduction, I made the decision to prioritize my father’s safety and dignity — and our unconditional love for each other — over his abstinence. I ceased my attempts to force him to change in ways that he might not be ready or able to, making it possible for us to trade bitter, unproductive arguments for open dialogue and non-coercive support. Most important, through my actions that weekend, I communicated meaningfully to him: I love you, I value you, I want to be in a relationship with you precisely as you are right now, and I will no longer judge you.
The author on their grandmother’s lawn with their dad (1997/1998).
The impact on our relationship was transformative. My father immediately began to feel more comfortable sharing his experiences with substance use and addiction with me, which was important for two reasons: On a practical level, this honest communication meant that I had accurate information about what he was using and how it was affecting him, making it possible for me to provide effective harm reduction guidance, but, importantly for our relationship, it also meant that we were no longer operating under the pressures of secrecy, avoidance and lies. As my father was able to trust that his disclosures would be met with curiosity and support instead of strife and critique, there was no longer any reason for him to hide or deny that he was using. Instead, we were able to talk about what was happening directly, act to preserve his safety and prepare to face it in partnership.
However, what has been most meaningful to me has been the effect these relational shifts have had on the time that we spend together. No longer preoccupied with convincing him to become abstinent, I have instead been able to focus on simply enjoying my father’s companionship and personhood. I have been able to appreciate our spirited political bantering, the lively stories from his youth that he retells time and time again, and the tender moments of care, love and pride that are shared between us, such as when he eagerly printed copies of my first published article to share with his friends. In addition, now that I understand addiction as a health concern ― rather than a moralistic one ― my father’s continued substance use is no longer wounding to me. I know that he loves me fiercely and profoundly, and always has; his substance use and addiction never had anything at all to do with that.
More recently, I have observed an additional, deepening change in my father’s behavior ― one that addresses not only how we relate to each other but also how he relates to himself and the communities within which he participates. Historically, my father has harbored deep feelings of shame surrounding his substance use, referring to it as his “bad behavior,” and his life as a series of cumulative mistakes. These sentiments had been perpetually heartbreaking to hear, and I longed to find the means to eliminate his internalized stigma. I wanted him to see what I knew: that he was a deeply compassionate and gentle human being who would offer you the shirt off his back without a second thought and who had filled my childhood with history, learning and adventure. Thankfully, these harmful beliefs are also finally shifting.
Instead, in their place, my father has begun to develop a political and moral voice amid our nation’s drug war and overdose crisis. Throughout our conversations, he speaks up about the harms and needs he has borne witness to as a drug user: the friends he has lost to overdose and mass incarceration, the importance of educating clinicians and policymakers about addiction and harm reduction, and the need to move substance use “out of the shadows” and into open discussion. He has also taken action. He shared with me that he has distributed Narcan and fentanyl testing strips to his drug dealer, who now carries them and offers them to people who use substances on the street. My father has become an empowered advocate, and it is helping to save lives. I could not be more proud and gratified.
If you have a loved one who is presently struggling with an active substance use disorder, I share this story to show that there is a different and healthier approach we can take toward relating to them and their ongoing substance use: one defined by the dignity, compassion and connection we all deserve, a truth no less inclusive of people who use substances. You don’t have to choose harmful ultimatums and “tough love”; instead, you can make the choice to foster a loving, nonjudgmental relationship with your loved one precisely as they are right now. Not only is it possible to support them as they continue using, when faced with the violence of social stigma, criminalization and a toxic drug supply, that is the time they will likely most need your care and presence.
When I boarded that train to New York City back in 2019, I had desperately wanted to save my father’s life. Hopefully, the harm reduction I practiced that weekend has helped actualize that possibility. Yet it has already done much more: Harm reduction has saved and transformed my relationship with my father, making it possible for us to have a meaningful, open and tender connection no matter where he may be with his substance use. For that, I am profoundly and perpetually thankful.
If you would like to learn about harm reduction and how we can create a compassionate, dignified world for all people who use substances, please visit the National Coalition for Harm Reduction’s Principles of Harm Reduction.
Eri Solomon (they/them/theirs) is a harm reduction advocate and service provider residing in Boston. Their professional background is in community organizing, social justice education and human services. They live with their best friend and two feline companions, Bug and Ringo.
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After a night out, two women were dumped outside hospitals by masked men. Were the men good Samaritans or did they play a role in the women’s deaths? “48 Hours” contributor Jonathan Vigliotti reports.
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Hilda Marcela Arzola-Plascencia, a doctor in Durango, Mexico, was used to handling medical emergencies. But nothing prepared her for the call she got about her eldest daughter and namesake Hilda Marcela Cabrales.
Dr. Hilda Marcela Arzola-Plascencia: I received the phone call in the middle of the night saying that she was so ill, she was very bad, she was intubated.
Hilda Marcela Cabrales
Fernanda Cantisani
The 26-year-old architect was fighting for her life in the ICU at Kaiser Permanente Hospital in Los Angeles.
Jonathan Vigliotti: You are a doctor, what was going on in your mind at the time?
Dr. Hilda Marcela Arzola-Plascencia: What happened? What — what happened to her? Why is she that bad?
Another mother in Corner, Alabama, was also getting shattering news. Dusty Giles’ daughter Christy was in the ER at a completely different Los Angeles hospital — the Southern California Medical Center.
Dusty Giles: I was just told, “I’m very sorry to inform you, Ms. Giles. … But she was dropped off at our hospital on the outside, kind of like a bag of garbage.” And, um … “she didn’t make it.” … And I said, “what do you mean she didn’t make it?”
Dusty Giles: And they said … “it is now a police matter.” … I hung up and I fell apart.
Christy Giles
Dusty Giles
Christy Giles, who had just turned 24, was dead of a drug overdose. But when detectives heard how she was dropped off, they immediately suspected foul play.
Hospital staff told investigators a black Prius without license plates pulled up to the ER entrance. Two men told the staff they found the woman “passed out on the curb somewhere nearby …” and were trying to be good Samaritans by bringing her to the hospital. They left without giving their names or phone numbers.
Barry Telis: It was appalling to me.
Barry Telis, a former Los Angeles Police Department homicide detective and CBS News consultant, says nothing about that story made sense.
Barry Telis: Nobody just drops somebody off and says, “Hey, by the way, we were driving down the street. We found this girl passed out on the sidewalk.“
It was an unfathomable ending to a life bursting with exuberance.
Misty Weldon: WhenChristy came into a room she was like a tornado. Her personality was big, it was loud, and you just couldn’t help but love her for it
Her big sister, Misty Weldon, says life for Christy was one big adventure.
Misty Weldon: There was nothing in the world that she was afraid to do.
Misty Weldon: Christy went skydiving. Christy rode camels in Morocco. We rode donkeys around the Grand Canyon.
When not out adventuring, Christy was traveling the world as a high fashion model for Wilhelmina. The onetime soccer star traded in her cleats for a pair of heels at age of 15. She ultimately made L.A. her home.
At 21, her life took a dramatic turn.
Misty Weldon: I got a text message from her that said, “I did something. Don’t tell Mom.” … I thought, “Oh no What has she done?” And I got a text message … that said, “I got married.” And I thought, “To who?”
To a South African born artist, photographer and special effects editor 17 years her senior named Jan Cilliers. They met through friends at an art gallery in L.A.
Jonathan Vigliotti: I understand that before all of this, you were not the marrying type.
Jan Cilliers: I don’t know where you heard that, but it’s true … once I was with her, you know … it was different.
Christy Giles and Jan Cilliers
Jan Cilliers
Jan planned to pop the question just seven months after meeting at the Burning Man arts festival in the Nevada desert. But, in the moment, they figured why wait.
Jan Cillier: Instead, we just decided to elope. We just got married right there.
Christy’s mom and dad Leslie never expected to hear their daughter’s name in the same sentence as elope and Burning Man. Needless to say, it did not go over well.
Dusty Giles: “Christy, I can’t believe you’ve done this. Your dad didn’t even get to walk you down the aisle.” And she goes, “Oh, no, no, no, no. We got married. But we are full-on having a wedding in Alabama.”
The newlyweds came to Alabama, and Christy and her mom found the perfect wedding dress to wear at a later date.
Back in L.A., Christy started studying interior design, which led to a new friendship with Hilda Marcela. Hilda was an architect from Mexico who had just moved to L.A to start her dream job in interior design.
Jonathan Vigliotti: Do you remember when she said she wanted to go to Los Angeles? And how did you feel when she told you that?
Luis Cabrales: I feel very happy for her, but very sad for me, because we are — we are very close.
Luis Cabrales checked in with his daughter every day she was in L.A.
Luis Cabrales: Message, “Daughter, I miss you.” “I miss you, too, father.” Never told me daddy, always told me father.
No one was surprised that the summa cum laude graduate of the prestigious university in Monterrey, Mexico, was thriving in L.A. Fernanda Cantisani and Alan Betancourt, who called her Marcela or Marce, were two of her closest friends in Monterrey.
Fernanda Cantisani: She always gave her 100 percent in everything she did … in her … friendships with her family, with her job, with herself, too.
She had already lived in South Korea and traveled the world.
Jonathan Vigliotti: how many countries in all?
Luis Cabrales: Twenty-two countries.
Jonathan Vigliotti: Twenty-two countries for such a young girl.
Alan Betancourt: She was very determined. … she also knew how to have a good time.
Fernanda Cantisani: She loved to dance. … she loved to dress up. … every single person that met her loved … loved Marcela.
Hilda Marcela Cabrales and Tomas
Fernanda Cantisani
Including her dog — a Weimaraner named Tomas. She left him with Alan when she moved to L.A. but planned to call for him when she got her bearings.
That call would never come. Just four months after moving to LA, Hilda was in a coma — her life in the balance. Her frantic parents and sister Fernanda racing to her side.
Fernanda Cantisani: … and I thought, when we are there, things will change. She will, she will wake up.
FENTANYL-LACED OVERDOSES AND THE DATE RAPE DRUG
Hilda Marcela, the vibrant young architect who loved laughing with friends, traveling the world with her sister and playing with her dog Tomas, looked nothing like the Hilda Marcela her family saw when they arrived at the hospital in Los Angeles.
Luis Cabrales: My heart broke in thousand pieces. Because I saw … my baby, unconscious, and … fighting for her life.
Dr. Hilda Marcela Arzola-Placencia: I said, “is this real? Am I dreaming? … I took her hand and I said … “Mom’s here with you. You’re not alone.”
Fernanda Cabrales-Arzola | Hilda’s sister: I was very shocked, very impressed. I never expected looking at her like this.
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. But her friends and family were sure that this early to bed, early to rise, health-conscious young woman would never have willingly taken such a toxic cocktail of drugs.
Jonathan Vigliotti: When you heard overdose, you immediately thought drugged?
Fernanda Cabrales-Arzola: Yeah, drugged … I was sure someone did this to her.
Jonathan Vigliotti: When you were told that the cause of death was an overdose, did that add up to you?
Jan Cilliers: Absolutely not. … definitely not something that she would have done to herself ever. … that’s just not her.
Christy’s autopsy showed she had cocaine, fentanyl, and GHB — known as the date rape drug — in her system. In the hours and days after Christy’s death, Jan was determined to get to the truth.
Jan Cilliers: I wanted to get to the bottom of … what exactly what happened that night.
Jan began putting the puzzle pieces together starting on the evening of Friday, Nov. 12, 2021 — the night of the warehouse party. He made a timeline based on what he knew about Christy’s plans, conversations with Christy’s friends, and the digital trail she left behind.
Jan, who had gone to San Francisco to visit his dad, says Christy spent the early evening doing what she loved most.
Jan Cilliers: She was enjoying a lovely sunset. She took our cat for a walk on the beach
Christy Giles with Loki
Christy Giles/Instagram/Jan Cilliers
Jan Cilliers: Those were the last pictures she sent me of this herself. And she said, “I wish you were here,” and I will forever wish that I was there, too.
Christy, Hilda, and a friend who does not want to be identified, had planned a girl’s night out. They kicked it off at the Soho House in West Hollywood, then moved onto a warehouse party after midnight where photos were taken.
Christy Giles, left, and Hilda Marcela Cabrales photographed in the VIP section at the warehouse party.
Jan Cilliers
Cellphone video posted on social media shows Hilda and Christy dancing in the VIP section.
Jan Cilliers: An area which is more protected and safer to be in.
By then, Jan had gone to bed. When he woke up the next morning – it was now Saturday, November 13 — he saw that Christy had texted him.
Jan Cilliers: I texted her back and sort of didn’t hear anything from her.
At first, he just assumed she was sleeping in. But after a few hours with no word, he noticed something strange. They shared locations on their phones.
Jan Cilliers: I saw that she was at a location that I didn’t recognize.
Her phone was located at 8641 West Olympic Boulevard.
Jan Cilliers: So … a little orange flag at the back of your head.
Jan Cilliers: I still hadn’t heard back from her, and I saw her location had suddenly moved … to the hospital.
Jan Cilliers: I called the hospital. They told me that she was in the emergency room and at that point, like, I’m in real panic.
Jan raced to the airport to catch a flight back to LA.
Jan Cilliers: I called her parents … let them know that something terrible had happened and that she’s in the emergency room … and then, her mom called the emergency room and called me back probably five minutes later, letting me know that Christy passed away.
Jonathan Vigliotti: In less than 24 hours, your world was turned upside down.
Jan went straight to the hospital. Christy and Hilda’s friend who had been at the warehouse party with them, but left early, was already here. She had been desperately trying to get in touch with Hilda but couldn’t reach her. They were about to find out why.
Jan Cilliers: She … got a call from a different hospital like two hours later saying that Hilda was just checked in there … And then — like, obviously, all our alarm bells are going off in our heads when both girls are dropped off at two different hospitals, two hours apart. Like something terrible happened that night.
And Jan believed, whatever happened, took place at that mysterious address on Olympic Blvd. He put it on Instagram asking for help.
Jonathan Vigliotti: You blast out this address and very quickly, you got responses.
Jan Cilliers: Yeah.
Jonathan Vigliotti: What are those responses?
Jan Cilliers: That there’s somebody that lives at this location that is very unsavory person, um, that there’s a lot of stuff out on the Internet about him.
His name was David Pearce. Hilda and Christy were believed to have met him for the first time at the warehouse party.
Barry Telis: David Pearce flew under the radar … for a long time.
But his past was about to catch up with him as he faces serious charges, says former prosecutor Mary Fulginiti.
Jonathan Vigliotti: So, at best, a con man. At worst?
Mary Fulginiti: A criminal, a sexual predator … a drug dealer.
Jonathan Vigliotti: A murderer?
Mary Fulginiti: A murderer.
RETRACING CHRISTY AND HILDA’S NIGHT OUT
As Hilda Marcela lay in a hospital bed fighting for her life in LA, Dusty and Leslie Giles were preparing to bury their daughter Christy in Alabama.
Half her ashes would go to Jan to scatter in the places they loved. Dusty placed the rest in an urn inside a butterfly box and gently wrapped it in the wedding dress she never had the chance to wear.
Half of Christy Giles’ ashes would go to to her husband to scatter in the places they loved. Her mother placed the rest in an urn inside a butterfly box and gently wrapped it in the wedding dress she never had the chance to wear.
Dusty Giles
Dusty Giles: It was important because I know how happy she was when she found it. She swirled like a princess literally in it.
Within hours of Christy’s death, detectives on the case were following clues from Christy herself. Her pinging phone had led them straight to the apartment of David Pearce at 8641 West Olympic Blvd.
Barry Telis: Police drive over there. Oh, my God. There’s the car. Boom. There’s the car. … Same car.
Telis says police believed it was the same black Prius with no license plates that dropped Christy off at the hospital.
Barry Telis: And it’s like, OK, I think — I think we have our man.
They retraced the movements of the women that night, which would become the basis of a police affidavit. When they combed through those pictures from the party at the warehouse, there was David Pearce with Hilda partying it up in the VIP section.
David Pearce
Getty Images
Jonathan Vigliotti: it sounds like VIP access gave David Pearce … instant credibility.
Barry Telis: Absolutely. It’s all part of the manipulation … He must be a good guy. He’s in the VIP section.
It was likely all part of a plan to meet women — a plan that included drugs, says the retired detective.
Barry Telis: Based on the witnesses’ statements and the police investigation… David Pearce comes with a bag of cocaine — an ounce estimated — and David Pearce came here to share it with whoever he could meet.
According to Telis, cocaine is a hot ticket at these parties, at least on that night, even for Hilda and Christy. The police recovered this text exchange between the two women starting at 4:21 a.m. while still at the warehouse party: “Do you want coke?” asks Hilda. “Yes,” replies Christy. Hilda texted back “I’m in the kitchen. Let’s do a line.”
According to the police affidavit, a witness “observed Pearce provide what looked like cocaine to Giles and Cabrales who consumed it.”
Surveillance video screenshot highlighting Christy Giles and Hilda Marcela Cabrales leaving the warehouse party on the night of Nov. 12, 2021.
Jan Cilliers
Police say half an hour later, surveillance video obtained by “48 Hours” shows Hilda and Christy leaving with David Pearce and two other men — his roommate Brandt Osborn and their friend, photographer Michael Ansbach. They all get into Osborn’s car.
At 5:11 a.m., according to the police affidavit, surveillance video — which has not been released because of the ongoing investigation — shows Osborn’s car arriving in front of the apartment. According to the affidavit, several people got out of the vehicle and headed to the entrance of the residence.
The last text messages between Hilda Marcelas Cabrales and Christy Giles at 5:30 a.m. on Nov. 13, 2021.
Jan Cilliers
Nineteen minutes later, at 5:30 a.m., Christy sends — from inside Pearce’s apartment — a wide-eyed emoji text to Hilda saying, “let’s go.” Hilda replies “I’ll call an Uber 10 min away.”
Thirteen minutes later, according to the affidavit, a car, believed to be the Uber, pulls up. After waiting five minutes it drives away without Christy and without Hilda.
Jonathan Vigliotti: How did you process that?
Jan Cilliers: I mean it’s just confirming my worst fears again that they were there at that place against their will. They didn’t want to be there. They wanted to leave.
Mary Fulginiti, a former federal prosecutor and defense attorney and a CBS News consultant, has reviewed the police affidavit and court documents. She says this text is an important piece of evidence.
Mary Fulginiti: Something or someone stopped them in their tracks because they never got out and they never left.
No one knows exactly what went on inside that apartment for the next 13 hours. But, according to the affidavit, a neighbor heard someone “in pain and moaning on-and-off during the hours of 10:30 a.m. …until 4 p.m.” For reasons not known, the neighbor did not call police.
Mary Fulginiti: She’s clearly in a distressed state that everyone seems to just be ignoring. And when I say everyone, not just Pearce or Osborn, but there’s a third individual that appears to have been at that apartment, at least for part or all of the night, and that’s Michael Ansbach.
Whatever happened inside the apartment was hidden from public view, not so outside the apartment. Another key piece of evidence: images captured on security cameras.
Barry Telis (standing outside Pearce’s apartment): But the cameras are in the adjacent building right next door, pointing right in this direction.
Although Telis has not seen the video, the police affidavit describes it in detail. At 4:19 in the afternoon — 11 hours after they’d arrived at the apartment — Pearce and Osborn are caught on camera carrying Christy down the back stairs.
Barry Telis: It shows Pearce exit the door … the back door, looks … in both directions.
Barry Telis: Making sure the coast is clear … making sure there’s not gonna be any witnesses that sees me carrying this body to my car.
Both men get in the Prius. According to the affidavit, the men are captured on security cameras trying to disguise themselves.
Mary Fulginiti: You see them putting on a hat, a mask and a hoodie. And then they drive away, and they drive to a hospital. Southern California Medical Center.
Shortly after, according to police, Ansbach leaves the residence carrying bags “of unknown items.” Pearce and Osborn return to the apartment to get Hilda. They carry her partially clad body out to the Prius.
Mary Fulginiti: And again, they leave … They don’t go to the same hospital. They go to a different hospital, Kaiser Permanente.
Jonathan Vigliotti: Why not bring them at the same time to the same hospital?
Barry Telis: Who knows? They’re trying to conceal their actions. They’re trying to keep the police at bay, and they don’t want to hit the radar.
Mary Fulginiti: And they do the same thing … They drop the body, they tell the same story, and then they take off without leaving their name, their phone number or anything to identify themselves with.
Jonathan Vigliotti: And Hilda … what is her state at this point.
Barry Telis: Hilda was still alive … when they got her to the hospital … and then she was declared what we call brain dead.
Jonathan Vigliotti: How did you process that when you heard that news?
Luis Cabrales: The worst day of my life.
A BREAK IN THE CASE
After almost two weeks on life support, it was time for Hilda Marcela’s family to say goodbye.
Jonathan Vigliotti: Hilda, what were your final moments with your daughter?
Dr. Hilda Marcela Arzola-Plascencia: Oh, they were so hard you know … and I just was asking God to not let her suffer more.
Fernanda Cabrales: I remember telling her that you can leave … and just thanking her for being my sister.
Luis Cabrales: I told her … “baby, when I pass away, I will see you again and I give you a big hug, a kiss.”
The family decided to donate Hilda Marcela’s organs. Her mom remembers the medical staff lining the halls as the family accompanied Hilda to the OR.
Dr. Hilda Marcela Arzola-Plascencia: The medical team was clapping … to honor her, to say thank you for giving life to others.
Hilda Marcela Cabrales
Fernanda Cantisani
Hilda Marcela Cabrales was pronounced dead one day before her 27th birthday. Back in Monterrey Mexico, her friends gathered to remember her all dressed in white at her favorite park.
Fernanda Cantisani: We brought her favorite thing to drink and her favorite cake … at first … we were crying. … But at some point … we put her favorite music on … and we just started dancing and we were laughing and hugging. And it was beautiful. … I felt, like, she was there.
Three weeks after Hilda’s death, a break in the case.
David Pearce, 39, Brandt Osborn, 42, and Michael Ansbach, 47, were arrested in connection to Hilda and Christy’s deaths, but not officially charged. Osborn and Ansbach were eventually released; Pearce was held on four unrelated sexual assault charges.
David Pearce, 39, Brandt Osborn, 42, and Michael Ansbach, 47, were arrested in connection to Hilda and Christy’s deaths, but not officially charged. Osborn and Ansbach were eventually released, but not Pearce. He was held on four unrelated sexual assault charges.
KCAL ANCHOR/REPORTER: New tonight, a Beverly Hills man has been charged with sexually assaulting four different women.
Barry Telis: When this case … hit the media, more victims showed up said … I know that guy. He did this to me.
The prosecution is alleging — in cases dating back to 2010 — that Pearce lured four different Jane Does to his apartment and gave all but one a “special drink” causing them to get dizzy or black out.
Mary Fulginiti: The allegations include forcible rape, sexual penetration with a foreign object … having sex with someone who’s unconscious.
Erica Bergman, who also goes by Erykah Poe, is not one of the Jane Does. But she says she was so traumatized by Pearce, she tried to warn other women about him on a blog called “The Dirty” as far back as 2013. She discovered she had a lot of company.
Erica Bergman: There’s a lot of commonalities in our stories.
Erica says she met Pearce at a low point in her life – she was getting a divorce and money was tight. Initially, she says she was taken in by him.
Erica Bergman: He would talk a lot about celebrities that he knew and introduce himself as a producer for Paramount Pictures. So, he was really larger-than-life kind of personality.
But she says it didn’t take her long to realize that Pearce, who often introduced himself as “Dave from Paramount Pictures,” lied. He never worked at the movie studio.
Erica Bergman: David Pearce … is a very bad person.
Erica believes that one night he drugged her. She slept until 4 p.m. the next day and woke up feeling strange and groggy.
Erica Bergman: And Dave is bouncing around the room, kind of laughing and giddy. … and he started to tell me how while I was passed out, he had assaulted me while I was sleeping, sexually assaulted me, and the things that he had done to me. And it was incredibly degrading.
Erica says she wanted to leave but felt trapped. She says he threatened to send compromising pictures to her estranged husband whom she was battling in divorce court. She reluctantly stayed, but she says the violence only got worse.
Erica Bergman: He slammed my head onto the … marble floor and the sound in my ears was like an egg cracking, and I can’t get that sound out of my ears.
Erica says she was too scared to press charges, but she soon left for good. Then it all came rushing back when she heard about Christy and Hilda.
Erica Bergman: My first gut instinct was that this was not an accident, that … he had his name all over it.
In May 2022, the prosecution added three more counts of sexual assault against David Pearce.
DEPUTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY CATHERINE MARIANO (to reporters): We’ve added three additional sexual assault charges with three additional victims.
And there was more.
CBS NEWS LOS ANGELES: 40-year-old David Pearce has been charged with murder in connection with the women’s deaths.
After a seven-month investigation, the DA had enough evidence to indict David Pearce on two counts of murder, claiming David Pearce gave Christy and Hilda lethal amounts of fentanyl, a deadly synthetic opioid drug dealers often mix with other drugs, unbeknownst to the user.
Jonathan Vigliotti: It took months before David Pearce was charged with murder. What was your reaction?
Jan Cilliers: I mean, definitely relief, but also very sad.
The police did not find any fentanyl-laced drugs in Pearce and Osborn’s apartment, just drug paraphernalia. But Osborn, who has been charged as an accessory to murder after the fact, may have unwittingly explained why. According to the police affidavit, Osborn told coworkers if cops had found the “drugs hidden underneath the cash” inside the car they would’ve been in “big trouble.”
Not finding fentanyl-laced drugs creates a big challenge for the prosecution, says Fulginiti.
Mary Fulginiti: They’re going to have to prove that David Pearce gave the girls these drugs and he knew at the time that it could harm them, and he did so with conscious disregard. … so, they’re gonna have to prove that David Pearce intended to kill these young women. That’s not an easy threshold to overcome.
Especially in light of witness statements that the women were doing drugs willingly — cocaine at the warehouse and earlier in the evening, as well. Friends told police Christy and Hilda both had taken cocaine and ketamine, a popular club drug.
Jonathan Vigliotti: How does this work in the defense’s favor?
Josh Ritter: Because fentanyl is a problem in this country … And people are dying from fentanyl that they take recreationally because they believe that they’re only taking cocaine.
Josh Ritter: If you’re the defense, that’s the point you want to continue to drive home. It’s, how do you hold these two men responsible for an epidemic that’s really plaguing the entirecountry?
That does not mean it will be an easy defense, says Josh Ritter. The former Los Angeles Assistant DA is advising Jan on legal issues and is now a practicing defense attorney.
Josh Ritter: The problems that they’re going to have, though, is … how do you get around … how those girls were treated afterwards. And how do you get around the history that this man has?
And how do you get around the fact that Christy had the so-called date rape drug, GHB, in her system?
Jonathan Vigliotti: Is GHB, is the date-rape drug something these women would have taken knowingly?
Mary Fulginiti: Absolutely not … that is a drug that’s usually used by sexual predators, guys that want to, you know, take advantage of women and don’t want them to remember and know about it.
Hilda and Christy were still coherent at 5:30 a.m. on Saturday morning when they exchanged that text about calling an Uber — the text punctuated with a wide-eyed emoji.
Jan Cilliers: Something happened inside those 10 minutes between them calling the Uber and the Uber leaving that incapacitated them.
According to the timeline in the affidavit, Christy remained in that apartment for the next 11 hours, Hilda for 13, with one of them, according to a neighbor, moaning and groaning in pain most of the day.
Barry Telis: These two women could still be alive had David Pearce or Mr. Osborne called 911. Three digits on a phone. That could have changed everything.
SEEKING JUSTICE
If found guilty of all charges against him, David Pearce could face 128 years to life in prison.
Jonathan Vigliotti: What is David Pearce currently charged with?
Mary Fulginiti: David Pearce is charged with 11 counts, seven counts of drugging and sexually assaulting, forcibly raping and/or sodomizing several women, two counts of murder and two counts of providing a … controlled substance, that being fentanyl.
David Pearce in a Los Angeles Superior Courtroom in July 2022. He has been charged with two counts of murder, two counts of providing a controlled substance (fentanyl), and seven sexual assault charges from seven other victims, unrelated to Christy and Hilda’s case. The seven other charges date back as far as 2010. Pearce remains in custody at an LA County Jail. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
AP Images
In a bold decision, the state will combine the sexual assault and murder charges in one trial.
Jonathan Vigliotti: Why include sexual assault charges in a murder case?
Mary Fulginiti: If you look at this case in its totality, I mean, this is David Pearce’s MO. … He lures women back to his apartment. He provides them with a drink. … And then they start to feel dizzy or they blackout, and he sexually assaults them.
While Christy and Hilda’s autopsy stated there was no physical or sexual trauma, nurses who treated Hilda noted slight bleeding in her vagina, and a review of her sexual assault examination found a small abrasion.
Jonathan Vigliotti: I know this is a difficult conversation. Do you think Hilda and Christy were potentially raped that night?
Dr. Hilda Marcela Arzola-Plascencia: Of course, I believe that. … That’s the reason why they drugged them.
Josh Ritter believes the testimony of the women who were allegedly drugged and raped by Pearce will help jurors see a dangerous pattern of behavior.
Josh Ritter: Their testimonies are going to be huge … one woman … perhaps the defense can poke holes in that. … Two women, it begins to sound like … is this really a coincidence or not? But three or four women or more and you realize you’re dealing with … with a monster.
It turns out David Pearce had been on the police radar for years. According to the police affidavit, he was arrested in 2014 for sexual assault, along with an additional rape case. But these cases are often difficult to prove and were ultimately rejected by the District Attorney’s Office — something Christy’s sister Misty finds unforgivable.
Misty Weldon: To know that … he had been arrested and had been released … is just appalling to me … It’s really sad that two beautiful girls had to die in order for him to be in jail right now.
David Pearce has pleaded not guilty to all charges against him.
Brandt Osborn, who is charged as an accessory to murder after the fact, has also pleaded not guilty and is out on bail. “48 Hours” caught up with him outside of court.
GREG FISHER | “48 Hours” producer: Do you have any comment?
BRANDT OSBORN: I have no comment. I’m innocent.
Pearce’s lawyer also had no comment, but at the time of the incident, Pearce told detectives, “At the end of the day, I didn’t do anything wrong … I just tried to make the situation, you know, right.”
So far, the prosecution has “declined” to charge Michael Ansbach. “48 Hours” has learned that he’s cooperating with prosecutors and will likely testify against his two friends.
But until the case goes to trial, Dusty and Leslie Giles — thanks to a social media campaign — will be at every court hearing, never letting David Pearce forget that Christy was more than just a name on a court docket.
Dusty Giles: She was a real person. She was a daughter, a sister, a granddaughter. She was her daddy’s best friend.
Leslie Giles: I miss my daughter.
Hilda Marcela Cabrales, left, and Christy Giles.
Fernanda Cantisani/Jan Cilliers
In Mexico, Hilda Marcela’s friends and family cherish the mementos she left behind.
A lock of hair. A diploma.
Jonathan Vigliotti: So, she wasn’t just smart. She was the top of her class.
Luis Cabrales: She was the top of the top.
And a dog named Tomas who now lives with Alan.
Fernanda Cantisani: The love we have for Marce. … It’s going to Tomas. … he reminds us about her so much.
Alan Betancourt: And he has become my emotional support, my emotional fortress … Um, I would be very lost, so yeah.
Dr. Hilda Marcela Arzola-Plascencia: Here is always and will always be a hole and nothing can fill it … she loved to live. And I think that’s the way we can honor her, living our lives in the best way.
Dr. Hilda Arzola: This is a tragedy. But maybe this was the way to stop them.
Jan Cilliers: That’s the only justice we can get.
A trial date has not been set for David Pearce or Brandt Osborn.
Produced by Liza Finley. Alicia Tejada is the field producer. Michelle Fanucci, Greg Fisher, and Michelle Sigona are the development producers. Diana Modica, Michael Baluzy, Gregory F. McLaughlin and Gregory Kaplan are the editors. Lauren Turner Dunn is the associate producer. Anthony Batson is the senior broadcast producer. Nancy Kramer is the executive editor. Judy Tygard is the executive producer
Hilda Marcela Cabrales, 26, left her Weimaraner, Tomás, with a friend when she moved to Los Angeles from Mexico. She planned to call for her beloved dog when she got her bearings — but tragically, that day never came.
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Two Chinese businesses were sanctioned Friday by the United States after allegedly supplying precursor chemicals used to produce fentanyl to drug cartels in Mexico.
“Illicit fentanyl is responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of Americans each year,” said Brian E. Nelson, the Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, in a Treasury Department news release announcing the sanctions. The department “will continue to vigorously apply our tools” to stop chemicals from being transferred, he said.
The announcement comes on the same day the Justice Department charged 28 Sinaloa Cartel members in a sprawling fentanyl trafficking investigation. The indictments also charged four Chinese citizens and one Guatemalan citizen with supplying those chemicals. The same five were also sanctioned by the Treasury Department, according to its release.
In recent years, the Drug Enforcement Administration has called on the Chinese government to crack down on supply chain networks producing precursor chemicals. DEA Administrator Anne Milgram told CBS News last year that Chinese companies are the largest producers of these chemicals.
Vanda Felbab-Brown, a Brookings Institution senior fellow who has researched Chinese and Mexican participation in illegal economies said in testimony submitted to the House of Representatives Subcommittee on National Security, Illicit Finance, and International Financial Institutions there is little visibility into China’s enforcement of its fentanyl regulations, but it likely “remains limited.”
Law enforcement and anti-drug cooperation between the U.S., China and Mexico “remains minimal,” Felbab-Brown said in her testimony, and sanctions are one tool that may induce better cooperation.
Sanctions ensure that “all property and interests in property” for the designated persons and entities must be blocked and reported to the Treasury.
Chemical companies Wuhan Shuokang Biological Technology Co., Ltd and Suzhou Xiaoli Pharmatech Co., Ltd were slapped with sanctions for their contribution to the “international proliferation of illicit drugs or their means of production,” the Treasury Department said.
The Guatemalan national was sanctioned for their role in brokering and distributing chemicals to Mexican cartels.
Caitlin Yilek and Norah O’Donnell contributed to this report.
