The man accused of killing “American Idol” music supervisor Robin Kaye and her rock musician husband, Tom DeLuca, in their home in Encino allegedly called 911 after the crime, the county’s top prosecutor said, yet it still took four more days to discover their bodies.
Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman revealed the new details in the slaying of Kaye and DeLuca during a Monday town hall meeting in Encino, where hundreds of residents gathered to express frustration about a string of recent break-ins plaguing the area.
The revelation raises questions over how police handled the initial situation and when exactly they learned about the couple’s deaths.
Investigators believe Kaye and DeLuca walked in on Raymond Boodarian, 22, burglarizing their $4.5-million Encino home on White Oak Avenue on July 10, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.
Police allege Boodarian entered the home — which is heavily secured, with a large wall and security cameras — through an unlocked door. After the couple returned home, “a confrontation ensued” and the suspect shot them, police said.
A search warrant affidavit filed by members of the San Fernando Valley homicide unit said that police responded to two burglary calls at the address the day the couple was killed. Police filed the warrant to review Ring doorbell camera footage from a neighboring home that they hoped captured the break-in or the killings.
The first call came in shortly after 4 p.m. on July 10, when a neighbor reported an unidentified man trying to break into the couple’s home, according to the warrant.
About 40 minutes later, police received a second call from someone in the couple’s home claiming to be a resident reporting that a suspect had broken in. The 911 operator could hear the caller saying, “Please don’t shoot me,” to someone and dispatched officers to the scene, the warrant said.
The caller eventually advised that police response was not necessary and follow-up attempts to reach the caller were unsuccessful, said LAPD Communications Director Jennifer Forkish.
The warrant does not make it clear if the second call to police was from one of the two victims or Boodarian representing himself as a resident. Hochman said on Monday that at one point during the incident the suspect called 911 and identified himself to police. It is not clear exactly what he told dispatchers during the call.
Authorities sent officers to the house in response to both calls, which were linked based on the address, Forkish said, but they weren’t able to access the home and left.
“Officers arrived on scene and conducted a check of the surrounding area and attempted to visually check the residence through the security gate. They attempted entry at two access points but both were locked and secured,” Forkish said in a statement. “The home was secured with surrounding walls. The Air Ship visually checked the location and advised there was no visible activity or evidence of break in. After taking additional steps to contact the persons reporting and residents at the location, officers cleared from the scene.”
Kaye and DeLuca, who were both 70, were found dead inside the home four days later when officers returned to the property for a welfare check. The couple, whose bodies were found in separate rooms, according to law enforcement sources, had multiple gunshot wounds.
It’s the third time in recent months that LAPD officers have gone to a location in the San Fernando Valley after receving a 911 call and left, only to return later to a homicide.
Menashe Hidra’s body was found April 26 inside his fifth-floor Valley Village apartment after an assailant broke into a neighboring unit, jumped from the balcony to his unit and attacked him, investigators said.
Three days before, neighbors had called 911 and reported hearing shouting and a struggle coming from the apartment. Officers responded to those calls, knocked on the door and left without finding anything.
Erick Escamilla, 27, was eventually charged with the killing, along with an unrelated homicide from 2022.
The same day that Hidra’s body was discovered, police found the body of Aleksandre Modebadze, who was beaten to death inside his Woodland Hills home. In that case, a woman inside the home called LAPD about 12:30 a.m. and reported three people had broken into her home and were beating her significant other before the call suddenly cut out, according to law enforcement sources. The 911 operator tried to call back multiple times without success. Shortly before 1 a.m., officers arrived at the home but no one answered the door, there was no noise coming from inside the home and the blinds were down, the sources told The Times.
Modebadze was later found by officers badly beaten with a traumatic head injury, and eventually died of his injuries.
Authorities found Modebadze’s suspected killers hours after the incident.
Hochman said in the case of Kaye and DeLuca, investigators were eventually able to track Boodarian’s location by pinging his cellphone and then arrest him.
Hochman told the crowd Monday night that as a lifelong Angeleno, the twin killings were personal to him.
“The government owes you one thing and that’s safety,” Hochman said. “Robin and Tom didn’t experience safety that night. Safety failed them.”
The killings appeared to be random, law enforcement sources said, but investigators are looking for any connection between the suspect and Kaye and DeLuca, and whether Boodarian was involved in any past calls for service at the White Oak Avenue residence.
Boodarian was arrested on July 15 and is being held without bail at the Twin Towers Correctional Facility. He’s charged with two counts of murder, burglary and special allegations for multiple murders, personal discharge of a firearm and murder while engaging in robbery.
Court records show Boodarian has a history of alleged criminal offenses, including charges of battery, exhibiting a deadly weapon and threatening to commit a crime with the intent to terrorize. Charges were later dismissed after hearings related to mental competency and a conservatorship.
Kaye notably served as a music producer for “American Idol” from 2009 to 2023, working on nearly 300 episodes, according to IMDb. Her credits also included several “Miss Universe” TV specials, numerous NAACP Image Awards ceremonies, “The Singing Bee” and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.”
DeLuca was a singer-songwriter best known for his 1986 album, “Down to the Wire.” His most recent release was the album “Street Rock,” which came out in 2022.
