On the day that an “American Idol” music supervisor and her musician husband were shot to death inside their Encino home, the Los Angeles Police Department received two 911 burglary calls about the property, law enforcement sources told The Times. But it wasn’t until four days later that officers discovered the bodies of Robin Kaye and husband Tom DeLuca inside.
L.A. police responded to a report of a possible break-in at 4 p.m. July 10 and determined that nothing appeared out of place at the couple’s residence, according to Los Angeles Police Lt. Guy Golan.
Officers on foot reported that the property was locked and no one responded inside. A helicopter was used to surveil the scene from above and also did not see anything suspicious.
The bodies of Kaye and DeLuca were finally discovered Monday when officers responded to a welfare check at the couple’s homes in the 4700 block of White Oak Avenue.
The following day, the LAPD and FBI task force officers arrested Raymond Boodarian, 22, in connection to the killings, Golan said.
Court records show that Boodarian was charged in three instances of misdemeanor battery last year. Those charges were ultimately dropped after a series of hearings related to his mental competency and a conservatorship investigation.
The killings appeared to be random, Golan said, but investigators were looking for any connection between the suspect and DeLuca and Kaye.
Kaye and DeLuca were shot multiple times in separate rooms before the gunman fled on foot, locking the door behind him, police said. Though the couple’s house was well fortified, the suspect had managed to get in through an unlocked door.
“He was there for approximately half an hour,” Golan said. “When the homeowners returned back to their residence, a violent struggle ensued between them and the suspect, who was already inside their home, which resulted in the victims tragically losing their lives.”
When officers returned to the scene around 2:30 p.m. Monday, they were provided with a gate code to enter the property and spotted blood on the front porch, Golan said.
Officers smashed a glass window to gain entrance to the home and found the bodies inside.
Golan said the department would investigate why the couple, both 70, were not found earlier and whether the officers involved acted appropriately. LAPD officials said the front door of the home was not visible from the outside during the initial response.
After the bodies were discovered, LAPD detectives retrieved security recordings that showed Boodarian entered the property July 10, Golan said.
That video, along with forensic evidence, allowed them to identify him and link him to the shootings, according to Golan. A handgun was found at the suspect’s home, police told KABC. “We believe it’s the murder weapon,” Golan told the news outlet, “but pending forensic analysis, we’re not ready to say so yet.”
On June 27, 2024, Boodarian pleaded not guilty to charges of misdemeanor battery. On the same day, he was charged with battery on a person, exhibiting a deadly weapon and threatening to commit a crime with the intent to terrorize. A third misdemeanor battery was alleged to have occurred in February 2024.
All of these charges were dropped in December followed court proceedings related to Boodarian’s mental health.
Although crime is significantly down across Los Angeles, a series of deadly burglaries inside San Fernando Valley homes has some residents on edge.
Last week’s deadly incident in Encino has echoes of two other killings where police did not immediately find a murder victim despite 911 calls about a crime unfolding at a particular address.
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.
Following Kaye’s death, her peers remembered the veteran music supervisor.
She notably served as music producer for “American Idol” from 2009 to 2023, working on nearly 300 episodes, according to IMDb.
Didi Benami, a singer-songwriter and former “Idol” contestant, said in a Tuesday Instagram story that Kaye was “one of the kindest souls I’ve ever had the privilege of working with.”
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.
In a statement shared with The Times on Tuesday, a spokesperson for “American Idol” said the team behind the singing competition was “devastated” by news of the couple’s deaths and remembered Kaye as “a cornerstone of the ‘Idol’ family.”
The statement continued: “[Kaye] was truly loved and respected by all who came in contact with her. Robin will remain in our hearts forever and we share our deepest sympathy with her family and friends during this difficult time.”
New data show homicides across Los Angeles fell by more than 20% in the first half of the year, leaving the city on pace to end 2025 with its lowest total for that crime category in nearly 60 years.
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