Oh, this one is a true-crime saga that feels like it was ripped straight from a late-night docuseries marathon — except it’s real, it’s raw, and it’s rattling Los Angeles to its core.
Raymond Boodarian, just 22 years old, is now behind bars after police say a single fingerprint — left like some haunting calling card — tied him to the brutal murders of Robin Kaye and Thomas DeLuca. And not just any couple, either: Kaye was a longtime music supervisor for “American Idol”, a cornerstone figure behind some of the show’s most iconic seasons, and her husband, DeLuca, a musician with credits alongside Kid Rock and Molly Hatchet. A Hollywood power couple, quietly living in their beautiful Encino home… until last Thursday night turned it into a crime scene.
Here’s where the story twists hard: investigators believe Boodarian scaled a fence, slipped through an unlocked door, and turned a burglary into a double homicide.
The heartbreaking detail? LAPD had actually been called that same night by someone reporting a man jumping a fence on the property. Officers showed up, saw nothing obvious, couldn’t get in, and left. Hours later, Kaye and DeLuca were dead inside.
Surveillance footage helped fill in the gaps — a lone figure climbing the fence, moving through the grounds, then slipping away. And when detectives dusted for prints, they hit paydirt. Boodarian’s history with law enforcement meant his fingerprints were already in the system, and that match led to Monday’s arrest.
Neighbors now say the signs were there all along. One described him as “really, really disturbed,” recounting episodes where he seemed ready to break through a shared wall. Others said police had been called before, his own mother admitting she couldn’t control him.
And then there’s the eerie aftermath: police returning days later for a welfare check, finally forcing their way inside after spotting blood at the front entrance, and discovering the couple each shot in the head, in separate rooms.
The Hollywood community is reeling. “American Idol” released a statement mourning Kaye, praising her as a beloved part of the family since 2009.
DeLuca’s musical legacy — his 2022 album “Street Rock” among his latest — now stands as a tragic final chapter.
The investigation continues, with detectives digging into whether Boodarian had been to the property before, possibly sizing it up. For now, though, a fingerprint and a trail of heartbreak tell a story no one in that quiet Encino neighborhood will forget.
