Hilda Marcela Cabrales-Arzola, a friend of the late model Christy Giles, died weeks after the two victims’ loved ones suspected they were drugged during a night out.
Cabrales-Arzola, an interior designer who had recently moved to Los Angeles from Mexico, was hospitalized in critical condition Nov. 13 after a night out with 24-year-old Giles. She was dropped off at a West L.A. hospital hours after Giles’ body was left at a Culver City hospital.
Cabrales-Arzola was on life support but was declared brain dead on Nov. 28, one day before her 27th birthday, according to a GoFundMe page set up to help with expenses. Her official death date is listed as Nov. 24 in L.A. County coroner records, however.
Some of Cabrales-Arzola’s organs were expected to be donated “as precious gifts to those in need,” the fundraising page indicated.
“She was a fighter and a giver until her very last breath,” the GoFundMe page reads. “Everyone who knew her would know this is what she would want, to help others with everything she can. Marcela’s brave and powerful fight for life gave us hope and strength and will continue to do so as we carry her light.”
The funds raised in the campaign will go toward medical costs, family travel expenses, funeral costs and sending her body back to Mexico.
Giles’ husband, Jan Cilliers, told KTLA last month that the circumstances behind his wife’s death and Cabrales-Arzola’s previous hospitalization were suspicious.
He believes at some point during their night out, the women became incapacitated. Heroin was found in his wife’s system, but Cilliers indicated neither of the women would ever take the drug.
Cilliers said he knows who the women were with that night. He and Giles’ best friend said they have been receiving messages from other people sharing their own bad experiences with the men, who were described as predators.
“We’ve all received a number of messages from other females who have eerily similar stories, except the only difference between them & Christy and Hilda, is they survived,” reads a GoFundMe set up for Giles.
Aside from funeral expenses, the funds will go toward investigations of both cases, the page indicates.
A Los Angeles Police Department West Bureau Homicide detective told KTLA this week that Giles’ death remains under investigation.