Los Angeles police have arrested 22-year-old Encino resident Raymond Boodarian on suspicion of murdering Robin Kaye, the longtime music supervisor for television’s “American Idol,” and her husband, songwriter Thomas Deluca. The couple, both 70, were found shot to death on Monday in their Encino home during a welfare check requested by friends. Detectives believe the pair were killed four days earlier, on 10 July, after returning home and confronting an intruder who had climbed an exterior fence and entered through an unlocked door. Surveillance video shows the suspect inside the property for about 30 minutes before the victims arrived. Each was shot multiple times in separate rooms. Investigators say Boodarian was identified through the footage and a fingerprint recovered at the scene. He was taken into custody without incident on Tuesday by an LAPD-FBI fugitive task force, and a handgun retrieved from his residence is undergoing forensic tests to determine whether it is the murder weapon. Court records indicate Boodarian faced misdemeanor counts of battery and brandishing a weapon last year, but the cases were dismissed after he was ruled mentally incompetent and placed under a conservatorship. Prosecutors are expected to file formal murder charges later this week; police have not established a motive but do not believe the suspect knew the victims. Kaye joined “American Idol” in 2009 and supervised music for nearly 300 episodes, earning multiple Guild of Music Supervisors Awards. Deluca’s songwriting career spanned four decades, including the 1986 album “Down to the Wire” and 2022’s “Street Rock.” In a statement, the ABC series said Kaye was “a cornerstone of the Idol family” and offered condolences to the couple’s relatives and friends.
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