Tom Deluca and Hayley Westernra performing Lovers Game. Still / @hayleywesternra
Tom Deluca and Hayley Westernra performing Lovers Game. Still / @hayleywesternra
Kiwi singer Hayley Westenra says she is “completely heartbroken” after learning her two long-time friends were killed in their home in Los Angeles.
American Idol music supervisor Robin Kaye, 70, and her husband Tom De Luca, 70, were discovered dead in their Encino home by policeon July 14, the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) said in a statement.
The incident occurred four days earlier, on July 10.
A day after the bodies were found, authorities arrested 22-year-old Encino resident Ramond Boodarian, the LAPD confirmed.
This week, Westenra, 38, took to social media to express her shock and sadness.
“My heart is broken into a million pieces. My surrogate aunty and uncle Robin & Tom were brutally murdered in their home on the 10th July in LA. Somehow I only found out this morn,” read the caption on Instagram.
Westenra, who said she met the couple 20 years ago, added they were the “kindest of souls” who helped her when she was vulnerable.
“I stayed with them many times including my last night in LA when I was escaping a very bad relationship (they likely saved my life),” Westenra wrote.
“Tom and I wrote a number of songs together (Greener Lands was one of them that I’d performed live at Carnegie Hall with Robin & Tom joining me on that New York trip)."
She shared the post alongside a video of her and Tom performing Lovers Game.
“I want people to remember them this way ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ bright, loyal & loving souls. I am completely heartbroken."
The LAPD said the investigation into the case remains ongoing.
Westenra shot to fame early in life. She signed with Universal Records New Zealand at age 12, releasing her self-titled album in 2001.
Shortly afterwards, she signed under their international label, Decca, and released her first international album, Pure, which reached no 1 on the British charts.
