A victim of Hollywood predator David Pearce was a hero cop who died helping car crash victims days before her rapist was sentenced to life in prison.
Lauren Craven, 25, had been raped by Pearce along with six other women before the Los Angeles producer drugged and killed model Christy Giles and a friend in 2021.
Pearce was sentenced to a total of 146 years in prison for his crimes, but Craven was not there to see him get justice: the police officer from La Mesa, CA, was struck and killed by a vehicle last week while rushing to aid people trapped in a car that had flipped over on the highway.
County prosecutors made the stunning revelation after an LA Superior Court Judge handed Pearce sentences for a string of sexual assaults and two murders.
Craven died on October 23, less than a month after her 25th birthday.
Her heroic sacrifice had already made headlines even before the public knew she was involved in Pearce’s case.
She came upon a deadly rollover crash on Interstate 8 northeast of San Diego just before 10:30 p.m. last Monday, officials said.
She reported the incident over the radio before stepping out and walking toward a car that had flipped over.
Craven was struck by another car, which triggered a chain reaction, smashing into the vehicles involved in the initial crash.
The young police officer was remembered for her final act of compassion.
“Officer Craven’s actions in her final moments exemplified her unwavering dedication to service and the safety of others — a reflection of how she lived every day,” the La Mesa Police Department wrote on Facebook.
Craven had been identified only as “Jane Doe #5” during Pearce’s trial, where he faced justice not only for the fatal druggings of Christy Giles, 24, and Hilda Marcela Cabrales-Arzola, 26, but also seven rape victims who came forward after his arrest.
Pearce assaulted Craven while she was unconscious in 2020, prosecutors said at trial. He was given six years for that crime, plus sentences of 15 years to life for the other rapes.
Pearce met Christy Giles, 24, and Hilda Marcela Cabrales-Arzola, 26, at a rave party in Los Angeles and lured them back to his place — plying them with fentanyl-laced coke and drugged drinks and then refusing to call for help when they overdosed.
A witness claimed Pearce said “dead girls don’t talk” when he begged the killer to call 911.
Instead, Pearce dragged their limp bodies into his Toyota Prius and dumped them on the sidewalk in front of two different hospitals.
After Pearce was arrested for the gruesome deaths, Craven and six other women came forward with allegations that Pearce had assaulted them over a span of several years, beginning in 2007.
But Craven didn’t let the harrowing ordeal destroy her dreams: She joined the La Mesa Police Department in February 2024 after going through the police academy twice to achieve her goal of becoming an officer.
“It has always been my passion to serve others and there has never been a doubt in my mind being a law enforcement officer is what I was meant to do,” Craven wrote during the hiring process with the LMPD.
“That’s who Lauren was and that’s how she served and how she will be remembered,” La Mesa Chief of Police Ray Sweeney said at a news conference Tuesday.
