“WHEN I GOT THE CALL, I COULDN’T EVEN BREATHE.”
Jon Stewart Breaks Down After Learning of Robin Kaye’s Double tragedy — and Reveals the Side of Her America Never Saw

In the midst of headlines, investigations, and camera flashes outside a $5 million mansion in Encino, Jon Stewart sat in silence, crumbling. The public lost an American Idol icon. Jon lost one of the few people who ever truly understood him.

He was live-taping the latest episode of The Problem with Jon Stewart when his producer slipped him a note. One line, scribbled in black ink:
“Robin Kaye. Tom Deluca. Both gone. Double tragedy.”

At first, he froze. Then the paper dropped from his hand. Minutes later, the cameras were cut, and Stewart disappeared from the set.

To the world, Robin Kaye was the beloved music supervisor of American Idol — the architect behind hundreds of musical moments that moved a nation. But to Jon Stewart, she was more than a brilliant colleague in the industry. She was family.

“I met Robin in 2003. Emmy after-party. I cracked a joke about corporate music and she shot back, ‘You’d cry if you saw what it takes to get a single guitar riff past legal,’” Stewart once recalled during a SiriusXM interview. “I knew instantly—this woman was the realest thing in the room.”

Over the next two decades, Kaye and Stewart would become one of Hollywood’s most unusual friendships: she, the behind-the-scenes queen of musical curation; he, the sharp-tongued cultural critic. They shared a fondness for black coffee, dogs with arthritis, and the kind of honesty you only get at 1 a.m. phone calls.

And now, she was gone.

The Mansion on Louise Avenue

At 2:33pm Monday, LAPD officers were dispatched to the six-bedroom home after family and neighbors hadn’t heard from the couple in four days. What they found was devastating.

Blood on the front steps. Silence behind locked doors. And inside — Robin Kaye and her husband, Tom Deluca — both 70 — found lifeless, with signs of fatal head wounds.

A double tragedy.

A brutal end to a quiet life lived among vintage guitars, vocal mixes, and Sunday morning jazz.

The police haven’t named a suspect. But sources close to the investigation confirmed something chilling: just four days before the incident, an armed intruder had reportedly been spotted hopping a fence into the property.

No one was arrested. No suspect was confirmed. No motive, either. Only silence.

And now, grief.

Robin Kaye and Thomas Deluca, both 70, were brutally shot to death inside their home in Encino Monday

Officers with the Los Angeles Police Department were called to the six-bedroom home (pictured) for a welfare check, but when they entered, they discovered Kaye and Deluca’s lifeless bodies

Kaye with Singer La’Porsha Renae and producer Randy Jackson in 2017

Their sudden deaths are being investigated as a double homicide, police said. The motive is unknown

Jon Stewart’s Private Grief Goes Public

Jon Stewart, never one to flaunt emotion, released a statement on Tuesday morning.

“Robin Kaye was the most decent human being I knew in Hollywood. And Tom… Tom was music. The kind of man who hummed soul melodies while pouring coffee. They loved harder than anyone I’ve ever met. And someone took them away.”

But it wasn’t until Wednesday night that Stewart returned to camera — this time unscheduled, unscripted, and visibly wrecked.

He sat at a dim desk. No lights. Just a voice recorder in front of him.

“They called her the ‘music supervisor of American Idol,’ like that title did her justice,” he said quietly. “You didn’t supervise music, Robin. You healed people with it. You rescued TV moments. You made a nation cry with a crescendo, and they never even knew your name.”

There was a pause.

Then:

“The industry talks about legacy. But it never protects the ones who build it.”

Who Was Robin Kaye Outside the Spotlight?

Kaye (left) and Deluca (right) with Dolly Parton (second from left) in 2009

Her husband was a musician who last released an album called Street Rock in 2022

According to neighbors, a person, who may have been armed, was spotted hopping a fence on the tree-lined street in the ritzy California neighborhood

In an industry bloated with ego, Robin Kaye was the anomaly.

No entourage. No red carpets. Just soundboards, patience, and a mind wired to translate emotion into rhythm.

She joined American Idol in 2009 and stayed through 15 seasons — nearly 300 episodes — sculpting performances that launched careers. Kelly Clarkson. Jennifer Hudson. Fantasia. Behind every breakout moment was Kaye’s quiet touch.

Beyond Idol, she shaped music on Lip Sync Battle, Hollywood Game Night, Worn Stories, and even the NAACP Image Awards.

And yet, she once said at the 7th Annual Guild of Music Supervisors Awards:

“People don’t know we exist. They just think music… happens.”

Her husband, Tom Deluca, was a lifelong musician. His 1986 debut album was a cult favorite. In 2022, he released Street Rock — a blend of blues, protest, and poetry. He’d written for Kid Rock, Molly Hatchet, Meredith Brooks. But those who knew him said his best songs were never recorded — only played late at night to Robin in their kitchen.

They bought their Encino home in January 2023. A house once rented by Juice WRLD. A house filled with music, warmth… and now silence.

Hollywood Responds, But Stewart Doesn’t Want Their Condolences

As tributes poured in — from American Idol, Fox, musicians, former contestants — Jon Stewart did not join the chorus.

Instead, he posted a single photo to his personal feed:
Robin Kaye, standing behind a mixing desk in 2015, arms crossed, eyes closed, headphones crooked on her head. The caption:
“She always heard more than the rest of us.”

Later that day, Stewart was spotted leaving the couple’s Encino property with a woman believed to be Kaye’s sister. His eyes were red. His jaw clenched.

He declined to speak to reporters.

But sources close to him say he has privately vowed to “fight like hell” to get answers. Whether that means hiring private investigators, pressing police for updates, or launching a documentary — no one knows. But those who know Stewart know this: he doesn’t let go.

The Unseen Side of the Tragedy

Neighbors told KTLA that the property had been targeted once before. The armed suspect — never caught. Now, some are asking: Was this a targeted invasion? A botched robbery? A vendetta from the past?

No one can say.

But for Jon Stewart, the real tragedy isn’t just that Robin and Tom are no longer here.
It’s that their love, their art, their joy — all ended in the kind of senseless violence they never believed in.

Authorities witnessed blood at the front entrance of the couple’s home before breaking through a window to enter the property (pictured)

Over the years, she won several Guild of Music Supervisors Awards for her work on American Idol

The home was also used a rental property before being sold to the couple, neighbors said

A Legacy in Harmony, Ended in Chaos

On Friday, American Idol aired a black screen for five seconds before the episode began.

“In Loving Memory of Robin Kaye and Tom Deluca. Music was their language. Love was their legacy.”

But Stewart wants more than a card. More than a tribute.

He’s been quietly lobbying producers to dedicate the entire season finale to Robin — no competition, no voting, just a celebration of what she brought to the show.

“There are names you remember because they won,” Stewart told a friend. “And then there are names that built the stage they stood on. Robin built the damn stage.”

Final Note from a Friend

Late Thursday night, Jon Stewart left a voicemail on the American Life podcast.

His voice was raw. Not angry. Just… tired.

“She made music so people could feel less alone.
I hope — wherever she is — she’s not alone.”

And then he hung up.

No more words.

Because for once, even Jon Stewart had nothing left to say.