Dawn DaLuise, a Los Angeles esthetician to celebrities, believed a neighboring rival was behind months of harassment — vandalism, obscene flyers and threatening texts — and was arrested in March 2014 on solicitation-to-murder charges. A jury acquitted DaLuise in January 2015 after 40 minutes of deliberation. Investigators later arrested Edward Feinstein and Nicholas Prugo; both pleaded no contest to stalking and received community service and probation. The case is examined in Investigation Discovery’s two-part episode "The Skincare Queen and the Hitman," with part two airing Feb. 2.
Skincare Star’s Harassment Nightmare: She Accused a Rival — Then Learned Friends Were Behind It
Dawn DaLuise.Investigation Discovery
Dawn DaLuise, a Los Angeles esthetician known for treating celebrities, spent months convinced a competing business was terrorizing her — only to discover the harassment had deeper, more personal roots. Investigation Discovery’s two-part installment of The Curious Case Of… titled "The Skincare Queen and the Hitman" retraces the bizarre campaign of vandalism, obscene flyers and threatening texts that upended her life and led to criminal charges and courtroom drama.
The Harassment Begins
DaLuise says her Skin Refinery clinic "erupted" after she was named Best Facialist in Los Angeles in 2000. In July 2013 she noticed a new skincare business move in next door and reconnected with Gabriel Suarez, a man she had rejected for a job in 2009. When clients told her Suarez had been handing out his card, her unease grew.
Edward Feinstein and Dawn DaLuise.Investigation Discovery
Later that year the attacks escalated: car tires were repeatedly slashed in her parking lot, profanity was painted on her reserved space, anonymous insulting texts arrived, and obscene flyers with her face photoshopped onto the bodies of other women were distributed — some left at her North Hollywood home. Someone even posted an online claim that she "likes to get raped," according to the documentary.
"Everywhere I go I’m being accosted," DaLuise tells the film, saying she reported incidents to police roughly 16 times and was advised to consider moving or leaving her job.
Investigation and Arrest
DaLuise confided in former NFL player Chris Geile and a church volunteer, the latter of whom connected her with Los Angeles County Sheriff’s detective Steve McCauley. In a dramatic turn, police arrested DaLuise at her home on March 5, 2014, charging her with solicitation to murder Gabriel Suarez.
Gabriel Suarez.Investigation Discovery
Detective McCauley alleged investigators had found texts in which DaLuise told Edward Feinstein that Geile had offered to "take Gabriel out," and said she did not explicitly refuse the offer. McCauley also said DaLuise had asked witnesses, including Feinstein, to lie about Suarez when giving statements. Geile was never charged or treated as a suspect.
Friends Turned Suspects
Investigators eventually arrested Edward Feinstein and Nicholas Prugo; a Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office release in September 2015 charged them with stalking DaLuise and soliciting a man to rape her. DaLuise had met Prugo after the Bling Ring controversy and worked briefly as his manager while they pitched a reality-show concept. She says a confrontation with Prugo’s parole officer — after she reported a parole violation — prompted Prugo and Feinstein to retaliate.
Nicholas Prugo and Dawn DaLuise.Investigation Discovery
Feinstein, who had a prior fraud conviction, later claimed DaLuise offered him and Prugo free facials to frame Suarez, but prosecutors said evidence did not support that account. DaLuise’s attorney Jamon Hicks says his team reviewed roughly 600 texts from her phone and found no proof she orchestrated the harassment.
Trial Outcomes
DaLuise learned of Feinstein’s and Prugo’s arrests while jailed awaiting trial. In January 2015 a California jury acquitted her after only 40 minutes of deliberation.
Feinstein and Prugo ultimately pleaded no contest to stalking; prosecutors dismissed the more serious felony solicitation-for-rape charge for lack of evidence. Under a plea deal they received 350 hours of community service and three years’ probation, and were ordered to stay away from DaLuise and her two daughters and to have no contact with each other for 10 years.
Asked about provocative texts shown in the documentary, DaLuise says she was "not thinking clearly" at the time and was merely "blowing off steam."
Where to Watch
Part two of The Curious Case Of…: "The Skincare Queen and the Hitman" premiered Feb. 2 at 10 p.m. ET on Investigation Discovery. The series began Jan. 26 with the first installment and episodes become available to stream on HBO Max after airing on ID.
Note: Nicholas Prugo declined to participate in the documentary. Feinstein gave his account in the program and has since faced separate accusations of stalking a neighbor.
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