Post by natalie on Jul 10, 2014 12:19:47 GMT -5
Call Girl Accused of Killing Google Executive
Alyssa Newcomb, July 10, 2014
More than seven months after a Silicon Valley executive was found dead on his yacht of an apparent overdose, police said they have uncovered new video evidence that reveals he may have been murdered. Alix Tichelman, 26, whom police describe as a high-end call girl, is believed to be the woman in the video injecting Forrest Hayes, 51, with heroin during a date together last November, according to Santa Cruz police.
Posing as a potential client, police said they caught up with Tichelman at a hotel on July 4 and arrested her. She appeared in court today on manslaughter and drugs charges, but did not enter a plea. Tichelman, who was appointed a public defender, is being held on $1.5 million bail.
It was initially believed that Hayes, who had worked at Apple and was employed by Google at the time of his death, died of an overdose on his yacht, The Escape.
The newly uncovered surveillance video shows a woman, who Santa Cruz police say is Tichelman, administering the drugs and never trying to help Hayes or to call authorities when it was clear something had gone terribly wrong, Deputy Chief Steve Clark said. “She was so callous that in gathering her things, she was literally stepping over the body and at one point, stepped over the body to grab a glass of wine and finish the glass of wine,” Clark told ABC’s San Francisco owned station KGO-TV. Police said the woman, believed to be Tichelman, even drew the blinds to the bedroom on the 50-foot yacht before leaving. Investigators took Tichelman’s fingerprints from the wine glass, according to KGO-TV.
An obituary posted in The Santa Cruz Sentinel describes Hayes as a husband and father of five children. “More than anything else he enjoyed spending time with his family at home and on his boat,” the obituary said. “His brilliant mind, contagious smile, and warm embrace will be missed and cherished in memories by his friends and family.”
Authorities said Tichelman met her clients through a website called “Seeking Arrangement,” a site that aims to connect “sugar daddies” and “sugar babies.” During interviews with police, Tichelman allegedly boasted of having more than 200 client relationships, police said.
