Alix Tichelman, charged with second-degree murder.
A high-priced prostitute named Alix Tichelman has been arrested in the heroin-induced death of former Apple and Google executive Forrest Hayes.
According to the Santa Cruz Police Department, Tichelman met Hayes on board his yacht last November. Then, she injected him with an overdose of heroin, and stepped over his convulsing body to finish her glass of wine.
Security camera footage shows Tichelman, 26, then drawing the yacht’s blinds to conceal Hayes’ body, and leaving. Hayes, 51, was found the next morning by the boat’s captain.
“It’s an amazing case,” said Deputy Police Chief Steve Clark.
The two met on the website Seeking Arrangement
Authorities are still trying to work out exactly when and how the two ended up in each others’ lives.
Hayes had been a successful executive for most of his life. He grew up in Michigan, worked in the automotive industry before switching to hi-tech, and had had a long and successful career in Silicon Valley.
His résumé included work at Sun Microsystems, as Apple’s director of worldwide operations, and “a post at Google X,” the division responsible for Google Glass, among other things.
He and his wife Denise had been married for 17 years. They had five children together.
Forrest Hayes
Tichelman went to school in Atlanta and attended Georgia State University and beauty school. According to her Facebook profile, she is a makeup artist and self-employed “Baddest Bitch.”
After Hayes’ corpse was discovered last November, police embarked on an eight-month sting to identify and arrest his killer. They tracked Tichelman to her parents’ house, where she lives in Folsom, and got her to return to Santa Cruz when an undercover officer offered her $1,000 for sex.
Tichelman is a self-proclaimed “dark person” who has written poetry about drugs
Tichelman has been jailed on charges of second-degree murder, concealing evidence, and transportation of narcotics. Her bond is set at $1.5 million.
In an online tribute set up by his family last winter, Hayes was memorialized as “a loving husband and father. More than anything else he enjoyed spending time with his family at home and on his boat. His brilliant mind, contagious smile, and warm embrace will be missed and cherished in memories by his friends and family.”
