SANTA CRUZ, Calif. — As a Google executive lay dying on his yacht, an upscale prostitute casually walks over him, picks up her clothes and heroin and swallows the last of a glass of wine before lowering the boat's blinds and walking back on the dock to shore, police say surveillance footage shows.
Authorities charged Alix Tichelman, 26, with manslaughter Wednesday over her role in the death of Forrest Hayes, who was found dead by the captain of his 50-foot yacht last November. Police said the surveillance video from the yacht shows everything that happened from the time Tichelman came aboard to when she left.
Santa Cruz Deputy Police Chief Steve Clark said Wednesday that Hayes, 51, had hired Tichelman before, and that their Nov. 23 encounter "was a mutually consensual encounter including the introduction of the heroin."
Clark said it appears this might not have been the first time she left someone in trouble without calling 911 or trying to help. Without elaborating, he said his agency is cooperating with police in a different state on a similar case.
"There's a pattern of behavior here where she doesn't seek help when someone is in trouble," he said.
Clark said it's not clear if Hayes was a frequent drug user, and that in the video, it appears he needed Tichelman to help him shoot up. Clark described Tichelman as a high-end prostitute, who charged $1,000 and lived three hours away in the Sacramento suburb of Folsom.
He said she had other clients from Silicon Valley, home to about 50 billionaires and tens of thousands of millionaires.
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