Disastrous Yacht Date With ‘Sugar Baby’ Rocks Google Director’s World
In November 2013, the mysterious death of Forrest Hayes, a high-ranking Google executive, sent shockwaves through Silicon Valley and beyond. Hayes’s life, marked by professional success and luxurious living, ended abruptly on his private yacht in Santa Cruz Harbor after a fateful meeting with a young model he met through a sugar baby dating website. The case exposed the hidden dangers lurking beneath the surface of high-profile lives and the secret worlds they sometimes inhabit.
A Life of Luxury and Pressure
Forrest Hayes, 51, lived in a $3 million home in an upscale Santa Cruz neighborhood. As a director at Google, he was known for his technological prowess and demanding career. To unwind, Hayes retreated to his 45-foot yacht, “Escape”—a vessel outfitted with $200,000 worth of cutting-edge technology, including high-resolution security cameras, and lavish amenities like leather ceilings and $8,000 chairs.
But beneath this veneer of success, Hayes sought excitement and companionship outside his marriage. Investigators would later discover that he had a profile on Seeking Arrangement, a dating site that connects wealthy “sugar daddies” with young “sugar babies.”
The Fateful Night
On November 22, 2013, Hayes didn’t return home. Concerned, his wife and children asked the yacht’s captain to check on him. What the captain found was chilling—Hayes’s lifeless body in the main cabin, prompting an immediate call to 911.
Police initially believed there was no video evidence from the yacht’s security system, but a deeper investigation revealed footage uploaded to a cloud server. After months of legal wrangling, authorities gained access to the video, which would prove crucial in unraveling the events of that night.
Seven Minutes That Changed Everything
The footage revealed Hayes’s final moments with Alix Tichelman, a 26-year-old model with distinctive tattoos. The pair greeted each other, chatted, and soon, Tichelman prepared heroin injections—first for herself, then for Hayes, who appeared nervous but consented.
Almost immediately, Hayes began to convulse in pain. Tichelman tried to help, patting his face and cradling his head as he collapsed into a chair. But instead of calling for help, she focused on erasing evidence of her presence—removing fingerprints, cleaning up drug paraphernalia, and walking around the cabin with a glass of wine as Hayes lay dying on the floor.
The video showed Hayes on the floor for seven agonizing minutes—the time paramedics would have needed to save his life, had they been called.
The Secret World of Sugar Dating
Hayes and Tichelman met through Seeking Arrangement, a site founded by millionaire Brandon Wade in 2006. The platform, which boasts millions of members—including employees from Fortune 500 companies—connects wealthy men with young women seeking financial support. Despite Wade’s claims that the site isn’t meant for transactional sex, police and critics point to the obvious implications behind terms like “Sugar Daddy” and “Sugar Baby.”
The Police Sting
After Hayes’s death, police tracked Tichelman’s online activity. When she posted about returning to Georgia, detectives posed as a sugar daddy under the alias “Sebastian,” luring her back to California with promises of money. Eight months after Hayes’s death, Tichelman returned to Santa Cruz, expecting to meet another client. Instead, she was arrested for manslaughter, drug possession, and prostitution.
A Troubled Past
Tichelman’s life was marked by instability—eating disorders, drug addiction, and work in strip clubs. Just two months before Hayes’s death, her fiancé Dean Riopelle died of a heroin overdose, a case eerily similar to Hayes’s. Friends described Tichelman as deeply troubled, struggling to overcome her addictions while seeking quick money through prostitution.
The Legal Aftermath
Facing nearly 20 years in prison, Tichelman’s defense argued she wasn’t a cold-blooded killer; the tragedy was an accident fueled by drugs. In May 2015, she pleaded guilty to manslaughter, apologizing to Hayes’s family through her lawyer: “It was an accident, I panicked and I’m very sorry.”
Ultimately, she was sentenced to six years, with time served and possible reductions meaning she would serve just over two years. In a surprising twist, prosecutors revealed Hayes’s family had never wanted Tichelman to be charged, hoping to avoid a public trial and the release of the yacht’s security footage.
Not a Killer, But Responsible
Prosecutor Rafael Vasquez noted that Tichelman’s actions—trying to revive Hayes, crying, and screaming—showed genuine concern. However, her failure to call for help, instead focusing on covering her tracks, was her crime. She was released from prison in 2017 and deported to Canada.
Conclusion: Lessons from a Hidden World
The death of Forrest Hayes is a cautionary tale about the risks of secret lives and the dangers of addiction. It underscores how technology, wealth, and secrecy can combine to create tragic outcomes. Hayes’s story, and Tichelman’s troubled path, remind us that behind every headline is a complex human drama—one that can end in heartbreak and loss.
