Harbor community reacts to Santa Cruz murder investigation

Drugs, prostitution and eerie details surrounding a high-end prostitute and the death of a local Google executive continue to unfold.

It’s a case Santa Cruz Police said they were able to crack within the past week.

Now we’re starting to learn more about that man, found dead on his yacht after a heroin overdose last November.

On Wednesday, we spoke with people the Santa Cruz Small Craft Harbor where people who knew Forrest Hayes are shocked to hear he was allegedly living a double-life.

Some members of the Santa Cruz Yacht Club said 51-year-old Hayes seemed to always have a good time on his boat with family and friends. So to learn from police that he apparently had an on-going relationship with a high-end prostitute is something they didn’t see coming.

A fatal attraction, ending in the death of a well-respected tech executive, father and husband.

That’s how investigators describe the relationship between 26-year-old Alix Tichelman and Hayes.

Police said Tichelman touts herself as a model, while boasting more than 200 clients she met through the website Seeking Arrangement.

Through text messages and emails, police said Hayes and Tichelman had their last encounter in November, after Tichelman was seen on surveillance video, giving him a lethal dose of heroin. Acquaintances of Hayes said that’s not the person they knew.

“I think everybody’s shocked, everybody is talking about it and trying to make sense of it and trying to piece together what they knew about him. And how this could have happened,” said Santa Cruz Yacht Club member Bob Kalpin.

Worried she was a flight-risk, detectives said they lured Tichelman to Santa Cruz last Friday for a $1,000 rendezvous with a potential client, where she was arrested. Police said a search warrant was served at her home in Folsom that same day.

“Very surprising you wouldn’t think that somebody would have this kind of hidden life to them,” said Kalpin. “To think that they could be a part of something so insidious.”

Investigators said Tichelman left Hayes in cold blood, didn’t call 911 and pulled the shade to conceal his body. Some people in the harbor admitted rumors about his death have been swirling for the past few months.

“‘Escape’ was a popular boat here in the harbor. We used to see them here all the time,” Kalpin said. “Certainly they were regulars here on Wednesday nights and often on the weekends you’d see escape coming in and out of the harbor.”

Tuesday, NewsChannel 5 tried to speak with a person at Hayes’ tony home in Santa Cruz, who said they had no comment. Police said the family may be willing to release a statement at some point.

Tichelman is facing felony manslaughter charges. She was in court on Wednesday to hear the charges and get a public defender.

According to the criminal complaint filed by prosecutors, she injected Hayes with heroin on his yacht. He later died of a heroin overdose. Tichelman, who is being held in lieu of $1.5 million bail, is due in court July 16 for arraignment. She’s being represented by a public defender.