Woman accused in Google exec’s death dated killer in similar case

A high-priced escort accused of giving a Silicon Valley executive a fatal overdose of heroin once dated a man who went to prison in Georgia for the same charge, according to a comment she posted last year on an Atlanta website.

Alix Tichelman, 26, was arrested in Santa Cruz and charged Wednesday with manslaughter in the death of Forrest Hayes, 51. Tichelman originally hails from Atlanta, according to her profiles on multiple social media sites.

With dark hair, porcelain skin and numerous tattoos, her online postings filled out a profile of a working model, aspiring writer and occasional drug user who lived in the heavy-metal music scene in Atlanta and more recently in Northern California. She often used her full name to create her profiles or her modeling pseudonym, AK Kennedy.

Under her full name — Alix Catherine Tichelman — she appears to have posted on an Atlanta music site that she once dated Judies lead singer Warren Ullom, who was sentenced in 2010 to 20 years in prison for the death of a woman he’d recently met.

According to Atlanta’s WSB-TV, Ullom was with a woman who took a fatal dose of heroin. But instead of calling 911, Ullom contacted a friend who gave him cocaine, which Ullom twice injected into the victim in an attempt to revive her. She never recovered and the cocaine dealer called paramedics because Ullom refused to, the station reported.

Ullom was eventually convicted of voluntary manslaughter.

Three years after Ullom’s conviction was reported on the Creative Loafing Atlanta website, Tichelman responded to Ullom’s critics in the site’s comments section.

“I used to date Warren when I was 18,” she posted on Feb. 21, 2013. “Apparently he even went as far as to blame me for his heroin use, which makes zero sense since we never did drugs together, and I wasn’t even living in the US [sic] when all this happened. Bottom line, this story didn’t surprise me.”

Elements of Ullom’s offenses are strikingly similar to the accusations Tichelman now faces. According to Santa Cruz police, last November she met Hayes on his yacht and injected him with an overdose of heroin. The two met through a website connecting “sugar daddies” and “sugar babies,” terms used for wealthy individuals who lavish gifts on younger companions in exchange for their company and sex, police said.

When Hayes collapsed and lost conciousness, Tichelman did not call 911, police said. Instead she allegedly picked up her drugs and needles, stepped over Hayes to finish a glass of wine, and walked out, shutting the blinds behind her so no one would see the body inside.

Detectives were able to put together such a detailed account of his death because of video surveillance inside the yacht, police said.

“She showed no regard for him,” Santa Cruz Deputy Police Chief Steve Clark told reporters Tuesday. “She was just trying to cover her tracks.”

Tichelman faces charges of manslaughter, multiple drug-related felonies and three misdemeanors of prostitution and destroying evidence.

She’s due back in court July 16 for her arraignment. People who answered the phone at two numbers connected to her family said “no comment” and hung up.

Hayes’ obituary said he was married and had five children and had worked at major tech companies including Google, Apple and Sun Microsystems.

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