A California prostitute, who made a 911 call regarding a drug overdose death in Milton, pleaded guilty Tuesday in the overdose death of a Google executive, the Associated Press reported.
Alix Catherine Tichelman, 27, received six years in the death of Forrest Hayes, a Google executive she was accused of giving an overdose of heroin to in 2013.
When she was arrested last year, Tichelman was also linked to the death of a man in north Fulton County who also overdosed heroin in her presence two months before Hayes' death.
Hayes died aboard his yacht in November 2013.
Milton police confirmed that detectives will review the September 2013 overdose death of Tichelman’s boyfriend, Dean Riopelle, owner of Atlanta’s Masquerade concert hall. Tichelman was not charged at the time in connection with Riopelle’s death, which was ruled accidental.
While being interviewed by Santa Cruz police, Tichelman said she provided 53-year-old Riopelle with heroin — something she never told Milton police, Capt. Shawn McCarty told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in 2014.
Shortly after the California arrest, the Milton Police Department announced it was reopening the investigation into Riopelle's death. Tichelman was dating Riopelle at the time of his death.
Riopelle, 53, was a divorced father of two, and was known to some in the Milton area for his love of monkeys when he died Sept. 24, 2013. The Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office said that Riopelle’s death was the result of “heroin, Oxycodone and ethanol toxicity.”
Tichelman told police she found him unresponsive Sept. 17, 2013, according to reports and 911 recordings obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
“I think my boyfriend overdosed or something, like he won’t respond,” Tichelman told the 911 operator. “His eyes are open, but no, he’s not awake.”
Tichelman told the operator Riopelle had been drinking and taking painkillers, but said she didn’t know what type or if the pills had been prescribed.
“Oh, I don’t know,” Tichelman said. “You’re asking the wrong person.”
Riopelle was transported to the hospital, but days later was taken off life support and died.
Riopelle’s overdose, described by Tichelman as accidental, came 11 days after a physical dispute between the two at the Hopewell Road home, according to a Milton police report.
Around 3:30 a.m. on Sept. 6, 2013 Tichelman claimed Riopelle threw her to the ground after the two returned home from the Masquerade. Riopelle, however, told police Tichelman had taken pills, consumed several alcoholic drinks and was behaving inappropriately.
The Milton investigation is still ongoing, McCarty told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Tuesday.
In the weeks after Riopelle’s death, Tichelman moved temporarily to California, where she used a dating website called SeekingArrangement.com to meet hundreds of clients, she told police. She said the website is how she met Hayes.
On Nov. 23, Tichelman allegedly injected Hayes with heroin on his 50-foot yacht in the Santa Cruz harbor, watched him fall unconscious, took a sip of wine and left without calling for help, police in California have said.
Tichelman was arrested after police identified her as a suspect from surveillance footage and then lured her to the Santa Cruz area by posing as a customer and offering her $1,000 for sex, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
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