Prostitute Who Killed Google Exec with Heroin Dose Faces Deportation After Release from Jail
Alix Tichelman, the California prostitute who injected a high-powered Google executive with a lethal dose of heroin in 2013, was detained by immigration officials after serving nearly two years in jail for the death, PEOPLE confirms.
Tichelman was taken into custody by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers on March 29 - the day she was released after serving time for involuntary manslaughter and other charges in the death of Forrest Timothy Hayes, a spokesman for ICE tells PEOPLE.
Although multiple news outlets have reported that Tichelman has dual citizenship in the U.S. and Canada, the spokesman, James Schwab, tells PEOPLE that the agency “wouldn’t put someone in immigration proceedings who is a citizen.”
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Schwab tells PEOPLE that Tichelman “will remain in DHS/ICE custody pending removal proceedings.”
The news is the latest headline-making twist for Tichelman: She gained national attention in 2013 when Hayes, who worked at Google X, the company’s secret development department, was found dead of an overdose onboard his 46-foot yacht.
Camera footage from the boat showed Tichelman injecting Hayes with the drug, abandoning him to die and finishing a glass of wine before leaving the yacht.
Hayes, a married father of five, was not the first person associated with Tichelman to die of an overdose: Her former boyfriend, Dean Riopelle, was hospitalized in Milton, Georgia, for a heroin overdose in September 2013 and died a week later. Riopelle’s overdose was ruled accidental and charges were never filed in his death, according to KSBW.
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Tichelman was arrested in July 2014, after being lured back to Santa Cruz in a prostitution sting in which a detective posed as a wealthy prospective client. Officials said the woman was found with heroin on her at the time of her arrest.
She later pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and other charges in connection with the death and was sentenced in 2015 to five years behind bars. She served less than two before her release.
It was not immediately clear if Tichelman had an immigration lawyer who could comment on her behalf.
REPORTING by CHRISTINE PELISEK and GREG HANLON
