"48 HOURS" INVESTIGATES HOW AN EXOTIC BEAUTY PLEADS GUILTY FOR HER PART IN THE DEATH OF A GOOGLE EXECUTIVE AND THE STUNNING REVELATIONS THAT FOLLOWED

"KISS OF DEATH AND THE GOOGLE EXEC"

Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Maureen Maher and 48 HOURS report on the court case involving an exotic beauty who was with a married Google executive the night he died from a heroin overdose and the stunning revelations made outside of court, in an updated edition of "Kiss of Death and the Google Exec," to be broadcast Tuesday, May 26 (10:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.

It's a story that exposed the collision of two lives - one, Forrest Hayes, a hugely successful technology genius playing outside of his marriage and the other, Alix Tichelman, a troubled, tattooed model from a middle-class family who met men through an online dating service.

48 HOURS takes viewers to the crime scene aboard the yacht "Escape," where Hayes died. It was there, police say, the Google executive's own high-tech cameras recorded Tichelman injecting Hayes, cleaning up the scene and stepping over him to leave.

Hayes and Tichelman met on an online dating service known for connecting wealthy men with women looking to be spoiled.

"I think that some part of him really wanted to, like, taste that other side of life, that kind of darker side, wilder, more exotic side of life," The Daily Beast writer and 48 HOURS consultant Michael Daly said of Hayes.

Hayes was 51 when he died on Nov. 22, 2013. The married father of five worked at Google X, the company's secret development department, and lived in an upscale Santa Cruz neighborhood.

Tichelman's defense team maintained Hayes' death was an accident. Police, however, argued Tichelman knew Hayes was in distress after being injected with heroin and that she did not summon help.

"I don't see how she didn't know," Santa Cruz Deputy Police Chief Stephen Clark told 48 HOURS. "This is somebody who's been down this road before. This wasn't her first rodeo with this."

Indeed, investigators learned that just months before Hayes's death, Tichelman's then-boyfriend Dean Riopelle, an Atlanta night club owner, also died from a heroin overdose, according to police. Investigators in Georgia are now taking a second look at how Riopelle died, which had been classified as an accidental heroin overdose.

On May 20 in a Santa Cruz, Calif. courtroom a hearing was scheduled to set a date for trial in the death of Hayes. But then, Tichelman's defense team stunned the court with her pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter, administering a controlled substance, possession of a controlled substance, destroying or concealing evidence, and engaging and agreeing to engage in prostitution.

What followed were additional stunning developments from prosecutors, including what really happened that night on board the Escape, as well as the Hayes family's reaction to the prosecution of Alix Tichelman.

48 HOURS: "Kiss of Death and the Google Exec" is produced by Allen Alter, Patti Aronofsky, Alec Sirken, Elena Difiore, Greg Fisher, Michelle Feuer, Douglas Longhini, Michelle Fanucci and Michael McHugh. Linda Martin is the update producer. Suzanne Allen is the senior coordinating producer. Anthony Batson is the Senior Broadcast Producer. Susan Zirinsky is the senior executive producer.

48 HOURS: "Kiss of Death and the Google Exec" is the first of five editions of 48 HOURS to be presented Tuesdays at 10:00 PM, ET/PT in addition to 48 HOURS regular Saturday broadcasts.

Chat with members of the 48 HOURS team during the broadcast on Twitter and Facebook. Follow 48 HOURS on Instagram. Listen to 48HOURS podcasts at Play.it.