Police relook hooker’s boyfriend death
Print Edition
TWO months before police say a high-priced prostitute calmly left a Google executive dying from a heroin overdose on his yacht, the woman panicked on the phone with a police dispatcher as her boyfriend lay on the floor of their home in the throes of a fatal overdose.
Police said on Thursday they are re-examining the death of Dean Riopelle, 53, the owner of a popular Atlanta music venue. Riopelle had been dating Alix Tichelman, 26, who is now charged with manslaughter in the November death in California of Google executive Forrest Hayes. She was never charged in Riopelle’s death.
“Both subjects in these cases died of heroin overdoses, so there’s just several factors we want to look at to make sure that we didn’t miss anything,” Milton police Captain Shawn McCarty said.
It is not clear how long Tichelman may have been involved in prostitution, although police in California say she knew many customers in wealthy Silicon Valley.
Police there also said that, after Hayes’ death, she had done online searches for how to defend herself legally after administering a lethal dose of heroin.
Numerous social media postings, photos and other articles online suggest she was pursuing a career as a fetish model and a life with Riopelle.
Riopelle and Tichelman had been dating for about two and a half years and lived together, said Riopelle’s sister, Dee Riopelle.
Tichelman said she was interested in bondage, dominance, sadism and masochism, or BDSM. She said she and Riopelle would go to clubs, with her wearing a collar and leash.
Riopelle was known for owning the Masquerade, a popular Atlanta music venue.
“He was very, very wise when it came to business sense,” Dee Riopelle said. “Everything Dean touched turned to gold.”
On September 6, a drunken Tichelman called police, saying Riopelle threw her to the ground, according to a police report. Riopelle told officers that she had taken pills and drank alcohol, and had been stage diving and exposing her breasts that night at the Masquerade. He said he took her home because he did not approve.
Riopelle also told officers that she bit him on the finger and threatened to hit herself and tell police Riopelle had beaten her. A neighbor confirmed hearing Tichelman say that. She was charged with battery and arrested; Riopelle was not.
Less than two weeks later, a panicked Tichelman called police, saying Riopelle had overdosed on something and wouldn’t respond. He died at a hospital a week later.
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