Naman Shrestha
Sylvie Cachay was a young, promising swimsuit designer with great potential. So, when she suddenly passed away in a celebrity hotel in New York in December 2010, the entire industry and community were left shell-shocked. Thanks to the hotel’s security footage and witness statements, the detectives were able to crack open the case within a few hours of Sylvie’s demise. All the intricate details about the case are covered in the episode titled ‘Soho Horror’ of Netflix’s ‘Homicide: New York,’ with the help of insightful interviews with her loved ones and the officials linked to the investigation.
Sylvie Cachay Was Found Dead by the Soho House Manager in Her Room
Painter Sylvia Cachay and surgeon Antonio Cachay welcomed a little bundle of joy into the world in the form of Sylvie Yvette Cachay on January 7, 1977, in Arlington, Virginia. Growing up alongside her beloved brother Patrick Orlando-Cachay, Sylvie split her time between McLean, Virginia, and Lima, Peru. After graduating from the Langley School and Madeira School, she pursued a Bachelor’s degree in Fashion Design from Marymount University, where she received multiple accolades, including Best Targeted Collection, Designer of the Year – Best Senior Line, and the Sr. Gabrielle Berg Award for Overall Excellence. To further her fashion studies, she went to the Parsons Paris School of Art & Design in Paris, France. She then returned to Marymount University to study Fine Arts.
Sylvie entered the fashion industry through an internship at Marc Jacobs International, after which she switched to Tommy Hilfiger as a Senior Designer. Her career then took her to Victoria’s Secret Direct, where she was employed as a Senior Designer. In 2006, she decided to spread her wings and established her own swimwear brand called Syla by Sylvie Cachay. Her brand’s success allowed her to get featured in many fashion magazines, including WWD, Vogue, O Magazine, Lucky, and Elle. However, the Great Recession of 2008 caused a bump in her career as she was forced to dissolve her company. Around the same time, she broke off her engagement and reportedly started taking medication to regulate her stress and anxiety. In June 2010, Sylvie crossed paths with Nicholas Brooks. While on a date with him, her dog, Pepper, got hit by a car, after which he supported her emotionally and was there for her.
Despite the setbacks, the swimsuit designer still had aspirations to achieve more success. However, fate intervened and shattered all her dreams in late 2010. Around 3 am on December 9, 2010, Bryan Alvarez, the manager of Soho House in Manhattan, New York City, received a call from a guest about water dripping down from the floor of the room above. When Bryan went to check the room, he discovered Sylvie submerged underwater in the overflowing bathtub. After the authorities arrived at the scene, they noticed a bite wound on her hand, a pair of men’s socks near the bathtub, and no sign of blood in the room. She was pronounced dead on the scene, and the cause of her death was determined as strangulation and drowning, as there were bruises on her neck, petechial hemorrhages under the eyelids, and lungs full of water.
Sylvie Cachay Had an Unstable Relationship With Her Boyfriend
During the investigation, the authorities spoke with the Soho House manager, Bryan Alvarez, to determine whether Sylvie Cachay was with someone in her room. He told them that she had checked in around 12:30 am that night with her boyfriend, Nicholas Brooks. Upon reviewing the hotel surveillance footage, they spot Nicholas entering and exiting Sylvie’s room multiple times throughout the night before leaving the hotel for the last time at 2:18 am. Around 5:30 am, while the police were still inspecting the hotel room and going through the footage, Nicholas returned to the hotel in an intoxicated state. When they told him that Sylvie had died, he showed no sign of shock or grief. Although he was taken to the police station, his interview was postponed since he was not in his senses.
A few hours later, when Nicholas woke up, he was questioned about his whereabouts the previous night. He admitted to having a volatile relationship with Sylvie as they had broken up and made up multiple times in the past few months. He told them that he went to meet her at her apartment for dinner, after which they had sex. As per his account, he went to take a shower, and Sylvie went to sleep after taking her medication. He claimed that some lit candles behind the bed caused a fire in the apartment. After putting out the fire, the two decided not to stay the night because of the smoky smell. They went to the Soho House, and he claimed that she had told him about her plans to take a bath. He told the detectives that he left the hotel while she was still in bed.
The Killer’s DNA Was Found on the Bathtub
During his interview, Nicholas also told them that he had gone to a nearby bar with a man named David Raleigh, whom he met in the hotel lobby while leaving. Although David corroborated most of what Nicholas told them, the detectives still suspected him. Thus, they dug deeper into his background and learned that he was the son of Joseph Brooks, an Academy Award-winning musician who had multiple rape charges against him. The investigators discovered that Sylvie suspected him of cheating on her and stealing her money to pay for sex workers. She even sent him an email the day before her death, threatening him to turn him over to the police and credit card companies for stealing her money.
Her neighbors also heard noises of an argument and banging from Sylvie’s apartment on the night of December 8. His alibi fell apart when the detectives realized that the guest called the manager about the leak at 2:11 am, when Nicholas was still with Sylvie in her Soho House room. Furthermore, Nicholas had denied going anywhere near the bathtub where Sylvie was found. However, his statement was contradicted when his DNA was found on the faucet in the bathtub. Thus, he was arrested on December 9, 2010, and charged with the murder of the fashion designer.
Nicholas Brooks is Currently Incarcerated at a New York Prison Facility
On June 7, 2013, Nicholas Brooks’ homicide trial got underway. The prosecution presented a series of incriminating evidence against him, including the DNA and the surveillance footage of Soho House. Several of Sylvie’s friends testified against the defendant, telling the jury that he used to hire sex workers using her credit card. Meanwhile, the defense argued that Sylvie battled depression and had drowned on the bathtub after overdosing on her medication. In the end, on July 11, 2013, after several weeks of testimonies, Nicholas was found guilty of the second-degree murder of the fashion designer.
A few months later, on September 23, he was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. In the years that followed, he and his defense counsel filed numerous motions seeking to overturn his conviction. He was denied by the Court of Appeals each time. On March 22, 2018, he lost his final appeal, as the court found sufficient evidence against him. As of today, 40-year-old Nicholas Brooks is serving his sentence at the Green Haven Correctional Facility in Stormville, New York, with his parole eligibility date scheduled for December 2035.
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