The Soho House Murder: How Sylvie Cachay's Breakup Turned Deadly

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December 9, 2010, a Soho House in Manhattan's meatpacking district.

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A 33-year-old fashion designer is found dead in an overflowing bathtub, fully clothed

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in a black turtleneck sweater.

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The scene looks like an accidental drowning, but there's a seven-minute window that tells

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a completely different story.

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This is the murder of Sylvie Keshay.

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Sylvie Keshay collected bikinis when she was a kid.

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She saw them as these tiny engineering problems waiting to be solved.

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How do you make something that stays in place in the ocean while also making someone feel

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beautiful?

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That's a very particular way of looking at the world.

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She was born in Arlington, Virginia, January 7, 1977, to Antonio Keshay, a prominent surgeon

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and Sylvia, a painter.

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That combination of scientific precision and artistic expression showed up in everything

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she later created.

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She grew up between McLean, Virginia, and Lima, Peru.

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She had dual citizenship, spoke four languages fluently, and moved through international

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circles with this ease that made people gravitate toward her.

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After studying fashion design at Maramount College, she worked her way up through the

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industry.

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Mark Jacobs, Tommy Hilfiger, and eventually Victoria's Secret, where she became the head swim

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suit designer.

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She learned how to marry commercial appeal with high anesthetics, which is legitimately

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I'm told difficult to pull off.

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In 2006, she launched Silla, her own swimwear line.

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The reaction was immediate.

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Within the first year, Barney's was carrying her designs.

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Vogue, Elle, and In-style featured her work.

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Sports Illustrated put her bikinis in their swimsuit video.

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Her publicist said that the industry's response was a genuine "wow" moment, which in fashion

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circles means you've created something special.

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The designs had this sophisticated quality to them.

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Cream and black leaf patterns intricate construction that turned swimwear into something closer

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to evening wear.

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Then 2008 arrived.

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The global financial crisis wiped out independent labels across the board.

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Silla closed that year.

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Her most designers that would have been the end.

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Sylvie treated it like it was a temporary setback.

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By 2010, she was consulting for Anne Cole, networking at Soho House in Manhattan and actively

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planning her comeback.

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Her friends described her as someone who couldn't walk past something wounded without trying

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to fix it.

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She rescued sick pigeons and nursed them in her apartment.

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She had two toy poodles, pepper and lollie.

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That generous instinct made her a wonderful friend.

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It also made her susceptible to someone who knew how to exploit kindness.

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Nicholas Brooks was 24 in 2010.

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College dropped out from the University of Colorado.

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No career, no real ambition, no discernible skills beyond spending his trust fund.

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He'd worked briefly at a cupcake shop before quitting.

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Sylvie would later call him a "stoneer" and her emails referring to their relationship

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as dating "the kid."

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Those aren't affectionate nicknames.

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Those are signals that respect has left the building.

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Nicholas lived entirely off money from his father, Joseph Brooks, who'd won an Academy

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Award in 1977 for writing "You Light Up My Life."

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By 2010, Joseph was awaiting trial for raping and sexually assaulting 11 women.

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He'd lured aspiring actresses to his apartment for fake auditions that became sexual assaults.

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Nicholas actually sued his father over the trust fund administration.

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His sister Amanda later said that their father had abused her.

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This family was rotting from the roots up.

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Forens testified that Sylvie supported Nicholas financially and emotionally during their

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six months together.

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She paid for their lifestyle.

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He showed up and consumed resources.

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That was the dynamic.

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They met on the summer of 2010.

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On their first date, they were walking Sylvie's two poodles when some drunks startled pepper.

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The little dog bolted into traffic on Hudson Street and got hit by a car.

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Nicholas comforted Sylvie as Pepper was euthanized that night.

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Shared trauma like that creates accelerated bonding.

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You skipped the normal process of getting to know someone because you've been through

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something intense together.

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Sylvie was grieving.

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Nicholas was present.

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She confused his proximity with actual care.

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By December 2010, the relationship was collapsing.

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Last week, Nicholas showed Sylvie a website he'd used to hire sex workers.

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He showed her casually like it was something to share.

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She also discovered unauthorized withdrawals from her bank account.

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She knew he'd taken the money.

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Sylvie sent what prosecutors later called the "FU email."

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She wrote, "For the past six months, I have supported you financially and emotionally.

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The fact you cheated on me makes me sick and you will pay.

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I'm speaking with the credit card company and the police."

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She also made a list of conditions.

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Stop smoking pot, help clean the apartment, get a job, and she finished with, "If you can't

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do all these things, then this likely won't work."

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That wasn't negotiation.

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That was a breakup with a small escape clause.

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Sylvie was reclaiming her life and cutting off access to her bank account.

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The evening of December 8, 2010, they were at Sylvie's West Village apartment.

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According to Nicholas's later police statement, they watched a movie, lit candles and had

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sex.

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He claimed he went to shower and returned to find the bed on fire.

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He said he'd carelessly left candles behind the headboard.

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He also claimed Sylvie stayed asleep in the burning bed because she'd taken Xanax earlier.

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Your bed catches on fire and you don't wake up.

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The smoke alarm goes off and you're still unconscious.

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Prosecutors would later argue the hotel scene was staged.

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The question becomes, was this fire actually an accident or was it a deliberate move to

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get her out of the apartment and into a location where he had more control?

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The fire also provided a ready-made excuse for why she'd been exhausted and disoriented later.

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They checked into the Soho House around 12.30am on December 9.

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The hotel sits in the meat-packing district on 9th Avenue.

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Sylvie told the clerk her stoner boyfriend had set the apartment on fire.

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She mentioned taking Xanax and that she couldn't stay awake.

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She was stumbling, visibly impaired, needing assistance to walk.

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Hotel employee Kristen Stevens helped Sylvie to room 20.

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During that walk, Sylvie was alert enough to complain about Nicholas.

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She called him a child and said she'd planned to break up with him.

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Stevens left her on the bed, intending to sleep.

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At 12.45am, a bus boy delivered ice to the room.

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He observed Nicholas and Sylvie entering together.

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Nobody else went in.

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Timeline locked into place at that moment.

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Between 12.45am and 2am, guests in adjacent rooms heard arguing.

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One neighbor specifically heard a voice yell, "You really hurt me."

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That destroys any narrative about Sylvie going peacefully to sleep.

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A confrontation was escalating inside that room.

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At 2.11am, guests directly below room 20 called the front desk.

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Water was leaking through their ceiling.

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At 2.18am, security cameras recorded Nicholas Brooks leaving room 20 for the last time.

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He was inside that room for at least 7 minutes while water actively flooded the bathroom

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and leaked downstairs.

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There's no believable scenario where he's unaware unless he's unconscious.

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He walked out 7 minutes later under his own power.

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He knew what was happening.

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He left anyway.

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At 2.51am, after a second leak complaint, the hotel staff entered the room.

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The bathtub faucet was running full blast.

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Sylvie Kasey was submerged under the water face up.

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She was wearing a black turtleneck sweater, pink underwear, and her Rolex watch.

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Nobody bathed in clothes.

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No less a turtleneck sweater.

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That single detail breaks the entire staged scene apart.

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He was attacked while fully dressed, strangled, and then placed in the tub.

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The running water was meant to suggest accidental drowning, but he failed to undress her.

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Probably from panic or because moving a body is harder than anticipated.

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An empty prescription pill bottle sat on the dresser, likely positioned to support a suicide

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or overdose narrative.

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The autopsy revealed brutal violence, cause of death, strangulation, and forcible drowning.

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Susie's covered the front and back of her neck.

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The injuries matched manual strangulation.

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First blood vessels appeared in her eyes, a condition called "particular hemorrhaging"

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that happens during a fixation.

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Her lungs weighed twice their normal weight.

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She'd inhaled a massive amount of water.

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She was alive when she went under, gasping for air while her lungs filled with water.

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A bite mark appeared on her hand.

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Cut was found inside her lip, suggesting a hand had been clamped over her mouth.

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Nicholas Brooks's DNA was on the bathtub faucet handle.

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Eed turned those controls himself.

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After leaving at 2.18 am, Nicholas met his friend David Raleigh in the lobby.

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They went out drinking.

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He was partying while his girlfriend's body lay in the room he'd just exited.

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He returned to Soho House at 5.30 am and found the lobby full of police.

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The hotel manager pointed him out to officers, and later described Nicholas' reaction to

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the news of Sylvie's death as "blank and emotionless."

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Detective Tommy Jones noted Nicholas appeared to be intoxicated with bloodshot eyes.

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During interrogation at the precinct, Nicholas fell asleep in the interview room.

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When he woke, he wrote a statement claiming he never went near the tub.

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His DNA on the faucet proved otherwise.

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While Nicholas sat and Rikers Island to waiting trial, his father Joseph Brooks killed

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himself on May 22, 2011.

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The trial opened in June 2013.

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The Manhattan DA presented the motive and timeline.

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The F.U. email showed Sylvie was cutting Nicholas off financially.

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The staged scene showed his attempt to cover the murder, an attempt that failed because of

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one piece of clothing.

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Defense Attorney Jeffrey Hoffman argued accidental drowning.

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He claimed Sylvie was heavily medicated with Xanax and Cerequil, passed out, and drowned

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accidentally.

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Lexpert's testified the drug levels weren't sufficient to cause immediate unconsciousness.

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The defense called a doctor who suggested neck injuries could have resulted from recestatation

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attempts or consensual erotic esfixiation.

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The judge shut that theory down.

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The court ruled there was no evidentiary basis for claiming the couple engaged in rough

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sex, so speculation was inadmissible.

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That ruling prevented the defense from blaming Sylvie for her own injuries.

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After cross-examination, the doctor admitted strangulation was, in fact, possible.

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On July 11, 2013, the jury convicted Nicholas Brooks of second-degree murder.

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On September 23, 2013, Judge Bonnie Wittner sentenced him to 25 years to life.

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She called the sentence "richly deserved."

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[music]

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Thanks for listening to 10-minute murder, binge-able true crime stories.

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My name is Joe, I'm the host, and here's an email, "Subject Future Plans."

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Hey Joe, any chance you'd do a follow-up episode on an old case if new info came out?

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That comes from Martin in Durango, Colorado.

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Martin?

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Absolutely.

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I do that from time to time.

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I'll revive older episodes that I've done on the podcast include more new information

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that I've learned over the time, so if you see me repeat an episode, that's probably why

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I did it because I learned new information about the case, maybe not new information.

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In general, just new to me information that I didn't relay in the original episode, so

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I'll do it again.

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But if there's a big update, like let's say I've done an episode on John Bene Ramsey,

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if they finally have some new information that's worth sharing, I'll do a whole new episode.

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So yeah, sure.

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Hey, if you're a brand new listener to 10-minute murder, welcome.

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It comfortable, go back and listen to the hundreds and hundreds of previous episodes we've covered

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You can also go to 10minutemurder.com, sign up for the newsletter, check out the blog, and

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all kinds of other things, including contact me like Martin from Colorado did.

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If you're an OG listener, keep doing what you're doing, sharing this podcast with your friends

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and your family, and let me tell you, thank you for being a friend.

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Travel down the road and back again.

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Yeah, your heart is true.

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You are a pal and a confidant.

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And now you're going to be singing that for the rest of the day.

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You're welcome.

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And that's going to do it.

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That's your episode for today.

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Thank you again for listening to 10-minute murder.