The recent arrest of a high-priced prostitute for the death of a Google executive has brought the spotlight on one of San Francisco's oldest secrets: the sex worker industry in Silicon Valley is booming.
The Bay Area's Silicon Valley has long been the heart of the nation's technology sector. But the success of the tech industry has fueled prostitution in the area, sparked by the abundance of men, money and the allure of temptation.
"I continue to see an increase in the amount of technology clients I see here in the Bay Area," a 28-year-old prostitute and activist named Siouxsie Q told USA Today.
The tech boom apparently attracted 26-year-old Alix Tichelman, who was charged Wednesday with manslaughter in the November 2013 drug overdose death of Forrest Hayes, 51.
Q, whose clients range from ages 21 to 61, said anytime there is an industry boom in the West, sex workers will follow. That is especially true for the Bay Area, where the sex industry dates back to the 19th century Gold Rush, according to USA Today.
"Silicon Valley is like a military base," an employee in the area told the newspaper. "There are very few civilian women and lots of money."
The Internet has played a hand in the sex business, too.
"Now that everyone has a smartphone in their fingertips, men can go to the Internet and don't have to worry about it being in the open," Sergeant Kyle Oki of the San Jose Police Department told USA Today.
Forrest, who worked in the same Google division that created Google Glass, met Tichelman on a site called SeekingArrangement.com. The executive was found dead on his yacht the "Escape" in the Santa Cruz harbor.
Police say Tichelman callously watched Forrest die after giving him a dose of heroin. She is being held on $1.5 million bail.
Silicon Valley may be a hub for computers and cellphones. But at the end of the day, the only thing the men of the valley seem to want is human contact, according to Q.
"So much of what my clients pay me for is that both of us turn off our cellphones and we have two to three hours of connecting with another human being that is not through the interface of a screen or phone and has nothing to do with whether someone's stock is going to drop or not."
