Oscar winner's son convicted in swimsuit designer's Soho House death

Nicholas Brooks, the son of Oscar-winning songwriter Joseph Brooks, was sentenced on Sept. 23, 2013, to 25 years to life after a jury convicted him in the death of swimsuit designer Sylvie Cachay. The killing centered on a death that began inside Soho House, the exclusive New York City club in the Meatpacking District, where Cachay was found dead in an overflowing bathtub on Dec. 9, 2010.

Prosecutors said Brooks drowned Cachay and strangled her. At trial, friends testified that Cachay wanted to break off the relationship shortly before she died, a detail that gave the case a domestic edge beneath the wealth and privilege surrounding the hotel. Brooks’ identity also ensured the case was watched closely beyond Manhattan: he was the son of Joseph Brooks, whose reputation as an Oscar-winning songwriter added another layer of public attention.

The investigation moved beyond the first impression of a possible accident when a water leak at the hotel helped establish a timeline. That detail mattered because the case hinged on what happened inside Soho House before Cachay was discovered, and on whether her death fit an accidental drowning or a deliberate killing. The leak gave investigators a way to narrow the sequence of events and test the defense that the death was not a homicide.

CBS later framed the central question plainly: whether Cachay’s death was an accident or murder. That question became the backbone of 48 Hours’ “Death at Soho House,” which Apple TV lists as Season 27, Episode 15, a 41-minute program dated Feb. 1, 2014. Troy Roberts reported the story for CBS and Paramount+, revisiting how a designer’s death in a high-end private club turned into a murder case that ended with a life sentence.