Metro

Son of ‘sicko’ songwriter grilled after swimsuit designer found dead at Soho House

(Victoria Will)

(
)

The bruised body of a beautiful swimsuit designer was found splayed and half-naked in an overflowing bathtub at the exclusive Soho House club and hotel yesterday, and cops are grilling her ex-boyfriend — the son of Oscar-winning composer Joseph Brooks, an accused sex fiend.

Sylvie Cachay, 33, had wounds on her neck that suggested strangulation, bleeding in her eyes and a bite mark on her hand, police said.

But an official cause of death wasn’t expected until today.

The animal-loving founder of the Syla swimsuit line was found by hotel staffers just before 3 a.m. after guests on the two floors below complained of water leaking through their ceilings.

Cachay was pronounced dead a half-hour later.

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Nick Brooks, whose father — the composer of “You Light Up My Life” — was indicted this year on 82 counts of sexually abusing starlets, remained at the Sixth Precinct station house last night for questioning. Sources told The Post that Brooks had not yet hired a lawyer.

“It’s incredible,” Cachay’s grieving mother, Sylvia, said at the door of her home in McLean, Va.

“She was an artist. She was a painter. Everything was perfect.

“You know the stories with everything that’s perfect. It doesn’t seem real yet.”

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A day before her death, Cachay told co-workers she broke up with the unemployed, 26-year-old Brooks, police sources said. The pair had been dating for about six months.

Although the couple was seen palling around on Wednesday, a neighbor said they fought constantly and had a huge blowout in Cachay’s West Village pad hours before she died.

“I heard them fighting and he yelled, ‘You really hurt me,’ ” said Judy, who lives directly below Cachay’s apartment.

Judy, who declined to give her last name, was twice interviewed by detectives.

The scrum lasted about a half-hour, until 12:15 a.m., she said.

“I heard her crying and him stomping around. Then I heard a loud crash in her apartment like someone was thrown on the floor. A few minutes later, I could hear her whimpering,” Judy added.

“It was very disturbing. It was a lot of anger.”

Cachay and Brooks arrived together at the Soho House at around 12:30 a.m. Sources said Cachay accused her beau of accidentally setting fire earlier in the night to her West 10th Street apartment by leaving lit candles behind her bed.

“He’s a stoner,” she told the front-desk clerk, according to police. “He’s always stoned. Who puts candles behind the bed?”

Brooks told a hotel worker that during the apartment blaze, he came out of the bathroom to find Cachay’s hair and the bed on fire, sources said.

The couple put out the blaze, but wanted to stay somewhere else because of the smoky smell.

Cachay’s Soho House membership gave her privileges to rent rooms whenever she wanted.

She told the front-desk clerk that she was “really tired” and couldn’t stay awake after downing Xanax. She was so drugged, the concierge had to help her to her room.

As the clerk was leaving the room, she heard Cachay shouting at Brooks before going abruptly quiet.

Video footage shows that Brooks went in and out of the room repeatedly in the hours that followed, but was inside from 1:45 a.m. to 2:16, at which time he left to have food and drinks with a pal, sources said.

Five minutes before he left, the front desk received its first water complaint.

When staffers arrived in the room, he was gone, and Cachay was in the 6½-foot oval tub wearing just a black T-shirt and panties. They immediately made efforts to revive her before calling 911.

She was declared dead at the scene.

Brooks returned to the hotel at about 3:30 a.m. to find cops in the room, sources said.

Police found a Xanax bottle in the room, which showed no signs of struggle.

A Soho House spokesman told The Post, “We are cooperating fully with the police.”

The death comes on the heels of a scandal that rocked the Brooks family last year.

Joseph Brooks, 72, was accused in 2009 of sexually abusing 11 young actresses, and was charged with 82 counts of rape, sexual abuse, criminal sexual act and assault. His trial has yet to begin.

The elder Brooks won an Oscar for Best Original Song for the 1977 hit “You Light Up My Life.” He also wrote and directed the movie of the same name, about a comedienne who has a one-night stand with a director.

Cachay, meanwhile, was an animal lover who recently took in a sick pigeon she found on the street, a pal told cops.

She also had two poodles — one of which was recently hit by a car.

Additional reporting by Rebecca Rosenberg, Lorena Mongelli, CJ Sullivan and Jennifer Gould Keil

larry.celona@nypost.com