Metro

Cop testifies swimsuit designer’s death at SoHo house ‘suspicious’ because she was found clothed in bathtub

People don’t take baths in their underwear and a sweater.

It was fashion designer Sylvie Cachay’s clothing — or rather, the fact that she wore anything at all — that immediately gave her away as a likely murder victim, a cop told jurors as the second day of testimony began today in the sensational strangle-drowning trial.

When Det. Robert Moller arrived at the SoHo House on the pre-dawn morning of Dec. 10, 2010, paramedics had already lifted Cachay’s pulse-less body out of an overflowing bathtub in the room she was sharing with her accused murderous boyfriend, layabout trust funder Nicholas Brooks.

“She was laying on the ground on the carpet, her head was closer to the wall, feet to the door,” Moller testified of first seeing Cachay’s corpse.

“She had on panties and she had on a sweater, but it had been cut by the emergency medical people,” he said.

“Did it seem suspicious?” asked assistant district attorney Joel Seidemann.

“Yes, absolutely it seemed suspicious to me,” the cop answered. Asked why that was, the cop answered, “The fact that she was pulled out of the tub and she had on panties and she was wearing a sweater.”

Defense lawyer Jeffrey Hoffman has implied during pretrial hearings that Cachay, who had taken five prescription drugs for her migraines and other chronic pain issues that night, fell into the tub accidentally and then drowned.

But Cachay’s only significant external bruise was to the very top of her head, and prosecutors have scoffed at that idea that it could have been caused by any accidental fall, short of a bungee jumping accident.

Seidemann said during pretrial hearings last month that the bruise is more consistent with her head being slammed into a headboard.

Cachay, 33 designed swimsuits for Marc Jacobs, Tommy Hilfiger and her own brand, Syla. Prosecutors contend that Brooks, who was only 24 at the time, became enraged before strangling and drowning Cachay in the hotel room tub after she told him she was finally ending the relationship after six months of supporting him.

Testimony continues this afternoon.