Fashion designer's homicide linked to drug-facilitated robberies: Police sources

New York City detectives now believe the death of a 35-year-old fashion designer is linked to a pattern of deadly drug-facilitated robberies, according to police sources.

The office of the chief medical examiner on Friday ruled the July 2022 death of Kathryn Marie Gallagher a homicide from the combined effects of fentanyl, p-fluorofentanyl and ethanol. A neighbor found Gallagher dead in her Lower East Side apartment.

Gallagher was the victim of a grand larceny, the police sources said, and her death is being linked to a pattern of victims who were drugged and robbed.

Two other victims include 29-year old-Nurbu Shera, who was found in front of an East Village building in March 2022, and 26-year-old Ardijan Berisha, who was found in front of a Lower East Side building in July 2022.

Kenwood Allen, a suspect in the deaths of Shera and Berisha, has been charged with murder. He has pleaded not guilty.

Allen is accused of drugging people with fentanyl and robbing them, according to The Associated Press.

The pattern is related, but distinct, from a similar group of drugging and robberies that involved the LGBTQ community in New York City.