Style designer Katie Gallagher murdered by overdose: cops

An up-and-coming trend designer who dressed Lady Gaga and other celebrities was murdered in her Manhattan condominium with a lethal cocktail of fentanyl and other medicines previous yr, cops and reviews said Friday.

A neighbor noticed Kathryn “Katie” Gallagher’s keys dangling from the door of her condominium on Eldridge Street on the Decrease East Aspect and entered to check on her  — then identified her lifeless overall body face up on her bed, a law enforcement supply reported.

The mysterious death of Gallagher, 35, was categorised as a homicide Friday soon after the clinical examiner determined that she died from acute intoxication from the blended outcomes of fentanyl, ethanol and the designer opioid p-Fluorofentanyl.

The promising designer was the victim of grand larceny in what detectives think could be linked to a pattern of at minimum 26 latest “drug-facilitated” robberies in spots together with the East Village, the Lessen East Aspect and the Bronx, law enforcement sources mentioned.

Cops are also probing regardless of whether Gallagher’s demise is related to Kenwood Allen, 33, who was arrested in December and billed with murder in the overdose robbery deaths of two clubgoers in the Reduced East Side, law enforcement resources claimed.

Allen — who has not been billed in relationship to Gallagher’s dying — is allegedly a member of a vicious gang that has consistently drugged inebriated revelers and robbed them. Law enforcement are also hunting into no matter if two of his co-defendants are linked to Gallagher’s dying.

“They goal their victims leaving bars, featuring medications in some situations, then both by way of pressure or when the target passes out, they take out jewelry, cash, higher-conclusion watches and phones from their victims,” NYPD Chief of Detectives James Essig explained at the time of Allen’s arrest.

Gallagher was “a painter and internationally identified trend designer” who opened her eponymous label in New York Metropolis in 2010, according to an obituary posted by the Rhode Island School of Style and design, Gallagher’s alma mater.

Over the final 10 years, her function was showcased in publications this sort of as Vogue, Glamour, and W, and her collections have been worn by stars like Laverne Cox, Rita Ora, and Lady Gaga. Kourtney Kardashian and singer Rita Ora also dressed in her clothes.

Prior to her garments line took off, she labored as a bartender at Flats Deal with Taqueria & Tequila Bar on East 16th Street and Broadway in the East Village in 2016,  a worker there explained to The Submit. 

It wasn’t clear how the medicines got into her program or whether or not just about anything was stolen from her apartment. 

A memorial company for Gallagher was held in her dwelling state of Pennsylvania in August, and a celebration of lifetime is scheduled for this May possibly.

Gallagher’s loved ones introduced a GoFundMe page to elevate revenue so the promising artist’s last selection can be concluded. They hope to current her function in the Big Apple this drop.

Gallagher is survived by her mothers and fathers, grandmother, and three sisters, who had been “so very pleased of who she was and all she attained in her brief but complete and gorgeous lifestyle,” according to her obituary.

“Fiercely unbiased and sure of her vision, Gallagher adopted her own route in life and in trend,” a Vogue tribute to her study.

Extra reporting by Natalie O’Neill and Desheania Andrews