Woman accused in New York of drugging with fentanyl and robbing men; three died
Tabitha Bundrick, 36, faces 11 counts of murder, robbery, and burglary. Prosecutors allege she drugged men to extort money from them.
The Manhattan District Attorney's Office in New York formally accused Tabitha Bundrick, 36, of using drugs laced with fentanyl to incapacitate men and rob them, causing the deaths of three of them between 2023 and 2024.
District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg called the case an example of “extremely calculated behavior” that reflects a growing trend in New York City: people drugged and robbed outside bars and nightclubs.
“This type of callous behavior will not be tolerated in Manhattan,” Bragg said at a press conference.
Bundrick’s modus operandi
According to the investigation, Bundrick approached men on the street under various pretenses and drove them to locations where he offered them drugs that were supposedly recreational but were actually laced with fentanyl.
April 20, 2023: Accosted two men in Washington Heights. After sharing drugs in an empty apartment, one of them woke up to find his friend Mario Paullan, 42, dead and robbed.
September 27, 2023: He met Miguel Navez, 39, and walked him home. His brother found him dead three days later; his belongings were missing.
February 25, 2024: He followed Abrihan Fernandez, 34, to his building, drugged him, and stole several bags of valuables. Fernandez died in the apartment.
Prosecutors allege that Bundrick used the victims' credit cards and resold stolen cell phones.
A defense that alleges vulnerability
Bundrick had already been sentenced in August 2024 to 156 months in federal prison for drug-related offenses related to the same events.
In their defense, her lawyers maintain that Bundrick is not a "calculated killer," but a woman marked by sexual abuse in childhood, with an intellectual level equivalent to that of a third grader, and who used drugs to cope with prostitution.
“He shared the same drugs he was using with the victims; he never intended to kill them,” his defense attorneys wrote in a memo.
The prosecution’s case
Federal prosecutors countered that while Bundrick may not have expressly intended to kill, he was fully aware that fentanyl could be lethal and still continued to administer it to different men.
The current state indictment includes 11 counts, including murder, robbery, burglary, and assault, which could carry a stiffer sentence than what he already received at the federal level.