A sex worker accused of administering fatal doses of fentanyl to three men in Manhattan during a 10-month robbery spree has an online profile matching a pen pal willing to take in the alleged killer, despite his disturbing crimes.
“I’m super fun, loving, attentive and outgoing. I look forward to getting to know you as you get to know me. We’ll talk soon,” reads the penacon.com profile of Tabitha Bundrick, 36, who was charged in Manhattan Criminal Court with murder, robbery, robbery and assault for the crime spree, in which she administered drugs laced with fentanyl to knock out four men, three of whom died.
Bundrick, already serving 13 years in prison after pleading guilty in federal court to two counts of narcotics distribution in connection with the men’s deaths as part of a plea deal in February, enjoys horror movies, exercising, academics and “hopes to return home soon,” according to his profile on penacon.com.
“I’m looking for someone who will know me, accept me for who I am, and do the same for them in return,” Bundrick’s profile reads.
According to prosecutors, Bundrick’s less cheerful background includes luring three victims to their deaths with offers of sex for cash, before poisoning them with drugs laced with fentanyl, stealing their belongings and leaving them for dead.
Bundrick first appeared on the Manhattan district attorney’s radar in March 2024 following his arrest on robbery and grand larceny charges, sparking the investigation that led to the recent triple homicide charges. He remained in federal custody for related crimes while the district attorney’s investigation was ongoing.
Prosecutors say Bundrick first struck under the guise of a sidewalk soap vendor outside a laundromat in Washington Heights when she offered to have sex with two men, Mario Paullan, 42, and his former brother-in-law, in exchange for cash on April 30, 2023.
Bundrick took the two men to a vacant apartment he had broken into on W. 159th St, near Amsterdam Ave., where he handed out a drug he told the men was “perico,” slang for cocaine, prosecutors said.
The next morning, Paullan’s friend woke up to find the victim dead next to him, with his belongings, including his wallet and cellphone, stolen, prosecutors said.
Investigators recovered footage from Paullan’s phones recorded in the hours before his death, in which the victims can be heard “snorting and sniffing” as Bundrick urges them to take more of the fentanyl-laced drug, prosecutors said. At one point, Paullan can be heard rejecting Bundrick’s drug offer, only to then snort a third and final line of the alleged cocaine as she continued to pressure him, prosecutors said.
Bundrick is then heard on video telling Paullan to follow her to the bed, while ordering her ex-brother-in-law to wait, saying she “could only handle one of them,” prosecutors said.
An autopsy found that Paullan died of acute fentanyl and alcohol intoxication, and that no traces of cocaine were found in his system, prosecutors said.
Paullan had immigrated to the United States from Ecuador and worked in construction to support his family, including a wife and three children, still living in his home country, a friend told the Daily News.
“He was a good person. He was working for his family. He told me about his family, he wanted to bring the family here,” Fernando Guano said. “He was here for a couple of months, he worked hard to help his family.”
The immigrant had only been in the country for five months before meeting Bundrick, Guano said.
“I was new to this country. I didn’t understand the danger,” Guano said.
Paullan’s son described the pain of losing his father in a letter sent to federal court before Bundrick’s sentencing on federal charges in August.
“My father’s death has been the hardest blow that life has dealt me,” wrote Paullan’s son, whose name does not appear in the letter. “I felt like my world collapsed. He told me I had to be the man of the house, take care of my mother and my sister. Now, even though I feel broken inside, I dry my tears so I can hold them back and tell them that everything will be okay.” Paullan’s son wrote to the court.
The man’s wife, who was also not identified, said Paullan’s murder had left her “to be a mother and father, working tirelessly from Sunday to Sunday.”
“(It’s) very difficult for me to stay together emotionally and financially. It hurts me that I can’t be there for my children like I would like,” she wrote, adding that she couldn’t explain her passing to her 4-year-old daughter.
Bundrick’s second victim would die on Sept. 27 of that year, when, after meeting Miguel Navez, 39, she accompanied the man to his apartment on W. 158th St. near Amsterdam Avenue, where they planned to have sex, prosecutors said.
There, prosecutors say, Bundrick incapacitated the victim with fentanyl, before stealing her belongings, including her cellphone and tablet, prosecutors said.
Later that day, Bundrick’s roommate used Navez’s cell phone to call 911 after the defendant suffered an asthma attack, and Bundrick herself used the phone to make several calls the next day, including to her mother and her drug dealer, prosecutors said.
Navez’s brother found the victim dead, with his pants down to his knees and a drug wrapper lying on the bed next to his body, on Sept. 30, prosecutors said. Pathologists ruled his death was the result of acute fentanyl and alcohol intoxication, court documents show.
Neighbors of Paullan and Navez told The News that the victims’ grieving families held memorials at the buildings where they died.
Bundrick’s most recent alleged murder occurred on Feb. 25, 2024, when he stalked Abrihan Fernandez, 34, to her apartment building on W. 144th St. near Convenant Ave., where the pair chatted before entering together, prosecutors said.
After incapacitating Fernandez with fentanyl, Bundrick was seen leaving and entering the victim’s apartment several times, fixing the door to the building to facilitate access as she dragged several large bags outside, before getting into a taxi that took her to her apartment, prosecutors said.
Bundrick also stole Rodriguez’s credit cards, which his son was captured on video using the next day, prosecutors said.
The superintendent of the building where Fernandez lived told the Daily News that he found the victim “cold and stiff” inside his apartment after the man’s cousin called requesting a welfare check.
The superintendent said the building recorded images of a woman entering the building with Fernandez, before leaving with the victim’s belongings and her face covered.
“She annihilated him, took his clothes, his computers, his sneakers, everything,” the superintendent said. “It’s crazy, she’s a serial killer.”
In a federal court filing before her sentencing in August, Bundrick’s attorney argued that she relied on drugs to “get through the experience of prostituting her body” and that she never intended to kill anyone when she shared her drugs with victims.
“Every night that Tabitha Bundrick lay on her bare back, spread her legs and let complete strangers sexually penetrate her body, the only thing that could help her overcome this terrifying out-of-body experience was the numbness she achieved from being drugged,” said Kristoff Williams of Federal Defenders.
“(It was) a life in which the pimp was an impressionable teenager with a learning disability who, to this day, has limited her intellectual functioning to a third-grade level.”