What you should know
- Eight months ago, a 35-year-old woman was found dead in her Manhattan bed. New York police identified her as Kathryn Marie Gallagher and said her death was ruled a homicide.
- It’s unclear what killed Gallagher, an acclaimed fashion designer who had more than two dozen collections under her own label and showed them at Fashion Week in New York and Paris, according to her obituary. She was working on a fall 2022 collection when she died.
- Lady Gaga and Laverne Cox are among the celebrities who have donned her designs, Gallagher’s sisters wrote in an obituary shared on the alumni page of the Rhode Island School of Design, which she attended.
NEW YORK — It was July 24, 2022. New York City police officers responding to a 9-1-1 call to a Manhattan building found an unconscious 35-year-old woman in a bedroom. He showed no obvious signs of trauma.
On Friday, eight months after the day she was found, police identified the woman as Kathryn Marie Gallagher, a Pennsylvania-born painter and “internationally acclaimed fashion designer,” according to her obituary.
And they declared his case a homicide.
The medical examiner’s office did not immediately respond to an email request for a cause of death on Friday.
Gallagher was found in a bed in her Eldridge Street flat shortly before 9 p.m. that summer night in July. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
According to an obituary posted on the alumni page of the prestigious Rhode Island School of Design, Gallagher started her own fashion line, Katie Gallagher, in New York in 2010. She has done more than two dozen collections under this label that she created during New York and Paris Fashion Weeks and was working on her 27th collection at the time of her death. Her sisters wrote that she planned to show this collection in the fall of 2022.
The obituary, shared by her sisters, says she has dressed models like Lady Gaga and Laverne Cox, and says her work has appeared in magazines like Vogue, ‘The Cut’, ‘Elle’ and ‘Glamour’ over the years. years. . Gallagher moved to Chinatown after attending RISD after growing up in rural Pennsylvania, and it was there that he honed his craft, he said.
The sisters described a fearless designer dedicated to excellence, with heart and tact, so gently magnanimous that she captivated people and even animals.
“Like AA Milne’s Eeyore, she preferred dark days and cold rain. As a child, she was drawn to the forest, mixing potions and playing there with her sisters. Animals were drawn to her gentle, calm demeanor. He could talk to them and once even touched a deer in the quiet of the trees. He loved poetry and heavy metal,” his obituary read. “She felt deeply, though she couldn’t always express it, and she had a huge, forgiving heart. When she was younger, she was an obsessive athlete, gymnast, and state-certified long-distance runner. Katie loved Halloween, witches, and ghosts, and had tattoos to let everyone know.”
“She was unique, beautiful, smart, cheeky and always eager. She was hardworking and talented, with so many ideas and plans for future projects,” the sisters’ recollection continued. “We are so proud of who she was and all that she accomplished in her short but full and beautiful life. She was Katie, our daughter, sister, aunt and friend.”
A memorial for Gallagher was held in Pennsylvania last August.
Anyone with information about Gallagher’s case is asked to call police at 1-888-57-PISTA.