Woman convicted of zip-tying man’s neck, leaving him to die in mobile home

MARTINEZ — A Mendocino County woman has been convicted of murdering a 69-year-old man in an incident where prosecutors say she zip-tied the victim’s neck and left him to die and decompose inside his El Sobrante trailer.

Pauline Dungan, 41, of Covelo, was convicted of first-degree murder for financial gain in the April 2022 killing of 69-year-old Richard Hendrix. Dungan’s attorney argued at trial that prosecutors failed to prove she was the killer. Prosecutors argued that Dungan’s DNA found on the zip-ties proved that she was.

The investigation started when Hendrix’s landlord told police he was concerned that Hendrix hadn’t been heard from for days. Hendrix’s decomposing body was found in his motorhome on the 400 block of Appian Way in El Sobrante. His killer beat him in the head with a blunt object, knocking him unconscious, strangled him with zip ties and left them affixed to his throat and then stacked random objects on top of his body, police said at the time.

Police believe he was killed seven days before his body was discovered. A Volvo Hendrix drove was also missing from the area but was located in San Pablo five days after the homicide. A witness told police they had seen Dungan driving the vehicle, and Dungan claimed she bought it from him.

Another witness allegedly told police that Dungan had made remarks before the homicide about how Hendrix was not going to be around much longer, and police later determined that she’d purchased the zip ties from a local hardware store a month before Hendrix was killed. Days after the killing, someone attempted to withdraw money from Hendrix’s bank account, authorities said.

Dungan’s sentencing hearing has been set for Dec. 1, where she’ll likely receive a sentence of life without the possibility of parole.