The New York City hooker whose naked body was found stuffed in a barrel had a “great life” until drugs and booze put her on a dangerous path that led her to “always fear for her safety,” a pal told The Post on Friday.
After graduating high school, Nicole Flanagan, 42, worked as a receptionist, performed medical coding and did clerical work in an accounting office, friend Katrina Galloway said.
“She liked to shop, she loved to go out, loved to look nice,” said Galloway, 47, of The Bronx.
“She did it before this other life she lived. The life before was a great life.”
Galloway said she and Flanagan became instant “best friends” after they met while hanging out in Port Chester in Westchester County about 30 years ago.
But “something happened in her life when she got in these streets — and my friend was never the same,” she said.
Flanagan’s decline began when she started working as a stripper at clubs in Brooklyn and Queens, Galloway said.
“She went from being a dancer into escorting, so I’m pretty sure she always feared for her safety,” she said. “She was on drugs and drinking from the lifestyle that she lived.”
Galloway said Flanagan had three children with three different men: a son, Aaron Underwood, who’s in his early 20s; a teenage daughter, Tayana, and a son, Xavier, who’s around 6 or 7.
Flanagan’s tattoos include the names “Aaron” and “Tayana” inked on her arm, a law-enforcement source said.
Galloway said Flanagan lived with her in Yonkers when she was pregnant with Xavier but that they last spoke about a year ago.
She learned of her friend’s death from Underwood, who “did not have a lot of info” at the time, she said.
Underwood didn’t return messages seeking comment, but his paternal grandfather, Raymond Underwood, 68, said he last saw Flanagan about five years ago.
“I can say straight up, she was a beautiful girl and she always respected me,” he said.
“I never had a problem with her at all. She was a very, very pleasant person.”