Brian Joseph Cullen, a frequent customer of Jerry’s Deli in Woodland Hills, had been wanted by the police for killing his Russian girlfriend Iryna Singerman. Cullen fled to Mexico where he offed himself in a Tijuana hotel.

Los Angeles- A fugitive playboy from Woodland Hills, charged with bludgeoning his 21-year-old Ukrainian girlfriend to death with a baseball bat, killed himself in Tijuana, officials said.

The body of Brian Joseph Cullen, 58, was found last Sunday morning in a Tijuana hotel, dead of a gunshot wound to the head. Los Angeles police had suspected that Cullen fled to Mexico last month after killing Iryna Singerman, an aspiring model with whom he had a romantic and business relationship.

He checked into Tijuana’s Hotel El Gigante Del Guaycura alone Friday, two days before a hotel staff member found his body, according to a hotel clerk.

“We think he was probably in Tijuana the whole time, but we’re not sure,” said Detective Rick Swanston of the Los Angeles Police Department. “Where exactly he was during that time, we’re not sure.”

Police also want to question Cullen’s wife, 34-year-old Belen Cullen, who was arrested Aug. 5 by Mexican authorities after a car accident involving Brian Cullen’s Ford Focus – the car he used to dispose of two bags of blood-soaked evidence, including a bloody baseball bat.

Belen Cullen posted bail and has not been seen since, Swanston said.

“We have felt for quite a while that she may have been involved in assisting him in leaving the country,” Swanston said. “She’s a person of interest at this point.”

Brian Cullen, who served five years in prison for mail and wire fraud, was a millionaire who had previously lived in Mexico and was fluent in Spanish.

Police began a manhunt for Cullen on July 26, after a witness saw him drive up to a trash bin in a Woodland Hills parking lot, put on rubber gloves and throw away garbage bags full of bloody evidence.

Police identified Cullen by using surveillance video from a nearby business that captured him driving out of the parking lot.

And they determined that blood-stained documents in the bags belonged to Singerman, who moved to Southern California after marrying Ron Singerman, 50, a West Los Angeles accountant.

On July 27, police searched Cullen’s large rented home in Woodland Hills and found blood and evidence of a struggle. Police also discovered that Cullen had access to millions of dollars and several cars through three companies owned by him and his relatives.

Police found Singerman’s body and her purse hidden in Cullen’s Ford F-150 pickup truck at a Winnetka storage facility Aug. 2, and Cullen was charged with murder Aug. 11.

During the investigation, authorities learned that Iryna Singerman had been dating Cullen for months. Cullen’s neighbors said she spent most weekends at Cullen’s house in the 5000 block of Medina Road.

She bought a 2005 gold Mercedes-Benz without her husband’s knowledge and kept it at Cullen’s home.

Ronald Singerman didn’t know she bought the car until he received insurance information in the mail, Swanston said.

She was taking real-estate classes, and she and Cullen were in the process of buying a house together in Northridge, possibly as an investment.

Neighbors and co-workers had described Cullen as a private man with a bit of a temper. He worked as an independent contractor for Coupon Adventure, a mass-mailing company based in Chatsworth.

Neighbors said Cullen was in good physical shape, always wore a gold medallion and frequently sported a navy blue blazer or a gold sweat suit.

Cullen’s apparent suicide leaves one key question unanswered.

“I think that Ron, his family and, I’m sure, Iryna’s mother and father will always have a haunting question (about) why,” said Barry Greenberg, a family friend speaking on behalf of Ron Singerman. “Because (Cullen) chose to take the coward’s way out, they will never know why Iryna was murdered.”