Richmond Heights Girl Strangled, Autopsy Shows. Mary Katherine Laforest, 17 years old, whose body was found yesterday on July 19 in Webster Groves, died from strangulation, an autopsy shows. The young woman was found fully clothed with decorative cord wrapped several times around her neck on a path in a bird sanctuary near Blackburn Park. The body was discovered about 9:30 a.m. by a city recreation worker at a Day Care Center in the Park. Raymond Harris, coroner found her pants on backwards.