Daily News from New York, New York • 7

1 1 I 1 mfc 'MA By TARA GEORGE in Knowlton, NJ. and MlCHEIX MCPHEE in New York Daly News Staff Writers The headless, handless body found in a lake in west New Jersey was not believed to be the Manhattan woman who has been missing for three weeks, police officials said yesterday. "The preliminary investiga 'LORD LOVE- CHEAT Earl I clothed from the waist up, fully clothed from the waist down, and covered with silt, O'Reilly said. It was found Wednesday afternoon by Douglas Roscoe, a retired pathologist who luckily knew how to preserve the crime scene, a police source said. Roscoe was duck hunting when he saw the body floating in 3 feet of water about 100 yards offshore in the crystal clear lake.

Yesterday, investigators from New Jersey's State Po-lice major crime unit searched the lake and along the shore before calling off the search around 11 a.m. because of the Thanksgiving holiday. A helicopter aiding in the search had to be brought down because of high winds. Knowlton. a rural township of about 2,900, is nestled along the Delaware River just off Interstate 80 in Warren County.

Meanwhile, detectives still hope Rodriguez could shed light on the couple. Police have also reopened a probe into the disappearance of former Rodriguez employe David King King disappeared in 1991 after a former employer sued him and Rodriguez for allegedly stealing internal documents. With William K. Rashbaum Spencer, who has been dubbed that by the British tabloid press, arrives in Cape Town Supreme Court on Wednesday. British tabloids have reveled in the divorce of Princess Diana's brother and Victoria Spencer (right).

Spencer dropped a legal fight against two Cape Town newspapers covering the divorce, saying he didn't want a personal matter turned into a constitutional one. tion leads us to believe that the body is not the one we are looking for," said police spokeswoman Cheryl Cox. Camden Sylvia, 36, and her boyfriend, Michael Sullivan, 54, vanished Nov. 7 after a dispute with their landlord, Robert Rodriguez, who also disappeared when cops tried to question him. Rodriguez, who resurfaced Wednesday with a high-profile lawyer, Michael Rosen, refused to talk with authorities about the missing couple.

Manhattan detectives initially believed the torso could have been Sylvia's, because the clothing found on the corpse matched what she had last been seen wearing: leggings, a T-shirt, and black shoes or sneakers. An autopsy was being performed at the Warren Hospital morgue yesterday, but officials faced a tough task. 'The victim has size-6 feet, but it will be extremely difficult to identify her without hands or a head," Warren County Medical Examiner Malcolm Cowen said. Whoever the victim was, it was a grisly homicide, said Warren County Prosecutor John O'Reilly. The body was partially tiz Etaa's biro oils oil pitts ion (ftdDirce uno Neighbor finds mother of 2 beaten to death in B'Idyn THE ASSOCIATED PRESS this week to test it, prompting Spencer to file an injunction against both publications.

At an initial court hearing Wednesday night, the newspapers agreed to stop publishing details of the case until the matter was resolved at another hearing scheduled for Saturday. But Spencer's decision to drop the case ended the dispute. "While we are happy to achieve this victory, we do not believe in rubbing salt into anyone's wounds," said Cape Times editor Ryland Fisher. "We want to assure our readers that we will report on this case in a dignified manner." He said a day of intense negotiations involving lawyers for Spencer and the newspapers preceded Spencer's decision, which Fisher called "a great victory for press freedom." Spencer, 33, wants the divorce case settled in his adopted home of South Africa, while his wife wants it to be held in Britain. Lady Spencer, 32, is arguing that the case involves two British nationals and most of the earl's assets are in Britain.

If the case is heard in England, she would probably get a larger court-ordered CAPE TOWN Earl Spencer, the brother of the late Princess Diana, waved a white flag in his legal battle against two Cape Town newspapers that published details of his bitter divorce case. His attempt to silence the papers' coverage of his numerous affairs had drawn British tabloids into the fray. The British papers labeled Spencer "Lord Lovecheat," and gleefully reminded the public of Spencer's rebuke to the royal family during Diana's funeral for its failure in the "loving conduct of family life." Spencer also had blasted the press during Diana's funeral, claiming she was hunted to her death. Yesterday, Spencer said he didn't want a personal matter turned into a constitutional issue. "I would ask, though, that the South African media bear their responsibilities in mind, to minimize the inevitable impact" on the couple's four children, Spencer said.

Under South African law, the nation's me-: dia are forbidden from reporting details of divorce cases. The Cape Times and Cape Ar-t gus newspapers intentionally broke the law husband separated four months ago, they still spent time together, particularly when he would come over to pick up their younger child, Roger, 6. The couple spent most of Wednesday evening with Rol-dan's family. "They left at about 10:30 p.m., and he said he was taking Roger to his mother's for baby-sitting," said Roldan. Cuberos, a Dominican immigrant who owned the Toque Final beauty salon around the corner from her Sunset Park home, moved with her two sons to the second-floor apartment at 505 62nd St when she separated from her husband.

Neighbors said the couple had a stormy relationship, and had recently been fighting because she refused to move back in with him. By CAROLINA GONZALEZ Daily Mews Staff Writer A woman was beaten to death in her Brooklyn apartment just hours after she and her estranged husband visited a neighbor to plan their Thanksgiving feast Ingrid Cuberos was found lying facedown in a pool of blood on her kitchen floor when upstairs neighbor Bill Roldan said he noticed her apartment door ajar on his way home at about 2 a.m. yesterday. "I knocked on her door, and when she didn't answer, I went in," said Roldan. "When I turned on the light, I saw the blood and called 911." Cuberos' husband, who was not identified, was being held for questioning yesterday but had not been charged.

Although Cuberos and her.