Death Of Heiress Ruled Accidental

INTRIGUE SURROUNDS the case of the 65-year-old society matron found floating in a reservoir near where she was camping with her "real-life cowboy." Margaret Lesher's 40-year-old husband has not been named as a suspect, but theories abound on her mysterious death.

The drowning of newspaper heiress Margaret Lesher has been ruled accidental, and a law enforcement source familiar with the case said it is doubtful a sheriff's investigation will turn up evidence of foul play.

Maricopa County (Ariz.) Coroner Philip Keen concluded in his report, released Tuesday, that Lesher's body had minor bruising and abrasions, but the marks probably were from scraping along the bottom of an Arizona lake, not from fighting off an attacker.

The 65-year-old former beauty queen had no broken nails or any other wounds suggesting she was strong-armed into the placid waters of Bartlett Reservoir where she and her husband, Collin "T.C." Thorstenson, 40, had been camping and where her body was found May 14.

"The manner is accidental," said the 16-page autopsy report that details Lesher's body, from the pink ribbon in her hair to her many plastic surgery scars to the alcohol in her blood - enough to make her too drunk to drive.

"We're always reluctant to close a case that has such a high profile and doesn't have clear evidence one way or another," said one law enforcement source. But given the lack of evidence turned up by the autopsy, the source said, "the chance of the criminal investigation developing anything that would lead to charges . . . is about non-existent."

Maricopa County sheriff's investigators, who returned from interviews in the San Francisco Bay Area and Montana in recent days, say they will track down leads until they go cold. But the weekend interviews, including one with a previous wife of Thorstenson who said he savagely beat her, turned up no new clues, said sheriff's spokesman David Trombi.

The coroner's report should help lift suspicions about Thorstenson, an Arizona buffalo rider who stands to inherit money from her will and probably keep their paid-off $1.7 million Scottsdale, Ariz., home, according to a source.

But Wendi Alves, one of Lesher's daughters, said the details of Thorstenson's share are still hidden inside her mother's 6-inch-thick will, which has been revised repeatedly over the years.

"We want him to receive something," she said, "because it was the shortest and the happiest relationship of his life."

Thorstenson, who eloped in November with Lesher, widow of Contra Costa County (Calif.) newspaper magnate Dean Lesher, has never been named a suspect. But his wife's death inspired theories worthy of true-crime paperbacks - ultra-rich heiress mysteriously drowns during a camping trip with her newlywed husband, a much younger man who stood to inherit a fortune. The campground was desolate. They had no prenuptial agreement.

Her family had flown in its own pathologist to oversee the autopsy. Thorstenson hired a criminal attorney and declined for days to speak to the press.

But the couple had no public fights or troubles. And even though she had confided some doubts about the marriage to at least one friend, most other confidantes said they were happy.

The society matron and her "real-life cowboy," as she once called him, had driven through 40 miles of heat and cactus to camp by the 13-mile-long reservoir surrounded by red-streaked peaks of prickly scrub, Palo Verdes trees and manzanita.

Thorstenson awoke in the early morning hours to find her gone, and called police. Her body floated in 8 feet of water about 25 feet from shore. Their new jet boat was 2 1/2 miles from the camp site, apparently windblown. Inside were her jeans and sweatshirt, neatly folded and placed on top of a flashlight.

She was wearing only a Victoria's Secret bra and peach-colored panties, a gold ring, a necklace, a pink ribbon and a red barrette in her hair.

Did Lesher go for a midnight swim, lose sight of the boat, tire and drown? Did she drink too much and topple into the lake? Was she murdered?

The coroner's report doesn't say, but figures it was an accident.

Trombi, the spokesman for the Maricopa County sheriff's office, said their probe continues, but with no particular bent or assumptions.

"It's a death investigation," he said, "with T.C. Thorstenson as an investigative lead."

Sources said Lesher's will bequeaths a fraction of her estimated $100 million estate to Thorstenson; another source said her heirs probably will not contest his getting their Scottsdale home, which was paid off and held in both names. Trombi said trips to the Bay Area to interview those who knew the couple and a trip to Montana to talk to an allegedly battered ex-wife, Kathi Thorstenson, turned up little.

A former coal miner who still carries her ex-husband's name, Kathi Thorstenson had called police three times during their rocky marriage, claiming her husband brutalized her, slugging and kicking her, and once tying her up with a dog leash. The revelations, published in newspapers last week, caused renewed interest in the case.