MySpace page had eerie message from latest victim

The question emerges eerily on the MySpace page of the woman who may be the latest victim of the Kensington Strangler, between "Ever shoplifted?" and "What do you want to be when you grow up?"

"How do you want to die?"

Casey Mahoney, 27, a pretty, young blonde who had recently lost 100 pounds and doted on her toddler son, responded in a way that today, seems downright tragic.

"Quickly, with no pain," Mahoney wrote.

One day after police found a dead woman they fear may be the Kensington Strangler's third victim, authorities identified her as Mahoney, an East Stroudsburg mother who dreamed of resuming her interrupted college education.

Mahoney's body was found shortly after 5 p.m. Wednesday in a weedy, trashy lot at Front and Tusculum streets. Like Elaine Goldberg and Nicole Piacentini, two strangling victims whose slayings have been linked to the same person by DNA, Mahoney was found lying face-down and nude from the waist down.

Mahoney graduated from high school in North Carolina, according to her MySpace page, and previously lived in New York City. She first came to Philadelphia to attend a drug-rehab clinic, Mahoney's mother-in-law told CBS3 yesterday, but she was forced to leave because of a lack of insurance. She went home to enter another clinic, but left after just a week and returned to Philadelphia this week, a friend said.

Police haven't determined whether she was involved in prostitution, which lured the strangler's other victims into the dangerous neighborhood.

Court records show that Mahoney has a minor drug history in Monroe County from an October 2004 arrest: She pleaded guilty in 2005 to possession with intent to manufacture or deliver and was sentenced to 16 to 36 months in prison. She also had a DUI/careless-driving case in Monroe County, for which she was to appear in court for arraignment on Monday.