Ian Robertson and Ian Timberlake

Hooker was strangled

A pregnant prostitute who cut a striking figure in her wolfskin coat and spike-heeled boots was choked to death, police said. An autopsy yesterday showed Donna Oglive, 24, was manually strangled early Sunday and left on a rain-soaked gravel parking lot on Jarvis St. near Cartlon St., about five blocks from her favorite pickup corner at Gerrard and Church Sts.

A downtown apartment resident found the Vancouver woman's body around 7 a.m. about six hours after she took to the streets. Toronto Homicide unit Det.-Sgt. Bob Clarke said.

"She was partially unclothed," but no garment is missing, said Clarke, who wouldn't comment further.

He said there was no sign of a struggle, injuries to her body were "nothing significant," and no evidence of fresh sexual activity was found. Forensic tests are being conducted to determine if Oglive was sexually abused before her death.

Dressed in a full-length wolf pelt and white boots, "she stand out," and Clarke said police are counting on that description to jog the memories of anyone who may have seen her on the street or getting into a vehicle that night.

"She was a veteran," said a man who called The Toronto Sun to say he was a friend of Oglive. "She was one of the most street-smart girls out there. She wouldn't just go to a parking lot with somebody," he said.

The man, who wouldn't identify himself, said Oglive was trying to buy a house in British Columbia. He said he'd seen her for several years working off and on in Toronto -- "when I guess money dries up in Vancouver. She was a real good person."

Oglive stayed with a female friend for the last five weeks "and was going to stay one more week and then she was going to go back home," Clarke told The Toronto Sun.

The murdered woman had a two-year old son in Vancouver and was four month pregnant.

Oglive is the fifth prostitute murdered in Toronto since January 1997, but Clarke said "there is no evidence" of any link to the earlier slayings.

A Canadian citizen, Oglive's family settled in Vancouver after leaving the Philippines. Police said her common-law husband and son's dad flew here yesterday to claim her body.

Anyone with information is asked to call homicide at 808-7400 or, anonymously, Crime Stoppers at 222-TIPS.