Tests Find LSD in Body of Electronics Heiress : Drugs: Kirstie McDonald, 15, ingested the hallucinogen before fatally shooting herself, medical examiner’s report says.

Kirstie McDonald, a 15-year-old electronics fortune heiress, had traces of the hallucinogenic drug LSD in her system when she fatally shot herself in the stomach at her brother’s Encinitas home in April, according to a San Diego County medical examiner’s report.

Results of toxicology tests released this weekend showed that the Rancho Santa Fe teen-ager, whose mother, Marianne McDonald, is a major benefactor to a prestigious La Jolla drug and alcohol rehabilitation clinic that bears the family name, had ingested the drug sometime before her death April 19.

Due to the findings, the medical examiner’s office has classified the cause of death as undetermined. San Diego County Sheriff’s deputies had originally labeled the death a suicide after the still-alert girl told officers at the scene that she shot herself in the abdomen with a .44-caliber handgun.

“The role that the drug played in her actions cannot be determined at this time,” said Cal Vine, supervisor for the medical examiner’s office investigators. “We can’t determine whether she intended to shoot herself or whether she was under the influence of the drug.”

On the night she died, the high school student was staying at the Olivenhain home of her brother, Conrad Lust, when she left two friends in the living room to go to the bathroom of the residence on rural Fortuna Ranch Road.

There, she shot herself once in the abdomen and was conscious to talk with deputies who arrived a short time later. The girl died three hours later at Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla.

McDonald, whose mother is a major benefactor of the McDonald Center for Alcoholism and Drug Addiction Treatment at Scripps Memorial Hospital, is also the granddaughter of the late Eugene McDonald, founder of Zenith Electronics, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of radios and televisions.

Relatives said Monday that they were surprised at the findings, especially since Kirstie had been reacting positively to substance abuse treatment at the time of her death.

“She had been caught once using less dangerous drugs like marijuana,” said Yamile Lust, the dead girl’s aunt. “But this LSD thing is completely new to us. It’s upsetting to us, bringing up the pain all over again.”

The synthetic drug LSD, a powerful, mind-altering substance popularized on college campuses in the 1960s as “acid.” Its effects--known colloquially as “a trip”--produce changes in the user’s sense of space, time and self.

Family members had tested Kirstie for drug use, and the teen-ager was told that, if she was caught using drugs again she would be sent to the McDonald Center her family helped found, members said.

Nonetheless, Yamile Lust insisted Monday that the lively red-haired girl, who played viola in the Civic Youth Orchestra and was planning a summer abroad at the time of her death, did not purposely take her own life.

“Kirstie was a very happy person who had the unfortunate experience of experimenting with drugs,” Lust said. “That’s the tragedy, that a beautiful young woman wants so desperately to fit in--that she didn’t understand that you don’t have to do drugs to be cool.”

Marianne McDonald, a philanthropist and world-renowned classics scholar, did not return telephone calls Monday.

Last month, she was scheduled to appear at a San Diego press conference held by Assemblyman Rusty Areias (D-Los Banos) to push for a state law that would require completion of a safety course before a handgun could be purchased. The press conference was canceled and rescheduled for Friday, a spokeswoman for the assemblyman said.

Lust said Monday that the gun that killed Kirstie belonged to her husband, and that the girl had been taught how to use the weapon in self-defense. “She took a self-defense course for women using firearms,” Lust said. “She knew how to use the gun.”

For county medical examiners, the McDonald case has brought about an avalanche of media inquiries from throughout Southern California. The case was featured recently on “Hard Copy,” a cable television news magazine show, as well as in many radio and newspaper reports.

“On an average day, we’ll get calls from 25 different news organizations throughout the region, all looking to see what results the toxicology tests brought back on this girl,” Vine said. “It’s been incredible.”

Although the family still has many questions about the circumstances surrounding Kirstie’s death, investigators say the case is unofficially closed until new information surfaces.

Sheriff’s deputies say they consider the death a suicide and do not plan to investigate further. And the medical examiner’s office says it is too understaffed to spend any more man-hours on the case.

“We still don’t understand what happened,” Lust said. “There are just so many questions. And there’s no one to give us any answers.”