Philadelphia- Ashley Burg, a 17-year-old found dead after an encounter with a Limerick businessman, was apparently the second-string escort.

Kim Victorine, a stripper whom David F. Downey contacted to provide an escort on July 30, initially sought out Christine Shute, another dancer who had serviced the 52-year-old divorcee on two prior occasions, according to Shute’s attorney, John K. Connor.

“When Kim came to her house, Christine was still asleep because she had been partying at a wedding reception the night before,” said Connor, a Jenkintown lawyer. “That’s the only reason they brought Ashley.”

Burg, who had been using cocaine, fell ill shortly after Victorine and another man dropped her off at Downey’s spacious home early on July 31, according to a police affidavit.

Some 24 hours later, Shute and her boyfriend, Mike Tees, came to Downey’s house to retrieve Burg. After accepting $2,600 from Downey, they dumped her body, clad only in underwear, in a wooded area of Northeast Philadelphia, where she was found by a woman walking her dog, according to a police affidavit.

Shute and Victorine were both dancers at Tattle Tales South, an exotic dance hall in the Port Richmond section of Philadelphia. Downey had been a customer at the club, according to a police affidavit.

Authorities are awaiting toxicology results as they weigh possible charges against Downey, Victorine, Shute and Tees.

On Monday, Montgomery County detectives questioned Burg’s best friend, Dee Dee Conn, according to Conn’s parents, Debbie and Francis Conn of Philadelphia’s Fishtown section.

Debbie Conn said her daughter had told police that Burg had taken five or six Xanax, a powerful antianxiety medication, on Saturday evening.

“I know Ashley liked to do her Xanax,” she said in an interview. “She was a weekend warrior… . She got it off the street.”

Before she arrived at Downey’s house, Burg, of Willingboro, and Conn were with Conn’s older brother, David Tanczak – who previously dated Burg for three years – at a room he rented in Kensington.

Burg left the group about 2 a.m., saying that she was going to meet her older sister, Tanczak said in an earlier interview.

Downey’s attorney, Thomas C. Egan 3d, insists that Downey hired escorts only for companionship, and that he never called an ambulance because he had no idea Burg was close to death.

That story has been disputed by Shute’s attorney, who said his client maintains that Burg was dead when she and Tees arrived, and that Downey’s payment was in exchange for removing her body.

“There was no question as to whether Ashley was alive or dead, and I’m hoping the toxicology results and coroner’s report will confirm that,” Connor said. “If she were alive, what would have been Downey’s risk in calling the paramedics?”

“It makes much more sense, if she’s already dead, for him to panic and hire somebody to get her out of there.”

According to Downey’s attorney, “he still believed that she was alive.”

“He didn’t believe her condition was sufficiently serious enough to warrant calling 911 or police,” Egan said. “He just thought she was a sick girl who needed to lie down and rest.”