WILLINGBORO, N.J. — The aunt who was raising young Ashley Burg is devastated that the 17-year-old girl — dumped nearly naked and dead in Northeast Philadelphia a week ago — has been labeled a young prostitute and cocaine addict. In a short interview outside her Midfield Lane home here yesterday, Pam Schreiber told Channel 10 News that this wasn’t “the Ashley I know and loved.”

Police told reporters it was the girl’s first attempt at prostitution. She was to be a junior this fall at the Burlington County Institute of Technology.

“(The truth) will definitely come out,” said Mrs. Schreiber. “It will definitely come out. That’s for the police to investigate.”

The girl grew up in the Fishtown section of Philadelphia, where her parents live. Pam and Frank Schreiber provided care and shelter for Ashley at their home in Willingboro during the school year, so she could get a better education in Burlington County.

But this summer, Burg returned to Philadelphia, reportedly to sell sex as part of an escort service known as “Tattle Tails,” and do drugs. Her death is a suspected cocaine overdose.

She was to get $200 of a $600 deal to allegedly service a Limerick man on the weekend of her death, authorities revealed in an affidavit obtained by the Journal Register Company.

The Limerick man at the center of the investigation into the Burg’s suspicious death is cooperating with investigators, according to his lawyer.

David Francis Downey, a divorced father of three, was one of the first people to come forward to authorities after Ashley Burg’s partially clad body was discovered on Aug. 1, according to his lawyer, Thomas C. Egan III.

Downey, 52, of Henry Drive, Limerick, consented to a search of his home on Tuesday and offered to undergo a drug test if asked by authorities, according to Egan. Authorities have not asked Downey to take a drug test, Egan said.

“They will find at the conclusion of the investigation that Mr. Downey is not guilty of any criminal offense in this case,” Egan said yesterday.

“When (detectives) executed the search warrants, they did not find any drugs or drug paraphernalia.”

No charges have been filed against Downey, who according to a company website, is senior vice president and partner of KSR Associates, a financial and business consulting firm based in Landenberg, Chester County, Pa.

The site said Downey had an extensive banking career and has been involved in a wide range of government related technology and security projects, including with the CIA and Department of Homeland Security.

Authorities are not commenting about the search that was conducted at Downey’s residence and have not revealed what was seized from the two-story home that sits at the end of a cul-de-sac in a bucolic section of the township that is dotted by $500,000 homes.

Listed as items of interest in the search warrant were narcotics, drug paraphernalia, financial records, telephone records, address books and any sofa material, sheets, blankets or pillows that contain a peculiar star pattern.

While authorities said there were no obvious injuries to suggest how Burg died, an autopsy determined she had cocaine in her system and Montgomery County District Attorney Bruce L. Castor Jr. has said the working theory is that she died from a drug overdose, while officials await a toxicology test to determine the exact cause of death.

Investigators also found a “star-type pattern impression” on one of Burg’s legs, according to court documents.

Castor said investigators are trying to determine if Burg died at the Limerick home and whether Downey was involved in Burg’s death or the disposal of her body.

He said the investigation could take awhile as investigators sift through statements given to authorities by Downey and others, including two people who allegedly delivered Burg to Downey’s home as part of the escort service.

“Obviously, this is a serious matter and we’re treating it as such,” Castor said on Tuesday.

“We’re in a holding pattern,” said Egan, adding his client is anxiously waiting for authorities to wrap-up the investigation.

An informant has told detectives that Downey provided drugs to Burg, according to the police affidavit attached to the search warrant.

Downey, according to court papers, told detectives that an escort service he contacted delivered Burg to his home shortly after midnight on July 31. He told authorities he paid $600 for the escort.

“When the girl came over to his home she introduced herself as being 22 years old,” Egan said. “He had no reason to disbelieve that.”

Downey told detectives Burg stayed at his home throughout July 31 and into Aug. 1 and that he noticed powder on Burg’s face below her nose after she repeatedly used a bathroom.

When Burg became ill on Aug. 1, Downey claimed he called a go-go dancer connected to the escort service and asked her to come and get Burg.

When the dancer and another man arrived at Downey’s home, Downey agreed to pay them $2,600 and he gave them instructions to Phoenixville Hospital, he said.

Downey told detectives that when he placed Burg in the back seat of the dancer’s car, Burg was breathing and had a pulse, according to court papers.

“He’s been questioned at length. I find the story to be very difficult to believe and at odds with information we got from other people in the case,” Castor said.

“But we’ll see. Everybody is presumed to be innocent but we would be remiss if we didn’t go search for evidence and that’s what we’re doing now.”

Court papers indicate the go-go dancer has told authorities that when she and her boyfriend arrived at Downey’s home, Burg was dead and she had blood coming from her nose.

Downey, according to the dancer, instructed her and her boyfriend to take Burg to the hospital.

The dancer told detectives that she and her boyfriend drove around for 20 minutes but couldn’t find the hospital and the pair then headed to Philadelphia where they discarded Burg’s body.

That dancer also told detectives that Downey, on two occasions, hired her as an escort.

She said Downey would get high on cocaine as she danced for him and gave him oral sex. Then he would tell her, “I’m your 12-year-old little boy and you’re my 12-year-old little girl.”