Girl Was Strangled, Coroner Says : Crime: Toxicological tests are also planned in death of Cypress teen-ager. Investigators say there are no substantive leads.

Zuleima Valdez, the 16-year-old Cypress girl whose body was found near a flood control channel in Lakewood, died by strangulation, according to preliminary autopsy results released Thursday by the Los Angeles County coroner’s office.

Bob Dambacher, a coroner’s office spokesman, said routine toxicological tests will be conducted to determine if the girl was given any substances, such as drugs, before she was killed.

Results of the autopsy will be turned over to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department crime lab.

Dambacher said he could not comment on the time of death or whether the girl’s attacker used any type of implement to strangle her.

“The cause of death has been established as strangulation, and it is a homicide,” Dambacher said. “That’s all we’ve got to say.”

Zuleima, a freshman at Cypress High School, left home Sunday night after telling her mother, Bertha Velasquez, that she was getting a ride to the beach with friends. When Zuleima failed to return home, Velasquez reported her missing to police.

Zuleima’s fully clothed body was discovered at 5:45 p.m. Monday by teen-agers riding bicycles next to a paved path along the Coyote Creek flood control channel not far from the mobile home Zuleima shared with her mother.

Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department investigators previously had said the body, which showed no obvious signs of trauma, was partially covered with pine needles, leading them to suspect that someone may have tried to hide it.

Although the Sheriff’s Department has received a number of tips on the girl’s death, no substantive leads had been developed, investigators said.

A Mass for Zuleima will be celebrated Monday at 10 a.m. at St. Irenaeus Catholic Church in Cypress, followed by the burial service. A viewing is scheduled all day Saturday at Forest Lawn Memorial-Park in Cypress, with a vigil on Sunday.

Donations to help Zuleima’s family offset burial costs may be made in Zuleima’s name at Cypress High School, 9801 Valley View St., Cypress, Calif. 90630, or Lincoln Center Mobile Home Park, 9080 Bloomfield St., Cypress, Calif. 90630.

Sheriff’s investigators ask that anyone with information on the murder call the Cypress Police Department at (714) 229-6600 or the sheriff’s homicide division at (213) 974-4341.