SLIPPERY ROCK TWP — State police are investigating the “suspicious” death of a 38-year-old township woman who was found barely alive in a ravine near her home Sunday afternoon,

Kara Anne Kendziorski was clinging to life shortly after 2 p.m. when a male friend called 911 to report finding her, authorities said.

Kendziorski was rushed to Butler Memorial Hospital, where died about two hours later.

An autopsy later Sunday did not conclusively determine the cause or manner of death, said Butler County Deputy Coroner Larry Barr.

Investigators are awaiting results of toxicology tests, which could shed more light into her death, Barr said. Those findings could take several weeks or more.

Police Lt. Eric Hermick said there was no immediate sign of trauma on her body. He would not identify the friend who found Kendziorski, or how he came upon her in a yard along Ralston Road near Rock Falls.

“He said he found her lying in the ravine,” Hermick said of the man. “He said she was unconscious and barely breathing.”

There apparently was no blood at the scene, authorities said.

Paramedics got there and tended to the woman before she was taken to the hospital. She was pronounced dead at 4:02 p.m.

Hermick said police are trying to establish Kendziorski’s whereabouts before she was found.