Ind. woman found dead in backyard was strangled

NEW ALBANY, Ind. (AP) - A coroner says preliminary autopsy results show that a southern Indiana woman whose remains were found in a New Albany man's backyard died from strangulation.

Floyd County Coroner Leslie Knable tells The Courier-Journal of Louisville that an autopsy performed Saturday on 35-year-old Stephanie Marie Kirk did not reveal how long she had been dead.

Police said Kirk went missing March 25 when she left a friend's New Albany home to meet a man at a bar. Her body was found late Friday in the backyard of 54-year-old William Clyde Gibson's home.

Gibson remains jailed in Floyd County. He was charged last week with two counts of murder in the death of a New Albany woman found strangled April 19 in his home and in a Jeffersonville woman's 2002 death.