By Liz Fowler

A POST-MORTEM has revealed that a Mearns teenager who took fatally ill hours after returning home from a party died of natural causes.

Stephanie Lees (15) died on August 18 with her father cradling her in his arms at the family home in Cairnview Place in Laurencekirk.

As in all cases of sudden unexplained death, police have investigated. However a police spokesman yesterday said there were no suspicious circumstances. He said the post-mortem showed the teenager’s death was due to natural causes, and alcohol was not a factor.

Her grieving parents Gordon, an agricultural engineer, and mother Brenda, were still too shocked and upset to comment.

Stephanie fell ill after attending an 18th birthday party at the Links Hotel in Montrose.

Her parents called an ambulance when they found her seriously ill in bed the following day.

Her anxious father held his dying daughter in his arms as they waited for the paramedics.

However she was pronounced dead at the scene just after 10am.

Stephanie had recently passed her exams and was about to go to college to study a hairdressing course.

At Mearns Academy in Laurencekirk, where she was a popular pupil, a collection has been launched by her former classmates to pay for a floral tribute at her funeral, details of which have yet to be released.