PITTSBURGH, Apr. 20 – A 19-year-old Shadyside girl who told the Public Defender’s Office here she was formerly a member of the Charles Manson “family” has been returned to Los Angeles to help authorities locate the body of a possible murder victim.

The identity of the girl — originally from Beaver County — was withheld because, according to Gilbert Duffy, chief investigator in the Public Defender’s Office, she has been trying for the past year “to straighten herself out” through a drug rehabilitation program.

After her story was confirmed by a call to California authorities and immunity granted for her co-operation with Los Angeles County officers, the girl was flown to the coast Tuesday, Duffy said.

Duffy said the “baby-faced” girl walked into the Public Defender’s Office several weeks ago and told me a story “and I thought she was as nutty as a fruitcake ”

She asked him to check with California authorities regarding certain information she had given concerning the disappearance of a farm worker, Donald O’Shay, at the Spahn Dude Ranch inhabited by the Manson family at Chatsworth, Calif.

When she returned several days later and asked “How are things coming?” Duffy said, he became convinced.

When he called California, he said, authorities there were familiar with her name, and sent her plane fare to Pittsburgh.

The office has been in touch with authorities on the coast since her arrival there. Duffy said, and they feel they’ve narrowed the search for O’Shay’s grave to a 75-yard area.

O’Shay reportedly was murdered when he became too interested in the activities of the Manson group, Duffy said.

The girl told her story to officials here to “clear her conscience,” according to Asst. Public Defender Ralph Cappy with whom she had several conferences.