Kierra, known as Kiki to her friends and relatives, was a complex teenager. The kid in her loved reading mysteries and dreamed of her future. She aspired to be a veterinarian, never missed weekly family meetings in the living room and tucked notes in her mom's purse for fun.

As for the troubled teen in her, she struggled with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, became a mother at the age of 14, periodically ran away, ditched classes and was placed in Community Education Partners (CEP), an alternative disciplinary school.

It all came to an abrupt end March 7 when Kierra, of East Germantown, was found dead, half-naked on an exercise bench in the basement of a teenage boy's house, her body covered in vomit.

At first, the circumstances of her death were a mystery. Then, investigators pieced together her last day of life - a day of horror, binge-drinking and what police say was rape.

Kierra, who would have turned 16 on May 24, decided to skip school that day and hang out with two male schoolmates, one 16 years old, the other 17, police said.

They ended up at the older boy's house on Crowson Street near Church Lane, in East Germantown, about a half-mile from Kierra's house, where she lived with her daughter, her mother, two sisters and a brother.

Kierra and the two other teens guzzled an assortment of hard liquor, including rum and peach schnapps, from a makeshift bar set up in the dining room, police said.

The binge lasted hours. In a drunken haze, Kierra lost consciousness. That's when the boys took turns raping her, then left the house, police said. It's unclear if she was still alive.

When the 17-year-old boy's mother came home from a doctor's appointment at about 4 p.m., her son wasn't home.

She discovered Kierra, half naked, on a weight bench in her basement, police said.

But the mother didn't call police, said Homicide Lt. Philip Riehl, one of the investigators assigned to Kierra's case. Nor did she try to resuscitate her, he said.

The mother, who has one leg amputated and is battling cancer, told police she panicked, Riehl said.

She waited about an hour until her son returned home. Then she called 9-1-1 for help, Riehl said. It's unclear what the teen told his mom.

Medics pronounced Kierra dead at 5:08 p.m. at the 17-year-old's house.

Kierra died of alcohol poisoning, said Jeff Moran, spokesman for the Medical Examiner's Office. Her blood alcohol level was .433, five times the legal limit in Pennsylvania, police said.

The two boys have been charged with rape, indecent sexual assault, simple assault and conspiracy. They are charged as juveniles, but the District Attorney's Office has requested a certification hearing in Family Court to request that the boys be charged as adults. That hearing is scheduled for April 25.

The older boy's mother has not been charged in the case. "There would have to be proof that the victim was alive when she arrived, and there was no evidence to support that," Riehl said.

Reached at her home by the Daily News, the boy's mother referred all questions to her son's lawyer, Anthony Jackson, who declined comment.

Kierra's mom, Ernestine Harding, said that she wants the boys charged with murder.

"I just want them to be held accountable for more than a rape," she said, standing in her dining room. "I'm not saying that they actually murdered her, but they played a part in her dying.

"They could have gotten help."

The autopsy and investigation, however, prove that Kierra had died of alcohol poisoning after being sexually assaulted, police said.

"I just want people to know that she had a life, she had a family, she had friends that loved her," said Harding, who works with the mentally handicapped.

"She had a promising future and so much potential to be more than just somebody's good time."

Beautiful person with a wild side

Kierra, who lived her short life in the Northeast and East Germantown, was always on the move.

"Kierra was a beautiful person," Harding said. "She always kept you laughing because she was always doing something silly.

"And she was loving. She always loved everybody and wanted everybody to love her back."

Kierra enjoyed music and dancing, and taught her 11-year-old brother the steps to "Soulja Boy."

But Kierra also had a wild side, Harding said. "She was a normal teen that drove me crazy."

She got pregnant sometime in September 2006 and had a daughter on May 11, 2007, whom she named Jada. Jada's father abandoned her because he wanted nothing to do with the child, Harding said.

Harding said that she was upset that Kierra was a teen mom but that she offered her unconditional support and helped to care for Jada.

"Once Jada was born," Harding recalled, "I said, 'I don't like it. I feel like you're too young, but she's here now, she has to be loved, she needs to be taken care of.' "

Kierra told her it was difficult being a young mom and that she wished she had waited, but she loved her daughter, Harding said.

That love was no barrier to trouble. She was disciplined for disrespecting teachers and cutting class, Harding said.

She was placed in CEP after she was caught having sex on school grounds, she said.

After Kierra's funeral, Harding couldn't look at her daughter's bedroom, decorated in blue and yellow with posters of R&B singer Chris Brown. So she packed everything in boxes.

"I felt so bad in removing her things from her room, but at the same time it was too hard," Harding said.

"I felt like I was wiping her out of my life, like I was erasing her memory, but at the same time I couldn't keep them because it was too hard. It's everything, it's her smell, it's her presence, it was all in her room."

Harding remembers the last note that Kierra wrote to her, three days before she died.

Harding read it to her relatives once after the funeral. She hasn't looked at it since.

The words are eerie. "It was almost like a goodbye letter," Harding said.

Scrawled in black ink on a torn piece of looseleaf paper and folded four times, it reads:

"Hey mom, you know I love you and I know you love me too. No matter how many times I messed up you still gave me a second chance.

I want you to know that whatever happens to me I'll always love you. My love is unconditional. I know you'll take good care of Jada and I know she'll be safe with you.

No matter how many times I tried to hate you I just couldn't because I know you was teaching me how to do the right thing. And no matter how many times I tried to do the right thing I ended up doing the wrong thing.

I didn't know how hard you was trying to provide for us. Until now, and I sorry for being so ungrateful. I didn't understand but I do now.

Give Jada a huge hug and kiss for me every night and tell her that I love her.

I love you mom.

Love, Kierra." *