Hollywood — The pretty, dark-eyed daughter of a novelist and an actress–missing and feared kidnapped from in front of her home early Monday–was found dead late Wednesday in a brush filled ravine a few miles away.

The girl, Marina Elizabeth Habe, was the 17-year-old daughter of Hans Habe of Zurich, Switzerland, and Eloise Hardt.

The sheriff’s office said the girl had been dead since sometime early Monday morning. An autopsy was scheduled.

“We know the cause of death, but it will be a few hours before it is made public,” the sheriff’s homicide officer said three hours after the body was discovered.

A Sheriff’s search crew went to the scene after a woman motorist spotted Miss Habe’s purse on Mulholland Drive and delivered it to authorities. In the purse were the missing girl’s compact, credit cards and other identification.

The body, clad in clothes Marina was reported wearing on a date Sunday night, was found 50 yards from where the purse was found.

The brown-haired, 133-pound girl lived in West Hollywood with her mother, an actress who last appeared in the movie, Games, starring Simone Signoret. The mother is divorced from Habe and remarried.

The European-born Habe was reported en route from Zurich. Habe, 57, was a prominent newspaper man before gaining recognition as a novelist. He is a former editor-in-chief of Der Morgen, a Vienna newspaper and covered the league of Nations from 1936 to 1939.

He won numerous decorations for his service in the United States and French armies during the Second World War and has produced 18 novels, including The Countess and The Mission.

A May graduate of a Los Angeles high school, Miss Habe was home on Christmas vacation from the University of Hawaii.