Toronto- Natel King had plenty of ambition. Attractive and confident, she dreamed of posing for Playboy. Outgoing and inquisitive, she worked toward a degree in psychology.

But in a case that underlines the perils of Internet pornography, a Pennsylvania sex photographer was charged yesterday with murdering the 23-year-old Toronto-area woman, a few hours after she was found gagged and stabbed to death in a ravine, a short drive from the man’s basement studio.

On Feb. 29, in a phone call back to Canada, she had expressed fear for her life after a rendezvous with photographer Anthony Frederick, 46, in the small Pennsylvania town of Conshohocken.

Ms. King, who used the name Taylor Sumers, was contacted by Mr. Frederick after advertising her services on-line as a nude model. She had undertaken numerous freelance photo assignments in the United States before driving down to Conshohocken in her red 1992 Saturn coupe in the last week of February. And she had heard the warnings before.

Stephan Sirrard, who runs FCF adult modelling agency in downtown Toronto, said he tried to warn her away from advertising herself on the Internet as a freelancer.

“She didn’t seem to care,” he said. “She had done it before, and nothing had happened. I think, personally, she was a smart girl, but she was lacking a little street smarts.”

Ms. King had worked on and off for several months at Mr. Sirrard’s agency. But he said women generally choose freelancing over adult talent agencies because some can make thousands of dollars per week right away instead of waiting up to three months to start getting work.

“They advertise themselves on the net with no representation, so any pervert or maniac can contact them and say, ‘I have this photo shoot and I will pay you $2,000 if you come to this location.’ “

Mr. Sirrard said talent agencies like his perform rigorous background checks on photographers and check for business licences, speak to references and visit the studio before sending clients.

Mr. Frederick was arraigned yesterday on a charge of first-degree murder. His assistant, Jennifer Mitkus, was charged with obstruction of justice and lying to police. The two accused were being held last night in Montgomery County Correctional Facility with a further court appearance set for next week.

Ms. King’s body was discovered Tuesday afternoon in nearby Whitemarsh Township. She had suffered numerous injuries to her chest, neck and both hands, including a stab wound that went through her neck, and she was gagged with a ball and leather strap. Detectives also retrieved an array of bondage devices, and her body was wrapped in bloodied drape backdrops, similar to those used in a photographer’s studio.

Ms. King, who combined her four-year career in the sex industry with a correspondence course in psychology at Newfoundland’s Memorial University, had been missing for almost a month.

Her mother, Jackie, had also been worried about her independent-minded daughter.

The blinds were drawn at the parents’ Mississauga home yesterday and a man who answered the phone said nobody there had any comment on the tragedy.

But in a TV interview before Ms. King’s body was found, Jackie King said she had grave misgivings about her daughter’s lifestyle.

“We had told her that this is an area that is very dangerous and she may not have the control she thinks she has,” she told Philadelphia’s WCAU-TV.

Friends who worked with Ms. King over the past year describe her as clever, caring and driven, a rare combination in the adult-entertainment world, they say.

“She was very unique,” said Dwayne Ward of D and D Images in the Detroit area.

Speaking on her cellphone between photo shoots in Miami, fellow performer Autumn Rayne called Ms. King “a very beautiful, wonderful, nice, sweet young lady who had a brain on her shoulders.”

The only fault she could find with the bright young woman, she said, was that she rarely wanted to bring an escort to her shoots. “I tried to tell her, but at 23 years old, you don’t realize the dangers that lurk.”

Ms. Rayne said Ms. King would reply that she was not concerned. “I do this all the time,” she would say.

Despite her casual attitude to security, friends said she knew when to walk away from a bad situation.

Indeed, she had pulled out of a job with Mr. Frederick in December. She had gone to Allentown, Pa., to meet him for a shoot when, at the last minute, he called to say the location had been moved to a remote cabin outside the city limits.

Ms. King got a strange feeling about the shoot, friends said yesterday, and called Mr. Ward for advice.

“I told her not to do the shoot,” he said yesterday, adding he arranged a bus ticket for her to come home.

Mr. Ward assumed Ms. King would never work with Mr. Frederick, and he wondered yesterday what might have led her to do so.

The investigation into her disappearance began March 4, five days after Ms. King phoned her Mississauga roommate, Curtis Shears. Her family contacted Peel Regional Police, who relayed their concern to Conshohocken police, together with Mr. Frederick’s name.

The name was familiar, Montgomery County District Attorney Bruce Castor said, because there had been an earlier complaint about Mr. Frederick. Another model had complained about not getting paid after a photo shoot that culminated in the woman being chained to a heater. A search of Mr. Frederick’s studio yielded handcuffs, shackles and fake blood.

A check of the premises this time located Ms. King’s car parked outside, but no sign of her identification, cellphone or personal effects.

Questioned by police, Mr. Frederick acknowledged that on Feb. 29 he had completed three photo shoots with Ms. King, two of which involved bondage.

But something was clearly wrong, Mr. Castor states in an affidavit, because in recounting his conversation with Ms. King that day, Mr. Shears said: “The guy was weird, and . . . she was worried. I asked her if she was worried about not getting paid or getting killed, and she said, ‘I don’t know. Both.’ “

When police confronted Mr. Frederick and his assistant, Ms. Mitkus, they stated that Ms. King was paid $800 (U.S.) for her services. Then, they both said, Ms. King headed out for something to eat and they never saw her again.