City homicide detectives are investigating the death of a 15-year-old O'Donnell Heights girl whose emaciated body was found yesterday lying on the kitchen floor of her home after her guardian summoned police and an ambulance.

Homicide Detective Marvin Sydnor said Ciara Jobes of the 1200 block of Gregor Way was pronounced dead at the scene. Her body was taken to the state medical examiner's office, where an autopsy is scheduled to be performed today.

Sydnor said an examination of the house and an interview with the girl's 31-year-old female guardian showed the girl lived in an unfurnished, unheated room without a bed and used a hole in a wall for a toilet. Her "skeletonlike" body was clad in a T-shirt and pajama pants when she was found, he said.

"Her bodily wastes ended up between the wall of her room and an adjacent room and there was excrement throughout the room," Sydnor said. He described the girl's body as "looking more like a skeleton."

Sydnor said it appeared the girl had been dead for several hours and had vomited before the guardian called for police and medical assistance about 1:45 p.m.

Sydnor said the girl was believed to have attended school but had not been to classes since the end of summer. He said the girl was not allowed to leave the house.

Sydnor said the girl's mother is dead and her father's whereabouts are unknown. He said the girl had been in the legal care of the guardian for four years and that the city's Department of Social Services was called in to be part of the investigation into the girl's living conditions and her death.

Sydnor said the guardian -- whom he declined to name -- said she often lost her temper and could not care for the girl.