At times, it was difficult to hear the soloists over the wails. And some relatives of Ciara Jobes were so overcome with emotion yesterday that they had to be escorted from the chapel.

For more than two hours, about 250 mourners prayed for, grieved for and shouted about the death a girl many barely knew. The emaciated body of the 15-year-old was found in an apartment on Gregor Way last week. She weighed 73 pounds, and her body was covered with cuts and bruises. Her legal guardian, Satrina Roberts, 31, has been charged with first-degree murder.

Relatives have acknowledged that they spent little time with Ciara - among them, her father, Irvin Lee Jobes, 44, who said he had not seen his daughter in 18 months and last spoke to her briefly by phone about a year ago. Ciara's mother, Jackie Cruse, died in July.

As he sat inside the chapel yesterday at Mount Pleasant Baptist Church, Jobes often buried his head in his wife's shoulder, crying profusely. He left the service once to compose himself.

Later, Jobes said he wished he had been more involved in Ciara's life. "If I had known she was being abused, I would have gotten her out of there," he said, referring to the Southeast Baltimore home Ciara shared with Roberts. "But I didn't know where she lived."

Still, he said, "I truly loved my daughter. I miss her already."

One city police detective described the circumstances of Ciara's death as "one of the worst" he has seen in 18 years of homicide investigations.

But yesterday, Bishop Clifford M. Johnson Jr. urged mourners not to concentrate on the horrific way Ciara died. Although he mentioned her emaciated body, he said she is now in a better place, free from pain and suffering.

"If you could call Ciara and ask her to come back, she would not come back," said Johnson, senior pastor at Mount Pleasant Baptist Church, where services were held. "She would say, 'Do not weep for me. Weep for yourself.'"

He also spoke of Roberts compassionately.

"Even though this person has done this tragic thing," Johnson said, "we understand that she does need the Lord and needs to be saved."

While mourners shed tears for Ciara yesterday and people remembered her "cheerful smile and loving kindness," she remained an enigma.

Her funeral program referred to her as an A-student at Patterson High School, but Ciara never joined her classmates there, although school officials confirmed she was assigned to that school. She last attended Southeast Middle School.

Even her image in the framed photo that adorned her casket was indistinct. Relatives said they had a hard time finding photographs of her.

Although the girl's death was detailed in news accounts, her funeral lacked the fanfare given to Angela Dawson and her five children, who died in an arson at their East Baltimore home in October.

Both funerals took place at Mount Pleasant Baptist Church

However, while the former service was marked by a Baltimore police honor guard, dozens of floral arrangements and elected officials eulogizing the family, only a few arrangements of pink and white carnations were beneath the altar yesterday, and a lone teddy bear was propped against Ciara's casket. No public officials spoke.

"That little girl died all alone, and it's just the worst thing I have ever heard in my whole life," said a shaken Pam Johnson of Lutherville, who didn't know Ciara but felt compelled to pay her respects. "You know what kills me - she didn't have a best friend in the world to notice she wasn't even in school. I just can't understand this."

Ciara's father said yesterday that at one point he considered gaining custody: "Yeah, I wanted to try to get custody, but the hassle would be her mother coming over unannounced, starting trouble. School was another reason I didn't try to get custody. Her grades were good, and I didn't want to take her from [Southeast Baltimore Middle] school."

Still, Jobes acknowledged that he should have had more of a role in Ciara's life. He also acknowledged falling behind on child support payments - although he did make some - when an on-the-job injury forced him out of work.

Jobes was adamant that he never suspected Ciara was in harm's way. "I do wish I had pursued the custody," he said.