Maryland Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr. and Mayor Martin O'Malley are investigating the case of a Baltimore girl found beaten and starved to death this month to see whether social service, school or other officials missed opportunities to save her life.

Curran has asked a deputy to look into whether the system failed Ciara Jobes on several occasions. The 15-year-old was found dead Dec. 11 in an O'Donnell Heights apartment in Southeast Baltimore. Her guardian, Satrina Roberts, 31, has been charged with first-degree murder.

Curran has instructed Assistant Attorney General Catherine Shultz to examine:

The decision to put Ciara in the custody of a woman whom relatives describe as mentally ill.

Allegations by family and two school officials that the Baltimore City Department of Social Services failed to follow up on reports of abuse.

The actions of school officials, who began trying to find out why Ciara had not shown up for school by late October - nearly two months after classes started - and did not plan to visit her home until this month.

"It's a tragedy, but what went wrong?" Curran said yesterday. "Was there something more that could have been done or should have been done in the guardianship? How about the school?"

Sue Fitzsimmons, spokeswoman for DSS, said Shultz routinely investigates cases that involve the abuse or death of a child because she serves as principal counsel for the state Department of Human Resources. The department is the parent organization for DSS, a hybrid city-state agency.

"The attorney general, he's part of the legal process," Fitzsimmons said. "We always review anything anytime there's a maltreatment or death of a child."

An investigation by the mayor is more unusual but not surprising in such a high-profile case, Fitzsimmons said: "He doesn't obviously get involved in many cases. It did happen in the city. ... It's a case that remains in the public eye and it was horrendous. These kinds of things are devastating to all of us."

O'Malley said his office has requested records from homicide investigators, the school system and DSS.

"We're doing our own internal investigation ourselves with an eye toward figuring out whether there are any improvements we can make that would prevent a case like this in the future from going undetected," he said.

O'Malley said he hopes to compile "some sort of case history" in the next few days, although he said the task has been delayed because the agencies are short-staffed for Christmas vacations.

Confidentiality laws governing juvenile matters and the pending homicide investigation might complicate disclosure of those records, but O'Malley said he hopes he can make them public.

"These are public institutions that perform the most important public function," which is protecting children, he said.

One question that officials hope to resolve is whether DSS or city schools failed to act on suspicions of abuse.

The girl's maternal grandmother, Iva Cruse, has said she made repeated calls to DSS to report abuse but was ignored. A teacher and a guidance counselor at Southeast Middle School, which Ciara attended during the 2001-2002 school year, also suspected abuse in April and notified DSS, school officials say.

But Fitzsimmons has said the agency had no record of abuse reports about Roberts.

Del. Samuel I. Rosenberg called on DSS to disclose its records in the case.

"The system clearly failed this young child," the Baltimore Democrat said. "I think it's tragic that all these adults didn't act responsibly enough to protect this child. ... I think consistent with the law and privacy considerations, they [DSS] should make the records public so people can examine what went wrong here."

Del. Howard P. Rawlings said he questions school staff members who claimed to have reported abuse but had no record of when or to whom the call was made.

"If I was that teacher and I saw the things ... she [reportedly] saw, I would certainly want the name of a person and an office and a time and be in a position to call this person back again," the Baltimore Democrat said.

Roberts had been Ciara's legal guardian for the past three years. She was given legal custody to protect the girl from a neglectful mother, a former drug user who died of cancer and AIDS in July.

While maintaining Roberts' innocence, her relatives told The Sun this week that placing the girl in her custody was a mistake. They said Roberts is manic-depressive and schizophrenic.

Fitzsimmons has declined to say whether DSS had recommended Roberts as Ciara's guardian to court officials, who also have declined to comment. Fitzsimmons also has not said what, if any, contact the department had with Ciara after she was placed under Roberts' care.

"I'm just curious what examination, what check, what went into authorizing Miss Roberts," Curran said. "It may well have been she was perfectly qualified."

Curran said it is not yet clear whether DSS had any responsibility to check on the girl once Roberts became her guardian, as she was no longer under the state's foster care system. But he recalled that when he had a private law practice years ago, some sort of follow-up reporting was required.

"I'm trying to find out ... what conditions were attached" to the custody arrangement, he said.

Ciara attended several city schools in recent years and was assigned to Patterson High School this fall but never showed up, Vanessa Pyatt, a school system spokeswoman, has said.

School officials began trying to find out why the girl was not attending school with a phone call to Roberts on Oct. 21, but the number had been disconnected, Pyatt has said. Administrators followed up with letters to the girl's home Nov. 7 and Nov. 19, but there was no response, Pyatt said.

A truancy case was referred to the courts, but Roberts did not appear for a court date Dec. 4 - a week before Ciara was found dead. School officials planned a home visit, but it was unclear whether the visit had been made or even scheduled.

Curran said he is eager to see what records the school system has in the case.

"When the youngster was apparently not going to school, was there a truancy report or a report by the school system to check on her?" he asked. "What could the school folks have done? ... We're going to look at it and find out what happened and what could have been done differently and should have been, if anything."