EVANS - Jacqueline Sage wondered Tuesday if she should have seen some warning sign about the frail little girl her granddaughter had befriended.

"It's like you try not to be nosy," Sage said, looking at the house in the 3400 block of Marigold Street where police have been investigating the death of a 7-year-old girl.

A police spokesman could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

On Saturday, The Greeley Tribune identified the victim as LoReyna Barea, whose bruised body weighed 35 pounds when police responded to a March 9 call for help from the girl's aunt Genevieve Barea. Barea could not be reached for comment.

When Sage read about the death, her granddaughter also saw the picture in the paper.

"Grandma, that's my friend," the granddaughter said.

Sage said she asked her granddaughter if she had noticed anything unusual about the girl, and she replied no.

"The only thing I know was that the little girl didn't want to be inside the house," Sage quoted her granddaughter as saying.

No arrests have been made, but authorities took four boys at the house into protective custody, the Tribune reported.

"I felt bad. Maybe I should have been watching," Sage said. "Thirty-five pounds. That's like 3 pounds more than my youngest granddaughter, and she's only 3 years old."

ensslinj@RockyMountainNews.com or 202-954-5291