When a young girl dies under very mysterious circumstances, law enforcement owes more to grieving members of the victim's family than jurisdictional shell games that can lead to justice denied.

We're referring to the case of Jaleeza Lobdell, 14, whose body was found after being set afire and left to burn in a Moxee-area orchard 150 miles from home. It took six months before DNA test results could confirm it was her.

On this Mother's Day, we take note of the fact that her mother, Kimberly, wants to seek justice -- and who can blame her? Too many questions remain, and this case looks disturbingly like one that's going to be dismissed as an unsolved statistic.

Lobdell last saw her daughter alive on Sept. 15, 2007, as she got ready to catch a bus to Federal Way, Wash., to see her cousin.

Investigators said Jaleeza met two or three men at her cousin's. What happened next isn't clear. Yakima and Pierce County investigators said they've heard the same story: She went, voluntarily or not, with the men to Pierce County, where she died of a drug overdose. In an effort to hide her body, the men drove to the Moxee area, where they burned it.

But Yakima County Coroner Maurice Rice says there is no evidence to back up the story. Jaleeza's autopsy lists death by thermal burns and pulmonary edema. An overdose isn't mentioned, although traces of cocaine were detected in her body.

"The drugs we found in her system were not enough to kill her," Rice said. "And there's no way to tell whether she was killed in Pierce County or here in Yakima."

Rice said it's even possible Jaleeza was alive when she was burned, although her lungs showed no traces of burning.

As we reported earlier, Stew Graham, Chief of Detectives at the Yakima County Sheriff's Office, said "there's nothing in the autopsy that's inconsistent" with the version of events his investigators were told.

Graham said his office has names of the three men that were reportedly with Jaleeza -- and that some are sought in unrelated cases.

However, the Yakima County Sheriff's Office doesn't have the manpower to go looking for them in another county, especially when its unclear if foul play was involved, he added.

"At some point in time they'll probably turn up," Graham said. "Once they're contacted by law enforcement, we should hear about that and then we can question them."

Pierce County isn't actively looking for answers either.

"It hasn't been proven that she died in Pierce County," said Pierce County Sheriff Sgt. Mike Portmann. "There was word that she may have been at some kind of gathering, but at this time that has not been confirmed. If it has been determined that it happened here, that's when we'll get involved."

So let's get this straight. Lack of manpower and an if-and-where determination of foul play determines whether or not there is an investigation to get at what happened and who was involved?

Questions: If both counties beg off on investigation, who is going to find out if there was foul play, where it happened and who was responsible?

Authorities are just going to wait and see if someone turns up?

And if there was foul play -- and one has to admit burned bodies dumped in orchards aren't usually associated with death by natural causes -- how will those responsible ever be brought to justice if no one is even actively looking for them?

This unusual case merits more than casual attention and such nonchalant dismissal. Authorities in the two counties may not know where she died, but there's no question that she did and under highly suspect circumstances.

There's no mechanism for a joint two-county effort to get answers?

If not, that's a scary proposition. Do killers simply have to cross county lines and create jurisdictional snarls to slide under the radar of detection?

This case demands investigation and answers, and it really doesn't matter in whose jurisdictions those answers are found.

* Members of the Yakima Herald-Republic editorial board are Michael Shepard, Sarah Jenkins, Bill Lee and Karen Troianello.