"I don't understand why they would want to hold her like that," said Talia's mother, Tarshia Williams, 24, of Orangeburg, S.C. "I don't know what is going on. I am waiting to bury her."

The child's mother is not the only one questioning the legal complications surrounding Talia, a 5-year-old victim of child abuse.

"Why they are dragging this out, I don't understand," said Susan Siu, chief investigator for the Honolulu medical examiner's office. "This poor little girl needs to be buried. This poor little girl is still being abused, in death. The system is abusing her."

Talia died July 16 after she was beaten and knocked to the floor of her Wheeler Army Airfield apartment. An autopsy July 18 found she died of "inflicted head trauma due to battered child syndrome."

Her father, Army Spc. Naeem Williams, and her stepmother, Delilah Williams, have been charged with murder. Questions also have been raised about how the military and state child welfare authorities dealt with reports of child abuse before her death.

Naeem Williams had been granted custody of Talia last December and he brought the girl to Hawai'i.

Because Naeem Williams was under military arrest after the child's death, the Honolulu medical examiner's office expected to release Talia's body to her mother, once proper court papers were received.

On July 25, the office was given a copy of a court order from Orangeburg County Probate Court naming Talia's mother as the person authorized to take custody of the body for burial, according to Tarshia Williams' attorney, Glenn Walters.

But on that same day, Naeem Williams' defense attorney, Army Maj. John Hyatt, told the medical examiner that his client was not relinquishing his custody rights because he wanted a second autopsy. Hyatt did not return calls for comment yesterday.

That prompted the medical examiner to seek guidance from the city corporation counsel about whether to release to body.

Florencio C. Baguio Jr., city deputy corporation counsel, said his office told Walters on July 26 that in order to release the body the city needed a Hawai'i court to recognize the Orangeburg order.

Three days later, Hyatt, the military attorney, withdrew his request for more tests and released the body to Tarshia Williams, Baguio said.

But that did not change the city's position regarding the Orangeburg court order, Baguio said.

"It is from South Carolina and we are out here in Hawai'i," Baguio said. "The order, as far as we could tell, wasn't that clear. But if it is recognized by a court here, we will comply."

Tarshia Williams' attorney is angry about the situation and rejects claims made by Baguio that he has never responded to phone calls.

He called the situation "the games that lawyers play."

"We have done everything," Walters said. "We have jumped through every hoop they required."

Walters is working with local attorney Mark Davis to get a favorable ruling on the custody issue. Davis asked the court in Honolulu on Tuesday to grant their request to recognize the Orangeburg court order, but his office had not been told late yesterday afternoon if it had been granted.

Walters said the entire situation was "ridiculous."

"The bottom line is that the state of Hawai'i and the Army must be held accountable for what they have done," Walters said. "They must return this body so this child can receive a proper burial."

Meanwhile, U.S. Attorney Ed Kubo confirmed that his office is in discussions with the military to see if the Army's case against Naeem Williams could be moved to federal court.

"The reason for removal to federal court will not be because of the death penalty option, but because of the need to keep one common theory of the case for both defendants and for due process purposes," Kubo said.