More Tests Ordered in 5-Year-Old’s Death : Crime: Authorities request further medical examination of Marquishia Candler’s body while pondering whether to file charges against her aunt and grandmother.

An autopsy on the body of a 5-year-old Ontario girl found dumped in the desert has been completed, but authorities on Wednesday ordered more medical tests performed before they decide if criminal charges should be filed against the child’s aunt and grandmother.

The grandmother, Bertha Toombs, 49, and the aunt, Renee Lloyd, 32, remained in custody at the West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga, where they have been held without bail since Tuesday in the death of Marquishia Shanee Candler.

The women reported the girl missing from the Fox Hills Mall in Culver City last week. But this week, under intense police questioning, both admitted the report was a ruse. Lloyd contended she panicked after finding the child drowned in a bathtub and decided not to call police.

“We’ve ordered more tests so we can determine exactly what happened,” said Richard Maxwell, chief deputy district attorney for San Bernardino County.

If charges are not filed against Toombs and Lloyd by 1:30 p.m. today, police will be required to release them. Authorities are prohibited from holding suspects for longer than 48 hours without charging them with a crime. The women could be rearrested later and charged.

Maxwell said his investigators had not confirmed allegations of previous child abuse involving Marquishia.

Toombs was being paid by the state to care for the child and eight of her siblings and cousins. Marquishia and five siblings had been placed in the grandmother’s home in 1990 by the Los Angeles County Department of Children’s Services. Department officials have declined to comment on the case, citing confidentiality restrictions.

Nancy Speaker, the principal at Marquishia’s school in Ontario, said a teacher and a school aide made one report of possible abuse involving Marquishia’s older brother in May, 1991. Local child protection officials later told her that an investigation could not substantiate any wrongdoing, she said.

Speaker said Toombs later told her that Marquishia and the boy were born addicted to crack cocaine and had lived in another foster home for two years before they were placed with her. Toombs had told her that in the earlier foster home, both children had been abused, Speaker said.

Marquishia’s brother, Speaker said, was removed from Toombs’ custody early in September because of severe behavioral problems. On Tuesday, Culver City police said they had confirmed that medical personnel at a San Bernardino County hospital also had reported possible child abuse in May, 1991, when, while treating Marquishia for a broken leg, they found signs of previous bone fractures.

Times staff writer Sheryl Stolberg contributed to this story.