DENVER -- The mother of a 3-year-old girl who was apparently sexually assaulted protected her sex-offender boyfriend instead of her own daughter, the woman's family said.

Janet, the grandmother of Neveah Gallegos, talked for the first time in an exclusive interview with CALL7 Investigator John Ferrugia about what happened with her granddaughter and how she had tried to save the girl.

"I would have protected her," Janet said.

Neveah was found dead last fall and the registered sex offender, Angel Ray Montoya, and Neveah’s mother, Miriam Gallegos, were arrested in September. Montoya and Gallegos were released in October because prosecutors did not have enough evidence to proceed with charges, but authorities say the investigation is continuing.

Authorities suspected Montoya, who was Gallegos' boyfriend, of sexually assaulting Neveah in July 2006 but prosecutors also declined to proceed on that case for lack of evidence, records and interviews show.

Janet, who asked that her last name not be used, said after she discovered blood in Neveah's diaper, she and other family members insisted that the girl be brought to the hospital. Hospital officials called the Denver Department of Human Services. Police were then called.

Gallegos scolded her family, saying "we were wrong for what we did because (Montoya) wasn't suppose to be around children and he was going to get in trouble," Janet said describing her conversations with Gallegos after the alleged assault.

"Was she angry with you because you went to the doctor?" Ferrugia asked Janet.

"She said, 'You guys are making too much out of this. It's OK. She'll be alright,'" said Janet, who is estranged from her daughter.

"She wasn't concerned about Neveah's well being," Janet added. "(She thought) it was Neveah’s fault for all of this."

The Denver Department of Human Services started investigating the family after the alleged sexual assault on Neveah, and Gallegos was told that she couldn't see Montoya if she wanted to keep Neveah.

Janet, who wanted custody of the girl, said she found out after human services closed the case that Gallegos continued to see Montoya but lied to the social worker.

"She was still with Ray, she was still (living) with his mother," Janet said.

Human services opened a voluntary case into the 2006 sex assault allegation but closed it about six months later without verifying whether Montoya still had access to Neveah. The case didn't involve the courts.

"They just said they were going to do counseling," Janet complained. "I wanted something done. I wanted something to protect the baby. To protect Neveah."

Shari Shink, executive director of the Rocky Mountain Children’s Law Center, said there is no guarantee that a court-supervised case would have saved the girl but it would have given her a better chance to get out of the dangerous situation.

"What you would have had is a number of others who would have had an opportunity to look at the case and the facts and determine if something more severe needed to happen," Shink told Ferrugia. "When you have a (3)-year-old that has obviously been sexually assaulted, that child is in grave danger and we as society need to do everything possible to ensure that that child is never near somebody with that propensity."

But Janet said the human services worker was more concerned about Gallegos' well being and did not even consult her about what should happen in the case.

"The counselor was the one that was supposed to be making sure all of this but she wasn’t,” Janet said. "She would just take (my daughter's) word for it."

Less than a year after DDHS closed Neveah's case, the girl's body was found in a bag, dumped in a ravine.

"If you had had custody of Neveah, how would have things been different?" Ferrugia asked Janet.

"She would still be here," Janet said. "She would have been well taken care of."

Gallegos has refused to comment on the case and could not be reached for comment.