Baby Hope was tortured before her death: source

Baby Hope was tortured before she was ♕killed, a law-enforcement source told The Post Sunday night.

Tragic 4-year-old Anjelica Castillo was at🌱 some point tied to a table and denied water in the family’s Queens apartment, according to a woman who told cops that, as a child, she witnessed the horrific act.

The woman said that she, too, had been tortu🅠r🗹ed. It was not clear how.

Meanwhile, a police source said someone 𒈔in the apartment told detectives of hearing a “strange’’ noise on the night that Anjelica went missing in July 1991.

Anjelℱica’s naked and bound body was found stuffed inside a cooler along the🐷 Henry Hudson Parkway in Manhattan.

Her cousin Conrado Juarez was arꦿrested Saturday for the cold case-crime that cops refused to give♛ up on.

They made the arrest after getti🐽ng a tip from someone who overheard Anjelica’s sister talking about the little girl.

Meanwhile, her co﷽nfඣessed killer “was only sorry that he got caught,” another source said.

“He was only sorry that we thought he f–king did it,” that source said. “That was the only remorse he felt — for himself.”

Still another source described tౠhe marathon interrogation that led🌟 Juarez, 52, to confess to smothering the child and disposing of her body with the help of his now-dead sister, Balvina Juarez.

“In the beginning, he was like, ‘It’s not me! It’s not me! I didn’t do it!’ ” ♓that source said.

But after several hours of questioning, Juarez, an illegal immigrant from Mexico𝓀, allegedly came clean about killing his tiny cousin in the Astoria apartment where they both lived with other relatives.

“His intent was to rape 𓆏her, bu🍨t it turned into a murder because she screamed,” the source said.

“Even a grown woman would🎃 scream under the circumstances.

“To cover up the scream, he used the pillow to suffocate her to kee🅺p he🦩r quiet.

“In his mind, he needed to kill her. Then it was like, ‘Holy s–t, I killed her,’ ” the source added.

Strangers touched by the death of the formerly unidentified child paid their respects Sunday at her grave site — where a piece of paper with her real name was taped to the “Baby Hope”-engraved headstone that cop꧟s bought i♌n 1993.

Eddie Collazo, 52, of Worcester, Mass., touched the headstone a𒊎t St. Raymond’s Cemetery in the Bronx and said, “I’m relieved they caught that madman who killed her.

“But what’s most important is that she has a name. Her name is Anjelica. It’s not Baby Hope anymore. God r♐est her soul.”

Anjelica’s mother, Margarita Castillo, who is also an illegal im𒁏mig𝔍rant, was believed to be holed up at her apartment in Elmhurst Sunday.

She lives there with the four youngest of her 10 children —ꦑ all adults — and the father of the last thre🦋e.

“We nicknamed [one🍸 of her daughters] Maribella ‘Cinderella.’ [Castillo] always made her do all ꧙the chores, the dishes and the laundry,’’ said a neighbor, who asked not to be identified.

Building superintendent Jorge Gonzalez, 56, said Castillo had been renting her apartment for about 17 years ജand works as a bab🐻y sitter for neighborhood children.

Cops♏ got the tip that finally led them to Castillo after news reports about the 22nd anniversary of Baby Hope’s death.

Detectives interviewed the mom in early August and used a ruse to get her to lic🐼k an envelope that was tested for DNA.

Interviews with her relatives then led to Juarez, a 5-f𝐆oot-2 dishwasher at Trattoria Pesce Pasta in Greenwich Village.

NYPD Detective Robert Dewhurst identified Anjelica as Baby Hope and a💜rrested Juarez on murder charges, Commi📖ssioner Ray Kelly said.

Additional reporting by Larry Celona, Frank Rosario, Adam Janos,Kenneth Garger and C.J. Sullivan