An 11-year-old Connecticut girl was not given food in the two weeks leading up to her death last year and had often been restrained with zip ties, police say.
Her remains were found inside a plastic bin last month. A few months after her death, another child impersonated her during a video call with the state child welfare agency, court records reveal.
Stunning details of Jacqueline “Mimi” Torres-Garcia’s death have emerged in recent weeks with the release of arrest and search warrants, alleging severe abuse and an attempted cover-up. The chief medical examiner’s office last week issued an official determination that she died of “fatal child abuse with starvation.”
“No child should ever have to endure such suffering,” Paul Melanson, public safety director in Hartford suburb of Farmington, told reporters last month, adding the girl’s death has been difficult to comprehend and has taken an emotional toll on investigators.
On Friday, Jacqueline’s mother, Karla Garcia, 29, and two others arrested in the case made brief appearances in Torrington Superior Court. Garcia’s lawyer entered not guilty pleas on her behalf to charges including murder and cruelty to a child.
Garcia’s ex-boyfriend, Jonatan Nanita, 30, did not enter pleas to similar charges including murder. Garcia’s sister, Jackelyn Garcia, who is not charged with murder, pleaded not guilty to cruelty to a child and other charges. The defendants’ cases were continued to December.
Lawyers for all three defendants, who remain detained on bail, declined to respond directly to the charges against their clients after the court hearings.
“Obviously the allegations are horrific and what happened to this child is horrific,” said Ioannis Kaloidis, a lawyer for Jackelyn Garcia. “What my client’s culpability is has yet to be determined.”
Girl’s body found in plastic bin
The girl’s body was found Oct. 8 in a plastic bin that had been dumped at an abandoned house in New Britain, about 12 miles (19 kilometers) southwest of Hartford. Police believe Jacqueline died more than a year earlier, in September 2024, when she lived with her mother and siblings in nearby Farmington.
In arrest warrants, police said Karla Garcia admitted that she and Nanita stopped giving the girl food two weeks before her death, and that she, Nanita and Jackelyn Garcia all mistreated her including using zip ties as restraints. Karla Garcia has three children with Nanita and two others, including Jacqueline, with another man. Police allege Nanita dumped the bin containing Jacqueline’s body at the abandoned home last month.
According to police, Karla Garcia told investigators that her daughter was “bad, she didn’t listen, she didn’t respect them.” She also said during police interviews that Jacqueline was doing things she wasn’t supposed to, including hitting other children, going into people’s cars and having five boyfriends, an arrest warrant says.
Police said Garcia initially told them she believed Jacqueline died after Nanita stomped on her head, after the girl pushed her mother down some stairs. But she confessed to the neglect and abuse after investigators told her the autopsy found no signs of physical injuries, the warrant says.
Authorities said Karla Garcia kept her daughter’s remains in her home and took them with her when she moved back to New Britain earlier this year. In the summer of 2024, she had removed the girl from the local school system, telling officials her daughter would be educated at home. When people asked where the girl was, she told them she was staying with a friend or other relatives, police said.
In January of this year, the Department of Children and Families responded to a report of possible child mistreatment in the Garcia home involving Jacqueline’s sister, the agency said. A video call was set up, and officials talked to a girl whom Karla Garcia claimed was Jacqueline, but police said it actually was another girl, possibly a daughter of one of Karla Garcia’s friends.
The department said it is reviewing its dealings with the family. Officials said the agency had prior contacts with the family, with the last one coming in 2022 when it determined the children were safe.
Department and law face scrutiny
State lawmakers, including both Democrats and Republicans, are questioning the department’s actions. Concerns also have been raised about whether the state’s homeschooling laws need more child monitoring requirements.
The Department of Children and Families and homeschooling laws also drew scrutiny earlier this year after a man rescued from a house fire in Waterbury told police he had been held captive in the home for the past 20 years since he was about 11 years old. He, too, had been removed from public schools to be homeschooled, officials said.
