EMOTIONAL REVELATION 💔: Her best friend from school told reporters Jacqueline “Mimi” Torres-Garcia (11 years old) had confided about “feeling scared at night.” The note she left in her sketchbook is now being examined by specialists. Its final words are said to be only three letters long…
*******************
“To correct misinformation,” DCF released a timeline of their involvement with Jacqueline “Mimi” Torres-Garcia. Her mother, aunt, and mother’s boyfriend are facing charges in her death.
Jacqueline “Mimi” Torres-Garcia. Farmington Police Department
4 minutes to read
Share
4
After the body of a 12-year-old girl was discovered in a storage bin, Connecticut state officials said she had likely been starved for weeks before her death last fall. Her mother, aunt, and mother’s boyfriend are facing charges as the community comes to terms with the girl’s death.
During a funeral procession Saturday, a horse-drawn carriage brought the body of Jacqueline “Mimi” Torres-Garcia to a church, NBC Connecticut reported.
“She was happy all the time. Real happy. She liked to play,” Felix Osorio, the girl’s grandfather, previously told the news station. “She was my love. She was everything for me.”
Her remains were found outside an abandoned house in New Britain. She likely died in the fall of 2024 while her family was living in Farmington after being withdrawn from school to be homeschooled, law enforcement officials have said. Evidence suggests she suffered “prolonged” physical abuse and malnourishment before she died, according to Farmington police.
Jonatan Nanita, her mother’s boyfriend, is now facing additional felony charges of tampering with physical evidence and disposing of a dead body, court records show.
Previously, her mother, Karla Garcia, and Nanita were arraigned on multiple charges related to her murder, including murder with special circumstances and unlawful restraint. Her aunt, Jackelyn Garcia, is also facing charges, including unlawful restraint.
Jackelyn Garcia sent her sister a photo of the child restrained in zip ties and lying on a pee pad, according to the warrants for Jackelyn and Karla Garcia’s phones obtained by NBC Connecticut and the Connecticut Mirror. Karla allegedly told her sister that Torres-Garcia died Sept. 19, 2024.
Karla Garcia planned to go on a podcast to share the story of what happened to her daughter, the report said, and wrote notes on her phone about her remarks.
Karla Garcia told police Oct. 9 that she and Nanita had stopped feeding her around two weeks before her death last year, according to NBC. She admitted to restraining her daughter with zip ties as a punishment, mostly under the direction of Nanita, per reports.
Timeline: DCF says saw Connecticut girl over video, months after her death
“To correct misinformation,” the state’s Department of Children and Families said, the agency released the history of their reports regarding Torres-Garcia, from her birth to her death. Torres-Garcia was born to Karla Garcia while she was in a detention center in 2013, and she was raised for nine years by a paternal relative who had legal guardianship.
From 2014 through 2016, DCF “provided services” for Torres-Garcia and her younger siblings under the care of the guardian, according to the agency, as well as “briefly” in 2017 and 2021 related to a younger sibling. A younger sibling was placed in the guardian’s care in 2016.
“The relative guardian allowed the parents to have regular access to the children,” DCF said.
2022: Mother, father granted custody
In 2022, Karla Garcia and Torres-Garcia’s father Victor Torres were granted guardianship of Torres-Garcia and her younger sibling. DCF said it supported the reinstatement after conducting a review of the family’s history and current circumstances, interviewing Torres-Garcia and her sibling, and an assessment of the parents. The former guardian and the child’s attorney also supported the parents’ guardianship.
In September of 2022, DCF said it “last interacted” with Torres-Garcia during an investigation concerning her younger siblings. There was insufficient evidence to remove the children from the home, DCF said, and the department provided “in-home supports” for the family, which was involved in supportive housing at the time.
“She and her siblings were determined to be safe at that time and were visible to the community,” DCF said. “The school-aged children were enrolled in school, and the children’s medical provider was contacted and did not express concerns.”
May 2024: 12-year-old attends medical appointments before homeschooling, DCF says
DCF did not see Torres-Garcia again before her death, believed to be in the fall of 2024. The children were enrolled in school, DCF said, and the girl attended medical appointments in November of 2022, November of 2023, and May of 2024.
Torres-Garcia reportedly was homeschooled starting in August of 2024, which impeded her being reported missing earlier, police said. Karla Garcia was granted full custody of the children in 2024, which DCF said it had “no involvement in.”
“During that two-year period, the Department did not receive any reports of child abuse or neglect regarding the family,” the agency said. “Jacqueline was not homeschooled during any period of DCF involvement.”
January 2025: DCF conducts video call, but girl was likely already dead
Months after Torres-Garcia is believed to have died, in January of 2025, DCF said it conducted a video call with someone who Karla Garcia identified as her daughter. DCF was following up about allegations concerning Torres-Garcia’s younger sibling.
Karla Garcia told DCF “that Jacqueline was being homeschooled and staying temporarily out-of-state with a relative,” DCF said, so the department conducted a video call.
“While it’s now reported that Jacqueline died months earlier,” DCF said, “…DCF conducted a video call with a person who mother claimed to be Jacqueline. This information has been provided to Law Enforcement. Given that no additional concerns were noted, the Department closed the case in March 2025.”
DCF’s review into the situation is ongoing.
Governor Ned Lamont nominated Christina Ghio Monday to lead Connecticut’s Office of the Child Advocate, “at a time at a time when we are all reminded by recent tragedies involving young people in our state of the vital role of this independent office, including its current investigation into the unconscionable circumstances surrounding the untimely death of Jacqueline ‘Mimi’ Torres-Garcia,” Lamont said in a statement.
