One year ago today, anonymous tips led police to the remains of 11-year-old Jacqueline “Mimi” Torres-García outside an abandoned home on Clark Street in New Britain, Connecticut. In the twelve months since, the case has unraveled into one of the state's most disturbing child welfare failures, producing new criminal charges, a nine-figure legal claim against state officials, and a legislative overhaul of how Connecticut tracks homeschooled children.
A Year-Old Tragedy Still Unfolding in Court
According to WFSB, prosecutors are continuing to build their case against Torres-García's mother, Karla Garcia, her mother's former boyfriend, Jonatan Nanita, and her aunt, Jackelyn Garcia, all of whom have been charged in connection with the girl's death and have pleaded not guilty. Investigators have said the girl was pulled from school and believe she died from starvation while living with her family in Farmington, the station reports. Police have said the anonymous tips that led them to her remains pointed them to the vacant property on Clark Street in New Britain.
Court search warrant affidavits filed in October 2025 laid out a timeline showing just how long the case had gone undetected. Investigators believe Torres-García died in fall 2024 in Farmington. Karla Garcia told police that she died around September 19, 2024, and that her body was kept in a home basement before being moved when the family relocated in March 2025, eventually ending up outside the abandoned New Britain house where it was found, according to FOX61. The same affidavits detailed aunt Jackelyn Garcia's account of seeing the child confined to a corner, zip-tied, and kept on pee pads, while Karla Garcia admitted to police that she and her boyfriend stopped feeding the girl for roughly two weeks before she died.
Autopsy Findings and a Fabricated Welfare Check
A state autopsy report released in January revealed the extent of the girl's suffering: she weighed just 27 pounds at death, showed marked emaciation, had unprescribed amphetamines in her system, and had only a single blueberry in her stomach, according to the CT Mirror. The same report detailed that Nanita was also charged with felony larceny for allegedly defrauding the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program of benefits on behalf of the deceased child.
Perhaps most chilling, testimony from the Connecticut Department of Children and Families during a January court hearing revealed that in February 2025 — months after the child had already died — her mother recruited a 22-year-old woman to impersonate the 11-year-old during a Zoom wellness check with a state social worker, the outlet's reporting found. Social workers had initiated that contact after receiving a complaint on New Year's Eve, meaning the agency was actively investigating the family's welfare while the girl's body sat hidden.
A $100 Million Claim and a Father's Prison Debt
That revelation has fueled a massive legal fight over DCF's conduct. A $100 million lawsuit was filed on behalf of Jacqueline Torres-García's estate, per the CT Mirror's reporting. DCF had a history with the family.
A separate and unusual legal dispute has also emerged. In April, the State of Connecticut filed a claim attempting to recover more than $300,000 in unpaid incarceration costs owed by Victor Torres, the girl's biological father, from any potential wrongful death settlement paid to her estate, the publication reported, relying on state inmate asset recovery statutes.
New Laws Born From the Case
The case has already reshaped state policy. In May, the Connecticut General Assembly passed House Bill 5468, establishing the state's first regulations on homeschooling by requiring public school districts to notify child welfare authorities when children are withdrawn, according to FOX61. Torres-García's mother emailed school officials in July 2024 about plans to homeschool her; Torres-García was withdrawn from the New Britain school system in August 2024.
Connecticut has also enacted reforms to DCF, per WFSB.
A year later, as criminal proceedings continue against the three family members charged in her death, the case remains a painful marker of how long a child's disappearance can go unnoticed — and how far state systems failed to catch it in time.
