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Police in Connecticut have arrested three people, including a mother, her boyfriend, and the aunt of a 12-year-old girl, after the child’s body was found in a container close to an abandoned home last week.
The victim has been named locally as Jacqueline “Mimi” Torres. Her mother was also named as 29-year-old Karla Garcia.
An anonymous tip led an officer to make the horrific discovery in the community of New Britain in October, the town’s mayor, Erin Stewart, told the media. It’s thought that Mimi passed away sometime in the fall of 2024. Officials have described her remains as being in an “advanced state of decomposition.”
“Evidence indicates that Jacqueline was the victim of prolonged physical abuse and malnourishment prior to her death,” Farmington Police Chief Paul Melanson told reporters. “It is also believed that following her death, Jacqueline’s body was kept in the basement and subsequently moved when the family relocated from Farmington in 2025.”
Her cause of death remains under investigation.
Garcia was taken into custody on Sunday night and charged with murder and child cruelty.
Her sister, 28-year-old Jackelyn Garcia, was charged with risk of injury to a child and child cruelty, among other charges.
Police subsequently launched a desperate search for Karla Garcia’s boyfriend, Jonatan Nanita, 30, who was finally apprehended on the evening of October 13.
Nanita has also been charged with murder with exceptional circumstances, conspiracy to murder with special circumstances, tampering with evidence, and intentional cruelty to a child under 19.
Karla Garcia's and Nanita’s bonds have been set at $5 million. Jackelyn Garcia’s has been set at $1 million.
Mimi’s father, Victor Torres, and her stepmother, Frances Melendez, told WFSB that they first learned of their child’s death from New Britain police.
However, Torres had not spoken with his daughter since before her twelfth birthday, which fell on January 29.
At the time of her death, the child was listed as being homeschooled. The home where her body was found had been abandoned since 2023. Local media pictures show that a sign on the front door reads: “Unfit for occupancy.”
In the wake of the tragedy, the address has become a shrine dedicated to Mimi.
Among those mourning the loss are Mimi’s grandparents.
“She was my love. She was everything for me... She was happy all the time. Real happy. She liked to play,” Felix Osorio, her grandfather, told NBC Connecticut.
He added that he had not seen his granddaughter in more than two years and that her mother would regularly make excuses for why she could not FaceTime.
“Only God is helping me. God is helping me to pass this process. I’ve been with her forever, and I’m always going to be here,” her grandmother, Patricia Delgado, told the station.
"This is a heartbreaking and deeply disturbing case,” Chief Melanson also said at the press briefing. “Our detectives, along with our local and state partners, have worked tirelessly to uncover the truth and to bring justice for Jacqueline.
“No child should ever have to endure such suffering.”
Mayor Stewart confirmed during the press briefing that the family had previously been involved with the Department of Children and Families, but the details of the DCF’s involvement were being withheld to allow police to investigate the alleged crimes properly.
"Our hearts remain with all those impacted by Jacqueline's tragic and shocking death,” the DCF said in a statement on Monday. “The Department is invested in being as transparent as possible about the family's prior DCF involvement without interfering with the active and evolving criminal investigation,"
The Independent has contacted New Britain Police, Farmington Police, and the Department of Children and Families for comment.
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