Mom, boyfriend and aunt all arrested after cops find remains of murdered 12-year-old in a container behind abandoned house

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.

Karla Garcia was arrested for her alleged involvement in the death of her 12-year-old daughter (New Britain Police Department)

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.

Jonatan Nanita was taken into custody on charges of murder in exceptional circumstances on Monday evening (New Britain Police Department)

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.

Jackelyn Garcia, 28, is currently being held on a $1 million bond (New Britain Police Department)

“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.

In the quiet suburbs of New Britain, Connecticut, a story of unimaginable horror has unfolded, shattering the illusions of safety that many parents hold dear. Jacqueline “Mimi” Torres-Garcia, an 11-year-old girl whose bright smile and playful spirit once lit up classrooms, became the silent victim of a system that failed her at every turn. What began as a routine withdrawal from school last summer ended in the discovery of her decomposed remains in a plastic storage bin behind an abandoned home on October 8, 2025. Today, as new details emerge from unsealed warrants and state investigations, the heartbreaking truth is laid bare: multiple alerts about Mimi’s absence went unheeded, allowing abuse to fester unchecked for months, if not years.

Mimi’s story is not just one of familial betrayal—though her mother, Karla Garcia, 29; her mother’s boyfriend, Jonatan Abel Nanita, 30; and her aunt, Jackelyn Torres, 28, face charges including murder with special circumstances, conspiracy to commit murder, and cruelty to persons. It is a damning indictment of institutional neglect, where schools, child welfare agencies, and even virtual check-ins became unwitting accomplices in her demise. Reports reveal that Mimi had missed what should have been three consecutive school days—or more, depending on how one counts the voids in her final months—but the flags raised by educators triggered no meaningful response. The unanswered notifications, as prosecutors now argue, may hold the key to understanding what went catastrophically wrong.

To grasp the depth of this tragedy, one must rewind to the summer of 2024, a time when Mimi should have been gearing up for the excitement of sixth grade. Born on January 15, 2013, Mimi entered the world under a cloud of instability. Her mother, Karla Garcia, was incarcerated shortly after her birth, leading to temporary custody with a paternal relative—a arrangement supported by the Connecticut Department of Children and Families (DCF). DCF records show intermittent involvement with the family from 2014 to 2016, and briefly in 2017 and 2021, primarily concerning Mimi’s younger sibling. During these periods, no substantiated reports of abuse against Mimi surfaced, and she attended three medical appointments in the decade leading up to her death. By 2022, Garcia and Mimi’s father, Victor Torres, successfully petitioned for reinstatement of guardianship, a decision DCF endorsed after interviews and assessments deemed the parents capable at the time.

Mimi thrived in those early years, attending public schools in New Britain from kindergarten through fifth grade. Teachers remembered her as a curious child with a love for drawing and stories, her laughter a staple in the hallways of Slade Middle School. But shadows loomed. Joint custody between her parents dissolved in 2024, with Garcia granted full custody—a ruling DCF had no hand in. It was around this time that the family’s life unraveled in secrecy. Unbeknownst to outsiders, Mimi was allegedly subjected to prolonged physical abuse and starvation at the hands of Garcia and Nanita in their Farmington home. Court warrants, unsealed on October 28, 2025, paint a grotesque picture: Mimi was zip-tied to a bedframe in a corner of the basement, forced to lie on pee pads like an animal, and denied food for the final two weeks of her life as “punishment.” Garcia confessed to police that she withheld meals because Mimi had “stolen food,” while Nanita allegedly participated in the restraint and cover-up. The girl’s emaciated body, in an advanced state of decomposition when found, suggested she perished sometime in late 2024—possibly just weeks after her homeschooling notice was filed.

That notice arrived in late July 2024, a innocuous email to Farmington school officials: “Hello I am contacting you today because I would like to homeschool my child for the upcoming school year thank you have a great day!” On August 26, 2024—the first day of sixth grade—Garcia formally withdrew Mimi from the New Britain school district, providing a new address in Farmington and affirming homeschool intent. Connecticut’s lax homeschooling laws, which require only a one-time notice and no ongoing oversight, shielded this decision from scrutiny. No curriculum plans, attendance logs, or welfare checks were mandated. Mimi’s younger sister briefly attended Farmington schools before being withdrawn, but Mimi vanished from educational records entirely.

As the school year progressed without her, alarms should have blared. Victor Torres, Mimi’s father, grew suspicious. In June 2025, during his other daughter’s fifth-grade graduation, Mimi was conspicuously absent. When he questioned Garcia, she claimed the girl was “in school.” Torres reached out to DCF for a wellness check but was rebuffed; without a known address, they couldn’t act. Heartbroken and helpless, he had no idea that by then, his daughter was likely already gone. “I just wanted to know she was safe,” Torres told investigators, his voice breaking in affidavits. “She was my little girl.”

The system’s first major red flag emerged in early 2025, amid a DCF investigation into abuse allegations against one of Mimi’s siblings. Caseworkers, attempting a family visit, were told by Garcia that Mimi was being homeschooled out of state and unavailable for an in-person interview. Instead, a video call was arranged—a Zoom wellness check that would later haunt the agency. On the screen appeared a child claiming to be Mimi, but DCF now admits it was an imposter: the younger sister of one of Garcia’s friends, coached to deceive. Satisfied with the ruse, DCF closed the case in March 2025, unaware that Mimi had died months prior. “This was a deception we could not have anticipated,” DCF stated in a defensive timeline released on October 27, 2025, emphasizing no prior abuse reports on Mimi during their involvement.

Schools, too, faltered. Although formally withdrawn, the narrative of “three consecutive missed school days” likely stems from the immediate post-withdrawal period or informal tracking lapses. New Britain officials confirmed no follow-up on the homeschool notice, as state law imposes none. Mayor Erin Stewart lamented, “Homeschooling made it more difficult to know she was missing.” Multiple alerts— from Torres’s pleas to DCF’s own probes—piled up, but fragmented communication silos ensured no unified response. The aunt, Jackelyn Torres, a convicted child abuser previously barred from child contact, lived in the home and allegedly aided in the restraint, further compounding the betrayal.

The discovery of Mimi’s remains was as serendipitous as it was grisly. On October 8, 2025, New Britain police, acting on a tip about suspicious activity at 80 Clark Street—an abandoned property—found the storage bin in the backyard. Inside: the skeletal frame of a child, wrapped in blankets, her identity confirmed through dental records. Farmington Police Chief Paul Melanson revealed the body had been stored in the family’s basement before relocation to New Britain. Garcia, Nanita, and Torres were arrested days later, their $5 million bails a testament to the charges’ severity. Garcia’s interrogation yielded chilling admissions: she and Nanita conspired to “punish” Mimi, leading to her starvation and restraint until she simply stopped breathing.

As the legal machinery grinds forward—arraignments set for November—the community reels. A sprawling memorial at the Clark Street site brims with teddy bears, balloons, and notes: “Justice for Little Mimi,” reads one, echoing X posts from across the nation. Vigils draw hundreds, with Erica Nieves, a childhood acquaintance of Garcia’s, whispering, “You’re their mother, you protect them from anything.” Mimi’s funeral procession on October 25, a horse-drawn carriage to a local church, was a somber procession of grief, broadcast on NBC Connecticut.

But outrage has morphed into action. Lawmakers, including chairs of the legislative Committee on Children, excoriate DCF: “When it accepts less than 110%, our most vulnerable children are left in harm’s way.” Petitions for “Mimi’s Law” surge online, demanding periodic in-person checks for homeschooled children, body cameras for DCF workers, and bans on convicted abusers cohabitating with minors. Governor Ned Lamont nominated Christina Ghio as Child Advocate on October 27, citing the case as a “vital reminder” of oversight needs. The Office of the Child Advocate’s probe, already underway, scrutinizes DCF’s video verification protocols and resource shortages.

Connecticut’s homeschooling loophole—among the nation’s most permissive—has long been criticized. Advocates like Joyanna Priest of Homeschool Alumni Podcasters note that “parents use [it] to isolate children, shield from reports, and perpetrate abuse.” Mimi’s case, the second high-profile homeschool tragedy in recent years, amplifies calls for reform. “We must close these gaps,” says State Rep. Corey Paris, vowing legislative pushes in 2026.

Yet amid policy debates, Mimi’s humanity endures. Friends recall her as “Mimi,” the girl who dreamed of being a veterinarian, who collected stickers and giggled at cartoons. Her father clings to photos from better days, whispering, “I love you” at the memorial. On X, users share raw grief: “She was trying her very best,” one post laments, attaching a video of a child’s innocent plea—perhaps a metaphor for Mimi’s silenced cries.

This update is not just a recounting of failures; it’s a clarion call. The unanswered notifications—school withdrawals, paternal pleas, deceptive video calls—were threads in a tapestry of neglect that cost a child her life. As trials loom and reforms brew, society must ask: How many more Mimis must we lose before protection trumps procedure? For Jacqueline “Mimi” Torres-Garcia, it’s too late. But for the children still dreaming under fragile roofs, perhaps her story can be the unheeded warning that finally echoes.