Deception, blame, cloud motive in killing of CT girl whose body was hidden for year, documents show

Both people accused of tying up and starving 11-year-old Jacqueline “Mimi” Torres-Garcia before hiding her body for a year denied their actions and repeatedly lied to police, each blaming the other, according to the warrants for their arrests on murder charges.

But amidst the finger-pointing, Karla Roselee Garcia, Jacqueline’s mother, eventually made an admission that gives a possible glimpse of her motive: Her feelings were hurt because her oldest daughter had stopped “wanting her,” her arrest warrant said.

After hours of questioning, the 29-year-old, who records show gave birth to Jacqueline when she was 16 and locked up in juvenile detention, admitted she abused the girl both mentally and physically, the warrant said.

“Garcia admitted that she was hurt from her daughter not wanting her so she would stop talking to her, stop feeding her, and restrain her in zip-ties,” it said.

Jacqueline “Mimi” Torres-Garcia smiles for the camera at her fifth-grade graduation on June 10, 2024. This is the last time her father saw her, according to an arrest warrant. The 11-year-old’s remains were found behind a boarded-up house in New Britain on Oct. 8, 2025. Her mother, Karla Garcia, and the mother’s boyfriend, Jonatan Nanita, are suspects in her death. (Courtesy of the New Britain and Farmington police departments)
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Garcia and her boyfriend, Jonatan Abel Nanita, 30, were arrested this month on charges that include murder with special circumstances, and each is in custody on $5 million bail. Police say the couple conspired to kill Jacqueline, who endured “prolonged physical abuse and malnourishment” in their rented, townhouse-style condo in Farmington last year and stored the girl’s body in their private basement.

While they say Garcia’s sister, Jackelyn Leeann Garcia, 28, participated in the abuse, she had moved out before Jacqueline died in the fall of 2024 and was not charged with murder.

After getting an anonymous tip, police said they found the girl’s remains Oct. 8 in a plastic storage bin behind an abandoned house on Clark Street in New Britain, two blocks from the Garcia family’s new apartment.

During her second interview with New Britain Detective Karl Mordasiewicz, Karla Garcia said Jacqueline was in bed when she died, according to the warrant.

“She stated Nanita came downstairs one day and told her (Karla) that Jacqueline was not breathing anymore,” it said. “Garcia stated Jonatan moved Jacqueline’s body to the basement, but she never went down there to see what he did with it.”

“She stated the smell became so bad that they began to stay at hotels and with other friends,” the warrant said. Despite that, when the family moved to Tremont Street in New Britain in March, she told Mordasiewicz that Nanita took her daughter’s body with him in his car, it said.

The admissions were far from the story Karla Garcia originally told Mordasiewicz in the first interview Oct. 8. She initially refused to acknowledge that Jacqueline had died, the warrant said: When he told her police found all of her children, except Jacqueline, at a relative’s house in New Britain, she “acted surprised, repeatedly asking, ‘What do you mean?’ “

While she continued to deny knowing what happened to her daughter, Garcia said Nanita would know, the warrant said. She told a story about Jacqueline throwing her down the stairs in Farmington when she was six months pregnant, causing permanent damage to her left leg and forcing her to be confined to a bed for two weeks, it said.

Garcia told police she never saw Jacqueline after that, and when she asked Nanita about her, he told her not to ask; the girl had been angry her mother was pregnant with another baby, she said, according to the warrant.

This is the Farmington condominium complex where police believe Jacqueline “Mimi” Torres-Garcia died and was kept in the basement until her family moved to New Britain. They took the remains with them, police say, where they were eventually dumped. (Christine Dempsey/Hearst Connecticut Media)
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When Mordasiewicz told Garcia that Nanita blamed her for her child’s death, she gave more details, saying Nanita “stomped” on the girl’s head after the incident on the stairs, the warrant said. The autopsy revealed no evidence of deadly trauma, however, and the medical examiner concluded Jacqueline appeared to die from malnourishment, it said.

“Garcia said Nanita proceeded to pick up Jacqueline and throw her down the second set of stairs leading to the basement,” Garcia told the detective, the warrant said. She said she didn’t tell anyone because she was afraid of Nanita, it said, who she claimed had threatened to kill her in text messages – which she never produced for police.

Garcia also said she had broken up with Nanita nine months ago, but she admitted some of his personal belongings were still at her New Britain home, the warrant said.

Garcia eventually confessed to playing more of a role in her daughter’s death when Mordasiewicz questioned her about a picture Jackelyn Garcia took of the emaciated girl in zip ties, lying on a pee pad, it said; the mother then started pointing the finger at Jacqueline, saying she was “bad, she didn’t listen, she didn’t respect them.”

“Garcia went on to say that Jacqueline was doing things she wasn’t supposed to do, including striking other kids, going into people’s cars and having five boyfriends,” Garcia said, according to the warrant.

She also said Jacqueline “did not like her because her father’s family put Jacqueline against her, made Jacqueline mad at her and tried to keep Jacqueline away from her,” although the girl’s father said the same about Garcia, telling detectives she always had an excuse for the girl’s absence when he tried to visit, the warrant said.

Karla Garcia is accused of deceiving more than Jacqueline’s father. When the state Department of Children of Families tried to do a check-in with the girl in January – after police believe she had died – she told the DCF worker the girl was temporarily out of state with a relative and found a girl to pose as her daughter for the video call, the agency said.

And earlier, on Dec. 29, two officers responded to a noise complaint in the family’s Farmington condominium complex, stepping into the condo and chatting with Karla Garcia and Nanita while Nanita held one of their small children, the police body-camera video showed.  Although investigators believe Jacqueline’s decomposing body was in the family’s private basement at the time, Police Chief Paul Melanson told CT Insider that the officers did not smell a foul odor.

This is how a growing memorial on Clark Street in New Britain for Jacqueline “Mimi” Torres-Garcia, 11, looked on Oct. 16, 2025, eight days after her remains were found behind the boarded-up house. Police say her mother, Karla Garcia, and her mother’s boyfriend, Jonatan Nanita, are responsible for the girl’s death. Arrested warrants shedding more light on the events leading up to her death were unsealed this week. (Christine Dempsey/Hearst Connecticut Media)
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Garcia, who was in her last trimester of pregnancy, explained the noise by telling the officers she was moody, the video showed.

“Yeah, I’m just pregnant. Moods, you know?” she said with a chuckle. “I’m at the end, so … It’s difficult.”

The officers left without giving out any citations, and when they were leaving, Garcia said, “Thank you so much. Sorry.”

Nanita joined in, saying, “Yeah, I’m sorry.”