‘Horrifying’ details prompt review of DCF contact with CT family accused in girl’s death
The state’s Office of the Child Advocate has launched what is expected to be a months-long investigation into the actions of Connecticut agencies that had contact with the family of 11-year-old Jacqueline Torres-Garcia who was found dead in a plastic storage bin in New Britain on Oct. 8, the acting Child Advocate said.
The review will include all reports, contacts and documentation on how the state Department of Children and Families and other state agencies interacted with the girl’s family including the state’s family court system which determined that Karla Garcia should have sole custody of the daughter she is now charged with killing, according to Christina Ghio, who is the interim Child Advocate.
“Our investigation is going to be broad and deep,” Ghio said. It will include cross-referencing the police timeline for the murder and the interactions of DCF and other agencies such as schools, the courts and any other local and state agencies, she said.
“The details that are coming out are horrifying,” Ghio said. “We need to understand what happened, not just the crime, but what were the opportunities to help these children.”
Court documents and DCF and school statements show that Karla Garcia, her boyfriend Jonatan Nanita and Karla’s sister Jackelyn Garcia, participated in an elaborate ruse to hide the girl’s death for a year. All three now have been charged in her murder and are being held on bond.
Arrest warrants obtained by Farmington police charging Karla Garcia and her former boyfriend Jonatan Nanita with murder with special circumstances indicate that DCF was alerted by neighbors and possibly the 11-year-old’s father that abuse was going on in the home.
But according to the agency, their case worker was deceived by Karla Garcia who had a another child pose as Jacqueline during a video visit in January. DFC officials said they didn’t realize the deception until they were told by police two weeks ago that the 11-year-old probably had been dead for months by the time the video call took place.
Karla Garcia, left, and Jonatan Nanita, her boyfriend, chat with two Farmington police officers while Nanita holds their young child. The officers were at their Farmington condo for a noise complaint. Investigators believe the body of Garcia’s oldest child, Jacqueline “Mimi” Torres-Garcia was in the basement while the cops were at the home on Dec. 29, 2024. (Courtesy of the Farmington Police Department)
DCF provided a timeline of their interactions with the family since 2013 when Jacqueline was born that indicates that there were no reports of abuse or neglect made concerning the family from November 2022 to January 2025 when the agency closed a complaint they had received after conducting the video call.
The arrest warrants unsealed this week indicate the family’s Farmington neighbors and Jacqueline’s father told investigators they had called the child protection agency about possible abuse of the 11-year-old and her siblings. One neighbor who works for New Britain schools said the school system also alerted DCF to potential abuse or neglect, the warrant said.
But the warrants don’t provide a timeframe of when the calls to DCF were made. The family lived in Farmington from the summer of 2024 to March 2025, court documents said. A spokesperson for DCF declined to comment on the warrants and referred to the statement the agency issued on Oct. 17 which lists their dealings with the family.
By law, DCF will have to provide all documentation on the family to Ghio and the Office of the Child Advocate which by statute has the power to investigate any state agency that provided support or had dealings with a child who died.
Any state agency that provided services or financial support, such as child support, or court interactions will be under scrutiny in terms of their contact with the family, Ghio said.
“We’ll be looking at all of the services provided and what happened from a factual standpoint, and what policies were in place and whether they were followed,” Ghio said. “It does take time to do that amount of analysis.”
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)
Farmington police were called at least four times to the condominium now believed to be the location where 11-year-old Jacqueline Garcia-Torres died but found nothing amiss, reports said. The state Department of Corrections visited the family’s New Britain address twice in July and September as part of her aunt’s parole supervision and also didn’t flag any unusual circumstances, that agency said.
According to DOC policy, although Jackelyn Garcia was being released from incarceration after serving time for a serious assault on her own toddler, she was allowed to live with her sister’s children, two of whom were under 4-years-old, a spokesperson for that agency said.
“Due to the nature of her charges Garcia, Jackelyn was not to have any contact with her child,” said Andrius Banevicius, the DOC spokesperson said.
She was in compliance with the terms of her transitional supervision when she was arrested in Jacqueline Torres-Garcia’s death, Banevicius said.
During the July visit to determine if Karla Garcia’s New Britain home was an appropriate setting for her sister’s transitional supervision, a parole officer verified who was living at the address and did a check to ensure that there were no “illicit” drugs or firearms, he added. Jackelyn Garcia was released from DOC custody to Karla Garcia’s home on Aug. 15, documents said.
Ghio said she will also look at whether Karla Garcia was receiving state financial aid including child support for Jacqueline Torres-Garcia during the period after the girl had died and she will examine the family’s contact with the state’s court for Juvenile Matters and the state’s Family Court.
The court for juvenile matters gave custody of Jacqueline Torres-Garcia and her younger sibling to Karla Garcia and Victor Torres with the support of DCF in 2022, according to the statement issued by DCF.
Karla Garcia then sought sole custody of the two children in the state’s Family Court which did not include any input from DCF, the child protection agency said. The judge who signed off in June 2024 on giving Karla Garcia sole custody of Jacqueline Torres-Garcia said it was “in the best interest” of the minor children, a court document said. Police estimate that the 11-year-old died within weeks, after being starved and abused by her mother and Nanita, search and arrest warrants said.
