Arrest warrants for the mother and her then-boyfriend detail their conflicting stories about the homeschooled girl’s final weeks of life, circumstances surrounding her death, and their attempted disposal of her body.

Warning: This story contains graphic details of child abuse and its aftermath.

More information about the shocking story behind the body of a 11-year-old girl found after it had been dumped behind an abandoned house in Connecticut were revealed along with the arrest warrants for the two defendants in the case.

Much of the information, though, cannot be taken strictly as fact as both parties have been pointing the finger at the other and have shared vastly different stories with authorities about just what happened up to and beyond the death of Jacqueline “Mimi” Torres-Garcia.

Both the girl’s mother, Karla Garcia, 29, and her then-boyfriend — Jonatan Nanita, 30, who is not the child’s father — have been charged with murder for the death of Torres-Garcia, which investigators have determined occurred at some point in the fall of 2024.

Garcia and Nanita share three other children, per NBC Connecticut. Garcia also had another child with the victim’s father.

The father spoke with police on October 11, 2025, where he told them that his mother had had primary custody of Jacqueline until she was eight or nine years old, due to both parents being incarcerated immediately after her birth, and that by 2017, she had custody of both of their daughters together.

After his 2020 release, he shared joint custody until 2023, when Garcia got full custody and, he said, “made it very difficult to see his children.” He said the last time that he saw his eldest daughter, Jacqueline, was her fifth-grade graduation on June 10, 2024.

When he attended his younger daughter’s fifth-grade graduation on June 9, 2025, he was told Jacqueline was at school, per the affidavits, but she was already deceased. He also said there were always excuses when he would ask to speak with her or show up to see her, with Garcia telling him she was at school, with friends, or visiting relatives.

Police didn’t become aware of the case until the girl’s body was found in a storage “tote” behind the abandoned house in New Britain on October 8 of this year.

The arrest warrants, as detailed by Law&Crime and viewable via WFSB here, reveal how the girl’s body was found inside the tote, describing that she “was folded at the waist with the legs curled up against the torso and knees facing the skull.” Additionally, “the skin appeared to be glued to the bones,” the report states, with the note that this detail is significant because it was another indication of her suffering before death.

“The condition of the corpse was due to severe malnourishment, not decomposition,” the affidavit states, with police asserting that Torres-Garcia suffered “prolonged physical abuse and malnourishment prior to her death.” Her body reportedly weighed 26 to 27 pounds when found.

Additionally, police believe the pre-teen was murdered in the town of Farmington and then her body was transported with the family when they moved to New Berlin in March. Prior to that, police believe the body was kept “in the family’s basement.” Her death went unnoticed for so long, officials believe, because she was being homeschooled.

Karla Garcia’s Story

When speaking with police, Garcia told them that her daughter died “sometime in her bed, but she wasn’t sure exactly when,” according to the affidavit. She said that she just remembers Nanita “came downstairs one day and told her that Jacqueline Torres-Garcia ‘was not breathing anymore.”

Garcia said that after telling her, Nanita moved Torres-Garcia’s body to the basement, but she never went down there to see what he’d done with her. She knew the body was down there, though, because she admitted that eventually the smell got so bad in the house that they “began to stay at hotels and with other friends.”

When originally questioned by police, per the warrant, Garcia said that her daughter “was fine, and visiting a friend.” But that story didn’t hold up very long. She later admitted that she and the 11-year-old had been arguing over Garcia being pregnant a third time with Nanita. She told investigators that her daughter “was upset that she was pregnant again.”

“She stated that during the argument Jacqueline pushed her down the stairs inside her house causing both of them to fall down the stairs,” the affidavit states, with Garcia claiming that Nanita “became upset” with the 11-year-old and allegedly “kicked her in the head, and dragged her off.”

According to the girls’ mother, she “never saw her daughter again after that.” Additionally, she “denied any knowledge of the tote containing her daughter.”

Jonatan Nanita’s Story

When police spoke with Nanita, they got a very different story, though, with the boyfriend claiming he’d been kicked out of Garcia’s house at the apparent time of the pre-teen’s death, according to his arrest warrant.

He said he was “homeless after Garcia kicked him out” in August and was shocked when he walked into her house after she contacted him to “dispose” of a tote at her apartment building. He told police that he “walked into the home and saw blood all over the walls, along the staircase,” per the report.

When he asked what happened, he said he was told “they didn’t know … and Torres-Garcia was missing,” per the affidavit. Nanita said he “panicked and left the apartment without knowing what happened.”

The next day, Nanita said he returned to the apartment “and the blood was cleaned up.” According to his version of events, “he never saw Jacqueline Torres-Garcia again and they never talked about what happened.”

Admissions of Abuse

Investigators revealed that there were no signs of trauma or injury on Torres-Garcia’s body that would have contributed to her death, nor were there signs that there had been any internal bleeding.

Nevertheless, Garcia and Nanita, as well as Garcia’s sister, Jackelyn Garcia, all admitted to taking part in the abuse of Torres-Garcia in the house. According to the girl’s mother, she and Nanita would “mistreat” the girl because she was “bad, she didn’t listen, she didn’t respect them,” per the warrant.

Garcia told police that the 11-year-old was “doing things she wasn’t supposed to do, including striking other kids, going into people’s cars, and having five boyfriends.” Ultimately she admitted that “they stopped giving Jacqueline food for about two weeks prior to her death.”

Jackelyn told police what she allegedly witnessed while living with the couple temporarily before Torres-Garcia’s death. She detailed “seeing her niece zip tied on a couple of occasions,” according to her own warrant. When asked how long the girl had been deprived of food, Jackelyn said “she did not know but that when she last saw her, she was already skinny.”

Additionally, she told police that the girl “was always in the corner of the house and that the zip ties started at the ‘end.'” According to the arrest warrant, Jackelyn took pictures of Torres-Garcia while she was “zip-tied, severely malnourished, and laying on dog pee pads to use as a bathroom.”

Jackelyn detailed one alleged incident where the girl “peed or defecated herself” while in this position, per the report, and Jackelyn “watched Jonatan pick her up by her shoulders and bring her downstairs.” She said Nanita hit the girl and she could hear her crying, according to the affidavit.

Body Disposal

Jackelyn told police that while she had nothing to do with the girl’s death, she said she was aware of the “tote” containing her body in the basement. She said that her sister told her that Nanita “moved the bin with his Acura,” and later said he “had to get rid of the bin because it was beginning to smell in the car,” according to her warrant.

She also told police that Garcia had told her when her daughter died, saying it happened on September 19, 2024, per search warrants for their phones previously released and reported on by WFSB.

As detailed in Nanita’s arrest warrant, he told police that he was acting under Garcia’s instructions when he loaded the bin into his truck and “drove to a nearby cemetery to hide the tote.” Jackelyn told police that she and Garcia’s “mother is buried in this cemetery” and was “dug up,” per the affidavit.

Nanita, however, said that he couldn’t find a good location to dispose of the “tote” at the cemetery, so he instead drove to the abandoned building where it would ultimately be found, dumping Torres-Garcia’s body, still in the container, into the backyard.

Initially, when asked by police who was in the bin, Nanita said he did not know, per the affidavit. When asked again, “he shrugged and said, ‘I haven’t seen Jacqueline.'” After this, he was asked if he knew it was Torres-Garcia in the bin and he said yes.

Nanita’s new girlfriend also spoke with police, saying she remembered him “driving to a cemetery, picking up a tote, putting the tote in the trunk of the Acura, then driving to 80 Clark St. where he removed the tote from the trunk and placed it at that location.”

She did not, however, know what was in it at the time, she said, though she noted that it “smelled bad.” She told investigators that “after thinking about it, [she] believed that the tote may have contained a body and told her friends.”

Murder Investigation

According to police, Nanita was spotted dumping the container, which ultimately would lead to their investigation, the arrests of Nanita and the Garcia sisters, and the charges brought against them.

Authorities received an anonymous tip about the body, with the tipster reportedly telling them that “Nanita had picked up a tote in the woods of a cemetery and put it in the back of his car,” per WFSB, before driving to the abandoned property and leaving the tote there, per the warrant. The tipster told police they believed the tote contained a body.

The body was found by police on October 8, 2025 and later that same day, they interviewed Jackelyn. She said that she lived with her sister and her sister’s boyfriend in Farmington from June 2024 to August 2024, per the warrants, sharing a room with Torres-Garcia and another child.

She shared that in addition to witnessing the girl abused and zip-tied in the corner, Torres-Garcia had attempted to escape and run away on two separate occasions that she was aware of, only to be brought home by a family member each time. The girl was subsequently restrained with zip ties in punishment, Jackelyn told investigators.

Jackelyn moved out in August 2024, she said, telling police that she knew that Torres-Garcia was going to die under her sister’s care.

WFSB notes that Jackelyn subsequently spent eight months in prison, from December 2024 to August 2025, after she was convicted and charged with abusing her then-11-month-old child. She told police that after her release from prison, she moved back in with Garcia and Nanita, with Garcia acting as her sponsor.

It was after she moved back in, according to the outlet, that Jackelyn discovered her niece’s body. This was when Karla told her when Torres-Garcia had died, according to Jackelyn’s statement to police.

The following day, police spoke with Garcia, who told them her version of the events surrounding her daughter’s death, while also saying that she had been about to go on a podcast to talk about what had happened to her daughter when she was arrested. She said that she had written notes on her phone about what she had been planning to say, according to the warrant.

On October 9, investigators spoke with Garcia-Torres’ younger sister, with whom she shared a father, per the arrest warrant for Garcia. The 11-year-old is reportedly now in the custody of the Department of Children and Families (DCF). According to the affidavit, during their interview, the girl “made no disclosures regarding any incidents of abuse in the house and she did not acknowledge the existence of her older sister Jacqueline Torres-Garcia, only her younger half siblings.”

— In the hush between candlelight vigils and courtroom filings, a single page torn from a spiral notebook has become the newest relic in the Jacqueline “Mimi” Torres-García tragedy. The page, dated August 12, 2024, contains only two words in purple gel pen, underlined three times: “Almost done.” Beneath them, a doodle of a unicorn wearing a construction helmet, its horn wrapped in caution tape.

The journal belonged to Isabella “Izzy” Morales, age 11, Mimi’s self-declared “best friend forever” from their shared third-grade class at Chamberlain Elementary. Izzy’s mother, Marisol, discovered the page while helping her daughter pack for a weekend away from the media storm. Tucked between stickers and homework, it was a loaner—Mimi had traded notebooks for the summer, promising Izzy could “borrow my dreams” while she worked on something “top secret.”

Izzy broke her silence yesterday in a recorded statement to Farmington detectives, delivered through tears and a stuffed narwhal clutched to her chest.

“She said it was a summer project only for grown-ups to see. Every Friday she’d run to Bean Haven and add one more thing. She told me, ‘When it’s done, the world will know I was here.’ I thought it was a comic book. She loved comics.”

The Timeline of a Secret

June 21, 2024 – Last day of public school. Mimi withdraws officially for “homeschooling.” June 28 – Izzy receives the journal in a plastic bag decorated with star stickers. Inside: a note in Mimi’s handwriting:

“Guard this with your life. I’ll trade back when the surprise is ready. –M”

July–August – Weekly sightings at Bean Haven café. Owner Sofia Ramirez remembers Mimi arriving with a larger sketchpad under her arm, always requesting the same window seat.

“She’d spread out colored pencils like a rainbow explosion. Once I asked what it was. She zipped her lips and said, ‘Patent pending.’”

August 12 – The “Almost done” page. August 16 – Mimi stops coming to the café. Ramirez assumes summer camp or family trips. September 19 – Alleged date of death. The larger sketchpad is never seen again.

The Journal Forensics

Detectives seized Izzy’s notebook on November 3 under a child-welfare search warrant. The single page was photographed in situ, then carefully removed with tweezers. Forensic handwriting analysis confirms Mimi’s authorship—matching samples from her 2023 school records.

Under UV light, faint indentations appear on the reverse side:

“Treehouse rules: 1. No grown-ups who yell. 2. Dogs get votes. 3. Sparkle stays.”

No blood, no fibers, no DNA—only graphite ghosts of a plan.

The larger sketchpad remains missing. Warrants describe a “black hardcover book, 11×14 inches, unicorn sticker on cover” last seen in the Farmington condo basement on September 18, 2024, according to Jackelyn García’s October 9 interview. She claims Karla tossed it into the tote with Mimi’s body “to keep her company.” Prosecutors allege it was removed during the 2-hour-41-minute security blackout and disposed of separately. A landfill search is underway.

Izzy’s Memory, Word for Word

“She said the project had three parts:

Something to build – “bigger than both of us.”
Something to hide – “so no one could take it away.”
Something to mail – “to Future Mimi, but also to every kid who feels small.”

She made me pinky-swear not to peek. I kept it. I still am.”

The Three-Part Theory

Internet sleuths and child advocates have triangulated Izzy’s clues with known evidence:

Part
Possible Artifact
Current Status

1. Build
Treehouse blueprints in Mimi’s doodles
Missing sketchpad

2. Hide
Sealed lavender letter to “Future Self”
With Lourdes Morales, unopened

3. Mail
Envelope addressed to “Every Kid Who Feels Small”
Never found

A fourth envelope—plain white, no address—was recovered from the condo trash on October 10, 2025. Inside: a single crayon drawing of a mailbox overflowing with stars. Postmark: none. Contents: empty.

The Emotional Aftershock

At a closed support circle last night, Izzy placed the journal page inside the glass box at Bean Haven beside Mimi’s unopened letter. She added a sticky note:

“Your turn to finish, Mimi. I’ll hold the hammer.”

Sofia Ramirez has installed a locked suggestion box labeled “Add to Mimi’s Project.” Children drop in origami cranes, Lego bricks, voice memos on flash drives. The café plans a January 15, 2026, unveiling—whatever survives of the secret.

The Prosecution’s Quiet Move

Assistant State’s Attorney Gail Collins filed a sealed motion this morning requesting preservation of all juvenile artwork recovered from landfills. Sources say the sketchpad, if found, could contain timeline entries contradicting the defendants’ stair-fall narrative. Defense attorneys have countered that any “project” is “child fantasy, not evidence.”

The Page That Outlives Her

“Almost done.”

Two words. Eleven letters. A lifetime of almost.

They are now tattooed on the wrists of three Bean Haven baristas, stitched into quilts at New Britain vigils, and projected in purple light onto the Clark Street abandoned house every night at 8:12 p.m.—the exact minute Mimi used to arrive for hot chocolate.

Izzy sleeps with the empty journal under her pillow. She whispers to it before bed:

“You were almost done. We’ll finish for you.”

Somewhere in a landfill, a black sketchpad rots. Somewhere in a glass box, a lavender envelope waits. Somewhere in every child who ever felt small, a unicorn puts on its hard hat.

The secret summer project is no longer Mimi’s alone. It is ours to complete.