12-Year-Old Farmington Girl Starved To Death By Family; Weighed Just 27 Pounds: State

By Josh Lanier From Daily Voice

The death of 12-year-old Jacqueline “Mimi” Torres-Garcia has been ruled a homicide. The Connecticut Office of the Chief Medical Examiner announced that the Farmington girl died from “fatal child abuse with starvation.”

Mimi’s mother, Karla Garcia; her former boyfriend, Jonatan Nanita; and her aunt, Jackelyn Garcia, have been arrested after Mimi's body was found Oct. 8 inside a 40-gallon storage bin outside an abandoned home in New Britain, police said.

(From left) Jonatan Nanita, Karla Garcia, and Jackelyn Garcia 

Farmington Police Department

Mimi's autopsy revealed new details about her tragic final months and the horrific abuse she suffered.

Investigators said the little girl weighed only 26 to 27 pounds and was severely malnourished when she was found. Investigators believe she died about a year before her body was discovered. They said she had been kept in a basement while the family lived in Farmington, then moved to New Britain.

Karla Garcia initially told police all three of her children were accounted for, but when investigators told her no one had seen Mimi alive in months, she changed her story, according to a prosecutor's report obtained by NBC Connecticut.

She later told police that she hadn't seen the girl in eight months after Nanita took her. She admitted that Nanita had stopped feeding her two weeks before she died in her sleep as a form of punishment, according to the report.

Karla also said she zip-tied the child at Nanita's request when the girl misbehaved, WFSB reported.

They kept Mimi’s body in the basement and later stayed with friends or in hotels when the smell became unbearable, Karla told police, per WFSB.

Police are not sure when Mimi died, but experts place her death sometime in the fall of 2024, Farmington police have said. 

Nanita was charged with murder with special circumstances, conspiracy to commit murder with special circumstances, risk of injury to a minor, and cruelty to a child. Police later added charges of tampering with physical evidence and disposal of a dead body. He is being held on a $5 million bond, Farmington police said.

Karla Garcia faces charges of murder with special circumstances, conspiracy to commit murder with special circumstances, risk of injury to a child, intentional cruelty to a child, unlawful restraint, tampering with evidence, and disposal of a dead body. She is also being held on a $5 million bond, Farmington police said.

Jackelyn Garcia was charged with intentional cruelty, unlawful restraint, and risk of injury to a child. Her bond is set at $1 million, authorities said.

The three are scheduled to appear in court on Friday.