Girl's Body Dumped at Abandoned House Had Not Eaten in 2 Weeks Before Death, Zip-Tied in Corner: Warrant

While the arrest warrants for the girl's mother, Karla Garcia, and her boyfriend, Jonatan Nanita, as well as Karla's sister, Jackelyn Garcia, remain sealed, per NBC Connecticut, search warrants for the women's phones have been released, offering more information about the shocking death of 11-year-old Jacqueline "Mimi" Torres-Garcia -- including when it happened.

The story first gained national attention after Torres-Garcia's body was found in a storage bin outside of an abandoned home on October 8 in New Britain, just outside of Hartford. But police now believe she'd already been dead for more than a year.

Authorities reported receiving 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.

While the body had allegedly just been dumped when it was recovered, police have since been told the girl died on September 19, 2024, per the warrants. That detail reportedly came from the girls' aunt, Jackelyn, who allegedly told police that was the date her sister Karla had given for her daughter's death, according to the legal documents.

It was also consistent with the medical examiner's report of Torres-Garcia's remains, which showed no signs of any recent traumas or injuries that would have contributed to her death. Officials were able to determine that her body did show signs of severe malnourishment.

Jackelyn reportedly spoke with police on October 8 and 9, 2025, almost immediately after the body had been discovered. 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.

While there, she claimed to have witnessed ongoing abuses toward her niece, including seeing the child confined to a corner of the room, zip-tied, and not being fed.

She additionally said, per the report, that 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 allegedly 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 that Torres-Garcia had died on September 19, 2024, according to Jackelyn's statement to police.

According to the search warrants, police spoke with Karla on October 9, 2025, when she allegedly admitted that she and Nanita had not fed her daughter for approximately two weeks before her eventual death more than a year ago. She also admitted using zip ties to restrain the girl as punishment when she was "acting bad," per the warrant.

Additionally, Karla said, per the reports, that her sister Jackelyn had sent her a picture of Torres-Garcia restrained in this manner and lying on "pee pads" on the floor. Jackelyn admitted to police that she had taken and sent this picture, per the legal documents.

After her daughter's death, Karla told police that it was Nanita who took the child's body downstairs. She said that he was the primary disciplinarian before Torres-Garcia's death, and he took care of things afterward, insisting that she did not know what happened to the body after it was moved downstairs.

She did say, however, that the family stopped staying at their home in Farmington because the odor from Torres-Garcia's body became too much, spending time instead with friends or in hotel room. Eventually, they decided to move, with Karla saying that Nanita transported Torres-Garcia's body with them to New Britain in March 2025.

Police determined that Karla had a lease agreement for the Farmington residence from June 21, 2024 to June 30, 2025. She was supposed to move on March 1, 2025, but had asked for additional time to clean the house, according to the property management company, not giving them the keys until March 28, per the warrant.

Karla additionally told police 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.

The Connecticut Department of Children and Families told the CT Mirror that they had been involved with the family, but they were unaware of the abuse and death of Torres-Garcia in 2024.

In a statement and timeline released on Friday, the organization said that the family deceived them by having another child impersonate Torres-Garcia in a Zoom welfare check in January of this year. The family told them that she was being homeschooled and visiting a relative out of state at the time, per the news outlet. Police now believe the girl was already deceased.

DCF said in its statement that it had been involved with Torres-Garcia from her birth, which occurred while Karla was in a detention center. The newborn stayed with a relative for the first nine years of her life, until May 2022, when her parents sought guardianship of her and her younger sibling.

Guardianship was granted by the court, and supported by DCF at the time, which has said it often advocates for keeping families together. A subsequent visit i relation to Torres-Garcia's younger siblings saw DCF interact with her in September 2022, but there was not enough evidence of abuse or neglect and that case was closed in November 2022, per the Mirror.

New Britain Public Schools also issued a statement, per Fox 61, where they said that Karla told them Torres-Garcia was going to be homeschooled and she was pulled from the school system in August 2024, just one month prior to her death.

Karla Garcia, Jonatan Nanita, and Jackelyn Garcia were all arrested on October 13. Karla and Natia were charged with murder, while Jackelyn has been charged with intentional cruelty.