How Could You? Hall of Shame-Arabella McCormack case-Child Death and 2 adoptive sisters’ cases UPDATED and Lawsuit
This will be an archive of heinous actions by those involved in child welfare, foster care and adoption. We forewarn you that these are deeply disturbing stories that may involve sex abuse, murder, kidnapping and other horrendous actions.
From Spring Valley, California, adoptive mother and leader at Rock Church in San Diego,Leticia McCormack, 49, “was booked in jail Monday on a charge of murder, three counts of torture, and three counts of willful cruelty to a child in the death of [11 year old adoptee] Arabella McCormack [on August 30, 2022], the San Diego County Sheriff’s Office reported.
On Thursday, McCormack’s leadership profile had been removed from the megachurch’s website.
Arabella was initially fostered before being adopted by Brian and Leticia McCormack, officials said.
The 49-year-old church elder’s father, Stanley Tom, 75, was also charged with murder, three counts of torture, and three counts of willful cruelty to a child, according to a news release from the department. Arabella’s grandmother Adella Tom, 70, was booked on three counts of torture and three counts of willful cruelty to a child.”
“The 11-year-old was rushed to a hospital, where her health declined and she died, officials reported, according to the release. Detectives said they suspected child abuse.
The girl was covered in bruises and had suffered “severe levels of malnourishment,” a police spokesperson told The San Diego Union-Tribune.
During the investigation, deputies contacted the girl’s father, Brian McCormack, near the family’s home. According to the release, he died by suicide in their presence..”
“Arabella had two sisters, ages 6 and 7, the release says, who are now living with a foster family.
On Thursday afternoon, a Rock Church spokesperson told USA TODAY that Leticia McCormack began volunteering with the Rock Church in 2013 and has helped in various capacities, including administrative tasks and helping coordinate events and other ministry activities.
The spokesperson also said that her ordination at Rock Church was previously suspended and as of Thursday was in the process of being revoked.
The church also released the following statement to USA TODAY:
“We continue to grieve for Arabella and her sisters. We are so sorry that their family and friends are experiencing this unimaginable loss and pain. We send our deepest condolences to all that are grieving at this time. Our hearts go out to each of them.
The legal process will run its course and we hope justice for Arabella and her sisters will be served. We are praying that God’s love and grace will bring comfort and healing.
The Rock no longer has any official relationship with Leticia.”
The sheriff’s department could not immediately be reached by USA TODAY Thursday.”
California megachurch leader, grandparents charged with murder, torture in death of 11-year-old daughter
[USA Today 11/10/22 by Natalie Neysa Alund]
Brian “McCormack was a U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent. Family members and neighbors told us that Aarabella [sic] and her two younger sisters moved in with the McCormacks around 2017, and their adoptions were finalized a couple of years later.”
[NBC San Diego 11/14/22 by Alexis Rivas, Mike Dorfman, Meredith Royster and Jay Yoo]
“All three plead not guilty at their first court hearing Wednesday, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune.”
“In a criminal complaint, prosecutors alleged McCormack and her parents had abused and tortured Arabella and her two sisters for five-and-a-half years, the U-T reports.”
CALIFORNIA MEGACHURCH LEADER CHARGED WITH MURDER IN DEATH OF 11-YEAR-OLD GIRL
[NEWS 9 11/11/22]
REFORM Puzzle Piece
Update: “The woman charged with murder and torture in the death of her adopted daughter appeared in juvenile court Monday for a dependency hearing.
The confidential hearing was meant to determine the custody of the two surviving, younger sisters.
CBS 8 has learned the girls will remain in the custody of a new foster family as the criminal case progresses against the adoptive family members.
The biological mother, Torianna Florey, walked into juvenile court Monday expecting to come face-to-face with the woman accused of murdering her oldest daughter, Aarabella McCormack, 11.
Florey lost custody of her three biological daughters in 2017 following several complaints to Child Welfare Services. The girls were placed into foster care with the McCormack family, who later adopted them.
The adoptive mother, Leticia McCormack, and her parents, Stanley and Adella Tom, are now charged with torture in the death of Aarabella and the abuse of the two younger sisters.
Monday’s hearing was closed to the public. It was set to formally transfer custody of the surviving siblings, ages 6 and 8, to a new foster family. It will be a difficult transition, according family law attorney Anton Georghiou, who is not involved in the case.
“They’ll be placed with new foster parents, but how can you possibly move past this having lost your biological parents, then having been adopted by foster parents only to be abused by them, and now being placed with a second set of foster parents? They’re never going to trust adults,” said Georghiou.
Florey, the biological mother, said she is fighting to regain custody of her two daughters. But that’s a legal long shot, according to Georghiou.
“I don’t see the authorities taking that risk. I think that they’re going to place these children with another set of able adults that can take care of them,” said Georghiou.
Eventually, the case may end up in a lawsuit, which could provide some answers about how and why the adoption of the three girls took such a tragic turn.
“Somebody should be held accountable, and the county realistically should be, because they were the ones that placed these children with this family. It’s pretty terrible,” said Georghiou.”
Hearing held on custody of siblings allegedly tortured by adoptive mother
[CBS 8 11/28/22 by David Gotfredson]
Update 2: “Leticia McCormack and her mother Adella Tom physically abused McCormack’s three adopted girls with paddles and sticks, deprived them of food and water, isolated them in their rooms, denied them access to bathrooms and forced them to participate in rigorous exercises, according to Pro. The actions of the defendants led to the death of 11-year-old Aarabella, who weighed just 48 pounds at the time of her death, less than her weight at age 5, Pro said. Aarabella was covered in bruises and had at least 15 separate bone fractures, according to Pro. Her two younger sisters survived but were hospitalized for three weeks.”
“All three suspects will be back in court in January for a preliminary readiness hearing. That will determine when a trial date will be set. ”
Shocking Details Emerge in Adopted Girls Child Abuse death investigation
[NBC San Diego 11/29/22 by Alexis Rivas, Mike Dorfman and Meredith Royster]
Update 3: “A lawsuit accuses several agencies, organizations and workers of failing to report possible abuse of an 11-year-old East County girl who later died in a state of malnutrition, and her body had cuts, bruises and 13 bone fractures.
The suit, filed last week in San Diego Superior Court, alleges several instances where protections failed Arabella McCormack — including social workers alleged to have closed complaints as unfounded and teachers who allegedly did not report the emaciated child to police.
It also alleges a San Diego police officer who knew members of the family gave them a wooden paddle they could use to strike the child and supplied two more when the first one broke.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Arabella’s two younger sisters, who were 6 and 7 years old when their sister died. The complaint offers a peek into what the attorney says were missed opportunities and systemic failures.
The family is suing San Diego County, San Diego Police Department, Pacific Coast Academy (the school where Arabella was enrolled for her homeschooling program) and Rock Church, where Arabella’s adoptive mother was an ordained elder and ministry leadership coordinator. They are also suing two teachers, two social workers, a church member and the police officer accused of supplying paddles.
They are also suing Leticia McCormack, the woman who adopted the girls, and McCormack’s parents, all of whom are jailed and charged with felony child abuse. McCormack and her father, Stanley Tom, are also accused of murder in Arabella’s death.
They have all pleaded not guilty. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for the end of August.
Each defendant named in the civil suit is accused of negligence. The public agencies are also accused of failing to report concerns.
Attorney Craig McCllellan, who filed the suit on behalf of the girls, said their court-appointed legal representative contacted him after reading through reports in the case. The attorney said reading the material left him “incredulous.”
“It was absolutely mind-blowing,” McClellan said. “I still have trouble believing it.”
San Diego Police Department, San Diego County and Rock Church declined to comment, citing the pending litigation. Krystin Demofont, executive director of Pacific Coast Academy, also declined to comment on the civil suit.
But Demofonte said, in part, “The death of our former student Arabella McCormack and the injuries to her sisters which are alleged to have been caused by the abuse and neglect of her parents is horrific.” She said the school “has and will continue to cooperate” with law enforcement and the criminal prosecution.
The individual people named as defendants in the suit either could not be reached or did not respond to requests for comment.
According to the lawsuit, sheriff’s deputies responded to a call of a child in distress at McCormack’s home in Spring Valley about 2 a.m. on Aug. 30. Paramedics found Arabella on the living room floor. She was pale, unresponsive and without a pulse, the suit alleges.
She died at Rady Children’s Hospital later that day.
A prosecutor said last year that Arabella weighed 48 pounds at 11 years old— less than she weighed when she was 5 years old.
She died from COVID-19 in a “setting of severe malnutrition/neglect,” according to a copy of her death certificate contained in the court file. Last year, the girl’s biological mother said her first name is spelled “Aarabella.” The child’s name appears as “Arabella” in county records and in the lawsuit, and her death certificate notes both spellings.
Arabella and her sisters were in foster care when they were taken in by Leticia and Brian McCormack. The couple later legally adopted the girls. Brian McCormack, a 19-year Border Patrol veteran, shot and killed himself near his home when deputies approached to talk to him the day Arabella died.
The suit states the two younger girls were “severely malnourished, neglected and abused. Doctors described them as ‘near death.’” It says the girls suffered from “refeeding syndrome”— which presents after prolonged starvation — and had to be gradually renourished.
The three sisters are of Native American heritage, and were removed from their parents, who are members of a local tribe. When the girls were placed into foster care, the county’s Child Welfare Services was legally required to report claims of neglect or abuse to the tribe.
The suit alleges that Child Welfare Services investigated complaints of child abuse about Arabella from her unidentified elementary school in September 2018, the county agency failed to notify the tribe. At the time, Arabella was 7 years old and in the process of being adopted by the McCormacks — and the suit claims the tribe already had concerns about the couple.
The suit said one tribal representative believed “something was wrong,” that the McCormacks exhibited strange behaviors, and the girls’ bedrooms “looked like dungeons.” They had considered asking the court to remove the children before the adoption was final, and would have done so if they’d known of the child abuse complaints.
According to the suit, the McCormacks told the elementary school not to give her more than a Dixie cup full of water a day. The school reported that the foster parents “controlled what and when Arabella could eat, punished her by making her sleep on the floor without a pillow, and called her a liar.” They reported the girl was under stress and her stomach hurt.
When the social worker investigated, she met with Arabella and her foster parents at the McCormack home. The girl denied abuse, and the complaint was closed as “unfounded.”
Two months later, Child Welfare Services got more complaints about matters at the school, including allegations that when Brian McCormack suspected Arabella had candy, he pinned her on the ground and searched her pockets as she screamed and cried.
The child later told a teacher that at home that night, her father made her stand in the shower with her pants off while he dumped cold water over her. She was not allowed to eat dinner with the family, and was instead given beans.
In complaints following that incident, the suit alleges, “CWS was told that the McCormacks were ‘mentally abusive,’ that Arabella was ‘always hungry,’ and that she was ‘afraid of her parents.’” One person “reiterated that the parents did not allow Arabella to eat during after school care.”
The social worker again interviewed Arabella in front of her parents. The girl denied abuse. In the report, the worker found “nothing to be worried about” and closed the case, the suit alleges.
The McCormacks pulled the girl from the school and began homeschooling her.
The tribe was not notified of the complaints, the suit alleges. In July 2019, the McCormack’s adoption of the three sisters was finalized.
“Over the next three years, all three girls were abused, neglected, starved, and tortured,” the suit alleges.
Leticia McCormack volunteered with the San Diego Police Department as a crisis interventionist. Her parents also did volunteer work.
McCormack worked alongside Officer Lawanda Fisher, who the suit said visited the McCormack home and interacted with the girls when they came into the office. The suit does not allege a time frame, but indicates the girls had already been adopted.
The suit alleges that Fisher knew the McCormacks controlled the girls’ eating and saw them when they were severely emaciated. It alleges alleges the officer “provided Ms. McCormack with a wood paddle to strike and inflict pain on the girls.” When it broke, she provided two more, according to the lawsuit.
Fisher did not respond to a request for comment.
The suit also alleges that Leticia McCormack told a Rock Church prayer group that Arabella had “bad behaviors, and that that there was “spiritual warfare” and “demonic activity” with the child. The prayer group “kept it within the church.”
At some point, the suit says, Rock Church member Kevin Johnstone, who served as the church’s child abuse investigator, became involved, and went to the McCormack home on multiple occasions, including a week before Arabella died. By that point, all three sisters “were severely emaciated, underdeveloped, and the victims of prolonged starvation, isolation, lack of medical care, torture, and abuse.”
Johnstone did not report the abuse, the suit alleges. Johnstone also worked as a chaplain with San Diego Fire-Rescue Department, which is also named in the suit. The San Diego City Attorney’s Office declined comment on behalf of the fire department. On Wednesday, a fire department spokesperson said Johnstone is a chaplain volunteer, not a full-time city employee.
Two of the teachers who worked with Arabella through Pacific Coast Academy while she was homeschooled are named defendants, accused of failing to report alleged neglect and abuse. Neither could be reached for comment.
Neither the social worker nor her supervisor — both named in the suit — work for the county. They left two years apart, in 2019 and 2021, before the girl died.”
Lawsuit: County, school, church, police missed signs of abuse, malnutrition in 11-year-old girl’s death
[The San Diego Tribune 7/18/23 by Teri Figueroa]
Update 4: “Until Tuesday, however, only Leticia McCormack and her father faced a charge of murder. Now, 71-year-old Adella also faces a murder charge.
Deputy District Attorney Meredith Pro also announced Tuesday that all three will face a new charge of conspiracy to commit child torture. The trio were arraigned on the new charges Tuesday, and all pleaded not guilty.
In a previous hearing, prosecutors explained that Adella Tom didn’t face a murder charge because she wasn’t present during the child abuse and torture in the two weeks leading up to Arabella’s death. On Tuesday, however, Pro revealed that Adella Tom stayed in contact with Stanley Tom and Leticia McCormack over text message, helping to coordinate child abuse while she was away.”
Grandmother now also charged with murder in San Diego child-abuse death case/
[NBC San Diego 1/16/24 by Alexis Rivas, Mike Dorfman and Jay Yoo]
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