The adoptive parents and grandparents of an 11-year-old from California worked together to torture and torment her until her death, prosecutors allege.
Arabella McCormack was found by paramedics at the San Diego County Home in such a emaciated state that she weighed less than she did when she was five years old.
Her girl was covered in cuts, bruises, and fractures that were still healing. Her adoptive parents Leticia and Brian McCormack called 911 and said Arabella had choked on chicken broth.
Paramedics said they found Arabella on the ground without a pulse, and an officer at the scene reported the girl looked like “a corpse with skin stretched over it.”
She died less than 10 hours later in the hospital in August 2022. When sheriffs arrived at the home, Border Patrol Agent Brian McCormack shot himself.
Leticia and Brian McCormack are pictured with the three girls they adopted in 2019. Arabella is on the far left
Leticia McCormack is pictured in a San Diego County court facing murder charges
Adella Tom, the mother of Leticia McCormack (left) and her husband Stanley Tom. The couple is accused of being involved in the abuse
His wife and her parents, Stanley and Adella Tom, were arrested in October 2022, and all three have now been charged with murder. Brian McCormack was considered by prosecutors to have been involved in the abuse and would have been charged if he had not killed himself.
Prosecutors filed an amended complaint against the trio this week, alleging they worked as a team to abuse Arabella.
They claim that the three “worked as a team to create an environment of torment, pain, suffering, violence and fear for Arabella and her two younger sisters, who were six and seven years old when Arabella died.”
The three girls were placed in foster care when their mother, Torriana Florey, who suffered from bipolar episodes, was no longer able to care for them.
According to her birth mother, the girl's first name is “Aarabella”. The child's name appears in county records as “Arabella.”
Arabella McCormack was withdrawn from school, homeschooled and abused from the time she was adopted until her death in August 2022
Arabella McCormack's adoptive family abused her and her sisters for years
Leticia and Brian McCormack's adoption was formalized in 2019 and the abuse began immediately, prosecutors say.
Brian McCormack once dragged Arabella to the ground during an after-school program – in front of school staff – to find out if she had candy in her bags.
Arabella was taken out of school and all three girls were homeschooled.
The McCormacks were obsessed with their food, their weight and their behavior.
Leticia McCormack, an elder at a California megachurch, allegedly told her father not to give Arabella “a chance” when she ate her cereal and that “her spoon shouldn't overflow” and “should be almost level,” according to of the complaint filed by prosecutors, obtained by the San Diego Union Tribune.
Two days later, the girl was forced to exercise while wearing plastic bags and wet clothing, the complaint says.
Days later, Brian McCormack beat her for “overloading” her spoon and “looking around” while she ate, the complaint says.
In her last photo, Torriana Florey, Arabella's mother, can be seen with her daughter. The little girl and her two sisters were placed in foster care when their bipolar mother was no longer able to care for them
Brian McCormack, a Border Patrol agent, at left, receives an award for his service. He shot himself when the sheriffs arrived
The girls were forced to exercise excessively, sometimes by running up and down stairs.
They were denied use of the toilet and forced to urinate and defecate on themselves.
Brian McCormack encouraged his wife to let one of the girls sit in her own feces, saying: “She can soak up the (expletive) and get sick. 'Bella will be ready soon and we only have two things to worry about.'
The three girls were beaten with paddles and sticks and suffered broken bones.
The two surviving girls suffered from ongoing health problems as a result of starvation and abuse.
A civil lawsuit has been filed on behalf of Arabella's sisters, alleging that multiple agencies, organizations and workers failed to report possible abuse.
The lawsuit says the surviving sisters suffered from a syndrome that occurs after prolonged starvation.
The three adults will appear in court on January 30 for a status hearing: All three face 46 years to life in prison if convicted on all charges.