SAN DIEGO — A pair of sisters, aged 7 and 9 years old, want answers as to why San Diego Police and members of their church refused to prevent the death of their oldest sister, Arabella McCormack.
Arabella McCormack, just 11 years old at the time of her death on August 30 of last year, died from severe malnutrition and abuse at the hands of their adoptive parents, Brian and Leticia McCormack.
McCormack was reportedly just 40 pounds when Sheriff's deputies arrived at the family's Spring Valley home on a report of a child in distress. McCormack died shortly after from heart failure.
The girls' adopted father, Brian McCormack, a Border Patrol Agent, shot himself to death inside his truck hours after deputies were called to the home.
The girls' mother, Leticia McCormack, and her father have since been charged with murder in Arabella's death.
Arabella McCormack
The Lawsuit
According to a July 13 non-conformed lawsuit obtained by CBS 8, the young sisters describe what were horrendous conditions and abuse inside the family home as well as repeated failures from church members and a San Diego police officer to report the abuse.
The lawsuit states that when deputies arrived at the home, Arabella weighed 40 pounds, her bones protruding from her small frame, her teeth yellow and calcified, and her body blanketed with bruises, scars, and cuts and riddled with broken bones.
The two young sisters, whose identities will remain anonymous, were not in much better condition than their sister, says the lawsuit.
"[B]oth appeared younger than their ages due to underdevelopment. They suffered from re-feeding syndrome (a phenomenon identified following World War II when prisoners of war were provided with food after a prolonged period of starvation and subsequently died from cardiac failure) and had to be nourished gradually. They were hospitalized and received treatment that saved their lives," reads the complaint.
The Investigation
In their lawsuit, attorneys for the girls outline what were repeated failures on the part of numerous people who were classified as mandated reporters by the state, responsible for alerting law enforcement of abuse and mistreatment.
According to the lawsuit, two of those reporters were employed by the Rock Church.
The girl's mother, Leticia McCormack, served as an elder and ministry leadership coordinator at the Rock Church. McCormack worked alongside a church member, who, according to the lawsuit, had visited the family home and described the girls as "little ghosts."
Reads the lawsuit, "Ms. McCormack told the prayer group that Arabella had 'bad behaviors,' that they couldn't have people over, and that there was 'spiritual warfare' and 'demonic activity' with Arabella."
Yet, despite what were clear warnings, the lawsuit alleges that the church member failed to follow up or report the behavior.
But that church member was not the only one aware of the dire and dangerous situation inside the McCormack home.
The Rock Church's "Child Abuse Investigator," also a San Diego Firefighter and a minister at the Rock Church, according to the lawsuit, visited the girls on several occasions, the latest visit just one week before Arabella's death.
At the time of the visit, reads the lawsuit, "all three girls were severely emaciated, underdeveloped, and the victims of prolonged starvation, isolation, lack of medical care, torture, and abuse."
In the week following Arabella's death, the head pastor and founder of the Rock Church, also a former San Diego Charger football player, Miles McPherson, posted the following message to the church's website:
“I want to address a very sad situation that was in the news this week that one of our former volunteers was arrested for the death of her adopted daughter… She was a volunteer for law enforcement, was background checked by law enforcement, background checked by child protective services because she was a foster mother then adopted parents… And then, obviously, we did a background check after all that, and nothing revealed that anything like this could happen,” McPherson told the congregation. The Rock Church also posted a statement regarding Leticia McCormack on its website.
In addition to her role at the Rock Church, the girls' adoptive mother, Leticia McCormack also volunteered as a "Crisis Intervention Specialist" for the San Diego Police Department. McCormack's parents, the girls' adoptive grandparents, Stanley and Adella Tom also volunteered with the department.
The legal complaint alleges that McCormack worked alongside a San Diego Police Officer who visited the family's home and witnessed Brian and Leticia McCormack prohibiting the girls from eating food and when they did forced them to chew their food very slowly.
But that wasn't all, alleges the lawsuit.
The police officer also provided wooden paddles for the adoptive parents to hit the girls with.
Reads the complaint, "Rather than report the girls' neglected and abused condition to the authorities as required by law, [the officer] provided Ms. McCormack with a wood paddle to strike and inflict pain on the girls. When the first wood paddle broke, [the officer] provided Ms. McCormack with two more paddles. [The officer] did not merely fail to report the neglect and abuse, she became complicit in and aided and abetted it when [they] provided the paddles."
The complaint also states that San Diego County's Child Welfare Services was notified of potential abuse at the home as far back as August 2018. It was then that administrators at Arabella McCormack's elementary school notified the county that the adoptive parents, "withheld water from Arabella and limited her drinking to one Dixie cup per day. The school reported that the McCormacks controlled what and when Arabella could eat, punished her by making her sleep on the floor without a pillow, and called her a liar."
It was one of several complaints made to Child Welfare Services that went unanswered and further evidence of the utter failure by numerous agencies and officials whose sole task was to keep Arabella safe, says attorney Craig McClellan.
"This lawsuit hopes to accomplish two things," McClellan told CBS 8. First, it seeks to make amends for the losses that these young girls have endured, not only for the horrific torture and starvation they suffered but for the death of their big sister. Second, we hope it will serve as a warning and reminder to all mandatory reporters of their obligations to report abuse which, as here, is all too often a matter of life and death."
In a statement to CBS 8, a representative for the Rock Church wrote, "Given the pending litigation, the Rock Church cannot provide any additional comment or information at this time.."
The San Diego Police Department and the County of San Diego declined to comment for the story.