The tragic case of an 11-year-old girl who was allegedly tortured and starved to death by her adoptive parents has resulted in a significant legal settlement. The sisters of Arabella McCormack have been awarded over $30 million as a result of the lawsuit.

Arabella was discovered dead in August 2022 at her home in San Diego County. Her adoptive parents, Leticia and Brian McCormack, had called emergency services, claiming she had choked on chicken broth.

The young girl’s body bore evidence of severe abuse, including numerous cuts and bruises, 13 bone fractures, and extreme malnourishment. Shockingly, at the time of her death, Arabella weighed less than she did as a five-year-old.

Arabella’s two younger sisters, now aged nine and ten, were also reportedly mistreated by the couple and their adoptive grandparents. This information came to light through a neglect lawsuit filed in San Diego Superior Court in July 2023.

The lawsuit, representing the surviving sisters, accused authorities of multiple failures in reporting and investigating the child abuse that occurred prior to Arabella’s death.

Two teachers, county social workers, a San Diego police officer and the evangelical megachurch where Leticia was an elder allegedly directly contributed to the abuse, according to the lawsuit reviewed by the Daily Mail.

San Diego city and county on Friday agreed to pay $10 million to each surviving sister as part of settlement totaling $31.5 million, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported.

The sisters will also receive $8.5 million from Pacific Coast Academy, $3 million from Rock Church and $6,000 from San Diego police officer LaWanda Fisher.

Arabella McCormack was found dead at her adoptive family’s San Diego county home in August 2022. She was covered in cuts and bruises, had 13 bone fractures, and was so emaciated that she weighed less at her death than she when she was five years old

Arabella (left) and her two younger sisters were allegedly abused at the hands of Rock Church elder Leticia McCormack (second left) and her Border Patrol agent husband Brian (right)

Paramedics say they found Arabella on the floor without a pulse and a deputy on the scene reported the girl looked like ‘a corpse with skin stretched over it.’

She died less than 10 hours later at the hospital in August 2022. When sheriffs arrived at the house, Border Patrol agent Brian McCormack shot himself dead.

His wife Leticia and her parents, Stanley and Adella Tom, were arrested in October 2022 and charged with murder. All three have pleaded not guilty.

Brian was considered by prosecutors to be a part of the abuse and would have been charged had he not killed himself. 

The three girls were placed into foster care when their mother Torriana Florey, suffering from bipolar episodes, became unable to care for them.

The adoption by Leticia and Brian McCormack was formalized in 2019 and the abuse began straight away, prosecutors said. 

Prosecutors said the McCormacks and Toms ‘worked as a team to create an environment of torment, pain, suffering, violence, and fear’ for the sisters.

Leticia and her parents, Adella Tom (left) and Stanley Tom (right), were arrested in October 2022 and charged with murder. All three have pleaded not guilty

CBP agent Brian McCormack (pictured left receiving an award for service) was also due to be charged, but killed himself in front of police when they arrived at his home to arrest him

Arabella’s sisters, then six and seven, were found suffering from a syndrome caused by prolonged starvation, the Union-Tribune reported.

One sister told a jury last year that the trio had limited access to food and water, were forced to exercise, denied access to bathrooms and ordered to stay in their beds. 

The three girls were also beaten with paddles if they failed to obey, the lawsuit said. 

The complaint accused county social workers of not properly investigating two abuse and neglect claims that were reported two years before Arabella died.

It also alleged that social workers failed to speak to Arabella away from her parents, claiming that ‘children are unlikely to report abuse in front of their abusers’.

Fisher was accused of failing to report abuse but also for directly contributing by providing their parents with the paddles that were used to disciple the sisters. 

The suit further accused a San Diego Fire-Rescue Department chaplain who visited the family home multiple times of failing in his duty as a mandated reporter.

Arabella and her sisters were placed into foster care when their mother Torriana Florey, suffering from bipolar episodes, became unable to care for them

The abuse and neglect that the sisters were facing ‘should have been apparent to him,’ the court filing stated. 

Leticia taught courses called ‘Kingdom Life Encounter’ about how to model one’s life after Jesus at the Rock Church in San Diego and had been an active volunteer there for more than a decade.

The church, which severed ties with Leticia after her arrest, had been notified of the alleged abuse but failed to report it to police, the complaint said.

Similarly, the lawsuit accused two teachers from Pacific Coast Academy – the homeschooling program in which the girls were enrolled – of failing in their duties as mandated reporters. The teachers reportedly met with the girls roughly every 20 days.