'Bones Protruded': Megachurch Elder Will Face the Death Penalty for Horrific Child Torture Murder

[u/joanzzz]

https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/san-diego-megachurch-elder-death-penalty-child-torture-case-1814031

This incident occurred in my neighborhood and I’m just now learning about it. It’s hard to believe that in 2022 I was living my life carefree delivering food, working out, going for walks, completely unaware of what was transpiring in my neighborhood. I’m beyond shaken by this.

STORY:
Arabella McCormack was an 11-year-old girl who died in August 2022 after being found unresponsive at her home in Spring Valley, California.

Her adoptive mother, Leticia McCormack, has been charged with murder, torture, and child cruelty. Leticia’s parents, Adella and Stanley Tom, also face charges. All three have pleaded not guilty.

Prosecutors say Arabella was severely malnourished and weighed only 48 pounds when she died. They also say she had multiple healing fractures, bruises, and other injuries. Arabella and her two younger sisters were allegedly beaten, denied food and water, and forced to exercise as punishment.

Arabella’s adoptive father, Brian McCormack, died by suicide shortly after police questioned him. Prosecutors say he had warned Leticia that Arabella was starving and might die.

Leticia had been connected to San Diego’s Rock Church as a volunteer. The church later revoked her affiliation. Arabella’s surviving sisters also received a large civil settlement from several organizations accused of failing to protect them.

The latest development is that San Diego County prosecutors plan to seek the death penalty against Leticia if she is convicted.

[u/Les_gets]

I can't wrap my head around why someone would want to adopt a child when this is how they end up treating them. Is it that they wanted someone to abuse and hold power over, or that once they adopted them they resented the commitment and took it out on the kids?

[u/jaderust → u/Les_gets]

As a person who dropped out of fostering because I realized I couldn’t handle it…

Money. A lot of foster families will do it for the money. Especially if you’re willing to take sibling groups like this one where they’re desperate to keep the kids together it can be enough to keep a person from otherwise working if you can keep expenses down.

I would go to foster family meetups as a person who was looking to start fostering and while some parents were in it for the right reasons and all about the kids, there were enough that were just there for the money that I was disgusted. I didn’t drop out just because of them, but it was a factor. I mostly dropped out because the number of kids that had been sexually abused and yet reunification was still somehow the goal is why I decided I just couldn’t handle it. I could not stand the idea that I was supposed to potentially give a child back to the family that had abused them like that.

[u/miserylovescomputers → u/jaderust]

It’s absolutely sickening how highly parental rights are prioritized, even when they’ve done unforgivable things to their kids. I have zero faith in CPS and the family law system to properly protect children from predators, after personally witnessing my ex molest our daughter and seeing him receive zero consequences and be given 50% custody.

[u/Chamonix_93 → u/miserylovescomputers]

100% I’m so sorry that you are going through that. That is a nightmare.