Deputies in Sebring, Florida, were summoned to a “horrific” crime scene on Friday that “no amount of law enforcement experience” could have prepared them for, according to police.
Diane Natasha Mack, a 34-year-old former Florida Department of Children and Families employee who worked as a guardian ad litem (GAL), called police to report her 13-year-old adopted daughter’s death after discovering her “lying unresponsive” on a floor at their home in the Sun ‘n Lake of Sebring golf and recreation community early Friday at 12:19 a.m., according to the Highland County Sheriff’s Office.
Highlands County Sheriff Paul Blackman says what authorities discovered there will be difficult to forget.
“This is one of the most disturbing crime scenes I have encountered in more than 30 years of law enforcement,” Blackman said in a sheriff’s office video announcing Mack’s arrest on murder and child abuse charges. “There are no words I can say that can truly convey the nightmare that this child’s life must have been.”
Deputies allegedly discovered Mack’s daughter dead inside her home, wearing only a diaper and showing “clear” signs of abuse and neglect, according to Blackman.
Mack initially told investigators she discovered the girl on Thursday morning, but later changed her timeline to around 3 p.m., according to the sheriff.
“She was extremely emaciated and obviously malnourished,” Blackman stated about Mack’s daughter. “Her body was covered in wounds in all stages of healing, including open lacerations that were clearly recently suffered.”
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Deputies discovered evidence that the home-schooled girl had been locked up in the garage prior to her death, according to the sheriff’s office.
“We don’t yet know how long she had been there, but it appears she was secured to the garage door and monitored from inside the home by a security camera that was mounted inside the garage,” according to Blackman.
According to Blackman, with her child “lying dead on the floor,” Mack used pool chlorine to try to destroy evidence in the garage before calling 911. She also allegedly drove at least four other children who lived with her to a Titusville residence before calling police.
Mack was arrested and charged with first-degree murder while committing aggravated child abuse, as well as kidnapping and destroying evidence.
“Parents have a duty to love our children and make sure no harm comes their way,” Mr. Blackman said. “Seeing a child treated this way is both heartbreaking and infuriating.
What’s even more shocking is that the suspect was not only a former Department of Children and Families employee, but also a guardian ad litem.
It’s beyond belief that someone whose job it was to look after children’s welfare could treat their own child like this.”
Mack is being held without bail at the Highlands County Jail.
