5-year-old Zara was tortured and killed after Indiana judge silenced mom's pleas for help

Indianapolis Star

23-05-2025

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The Indiana Department of Child Services cited Zara Arnold's father for abusing his infant daughter in 2020. But despite a spate of subsequent concerns about other possible abuse, a Marion County judge ordered the girl's mother to stop contacting police and DCS with concerns about her daughter's safety.
Now, the 5-year-old Indianapolis girl is dead. Police say her father, Zachary Arnold, admitted to killing the girl in a series of brutal assaults spanning nearly 11 hours while fighting with a girlfriend who'd just broken up with him.
Arnold, 41, has been charged with murder, neglect of a dependent resulting in death and invasion of privacy. His girlfriend, Andrea Lopez-Figueroa, 31, was arrested on charges of assisting a criminal and failure to report after she neglected to call 911.
Zara's mother, Tiara Finch, did not respond to a request for comment. Court records filed in a years-long custody battle for Zara paint a troubling picture of ongoing abuse and multiple missed opportunities to remove the girl from her father's care.
DCS complaints coincided with unsupervised visits
On May 13, 2020, Finch filed for protection order against Arnold. She described five separate instances of domestic violence. The first, she wrote, happened in February 2020. Arnold had threatened to shoot her and her 3-week-old daughter. The order was granted the day after Finch applied for it. Arnold refused to sign it when it was delivered, a deputy noted on the service paperwork.
Arnold filed for emergency custody of undefined. In a petition, he described Finch as 'mentally unstable' and said she was possibly living in a shelter.
A custody hearing was slated for July 17, 2020, but was rescheduled because an interpreter was unavailable for Finch and Arnold, both of whom are deaf and communicate using American Sign Language.
The already tumultuous relationship escalated around that time. A string of police reports described death threats, attempted break-ins, countless phone calls, and slashed tires. In August 2020, Finch got another protective order against Arnold.
Arnold was charged with invasion of privacy once in September and twice in October for violating the orders barring him from contact with Finch.
Finch was granted sole legal custody on Oct. 10, 2020. Arnold had visits with Zara three days per week.
About a month into the custody arrangement, on Nov. 16, 2020, Zara came back from a visit with her father with a bloody lip, bruising and hand-shaped marks. Finch took Zara to the hospital and filed reports with Indianapolis police and Indiana's Department of Child Services.
A DCS investigation found that Arnold had physically abused his daughter, according to court documents filed in his May 2025 murder arrest. The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department told IndyStar on May 23, 2025 that the case was forwarded to the Marion County Prosecutor's Office.
On Dec. 3, 2020, the court issued a protective order keeping Arnold away from Zara, finding 'that domestic or family violence has occurred sufficient to justify the issuance of this Order.'
Less than two weeks later, on Dec. 16, 2020, Arnold violated the many protective orders against him and showed up at Finch's home. Finch would later tell police she froze, afraid to call for help. In January 2021, Arnold was charged with rape, stalking and invasion of privacy for his actions on that night.
While presenting that case for prosecution, detectives included a police report of the Nov. 16, 2020 abuse allegation as supporting documentation. DCS's findings were not presented, a spokesperson for the prosecutor's office said.
Arnold remained in jail through April of that year. The case was merged with the previous invasion of privacy charges, and he later took a deal, pleading guilty to four misdemeanors. He was sentenced to time served, probation and counseling.
After his release from jail, Zara's protective order was modified to allow weekly supervised visits with her dad at a local child advocacy center. No allegations of child abuse were filed with DCS while the protective order was in place.
There is no public record indicating that the substantiated abuse finding from November 2020 was ever entered into the custody case. In March 2023, Arnold was allowed unsupervised time with his daughter.
That's when DCS started getting calls about Zara again. None of the six allegations made between 2023 and 2025 would ever be substantiated.
'I am terrified for my daughter's safety and I do not want her to get hurt'
On May 6, 2023, Finch took Zara to the emergency room after picking her up from a visit with her father. The girl had finger-shaped bruises. A doctor agreed the marks were concerning and helped Finch make a report to DCS. Finch also gave a report to police, who told her to file a new protective order as soon as possible.
'He is extremely violent and relentless. I am terrified for my daughter's safety and I do not want her to get hurt. She does not deserve this,' Finch wrote when she filed for a protective order on Zara's behalf on May 9, 2023.
Judge Amber Collins-Gebrehiwet denied the order of protection. Though Finch had brought several forms filled out at the beginning of DCS cases, she'd never requested the official case reports and therefore didn't have them available to present in court.
'The Court does not find that Mr. Arnold has physically or mentally abused or threatened Zara or Ms. Finch,' the ruling read in part.
Collins-Gebrehiwet ordered Finch to stop contacting police and DCS at that hearing, according to a later document.
While Zara was on a court-ordered overnight visit in July 2023, Finch disregarded the judge's order and called police for a welfare check on her daughter. Then she stopped taking her for visits altogether, adamant that the girl was unsafe.
On Sept. 8, 2023, Finch was found in contempt of court for her noncompliance with the court's orders, including for calling the police on Arnold. She was ordered to pay $600 in Arnold's attorney fees as a consequence.
Guardian ad litem had 'grave concerns' about Arnold receiving custody
Finch lost custody in May 2024. Collins-Gebrehiwet wrote in her order that the girl's life was more stable with her father. Arnold owned a home, while Finch was temporarily staying with a relative. Arnold worried that Zara didn't get adequate nutrition with her mom, who often fed the girl McDonald's.
The court was concerned about her mother's mental health, citing unsubstantiated abuse allegations and "paranoia."
"The Court has serious concerns Mother continually taking Zara to the hospital and telling the doctors she has been abused will have a negative (effect) on Zara the older she becomes," Collins-Gebrehiwet wrote.
Zara's legal advocate, who had joined the proceedings in October 2023, recommended joint custody. Though she was also concerned about Finch's mental health, she said she had "grave concerns" if Arnold was granted primary custody, believing that Zara and her mother would be kept apart.
The judge chose to grant Arnold primary custody.
Zara's mother was to have three weekends per month with her daughter, but by the time police interviewed her after Arnold's arrest she said she hadn't seen her in months.
In an October 2024 letter, Finch wrote that Arnold hadn't let her see her daughter. Arnold, meanwhile, told the court in December 2024 that Finch hadn't shown for visits and hadn't paid child support.
The most recent hearing in the years-long custody case was held four days before Zara's death, on May 15, 2025. The judge's ruling hadn't yet been released at the time of Zara's death.
'The death of a child in the justice system is heartbreaking for the judge, the staff, the lawyers, the court volunteers and all those who interacted with the child's case," a statement released by Collins-Gebrehiwet read. "The people involved are not just cases to the judges and staff, they are community members who are relying on the courts. The pain felt by the loss of any court-involved child is enormous.'
Indiana's judicial rules bar judges from talking about specific cases, a court representative said. A paralegal for DCS said the agency is barred from releasing any records related to Zara due to the ongoing criminal proceedings.