'Destined to fail': 5-year-old's murder exposes cracks in Florida child protection system

USA Today

08-08-2025

A 5-year-old Tallahassee girl's death sparked an outpouring of grief and is raising questions about whether Florida's system to protect children from abuse failed her.
Pepper Mogle saw her granddaughter, Missy, for the last time at the Leon County Courthouse, where the 5-year-old's allegedly abusive stepfather was on trial after his arrest in an undercover child sex sting.
Mogle's daughter, Chloe Spencer, who is Missy's mom, called April 15 to say the little girl was hungry. Mogle showed up with a Happy Meal from McDonald's ‒ and a message of hope that she whispered into Missy's ear.
'I told her that I loved her,' she said. 'I kept giving her kisses and told her that I was trying everything I could to get her home.'
But Missy never made it back to her grandparents' house in Wakulla County, where she was showered with love and attention for years before Chloe Spencer, 23, and her husband, 35-year-old Daniel Spencer, got custody of her.
Just weeks later, on May 19, after police said she suffered severe abuse at Daniel and Chloe Spencer's home in an affluent Tallahassee neighborhood, Missy lost consciousness, was rushed to the hospital and died. Her mother and stepfather were arrested the same day and indicted on July 21 on first-degree murder charges. The pair could face the death penalty, prosecutors say.
Her death sparked an outpouring of grief in Florida's capital city and raised mounting questions about how the state's child welfare system, the courts, police and others might have failed to protect her.
A judge's decision not to jail Daniel Spencer after he was found guilty in the earlier sex sting ‒ which left him free on bond just before the murder ‒ led to harsh criticism from State Attorney Jack Campbell and prompted Attorney General James Uthmeier to propose a new law in Missy's honor.
Missy's demise coincided with a big drop in Florida in the number of kids placed in foster care because of abuse, abandonment, or neglect ‒ a statistic Gov. Ron DeSantis' administration has touted but that troubles some in the child protection field.
It also overlapped with a decline in Leon County of child protective investigators, who play a crucial role on the front lines of abuse cases, according to the Florida Department of Children and Families' Office of Child Welfare dashboard.
Missy's loved ones, including Pepper Mogle and her husband, Andy Mogle, blame police and DCF for not doing more after getting complaints last year that Daniel Spencer molested her.
The state agency could have taken the allegations to a dependency judge ‒ a routine step in sex abuse cases ‒ but instead signed off on a questionable solution that was designed to keep Missy away from her stepfather but wound up sending her right back to him.
According to confidential DCF documents obtained by the Tallahassee Democrat and the USA TODAY NETWORK ‒ Florida, the agency OK'd an arrangement in which Chloe Spencer gave Missy to a family friend with a simple power-of-attorney agreement that Chloe could revoke at any time.
'It was destined to fail,' said Robert Latham, an attorney, child welfare expert and associate director of the Children & Youth Law Clinic at the University of Miami.
'Something bad is going to happen'
At the time of her death, Missy was living with her mother and stepfather, their three other young children and a retired doctor who owned the home in Tallahassee and was like an adoptive father to Daniel Spencer, according to court records.
But Missy grew up mostly in Wakulla County with Pepper and Andy Mogle. They got temporary custody of her before her first birthday after they said their daughter, a rebellious 17-year-old, showed no interest in raising her.
In 2023, when Missy was 3, Chloe Spencer filed to regain custody in the courts, which operate under the long-standing presumption that children should be raised by their parents. General Magistrate Dina Foster, who heard the case in Wakulla County, found Chloe Spencer was 'no longer unfit' and that there were no issues then related to DCF, safety plans, or injunctions.
Foster wrote that Daniel Spencer, who worked at Publix, demonstrated 'stability' and didn't abuse alcohol or drugs. She noted, however, the worries expressed by the grandparents.
'The petitioners testify they are concerned about the mother becoming unstable again and a proper transition plan,' she wrote. 'The petitioners expressed concern that Mr. Spencer has been abusive to mother in the past.'
After a July 10, 2023, hearing, Foster ruled in favor of Chloe Spencer, writing that she and her parents agreed a transition plan was in Missy's "best interests." Circuit Judge J. Layne Smith approved the recommended order. Pepper Mogle said the rulings came despite warnings from her in open court.
'I said, 'I give you six months of Chloe having that baby, that something bad is going to happen,' ' she said.
Chloe Spencer got Missy back on Feb. 3, 2024, the Mogles said in a court filing. A couple of days after that, Chloe Spencer gave Missy to Paig Carnahan, a friend who served with Andy Mogle, a retired Army mechanic, in the second Persian Gulf War. She also signed a power of attorney so Carnahan, described as a "maternal aunt" in DCF records, could take Missy to a doctor if needed.
Less than two weeks later, on Feb. 16, 2024, Daniel Spencer got arrested after traveling to meet who he thought was a 15-year-old girl, but was actually a police officer. That prompted Chloe Spencer to modify the power of attorney, specifying Missy wouldn't have contact with her stepfather, Pepper Mogle said.
Days after Daniel Spencer's arrest, Missy's grandparents filed a petition in their family court case for emergency custody of Missy. Judge Smith denied it because the custody case was already closed.
Missy said she was abused, but it wasn't enough for investigators
In July 2024, the Mogles got a phone call from Carnahan saying they needed to get to her place right away. On the ride up, they got another call from someone saying Daniel Spencer molested Missy.
'I said I want DCF and the police department waiting for me when I get there,' Andy Mogle said.
The Mogles found out that Missy, then 4, told one of Carnahan's roommates, and later others, that Daniel Spencer put his hands around her throat while touching her private parts. She recounted the story herself to her grandparents, who said the abuse allegedly happened during overnight visitations.
'She said he's touching me down below and choking me,' Andy Mogle said.
Andy Mogle said he called police, who arrived soon after, followed by a DCF investigator. Officers spoke with Carnahan and Missy, but not the Mogles, the couple said. Later, Missy met with the police a few times, but they expressed doubts about the allegation.
'They kept saying Missy was all over the place with what she was saying,' Pepper Mogle said. 'They (said) she was coached into saying it.'
Both DCF and the Tallahassee Police Department ended their investigations without taking any apparent further action. Campbell, whose office consulted with TPD, said the only evidence was testimony from someone too young to know the truth from lies – not enough for probable cause.
TPD refused to release any record pertaining to its molestation investigation, citing Marsy's Law. DCF also refused to release records, citing Florida statutes.
Pepper Mogle said she, her husband and others made numerous calls to DCF's abuse hotline. According to DCF's confidential court filing, the agency ended its investigation the same month it came in.
'The Department's investigation closed because the mother had signed a power of attorney for the child to live with her maternal aunt and agreed that (Daniel Spencer) should not have any contact with her child,' DCF said in the court filing.
Missy goes back to her mother and stepfather in Tallahassee
Pepper Mogle said Chloe Spencer tore that agreement up shortly after the investigations closed. In September, Carnahan returned Missy to the Spencers because she was leaving the state.
And while Carnahan said she and others pleaded with DCF to take action, Missy wound up in the same Southwood neighborhood home in Tallahassee where prosecutors said Daniel and Chloe Spencer suffocated and tortured her. Both have pleaded not guilty to the charges.
In July 2024, Pepper and Andy Mogle filed a new petition in Wakulla County seeking custody of Missy. A hearing was set for January but was canceled.
A hearing date for Pepper and Andy Mogle's petition to get Missy back was set for June 3, nearly a year after they filed it. By then, Missy was dead.
'It could have been prevented'
DCF issued a short statement about Missy's death in a July 16 email to the Tallahassee Democrat and USA TODAY NETWORK - Florida, but said it couldn't go into details about the case.
'The Florida Department of Children and Families investigates all child deaths related to allegations of abuse, neglect, or abandonment in close coordination with law enforcement,' the agency said. 'Information specific to this case is confidential per section 39.202, Florida Statutes.'
DCF's Child Fatality Prevention Program website showed 257 child fatalities so far this year in Florida, but only three from "inflicted trauma," not including Missy's case. The leading causes were drowning at 27%, sleep-related at 9%, and natural at 7%.
On the morning Missy died, Robert Frable, the retired doctor who lived with the Spencers, heard a loud crash in her bedroom. Daniel Spencer claimed a camera had fallen over, but Frable doubted that because the noise was so loud.
About a half hour later, Spencer came to him carrying Missy's limp body, according to police reports. Frable was performing CPR when first responders arrived. Investigators said it appeared Daniel Spencer was on 'illicit narcotics' when he spoke to them. Her loved ones said he used methamphetamine.
Missy had injuries 'from head to toe,' including bruises in various stages of healing, cuts on her face, ligature marks around her wrists and burns on all of her fingers, according to police and DCF reports. Investigators also found surveillance video from Missy's bedroom.
'Evidence reviewed ... depicts hours of Daniel physically abusing Melissa by hitting her, violently pulling her arms, shoving her face into a bed, binding her feet and hands together, and covering her with pillows and comforters,' an arrest report says.
DCF's website says a "special review" of Missy's case is in progress and that "causal factors" are under investigation.
In the days following her death, State Attorney Campbell blasted Baker-Carper's decision, saying if Daniel Spencer had been in jail after his conviction of a child sex crime, "I'd have a 5-year-old who had a lot more life to live."
In June, Attorney General Uthmeier proposed 'Missy's Law,' which would prohibit the release of defendants after they have been convicted of a sex crime. He said Missy's case was so tragic because 'it could have been prevented.'
The Mogles also believe Missy's murder was avoidable if someone had listened to them. Pepper Mogle said after DCF closed its molestation investigation, the agency never checked up on Missy again.
But it wasn't the last time DCF heard about the Spencers or their kids. On Oct. 31, 2024, Chloe Spencer called police, alleging Daniel Spencer shoved her into a wall the night before during an argument. Although no arrest was made, TPD filed an online report with DCF as required because children were home during the incident.
All the Mogles have left now are their photographs and memories of Missy, who loved ballet, playing with her dog Daisy and doting on children smaller than herself.
'DCF should have followed up,' Pepper Mogle said, 'and done the right thing by staying in touch and keeping my baby safe.'
On July 11, Pepper Mogle called the Leon County Detention Facility to get word to her daughter about a different death in the family. To her surprise, Chloe Spencer was allowed to call back. Mogle put her on speaker phone.
"I told her we do love her and that we wish that she would have reached out to us and let us have the baby back," Pepper Mogle said. "And she started crying, and she says, 'I know, Mama, I'm sorry.'"