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Indianapolis Star
23-05-2025
- Indianapolis Star
5-year-old Zara was tortured and killed after Indiana judge silenced mom's pleas for help
Show Caption 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.
Yahoo
25-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Gov. Mike Braun is leading the race in executive orders
Gov. Mike Braun signs a pair of executive orders dealing with unemployment insurance in his Statehouse office on Thursday, Feb. 27, 2025. (Leslie Bonilla Muñiz/Indiana Capital Chronicle) If there is one thing we have seen a lot of during Gov. Mike Braun's first 100 days, it's executive orders: 63 of them, to be exact. If you are keeping track, that's already more than the 56 former Gov. Mike Pence issued across his four-year term. And it's on the way to exceeding totals from former Govs. Eric Holcomb and Mitch Daniels, who both served eight years. Holcomb issued 164 executive orders in all, though around half dealt with the COVID-19 pandemic. Daniels issued 175, with many being pardons for convicted Hoosiers; the issuance of pardons has dropped significantly since Indiana adopted an expungement statute. Braun and Daniels have one thing in common — using executive orders in the first year to try to reshape state government. Daniels took over in 2005, after 16 years of Democrats in the governor's office. His first 20 executive orders were significant alterations. One took away the right of state employees to collectively bargain; another required the Indiana Department of Administration to post written state contracts online; others created the Indiana Department of Child Services and the Office of Inspector General. Many of those had immediate impacts that Hoosiers could see. Braun has done the same, even though Republicans have controlled all of state government since 2011. You would think that would mean fewer changes, but apparently not. He used executive orders in the first few weeks to establish his new cabinet structure and to require state employees to return to work in the office, rather than working remotely. But he has also used many orders to simply draw attention to priorities. And then there is the nationalization of federal politics. For instance, Braun declared there are just two genders, male and female, and eliminated state diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts. 'The tone of state politics has shifted with this polarization,' said Michael Wolf, a political science professor at Purdue University Fort Wayne. He noted that Braun's order switching DEI to MEI — merit, excellence and innovation came just before President Donald Trump's inauguration. '(It) received a ton of national media attention — and it was straight from the hymnal book that is popular with the Republican chorus,' Wolf continued. 'That's not to question how genuine those beliefs are, it is just noteworthy that this theme has been so important in the national narrative and Braun was able to be right out front with the executive order, where legislation would have taken considerably longer.' CONTACT US Braun also has ordered various studies on topics such as employment best practices, diet-related chronic disease, and laws and policies that disincentivize marriage. Just this week, the governor added two more executive orders to develop a statewide water planning framework and create a body to investigate the recovery of rare earth elements from Hoosier coal sites. Elizabeth Bennion, chancellor's professor of political science at Indiana University South Bend, noted governors usually use executive orders to 'circumvent' the Legislature or 'in response to delegation from' the Legislature' — but said 'neither of these seems to be the major reason that the Braun administration is issuing executive orders.' 'Instead, the governor seems to be responding to expectations of policy leadership,' Bennion said. 'These expectations are, to a large degree, self-created through his own desire to lead the state in a specific policy direction and his promises on the campaign trail.' She added that the substantive impact of the orders is not yet known. Wolf observed that Indiana is one of only a handful of states that has no constitutional or political tradition of legislative oversight of executive orders. 'Hoosier governors can reorganize government through executive order and have no formal provisions restricting the use of EOs, where many or most other states have some restrictions by procedure or by legislative check,' he said. 'Even the structure of the cabinet system is based on gubernatorial power and not derived from the Constitution or statute.' Executive orders themselves aren't a bad thing, but the increasing reliance on them is something to keep an eye on. Braun is using them heavily to score political points. At this pace, he will blow by his predecessors. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Chicago Tribune
18-04-2025
- Chicago Tribune
Porter County marks Child Abuse Prevention Month with pinwheels, program outside courthouse
Dozens of shiny pinwheels were planted on the north lawn of the Valparaiso courthouse Thursday afternoon by area service agencies and Porter Circuit Court Judge Rebecca Buitendorp to raise awareness for Child Abuse Prevention Month. 'The symbol was picked becaue of the playfulness, the joyfulness of childhood,' said Caryn Timmons, director of the Porter County office of the Indiana Department of Child Services. 'Every child deserves to grow up in a safe, nurturing environment, free from harm and fear,' Buitendorp said. 'Yet, for too many, this basic right is not guaranteed.' Timmons and Buitendorp were joined by a slew of staff from the Geminus Community Partners Program, which is the primary home-based child safety and prevention program in Region 2 for the state comprised of Porter, LaPorte, Benton, Newton, Pulaski, Starke, and Jasper Counties. 'We're currently working with 25 families (in Porter County),' said Brittany Sanetta, program manager for Region 2. Community Partners has 100 to 120 cases throughout the service area and takes self-referrals. A 24-hour hotline can help anyone in the region's counties as long as there are children in the home, there is not an open case with the Department of Child Services, and the family is not receiving services through Healthy Families. The goal of the program is to meet with families and assist with whatever they might need, from putting them in contact with local trustees and charities for rent and utility assistance, to providing beds for children and domestic violence services. Buitendorp said that while the courts play a critical role in the fight against child abuse, prevention begins long before a case reaches the courtroom. 'The court can lead by example,' she said, 'partnering with schools, social services, and advocacy groups to help families before abuse occurs and protect children when it does.' The current economic and political climate is making that work all the more difficult. 'Inflation is not helping,' said Geminus Neighborhood Liaison Julie Bush. 'We also have a lot of clients who are undocumented and they're scared,' added Neighborhood Liason Raeanne Richardson, who said such folks are 'trying to stay under the radar.' The liaisons and the families they serve face serious challenges in acquiring the basics. Perhaps a family needs beds for children. 'We can't get beds for a home if they're not going to live there for the next' several months, Bush said. 'I was trying to get a client into Gabriel's Horn (homeless shelter),' Richardson added. 'They are on a 21 and 22-person waiting list.' The liaisons said such a list was formerly eight or nine people deep. Community Partners can be reached toll-free at (888) 357-4264 or
Yahoo
03-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Agencies, advocates kick off Child Abuse Prevention Month
EDGEWOOD — The Indiana Department of Child Services had 843 open cases in Madison County in February, pointing to a need for more collaboration among the community and social service agencies, speakers told the Anderson Noon Exchange Club on Tuesday. At a kickoff luncheon for National Child Abuse Prevention Month, attendees also heard that the number of abuse and neglect cases in the county — the third highest in the state — obscure progress in helping families and quickly moving children to safer environments. 'We see the prevention efforts that are happening, and then also just seeing this community come together,' said Megan Wills, director of community-based services at Firefly Children and Family Alliance, an Indianapolis-based family resource center with offices in 11 cities across the state, including Anderson. 'We don't work in as many silos. We're starting to come together more and realize that the more of us that surround a family, the more we can help that family.' According to the Child Maltreatment Report, annually published by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, an estimated 3 million children nationwide were subjects of child welfare agency responses in 2021, the most recent year for which data is available. Although that number represented a five-year low, local advocates reiterated that much work remains to address the problem. 'The importance of Child Abuse Prevention Month is to educate individuals about what's happening in their own backyards and make them aware of what they can do to get involved and how they can help,' said Annette Craycraft, executive director of East Central Indiana CASA, which stands for Court Appointed Special Advocates. 'We also really want people to report child abuse if they see that. We want folks to feel comfortable doing that, and know that it's anonymous and it's one of the things that we're really mandated to do.' Wills noted that heightening awareness of the needs of those who work in the field is important, in part because burnout among social workers — who frequently act as frontline caregivers for families in crisis — is common. 'I think sometimes if you come into this field and you think that your success story is going to be an open-and-shut case, you're going to get burnt out really quickly,' Wills said. 'I think it's just seeing those little wins — did the parents get a better job? Did they find support in the community? Do they feel safer? — those are the numbers that we don't get to see.' Following the luncheon, the speakers joined Noon Exchange Club members in planting blue-and-silver pinwheels — which have come to symbolize the carefree childhoods advocates believe all children deserve — in a display outside the Edgewood Golf Course and Event Center. The pinwheels, along with signs noting April as National Child Abuse Prevention Month, will soon decorate yards in neighborhoods and in front of businesses throughout Madison County. 'We just want people to be aware that we need them,' Craycraft said, 'and that we all need to work together as a community to help fix this problem. It's not going to go away on its own.'
Yahoo
06-02-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Indiana lawmakers pushing for tougher penalties for failing to report child abuse
Indiana lawmakers are considering a measure that would toughen the penalty for failing to report child abuse at schools, gyms, hospitals, daycares and other institutions. House Bill 1412 would make it a class A misdemeanor for employees or volunteers to knowingly fail to report child abuse or neglect to police or the Indiana Department of Child Services. Repeat violators would face a level six felony. The change would result in a higher maximum sentence of a year in prison and a $5,000 fine, or 2.5 years and $10,000 for repeat offenders. The maximum sentence under current law is six months and $1,000. The bill would also require law enforcement to investigate whether an institution failed to report abuse when the alleged abuser is a staff member, coach or volunteer. The measure, introduced by state Rep. Becky Cash, R-Zionsville, is intended to address the kind of high-profile failures that allowed widespread abuse in USA Gymnastics and other organizations. "The country watched in horror as we learned that not only had some of our most elite gymnasts been horrifically abused, but that the cover up was pervasive and widespread," Cash said during a recent hearing on the bill. "As these stories played out, we learned that USA Gymnastics, based out of Indiana, had not only failed to make reports, but had actually told coaches and gymnasts that they would handle the accusations themselves." She was referencing a scandal that an IndyStar investigation first exposed in 2016. Reporters found that the sport's national governing body failed to report concerns about the sexual abuse of its athletes to authorities. The failures included a five-week delay in reporting longtime USA Gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar, who has since been accused of abusing hundreds of athletes. "It was clear that despite being mandated reporters in the state of Indiana, these reports had not been made, and many young lives were devastated," Cash said. "A question remains: If we are all mandated reporters, where was the fallout for those who knowingly failed to make the reports?" In Indiana, where USA Gymnastics is headquartered, the law requires anyone who has "reason to believe" that a child has been abused or neglected to "immediately" report it police or the Department of Child Services. However, nobody from the organization was ever prosecuted under the law. USA Gymnastics isn't the only institution to receive scrutiny over its abuse reporting practices. IndyStar investigations have also uncovered reporting failures at schools and residential youth treatment centers. Despite such findings, prosecutions for failing to report abuse are relatively uncommon. IndyStar found fewer than 30 convictions across the state over a five-year period from 2018 to 2023. The new legislation has received support from child abuse prevention experts and investigators. "The current system can fail children when there's a delay in reporting, an attempt to keep abuse quiet, or when somebody just chooses not to report at all," said Shannon Perry of the Children's Advocacy Center of Southeastern Indiana, an organization that facilitates forensic interviews with children on behalf of law enforcement. Reporting delays can also make it difficult to hold perpetrators accountable, said Dawn Dobyns-Gross, a former investigator with the Tippecanoe County prosecutor's office. "A time lag allows others to destroy evidence, hide child victims and witnesses, or alter crime scenes, significantly hindering our ability to protect children and gather evidence for prosecution," she said. Administrators with IU Health and Riley Hospital for Children have expressed some reservations about the bill because many people on a child's care team may become aware of abuse concerns, including doctors, nurses and social workers. Requiring all of them to report suspected abuse would be inefficient for the hospital and investigators. To address those concerns, lawmakers introduced a change to the bill on Wednesday that would allow the duty to report to be delegated to someone else involved in the child's care as long as both parties document the referral in writing. Cash proposed a similar bill last year, but it failed to advance due to time constraints, she said. This year's measure has received unanimous approval from two House committees and is now headed to the full House. If approved, it will then move to the Senate for consideration. Contact IndyStar reporter Tony Cook at 317-444-6081 or Follow him on X: @IndyStarTony. This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indiana bill would toughen penalties for failing to report child abuse
