Nicole Finn repeatedly ignored officer, caseworker trying to see her, jurors told

LEE ROOD   | The Des Moines Register

Child-protective worker Amy Sacco testified Tuesday that she went to Nicole Finn’s West Des Moines home four times in June and July 2016, trying to discuss an allegation that Finn's 16-year-old daughter, Natalie, was begging for food.

The social worker for Iowa's Department of Human Services also left Nicole Finn four phone messages and an email, she told a Polk County jury..

West Des Moines police Officer Craig Kincaid, a resource officer at Valley Southwoods, testified that he went to the home several times to check on the allegation.

On each visit, Nicole Finn’s black Honda Pilot sat in the driveway. But she never answered the door, the jury was told.

On Aug. 17 — when the officer and caseworker obtained a court order allowing them to enter the house — Nicole Finn had a roast cooking in the kitchen.

“The house was cluttered, but it wasn’t the worst I’ve seen,” Sacco testified late Tuesday afternoon.

On the third day of testimony in Nicole Finn’s trial for kidnapping and murder, the social worker fired for mishandling a May 2016 child abuse investigation into the Finn family and a police officer who aided her testified that they saw few signs of anything awry two months before Natalie died.

Nicole Finn has pleaded not guilty to the three kidnapping and murder charges pending against her in the Oct. 24 starvation death of Natalie and the mistreatment of two other adopted siblings, Jaden, 15, and Mikayla, 14.

A conviction could earn her life in prison.

Nicole Finn came to the door Oct. 17 in a bathrobe and tried to fend off Sacco and Kincaid, saying she had been in bed sick all day. But she had no alarms or devices on bedroom doors or boarded windows to block the children from leaving, they testified.

Kincaid said Human Services opted to treat the abuse allegation as minor until it began to escalate in July.

Sacco and Kincaid obtained an “order to compel” on Aug. 11, but Kincaid testified it took a while to act because neither had used one before.

Six days later, they returned to the house with other officers fanned out outside.

Nicole Finn's son Nathan sat in the living room, playing video games. Kincaid said he knew Nathan and Jaden from Valley Southwoods, the district’s school for ninth-graders.

The other teens, Natalie, Mikayla and Jaden, came in and sat down, he said.

Kincaid said the house smelled of pet urine and there was a huge pile of dirty clothes in the basement. But there was plenty of food in the kitchen.

Outside, he said, Nathan told Kincaid the family has food and that his siblings sometimes choose not to eat because they eat junk food.

“He said Natalie likes to draw attention to herself,” Kincaid said.

After that, he said, he decided not to open a criminal case.

Nurse: Natalie thought of starving herself

So far, the defense has portrayed Nicole Finn as a divorced woman who became increasingly overwhelmed parenting four adopted children with behavior disorders.

A psychiatric nurse testified Tuesday that Natalie expressed thoughts of suicide, including asking her adopted mom not to give her food until she starved to death.

Anne Marie Enderlin said Natalie also appeared to be sad, “sleeping a ton” and not eating, but her weight was not a problem when she saw the 16-year-old and her 15-year-old brother in May 2016.

While questioning Enderlin, a defense lawyer suggested Natalie might have been hiding an eating disorder from the nurse.

"There are many reasons why someone might have an eating disorder, correct?" defense lawyer Thomas Augustine asked.

"Correct," Enderlin said.

Enderlin said Nicole Finn told her that Natalie ate so much at school during the day, she wouldn’t eat at night. She had also said Natalie was skipping breakfast to lose weight.

The nurse practitioner, who works at a UnityPoint clinic in West Des Moines, said Natalie was prescribed Lexapro, an antidepressant, in 2012 until 2013.

Natalie then started the mood stabilizer Abilify and Prozac and another drug in February 2013 because of her suicidal thoughts.

The last time Enderlin saw Natalie was May 24, 2016. Natalie weighed 114 — down 14 pounds from the year before. But a drug she was also taking at the time sometimes acts as an appetite suppressant, Enderlin said.

Enderlin also prescribed Abilify and Prozac to younger brother Jaden for mood fluctuations and aggression.

At his last visit in May 2016, Jaden weighed 131 pounds. He did not return to refill his monthly prescriptions over the summer.

Therapist: No unique behavior

A West Des Moines therapist for Natalie and Jaden testified they showed signs of poor judgment and some behavioral issues.

Both teens showed signs of oppositional defiance disorder, and frequently directed anger toward their mother and siblings.

Natalie was diagnosed with reactive attachment disorder, a condition sometimes diagnosed in adopted children whose bonding needs were not met at a young age.

But therapist Amy Demoney said neither teen's behavior was unique compared with other children she sees. They also showed no signs of eating disorders or body image issues.

Demoney saw the children separately and inconsistently — sometimes more than six months in between appointments — between 2012 and 2016. During that time, Nicole Finn was concerned about her daughter’s eating habits and her hygiene.

But Demoney testified she sometimes had difficulty determining whose stories were accurate.

Natalie weighed 81 pounds

Jurors also saw photos Tuesday of Natalie’s skeletal, bruised body as Dr. Francis Garrity, a forensic pathologist, testified.

The retired Polk County medical examiner, who still does work for the county and the state, said Natalie had little soft tissue, muscle or fat when she died.

The 16-year-old weighed just 81 pounds at the time of her autopsy. Normal weight for a girl her height and age would have been 125 pounds, Garrity said.

“She was in the fatal area, the lethal area,” he told the jury.

Defense attorney Jennifer Larson suggested to Garrity that Natalie could have starved herself or had anorexia. 

But Garrity said he was given no information that suggested Natalie had tell-tale medical signs of anorexia.

He also said he felt he had sufficient information to come to a cause of death.

“Dr. Garrity, why did Natalie die?” Nan Horvat asked

“Likely the result of cardiac arrest” from the starvation, he said. 

Observers in the courtroom Tuesday included other Human Services workers, a lawyer representing Sacco in her appeal of her firing, and two prosecutors from Dallas County involved in the murder trials of Mark and Misty Ray.

The Rays go to court in late January for the similar starvation death of Sabrina Ray, who died May 12 in Perry. They are facing first-degree murder and kidnapping charges and other felonies.

Marc Ray also was charged with two counts of third-degree sexual abuse, according to court records. The abuse allegedly occurred in January 2009 and December 2016 with a child under 12. 

The couple took in Sabrina as a foster child in 2011 and adopted her in 2013.

CORRECTION: A previous version of this story included misspellings of Jaden Finn's name.