Neighbor: Iowa agency never followed up on complaint of starving child

LEE ROOD   | Des Moines Register

Child welfare workers had been called to investigate concerns that a 16-year-old West Des Moines girl was being abused and begging for food — five months before the teenager died of starvation, police reports show.

Nicole Marie Finn, 42, of West Des Moines and Joseph Michael Finn II, 45, of Urbandale were arrested Thursday in connection with the Oct. 24 death of their daughter, Natalie Jasmine Finn.

Natalie died from emaciation because of the denial of critical care, according to the Polk County medical examiner's office.

Nicole Finn faces charges of first-degree murder, three counts of first-degree kidnapping, one count of child endangerment resulting in death, three counts of child endangerment causing serious injury and three counts of neglect of a dependent person.

Joseph Finn is charged with three counts of first-degree kidnapping, three counts of child endangerment causing serious injury and three counts of neglect of a dependent person.

The Finns are both being held in the Polk County Jail. Nicole Finn has a $2.1 million cash bond. Joseph Finn's bond is set at $1.5 million cash.

The announcement of charges came one day after West Des Moines police released long-requested reports showing that Natalie, a student last year at Walnut Creek Campus, an alternative high school, had tried to run away in April.

Neighbor Becca Gordon alerted authorities May 31 that Natalie had been begging for food and appeared to be neglected. Gordon said she also talked to school officials who had contacted human services officials.

“I was pretty upset. I wondered if she would be dead if they had done a proper investigation,” Gordon said.

Police reports show that the same day they were called, West Des Moines police contacted the Iowa Department of Human Services and notified worker Lauren Templeman.

Police never faxed their report to Templeman because she did not know a fax number. But abuse reports can be made over the phone or by fax, said Amy Lorentzen McCoy, a spokesperson for the agency.

McCoy said she would not comment on child-welfare workers' involvement, if any, in the report. 

"We have consulted with the county attorney, and DHS will not be sharing any additional information about this case, so as not to jeopardize criminal proceedings," she wrote in a statement.

Begging for food

Gordon said she talked briefly to a police officer when she reported in May her concerns of abuse, but a social worker never contacted her.

She said Natalie and her son became friends at Walnut Creek, and the girl began to stop by their house, two blocks away. She said Natalie appeared very thin and frequently requested food to eat and to take extra home for her sister.

Natalie also asked classmates for money and food, Gordon said.

“I didn’t really know what was going on at first,” she said. “I thought maybe they didn’t have much money, and she was a growing girl, until one day when she came to my house and said, 'My mom locked me up for two days with my sister. We’re hungry.'"

She said she decided to call police after that, also saying Natalie would wear the same clothes for several days and smelled of body odor. The girl also did not have shoes and had large bloody blisters on her feet.

At some point last spring, Natalie stopped going to school. She was not enrolled in school in October, when she died.

Gordon said — and police reports confirm — that officers Matthew Granzow and Barry Graham went to Natalie's house May 31 to check on her welfare. Granzow said he saw someone peeking out the window of the house, but no one answered when they knocked multiple times.

Earlier in the day, another officer reported coming across two children who appeared homeless near 14th Street and Grand Avenue in West Des Moines. He didn’t know if they might have been the children who lived at the Finns' home at 805 15th St.

Some of the charges filed Thursday were related to two other children in the Finn home.

Nicole and Joe Finn had five children when they divorced in 2011, county records show. Nicole Finn owned and operated a pet rescue outfit out of her West Des Moines home at 805 15th St.

CARE Pet Rescue was active on social media through Dec. 5. The nonprofit had several Go Fund Me campaigns requesting money to pay for animal care.

A 'beautiful personality'

Gordon contacted the Reader's Watchdog Nov. 1, hoping to discover why prosecutors hadn't charged anyone in Natalie's death. An open-records request was made Nov. 21 for police incident reports.

But West Des Moines police didn't release those reports until late Wednesday, after the Register appealed to the Iowa Public Information Board for help.

"I was so, so afraid that justice wouldn’t be done," Gordon said. 

Natalie considered herself the "protector" of her younger siblings, Gordon said. 

"She had just the friendliest, bubbliest, beautiful personality. She was just wonderful," Gordon said. "What a waste of a beautiful life." 

Next-door neighbor Tiana Curtis told the Register the teen had repeatedly asked for food last fall and the welfare of the Finn children was an "ongoing neighborhood concern."

'No social life'

Police began investigating after Natalie suffered cardiac arrest in October. An autopsy and more than 30 interviews were conducted before police arrested the parents. A search warrant was executed on the home Nov. 2.

Gordon said she reached out to Natalie's mother several times for permission to include the teenager in extracurricular activities, but Nicole Finn did not respond to her text messages. 

"It was clear that aside from school, there was no social life outside of the home," Gordon said. "But (Walnut Creek) is like a big family, and I think that's what it was like for Nat."

Natalie was a student at Walnut Creek during the 2014-15 school year, but she was not enrolled this school year, said Elaine Watkins-Miller, spokeswoman for West Des Moines Community Schools.

Watkins-Miller declined to comment on the case or make Natalie's former teachers available for interviews. 

"Our hearts ache for the loss of such a sweet, beautiful young woman," Watkins-Miller said in a statement. "Those who knew her will remember her smile and her kindness." 

Register reporter Kim Norvell contributed to this report. Lee Rood's Reader's Watchdog column helps Iowans get answers and accountability from public officials, the justice system, businesses and nonprofits. Contact her at lrood@dmreg.com, 515-284-8549 on Twitter @leerood or at Facebook.com eaderswatchdog.