Nicole Finn Murder Case: 5 Things About Mom Who Starved Daughter

DES MOINES, IA — A Polk County jury on Thursday found a West Des Moines mother guilty of first-degree murder in the starvation death of her adopted daughter. Nicole Finn, 43, faces life in prison when she is sentenced next month.

The case has garnered national attention and discussions about why social workers didn't uncover the problems inside the family's home earlier and how it took so long — and ultimately the death of 16-year-old Natalie Finn — for a light to be shed on the adoptive mother's blatant disregard for the lives of her children.

Natalie Finn died in October 2016, weighing less than 85 pounds, or less than two-thirds the average weight for her age. An autopsy found she was severely malnourished and that starvation led to cardiac arrest, causing her death.

Natalie and two siblings had been kept in a bedroom with no furniture for months and were regularly deprived of food and the use of a restroom, the surviving children testified at their mother's trial.

The trial lasted just over two weeks and the jury deliberated for just one day before returning its verdict. In addition to being convicted of murder, Nicole Finn also was found guilty of three counts of first-degree kidnapping related to her treatment of the other children.

Joseph Finn, Nicole Finn's ex-husband, will go to trial Jan. 8 on charges of child endangerment resulting in death, three counts each of first-degree kidnapping, child endangerment leading to serious injury, and neglect of a dependent person. He has pleaded not guilty. Joseph Finn did not live with the family.

The Finns had five children and shared custody following their divorce. The oldest, Alexander, was an adult at the time of Natalie's death and did not live in the home. Natalie's siblings Nathan and Mikayla were 15 at the time of her death and Jaden was 14.

Here are five things we know about Nicole Finn:

1. Text messages told the tale of torment.

During the trial prosecutors said Nicole Finn had sent 5,300 pages of text messages to her ex-husband, Joseph Finn, and she frequently complained about the childrens' "bad behavior."

"They are worthless," she said in one message. "I cannot stand them."

In early June she messaged to him: "It's so bad ... Natalie needs to go, and now," the Des Moines Register reported from the trial. A few days later, after Natalie had asked neighbors for money to buy food, she wrote: "But you realize we have to put this on her and tell DHS she's been stealing at school and trying to control her siblings and teaching them to con."

2. She was said to care for pets better than the children.

West Des Moines Police Detective Chris Morgan, testifying during the trial, said he made the observation during his investigation that the animals received better care, staying in a room that had a queen-sized bed while Natalie and two younger siblings, Jaden and Mikayla, shared a room with no furniture, were denied food to the point that Mikayla wrote a note and put in on the window, the Register said, in hopes that someone would see the plea: "Need food and water."

“Nicole cared a lot about the animals; she did not care about the kids,” Morgan said at the trial.

The children also testified that while they were mostly ignored, their mother operated a pet rescue out of the family's garage.

3. Her fate may have been sealed due to the testimony of her other children.

Mikayla testified severe thirst led her to drink from a toilet. She said she tried to care for Natalie and gave her a sponge bath from a cat box tray the day before her death, the Register reported.

Assistant Polk County Attorney Bret Lucas credited Natalie's siblings for their testimony, which forced them to relive the miserable conditions in the house they lived in. "They came through. They really had to relive something awful, and it's unfortunate that they had to do that, but it ended up with a result that I think ended in justice," he told KCCI.

4. Her defense team claimed PTSD and depression led to her actions, but that she did not have a grasp on the reality of what was happening.

Only one person testified on Nicole Finn's behalf, Dr. Carlo Giacomino. He said she did not process what was happening "because of her significant difficulty dealing with emotional stress," WHO-TV reported. "She wasn’t allowing herself to notice that maybe there’s something really bad going on," he said.

Defense attorney Jennifer Larson, a public defender, said in closing arguments that Nicole Finn's actions were “tragic and sad and terrible and all these emotions, but it’s not criminal," the Register reported.

5. Natalie told others of the conditions she was living in and people reported the neglect.

A neighbor testified that she called police on May 31, 2016, more than four months before Natalie's death, to report suspected abuse and neglect after Natalie told her she and a sibling were locked up for two days without food. The neighbor said Natalie had asked her and classmates for food, clothing and money. Police notified the Iowa Department of Human Services the same day, the Register reported.

But the neighbor said human services workers never contacted her, though the department's procedure would have been to investigate immediately given that type of information, to ensure the childrens' safety. The Register reported that it was unclear what specific information was provided by the police to human services staff.

Additional reports were made by others, though it was summer of 2016 before a social worker attempted to check the children, and Nicole Finn dodged the investigation, according to the Register. By the time officials obtained a search warrant in August 2016, Nicole knew there would be a home visit and had the children shower and clean up.

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