Florida Man Friday | Former DCF Worker Arrested for Child Abuse and Murder of Adopted Daughter | Diane Natasha Mack

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The 911 call seemed routine. A mother reporting her adopted daughter unresponsive. But when police arrived, they found a malnourished child covered in wounds. The woman responsible, a former child welfare worker. Today I tell you, the case of Diane Natasha Mack. Welcome, lambs. Welcome to Love and Heartbreak, to Homicide, your Florida Man Friday edition. Hi, my name is Kai and if you’re new here, take a seat, take a listen all the way to the end. And if you like it, don’t forget to subscribe so you don’t miss any more cases. If you’re returning, lam as usual. Thank you so much for coming back to this little podcast. Trust me, I really, really appreciate it. If you didn’t know, you can also subscribe to Love and Murder on our patreon patreon.com loveandmurder you can subscribe for free and you do get some benefits for subscribing for free. But if you do want to be a sponsor of Love and Murder, help me keep the case retellers going, help me m continue getting the victim stories out there and just support lam on a whole, then you can choose any of the bonus tiers that we have available there. In the bonuses, you get commercial free episodes, you get intro free episodes. So basically all of this, it’s not in the Patreon. This is all cut out and we get directly into the heart of the case. You get bonus episodes, you get case extras, and so much more. Plus, you’re a sponsor of Love and Murder. You’re the one who helps the cases. Keep getting told.

Florida woman calls 911 reporting that her adopted daughter is unresponsive

Patreon.com loveandmurder now that we got that housekeeping out of the way, let’s get into your Florida Man Friday on, uh, November 15, 2024 at 12:19am a 911 call came in from Bianca street in Sebring, Florida. The caller was 34 year old Diane Natasha Mack reporting that her 13 year old adoptive daughter was unresponsive. When police arrived at Diana’s home, they found a 13 year old girl with her emancipated body near the front door. She was only wearing a diaper. She was 13. She was severely malnourished and covered in wounds in various stages of healing. You know what that means? Some of the injuries were fresh lacerations showing that there was recent abuse. Diane initially claimed that she’d found the girl, whose name was Selena, unresponsive. But by 3pm that same day, she’d already changed her story. Instead of immediately seeking medical help, Diane had driven her four other children to Titusville, which is two and a half hours away, before coming back home to call 91 1. The scene showed clear evidence of systemic abuse. In the garage, investigators found evidence that Selena had been restrained. Sheriff Paul Blackman, a uh, 30 year law enforcement veteran, confirmed that Selena was secured to the garage door and there was a security camera monitoring her from inside the home. Detective Duane Kelly, who processed the scene, reported finding stained ace bandages used as hand and ankle restraints, dried blood and flesh caught in the garage door chains, strands of the victims here trapped in the garage door mechanism, and bloody gauze and bandages that were scattered across the floor. Investigators also discovered that Diane had used pool chlorine in an attempt to destroy evidence. When are you going to say that you normally clean the place with pool chlorine? Oh, no, no, no. I wasn’t trying to destroy anything. This is just how I clean my house. Sheriff Blackman said, quote, while her child laid dead on the floor, the suspect had clearly used pool chlorine in an effort to destroy evidence in the garage before calling 91 1. The extent of the child’s injuries made Sheriff Blackmon describe it as, quote, one of the most disturbing crime scenes I’ve ever encountered. The 13 year old had been homeschooled and isolated from the outside world. Authorities confirmed that she had been subjected to systemic abuse and long term confinement in the garage where Diane monitored her through the security camera system. Diane’s other children possibly witnessed the abuse. Sheriff Blackman said, quote, someone whose job it was to look after the welfare children treating their own child in this manner is simply beyond belief. And yes, someone whose job it is to look after the welfare of children. Diane was a former Department of Children and Families worker and she was a court appointed guardian ad lydium. I mean, this is literally the second case that I’ve done where a DCF worker was abusing and murdering their kid. What’s going on here, by the way? A guardian ad lydium, because you know, I didn’t know what it means and I had to look it up. Is a court appointed representative who’s chosen to represent the best interests of a minor child in legal proceedings such as divorce, child custody, child abuse and child neglect cases. Uh, they also investigate the circumstances of the child and make recommendations to the judge regarding child custody. They’re appointed to protect the interests of someone who is unable to take care of themselves, typically a minor or someone who is legally incompetent. And they act as the child’s voice in court. This is what this Diane woman was. How did she get this job? How did she become a DCF employee and get appointed as a court appointed guardian? Really? Diane worked as director of the Pike County Department of human resources from 96 until her termination in 2000. As soon as she was let go, Diane filed discrimination charges claiming that she faced resistance and hostility due to her race. Her employment record showed she primarily interacted with three entities which were the county board which appointed directors, the state board which determined employment rules, and the Department of Human Services which oversaw supervisors. So with all this going on and with the investigation, it ended up exposing critical gaps in the child welfare system’s oversight. Caseworkers essentially overwhelmed with new cases, had little time to review complete medical records or seek additional physician opinions. Now, it might be these issues that were able to allow Diana to adopt, but that’s not set in stone. That’s still under investigation. They’re still trying to find out how somebody like her was able to adopt children. The Florida officer of inspector General has launched an internal investigation into Diane’s background as a DCF employee and Guardium ad lydium. Authorities are also reviewing whether red flags were missing during the adoption process. Anyway, Diane was arrested and charged with first degree murder, aggravated child abuse, kidnapping and tampering with evidence. Later, the Highland county prosecutor, John Kromholtz, added two additional child abuse charges on December 5th potentially related to other children in Diane’s career. Selena’s biological mother, Jennifer Cullum, has come forward. She lost custody of Selena and her 12 year old sister in 2015, but had been trying to reunite them. Jennifer and Diane had regular contact and discussed Selena’s autism diagnosis, specialized care needs, plans for supervised visits and future reunification attempts. Jennifer had last seen her daughter in 2021. After Selena’s death, Diane’s four other children, including Jennifer’s 12 year old daughter, were placed under the custody of Diane’s brother. Now, uh, Jennifer is fighting back. So you took them from Diane to Diane’s brother. Not saying that the brother, anything’s wrong with the brother, but I don’t think I would have done that. She means everything to me. She needs to come home to her family. I want my child home. This was Jennifer’s quote. On December 5th, Highland County Prosecutor John Krumholtz filed two additional child abuse charges likely related to Diane’s other children. The state Attorney’s office is now pursuing the death penalty, citing the heinous nature of the crime, the victim’s age and vulnerability, and Diane’s position as a child welfare worker. Diane remains in Highlands County Jail without bond so how did a DCF employee, someone who’s supposed to protect children, get approved to adopt and torture one?

A recent audit of Florida’s DCF revealed failures in oversight

A recent audit of Florida’s DCF revealed major failures in oversight, including a lack of proper monitoring of child welfare agencies, poor documentation of abuse investigation, and overwhelmed caseworkers handling six to 17 cases at once. The recommended maximum of cases is supposed to be 12. Investigators admitted that caseworkers are often too swamped to catch warning signs. That’s not something that you should just be like, yeah, well, this is how it normally is. Are you serious? Former DCF employees reveal that they relied too much on family statements and opinions, school visits and background checks to get rushed and paperwork pile ups, leaving critical signs unnoticed? Yeah, family and friends can lie and you’re looking for opinions. People lie. Literally. A lot of people lie all the time. Then you rush school visits and you rush background checks, so you’re going to miss something. And then once all of that is done, the paperwork just sits there piling up. That’s insane to find out. Christina Spedeas, executive director of Florida’s children, first pointed out that DCF cut 70 quality assurance positions in recent years. Only half have been restored, leaving huge gaps in that department and a huge ability for oversight. In response, lawmakers passed Senate Bill 7034, allocated 13 million to hire 200 new chairs, child protective investigators, and 5 million for substance abuse treatments targeting at risk families. The goal here is to reduce caseloads and prevent more children from slipping through the cracks. Now, this case, this reporting was, and, uh, talking about the bill and what it’s for has been as of, I believe, January, when all of this was researched. So with everything going on as of the time of this recording, which is March 2025, I don’t know if they’re still allocating the 13 million to hire 200 new people and the 5 million for substance abuse treatment. So might. Might not. Diane Mack’s death penalty trial is set to begin in 2025. They didn’t exactly say what month, but sometime this year. Meanwhile, the Office of Inspector General is digging deeper into her past employment, adoption approval, and the systemic failures that allowed this to happen, which this case should have never happened. But here we are. Sheriff Blackman said, quote, this was a senseless act of violence and justice has now been served. But for this child’s family, the pain of this tragedy will never fully fade. And like I said, this shouldn’t have happened. Like, I hear, y’all are making excuses. There’s not enough people. But this is the DCF this is it. It’s a, uh, really critical department. Like, you should be recruiting like crazy and paying people enough that they want this job and doing background checks to get people who are actually serious about this job. Because my thing is how many more children have to suffer before DCF fixes this broken system? And I’m sure it’s not DCFS across the nation, but I’ve made too many cases about DCF and oversights. So just how many more children like Anyway, that is your Florida Man Friday episode. Uh, let me know your thoughts on this in the comments below. I definitely want to hear from you and it will be read out in a future episode. Don’t forget that if you like this retelling, then go ahead and leave me five stars on whatever platform you listened on. Thank you so much for listening to me. You can also subscribe at the Patreon. You can do it for free or you could become a sponsor. Patreon.com forward/uh loveandmurder and that is all I have for you today. Leave your comments below on your thoughts on this case and I will see you in the next episode. Bye.