A week before a young girl in Enfield was found dead in her home, the Department of Children and Families opened an investigation into the family after police found the 12-year-old walking alone along a street just after 2:30 a.m., according to a police report on a theft.
Eve Rogers was found dead in her home in mid-March under suspicious circumstances. Her stepfather, Anthony Federline, has been arrested in connection with her death and charged with sexual assault.
Just days before the child’s body was discovered, though, DCF opened an investigation into the family. The department’s probe came from a referral by police after she left her home without her parents’ knowledge and was found by officers responding to a report of a theft at a nearby Mobil gas station.
News of DCF’s involvement with the family before Rogers’ death comes at a time when the child welfare agency is being heavily scrutinized for its work and questioned for its handling of investigations into a child found dead last year, Jacqueline “Mimi” Torres-García, and a Waterbury man rescued by first responders who alleged he had been held captive and abused for decades.
In all three cases, DCF had records of investigations into the families before the abuse. And all three had been pulled out of public schools by their parents to be homeschooled.
DCF Spokesman Peter Yazbak said in a statement that an investigation was underway when Rogers died.
“We can confirm that in March 2026, the agency received a report that Eve had left her home in the early morning hours, without the knowledge or permission of her family, to walk to a nearby store,” he said. “The Department had been investigating these allegations for approximately one week prior to Eve’s untimely death.”
Yazbak said DCF was continuing its joint investigation with law enforcement into her death and the allegations of sexual abuse.
According to arrest warrants, Rogers was found with a blanket covering her body, which was otherwise naked from the waist down in mid-March. There were pills near her and signs of sexual assault. Federline was arrested earlier this month on charges of sexual assault and risk of injury to a child after his DNA matched with DNA collected in a sexual assault kit at the scene, the warrants said.
A week before, Enfield officers were dispatched at 2:38 a.m. on March 11 to a Mobil gas station on Elm Street after police received a call that a white female wearing a pink hoodie had stolen a drink from the Mobil station, according to the police report. Local officers found Rogers walking unaccompanied near the gas station, holding an energy drink.
According to the report, Rogers told police that she took the drink because she “wanted to have fun.” She told police she was walking home, although police noted she was walking in the opposite direction. The police officers who responded to the call said they paid for the drink on Rogers’ behalf and escorted her home.
At the house, police found the front door open and her mother, Melanie Federline, expressed shock at Rogers’ disappearance. The officers referred the case to DCF for follow up. Anthony Federline, who was also a bus driver with Enfield Public Schools and was fired following his arrest, is being held on $1 million bond.
Lawmakers have proposed several bills this session related to the agency that have, in part, been meant to address deficiencies or gaps made public after the recent tragedies.
Lawmakers are considering House Bill 5004 with about two dozen provisions aimed at modest but meaningful reforms at DCF, like providing more grants for families for necessities and the creation of an oversight committee that would make policy recommendations for future reform at the agency. DCF has opposed that provision of the bill, arguing that the agency is already subjected to many layers of oversight.
Acting Child Advocate Christina Ghio said that while that may be the case, such a committee would help move reforms forward by bringing key stakeholders to the table in a systematic way. Her office is investigating the Enfield case, and while she said such a committee would not do the work of looking into individual deaths, it would synthesize the findings of investigations into policy recommendations.
“What is DCF’s quality assurance and how are we measuring whether or not the agency is working in accordance with policies and procedures?” Ghio said of the questions a committee would interrogate. In the Enfield case, Ghio said her office would look to ensure DCF followed procedures like conducting required visits or contacting collateral contacts. When the agency appears to be doing good work and something still goes wrong, the next step is to ask when a change in policy is needed.
House Bill 5468, which has been widely opposed by the homeschooling community, would require that parents show their children are receiving “equivalent instruction” by presenting a portfolio of their work or by taking an exam. The bill would also notify DCF when parents seek to withdraw their children from school. Senate Bill 6 previously contained a provision about homeschooling, but that was quietly removed by lawmakers earlier this week.
