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Susan Hamilton, commissioner of the Department of Children and Families, testifies on Senate Bill 6 before the legislative Children's Committee on Tuesday, March 3, 2026 at the Legislative Office Building. Homeschool families listen as she speaks. Credit: Ginny Monk / CT Mirror

While the criminal investigation into Eve Rogers’ death and sexual assault continues, the Department of Children and Families has closed its investigation into a shoplifting incident involving Rogers about a week before she died.

According to a statement from DCF Director of Communications Peter Yazbak, the child welfare agency followed its protocols in terms of who was contacted following the incident and the timeline on which that investigation took place.

“We remain involved with the family, and our efforts are coordinated with law enforcement personnel, given the active criminal investigation into Eve’s untimely death,” Yazbak said in a statement.

Rogers, a 12-year-old who lived in Enfield, was found dead on March 18 in her home under suspicious circumstances. Her stepfather, Anthony Federline, has been arrested in connection with her death and charged with sexual assault. Federline was also fired from his position as a bus driver with Enfield Public Schools following his arrest.

Rogers was homeschooled, and her death occurred just as lawmakers debated — and finally passed — controversial legislation that will require the check of a DCF database when parents withdraw their children for homeschooling.

A week before her death, on March 11, Enfield police were dispatched to a Mobil gas station on Elm Street at 2:38 a.m. after receiving a call that a white female wearing a pink hoodie had stolen a drink, 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. That’s when officers referred the case to DCF for follow up.

Yazbak’s statement said that “initial interviews with the family occurred within our response time guidelines.”

“It is the Department’s policy, and best-case practice, to interview all the adults and children in the home,” Yazbak’s statement read. “With parental permission, the Department’s investigative activities also include speaking to children’s schools, daycare providers, pediatricians, and others who may interact with them as well as any supports the adults in the home may be utilizing or have utilized in the past. The collection of this information is designed to create a comprehensive assessment that is used to ensure child safety. We spoke to all household members in person, and collateral contacts were made pertaining to the allegations in the 3/11/26 report.”

According to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, Rogers’ cause of death is still pending further studies due to circumstances of the pending police investigation, and her manner of death is also pending investigation.

Laura Tillman is CT Mirror’s Human Services Reporter. She shares responsibility for covering housing, child protection, mental health and addiction, developmental disabilities, and other vulnerable populations. Laura began her career in journalism at the Brownsville Herald in 2007, covering the U.S.–Mexico border, and worked as a statehouse reporter for the Associated Press in Mississippi. She was most recently a producer of the national security podcast “In the Room with Peter Bergen” and is the author of two nonfiction books: The Long Shadow of Small Ghosts (2016) and The Migrant Chef: The Life and Times of Lalo Garcia (2023), which was just awarded the 2024 James Beard Award for literary writing. Her freelance work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, New York Times and The Los Angeles Times. Laura holds a degree in International Studies from Vassar College and an MFA in nonfiction writing from Goucher College.