EUGENE — Court records show that a child protective service worker found scars on the younger sister of Eugene teenager Jeanette Maples the night the teenager died at the hands of her mother.

The newly unsealed documents, reported by the Eugene Register-Guard, paint a more complete picture of the abuse in the household of Angela and Richard McAnulty, who both pleaded guilty in the torture death of 15-year-old Jeanette.

The documents describe the 12-year-old sister as insisting she was scratched by a cat and telling a caseworker she feared her mother would be taken away from the family.

Prosecutors, though suspicious, say they were never able bring charges involving the 12-year-old.

Angela McAnulty is on death row after pleading guilty to aggravated murder in the torture, abuse and starvation death of Jeanette. Richard McAnulty is serving a life prison sentence after pleading guilty to murder by abuse and saying he failed to protect his stepdaughter.

Scars on arms, legs and lower back

Lane County Circuit Judge Mary Ann Bearden has unsealed Detective Randy Fenley’s affidavit in support of a request for a search warrant. Caseworker Nichole Brown’s statement was an exhibit in the request.

On Dec. 9, 2009, Brown said, Jeanette’s sister “became very nervous and started shaking” when Brown asked to inspect her arms and legs.

“I then noted several scars up and down her arms, legs and lower back,” Brown wrote. “They were very narrow and faint in nature, but very numerous. She immediately told me they were from being scratched by a cat. I asked her how a cat had scratched her lower back. She was unable to tell me and continued shaking.”

“My mom isn’t going to spank us anymore,” the sister said to the caseworker. “She is trying not to. She said she was just going to do time-outs now.”

Prosecutor Erik Hasselman told the paper investigators had a doctor examine the 12-year-old, but she continued to say the scars were inflicted by a cat she tried to hold too tightly.

The girl later testified at her mother’s trial that her mother forced her on several occasions to gather the family dog’s feces from the backyard so that Angela McAnulty could smear them on Jeanette’s face. The affidavit also included a statement from another state caseworker who interviewed Jeanette’s half brother, who was then 5. He also was taken into state protective custody.

The boy told caseworker April Mackey that Jeanette had to go to the hospital because “my mom hurt her,” according to the statement. He told Mackey “there was blood all over her” and picked up two pieces of his toy racetrack to demonstrate how Angela McAnulty sometimes “double hits” during a spanking.

“He proceeded to hit his Sponge Bob stuffed animal with a racetrack piece in both hands,” Mackey wrote. “He swung at the doll continuously and stated, ‘She hits hard, and I mean hard.’ ”