TAMPA, Fla. -- The Florida Department of Children and Families is investigating why a 2-year-old girl in state foster care wasn't reported missing for four months, only to become part of the bizarre discoveries at a rented home in Portage, Wis., last week.

Department spokesman Al Zimmerman said that his agency asked the Florida inspector general to investigate because obviously something went wrong.

Wisconsin police found Courtney Alisa Clark safe in a home in Portage on Thursday.

The following day, police found a malnourished and scalded 11-year-old boy in a closet at the home, and they unearthed from the back yard the body of a 37-year-old woman presumed to be his mother.

Authorities said that she appears to have been strangled and also suffered physical abuse.

The mother of Courtney, another woman and a man were taken into custody as Wisconsin authorities investigated the case. They're due in court Wednesday.