A Bronx mother was arrested for starving her twin teenage sons, who she kept shut inside her Riverdale apartment for nearly a decade, Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark announced Tuesday.
Lissette Soto Domenech, 64, was charged with assault, reckless endangerment and endangering the welfare of a child for the “shocking” abuse she inflicted on her two boys, Clark said.
“This defendant is accused of a shocking, horrifying form of child abuse, allegedly depriving her sons of proper food, social interaction, education, medical attention,” Clark said. “We will do everything we can to help these boys attain a normal life.”
A specialist with the city’s Administration for Children’s Services, responding to several anonymous complaints, found Domenech’s 14-year-old kids in an extreme state of malnourishment at their mother’s Mosholu Ave. apartment on Oct. 15, prosecutors said.
One boy weighed just 51 pounds and the other 54 pounds when they were found, prosecutors said.
Medics rushed the teens to Montefiore Children’s Hospital, where they were treated for three months, according to Clark’s office.
Bronx DA Darcel Clark speaks at a press conference in the Bronx on Monday, June 23, 2025. (Barry Williams/ New York Daily News)
Inside Domenech’s apartment, there was infant cereal, baby bottles and toys fit for a toddler, but no food or belongings appropriate for two teenage boys, Clark said.
Investigators determined the boys had their last doctor’s appointment in Nov. 2016 and that Domenech began submitting false paperwork to the New York City Department of Education in Sept. 2017, claiming she was homeschooling them.
Bronx Supreme Court Justice Audrey Stone ordered Domenech remanded to custody and set bail at $25,000 cash and $75,000 bond. She is due back in court on Feb. 4.