A mum was arrested for allegedly keeping her twin sons – now 14 – under house arrest for 9 years and and starving them in a “shocking, horrifying form of child abuse,” prosecutors said.
Lissette Soto Domenech, 64, who lives in the Bronx, New York, allegedly starved the two boys and kept them indoors in their Riverdale home between November 3, 2016, and October 15, 2025, the Bronx District Attorney’s Office charged.
A child protective specialist from the city’s Administration for Children’s Services showed up at the Mosholu Avenue home on the October date and called 911 after receiving several anonymous complaints, the DA’s office said.
When investigators found the boys, one of them weighed 54 pounds and the other only 51, and both were well below the normal height for their age, according to prosecutors.
One of the boys, who is autistic, apparently was never evaluated or received services – and only infant cereal, baby bottles and toddler toys could be found in the apartment, with no age-appropriate food or items in sight, prosecutors said.
FDNY EMTs took the boys to Montefiore Children’s Hospital where they required treatment for three months.
