The case out of the Bronx is the kind that makes even seasoned cops and neighbors stop in their tracks. Prosecutors say a mother kept her twin sons locked inside their apartment for most of their lives, starving them so severely that by age 14 they weighed less than many grade schoolers. What unfolded behind that Mosholu Avenue door for nearly a decade is now laid out in an indictment that reads like a blueprint of calculated isolation and cruelty.
According to investigators, the boys were essentially treated as prisoners in their own home, cut off from school, friends, and the basic experiences that turn kids into teenagers. By the time authorities finally got inside, the twins were so malnourished and developmentally stunted that their bodies and behavior looked closer to toddlers than high school freshmen. The arrest of their mother has now forced a hard look at how such extreme abuse could stay hidden in plain sight for so long.
The hidden life inside a Bronx apartment
Prosecutors say the boys’ mother, identified in charging documents as Lissette Soto Domenech, 64, kept her twin sons under a kind of homegrown house arrest for roughly nine years, rarely letting them step outside their Bronx apartment. According to an indictment outlined by the Administration for Children Services, multiple anonymous complaints eventually triggered a child protective investigation that led authorities to the Mosholu Avenue home. When they finally checked on the family, they found 14‑year‑old twins who each weighed under 55 pounds, malnourished and developmentally stunted in ways that stunned even veteran caseworkers.
Details that have emerged since the arrest paint a picture of a home frozen in time. Neighbors told reporters that the boys were kept in diapers and surrounded by items meant for much younger children, with one neighbor saying they believed the mother wanted her sons to “stay babies forever,” a chilling description echoed in a Jan discussion of the case that described how their clothes and toys were for toddler‑aged children. Another account referred to the “Depraved NYC” mom who allegedly kept the twins under house arrest and starved them for nine years, a characterization that tracks with the allegations laid out by prosecutors and reported in detail by Amanda Woods and Marie Po.
“Babies forever,” diapers at 14, and a DA’s blunt warning
Once the case hit open court, the language from the Bronx District Attorney’s Office left little room for doubt about how seriously they view the allegations. Bronx District Attorney Darcel D. Clark, in remarks shared in a Jan announcement of the indictment, called it a “shocking, horrifying form of child abuse,” accusing the defendant of depriving her sons of proper food, social interaction, and education. According to that account, the boys were not only starved but also denied the basic chance to grow up in anything resembling a normal environment, a combination that prosecutors say left them physically and emotionally stunted.
Neighbors and sources have filled in some of the most disturbing day‑to‑day details. One report described the “Twisted NYC” mom as someone who allegedly wanted the twins to remain “babies forever,” keeping them in diapers and without belongings appropriate for teenagers, a claim attributed to a neighbor who said the apartment lacked any sign of typical teen life like electronics or age‑appropriate clothes. That description surfaced in coverage of her arraignment, where she was brought before a judge on a slate of child abuse charges after being taken into custody, as detailed in a Twisted NYC account that underscored just how far from normal the boys’ lives had become.
How authorities finally intervened, and what comes next
When authorities finally removed the twins from the apartment, the numbers told their own story. According to one detailed summary of the investigation, the boys, both 14, weighed under 55 pounds and were described as severely malnourished, with their height and weight far below what would be expected for their age, a finding laid out in an account By Tom Shea. Another report, citing investigators, put the figures even more starkly, saying one twin weighed just 51 pounds while the other weighed 54 pounds, both far below normal height and weight for teenagers, according to NBC New York. Those precise figures, 51 pounds and 54 pounds, have become shorthand for just how extreme the alleged neglect was.
The path to that intervention was not instant. According to a detailed breakdown of the timeline, child protective workers had to respond to multiple anonymous complaints before they finally checked on Domenech’s Mosholu Avenue apartment, a sequence described in a The News Herald report that framed the case as part of a broader Crime and Public Safet concern. By the time they arrived, investigators found that Domenech had allegedly starved and isolated the twins for nearly a decade, a pattern of abuse that another account summarized as the Bronx mom being charged with starving her twin sons for nearly a decade, citing investigators who said she had kept them shut inside and deprived them of basic care, as laid out in a Jan summary of the charges.
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