Police made multiple wellness checks at the Bronx apartment where two teenage boys were found in an extreme state of malnourishment, but found no evidence of abuse in the years leading up to the heartbreaking discovery, NYPD officials said Saturday.
The boys, 14-year-old twins, were found emaciated — with one child weighing 54 pounds and the other just 51 pounds — after multiple anonymous complaints led a child abuse specialist with the Administration for Children’s Services to their mother’s Mosholu Ave. apartment in Riverdale on Oct. 15.
After seeing the boys’ shocking condition, the ACS agent called 911 and medics rushed the adolescents to Montefiore Children’s Hospital, where they were treated for three months, according to Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark’s office.
Multiple neighbors told the Daily News they grew concerned for the boys after going years without seeing them outside their mother’s apartment, with one man saying he made a number of 911 calls requesting wellness checks.
“We called the cops three times to check on the kids over the years — three times. The whole building knows [there were kids.] But no one would see them,” said the neighbor, a 33-year-old man who lives down the hall from the two boys, who asked that his name be withheld.
The NYPD confirmed that officers were dispatched to the apartment on three occasions between Nov. 2024 and March 2025. Each time, officers observed the children, spoke to neighbors and spoke with their mother, but found no evidence of abuse, police said.
The 911 calls that brought police to the home were made anonymously and asked for a “wellness check,” a police source with knowledge of the case said.
No complaints about the family were made to police through the city’s 311 system, the source said. Any 311 complaints about potential child abuse would have been directed to the New York Statewide Central Register of Child Abuse, which would have directed ACS to investigate.
Investigators later determined that the boys’ mother, Lissette Soto Domenech, kept her children “virtually housebound” for nine years, depriving them of medical care and an education while filing false reports to the city’s Department of Education that her sons were being homeschooled.
Only baby food, baby bottles and toddler toys were found inside the home, where the teenage boys were discovered garbed in diapers, according to a law enforcement source. There was no food or belongings appropriate for children of their age.
Doemenech wasn’t arrested when the children were found and visited her children while they were in the hospital, sources said. She was taken into custody on Tuesday when she was arraigned on a 13-count indictment charging her with assault, reckless endangerment and endangering the welfare of a child for the abuse she inflicted on her two boys, Clark said.
Domenech pleaded not guilty and was released after posting $25,000 cash bail.
Her children, once released from the hospital, were placed in foster care, officials said.
Citing state law, ACS wouldn’t divulge how long they were investigating complaints about Domenech’s family before the horrific home visit in October.
“Our top priority is the safety and well-being of New York City’s children,” an agency spokeswoman said. “While State law prohibits ACS from sharing case information, we are grateful to our child protective teams for the life-saving work they do every day.”
Although neighbors never saw Domenech’s sons, they said the boys could be heard screaming at all hours of the night.
“We complained many, many times to the city about the whole situation,” said one neighbor, a 40-year-old woman who lives below the family’s apartment and declined to share her name. “I live below her. And for years and years, I heard the kids screaming, and always running till 2, 3 in the morning. Constant screaming and yelling to the kids all the time.”
“We never seen the kids outside or not even in the elevator. Nothing. Never. She never took them out.”
While Domenech kept her children out of sight, neighbors said her elderly husband was in and out of the apartment delivering food and other groceries as often as three times a day.
“She was never out. She never said hi to anyone. Only the husband, who was a very sweet man,” said Domenech’s downstairs neighbor. “He was the only one who keep bringing food to her. We see him all the time with bags from the grocery with just coffee or sandwiches. That was the only food that we saw he bringing in to the kids.”
The husband never stayed with his wife, preferring to sleep in his car or on a couch in the building’s lobby, neighbors said.
Multiple neighbors said that Domenech’s husband recently died, though it was unclear when that was.
“We were all concerned when he passed away, because it’s like he was the only one we see all the time,” the downstairs neighbor said.
Another neighbor described Domenech as a germophobe, who would disinfect everything her husband brought to the apartment. On Thursday, paper towels could be found stuffed under Domenech’s door.
“Everything her husband brought had to be disinfected,” Valentina Ndou, 47, said. “She would throw out the paper towel if she thought it wasn’t disinfected.”
Meanwhile, another apartment located next door was filled with garbage, according to multiple neighbors.
“I saw it inside,” said Domenech’s downstairs neighbor. “I couldn’t believe my eyes. It was just full of garbage. There were no furniture, nothing. Just garbage. Like, piles of garbage, trash bags. It was like a horror movie, and then she lived (next door).”
The stink from the second apartment led one neighbor to place an air purifier in the hallway.
After the children were taken away, Domenech began venturing out of her apartment for the first time in years, one neighbor said.
“We never saw her. But then, after what happened, she started coming out. After they took the kids, she started doing laundry, ordering packages — like nothing ever happened — and saying hi. Just in the last month,” said Domenech’s neighbor from down the hall.
Domenech is due back in court on Feb. 4.
