The New York City Administration for Children’s Services receives calls daily about suspected child abuse and neglect. On October 15, 2025, the agency sent a specialist to a home in the Bronx after receiving multiple concerning phone calls. When they arrived at the residence on Mosholu Avenue in Riverdale, they found 64-year-old Lissette Soto Domenech and her 14-year-old twin sons, but these boys didn’t look like typical teenagers. Instead, it appeared Domenech treated them like infants. An investigation uncovered shocking details about the boys’ home life, and their mother faces multiple felonies.
Bronx District Attorney Darcel D. Clark shared horrific allegations in a news release. According to prosecutors, Domenech reportedly had kept the boys inside her home for the last nine years. The last time she took them to see a doctor was in November of 2016. When investigators searched the home, they reportedly found nothing but “infant cereal, baby bottles and toddler toys.”
One of Domenech’s neighbors, who wished to remain anonymous, told the New York Post it seemed the 64-year-old mother wanted her sons to stay babies forever.
“I believe she didn’t want her kids to grow up… She desperately wanted a baby… In the early days when we first came to this building, she got into tears,” the neighbor recalled to the newspaper. “I said, ‘Have you got a family?’ And she got tearful and said, ‘No, not yet.’”
Sadly, the boys’ father died not long ago. He reportedly had a strained relationship with his wife but loved his sons very much. At some point, he moved out of the family residence, a neighbor told the Post.
“He told me ‘My kids never leave the house’ and that they’re homeschooled. He said he doesn’t trust the world, like he’s afraid. He said, ‘The world’s crazy,’ the neighbor recalled.
According to Clark’s office, the boys weighed just 51 pounds and 54 pounds when investigators found them. One of the boys has autism, and Domenech did not have him evaluated for services. Emergency responders took them to Montefiore Children’s Hospital, where they stayed for three months.
“This defendant is accused of a shocking, horrifying form of child abuse, allegedly depriving her sons of proper food, social interaction, education, medical attention. We will do everything we can to help these boys attain a normal life,” Clark shared in the release.
Bronx Supreme Court Justice Audrey Stone arraigned Domenech on two counts of first-degree assault, two counts of first-degree reckless endangerment, two counts of second-degree reckless endangerment, two counts of endangering the welfare of a child, first-degree endangering the welfare of an incompetent or physically disabled person, and four counts of second-degree offering a false instrument for filing, the release noted. She will return to court in early February.
Those poor boys need a lot of help, both physically and psychologically. We understand the desire to keep your children young, but life and aging happen. Trying to stop that is both cruel and counterintuitive. If Domenech really did what prosecutors allege, she did a disservice to everyone involved.
If you suspect child abuse, you can call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-422-4453 (1-800-4-A-Child) or go to Childhelp.org. The hotline is available 24/7.
