The twisted Bronx mother charged with assaulting her gaunt 14-year-old twins after keeping them in isolation for years in a Riverdale co-op suffered from schizophrenia, police sources told The Post.
The boys were “underweight and malnourished” when they were checked into Montefiore Children’s Hospital on Oct. 15, the sources said.
“The mom had untreated schizophrenia,” according to a source.
The children were taken to the hospital after an ACS worker visited the home and saw that one of them weighed only 51 pounds. They received treatment there for three months.
Mom Lissette Soto Domenech, 64, was finally arrested on Jan. 20 and charged with assault, reckless endangerment and acting in a manner injurious to a child. She was released on $25,000 cash bond.
The boys have since been placed in foster care.
Domenech kept the twins in diapers and fed them from baby bottles to keep them like newborns, according to sources.
They also hadn’t seen doctors and one of them was autistic, the sources said.
Prosecutors said the apartment only had infant cereal, baby bottles and toddler toys, with no food or belongings appropriate for teens.
A downstairs neighbor told The Post she got Domenech to open the door several years ago — revealing two children who appeared much younger than their age.
“I thought they were babies. They looked very tiny and skinny, they were probably 8 years old at the time,” the neighbor said. “I thought they were younger. They were very pale. Most of us thought they were babies.”