Local News in Brief : Abandoned Boys’ Mother Surrenders

A 24-year-old woman who left her two small sons with a baby sitter almost a month ago surrendered to police Monday, saying that she “was destitute, had been kicked out of her apartment and had nowhere else to go” when she abandoned the children, Los Angeles police said.

Doris Elizabeth Montano was booked on suspicion of child abandonment and held in lieu of $5,000 bond, Rampart Division Juvenile Detective Dennis Hansen said.

The woman said “she wanted to get her children back. But from what they (social workers) said, she will need extensive counseling and training before they’ll even consider giving the kids back,” Hansen said.

The two boys, Domando, 5, and Josito, 3, remain in foster homes. They had been left with the sitter, who lives near the downtown Los Angeles Convention Center, Aug. 22.

Hansen said Montano may be permitted to visit the children “if she gets out of jail.”

The woman told police she had “a little drug problem” and had gone to Tijuana and worked for a few days after she left the children, but was afraid to talk to police after her return.

Montano, who was staying with a boyfriend in Sepulveda, said she was “completely out of money when she called. So we went out there and picked her up,” Hansen said.