Search This Site




Philadelphia Weekly - The Trouble With Spikol


 

 

 

 

Cost of the War in Iraq
(JavaScript Error)

 

 

« Website of the day | Main | International news: Morocco »

Another sad ending to another sad tale

images.jpg

From the Associated Press:

A woman charged with snatching her children from their beds during a home invasion at their grandmother's house died after being hit by a bus, police said.


Nora Montano [pictured], 35, was riding a bicycle when she ran a red light and was hit by a school bus about 7 a.m. Monday, police said. Montano was airlifted to Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood, where she was pronounced dead from head trauma.

Montano, a U.S. Army private, lost legal custody of her two children in November 2002 after she began suffering from bipolar disorder, according to court records. Her mother was given custody of the children.

Montano and husband Jose Montano spent about 18 hours on the run with their children, then ages 2 and 3, until authorities caught them at a motel in the Florida Panhandle in June 2003. The children were unharmed.

Nora Montano had been found not guilty by reason of insanity.

She had been living in a group home until a couple weeks ago when she was kicked out for not taking her medication and losing control, according to her attorney, Patrick Rastatter. She was living with caregiver Martha Paret while her guardians found a new group home.

She left a note for Paret about Monday morning saying she was biking 3 1/2 miles to a store.

"I think they let her leave the hospital too soon," Paret said.

For a more in-depth look:

School bus kills troubled mother

Comments

I'm still in shock, Rest In Peace cousin!

Post a comment

(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)

About

self portrait web final.JPG

Liz Spikol is senior contributing editor of Philadelphia Weekly. She writes the award-winning column The Trouble With Spikol, which began as a chronicle of her struggle with mental illness, and has since expanded into humorous musings on everything from graphic novels to how to use a mop. She also writes the paper's book review column, Lit Gloss. This blog -- named one of the Top 10 Bipolar Blogs of 2007 by PsychCentral -- is about mental illness policy, news, personal journeys and more.