MANCHESTER, New Hampshire — Neighbors of the 9-year-old twins left home alone for months said there was nothing out of the ordinary with the two boys, who were quiet, wore clean clothes and got on and off the school bus on a regular basis.
They disembarked from the bus and usually headed straight to their apartment, said Rosemitz Lemite, who lives in their Karatzas Avenue apartment building.
“They didn’t look like kids who were home alone. They seemed very independent,” said Lemite, whose daughter is about their age and rides the Weston School bus with them.
Approached by reporters on Thursday, residents said they were surprised to hear that the two boys were the ones mentioned in news accounts. Most neighbors described them as quiet. None knew they were home alone.
According to police reports and a prosecutor, the two lived alone in the family’s apartment between July and November. In early July, their parents, Jerusalem and Catherine Monday, and three of their children traveled to Nigeria and left the boys in the care of their uncle.
On Nov. 5, police and social workers became involved in the case. Police found the boys in the apartment with no food in the refrigerator and ramen noodles in the cabinets.
The uncle, Giobari Atura, 25, has been charged with child neglect, and the boys were initially placed into foster care.
Assistant Hillsborough County Attorney Michael Valentine said the Mondays returned to New Hampshire in late November.
They are not facing charges, and the boys have been returned to their home.
According to police reports, Atura assured the Mondays that the boys were fine; in actuality, he was visiting them about three days a week, police reports indicate.
Police said the boys ate breakfast and lunch at school. Atura would bring them food when he visited, which was in the afternoon or evening about three times a week, reports said.
On Thursday, the next-door neighbor to the Mondays said the family moved into the apartment in July, just after another resident moved out.
“The only people we see go in and out are the kids,” said the neighbor, who did not want his name published. He said he hears chanting from the apartment at times.
“We don’t ever see the parents,” he said. He said he had no idea the parents were not living next door for several months.
According to police reports, the Mondays made arrangements with Atura and a friend to make sure the boys had food and that an adult would sleep in the apartment with them.
The children live in a building occupied by several African families. Police reports said at times they would sleep with a downstairs neighbor.
And the pastor of their church, who also lives in the building, was also there to help.
The pastor welcomed the children into his apartment and fed them snacks, said his granddaughter, who did not want to be named.
“That’s an African thing to do,” she said. But she was critical about two children being left on their own for months.
She said her grandparents wouldn’t have known the boys’ predicament because the children speak only English, which her grandparents do not understand.
She said she knows the Monday family and Atura from their church, a mostly African congregation that meets at Faith Baptist Church.
“They’re good people,” she said of the Mondays.
The prosecutor Valentine said charges against Atura, which were originally filed in Manchester District Court, will be dropped and refiled in Hillsborough County Superior Court. The charge will remain a misdemeanor, he said.
The Hillsborough County Attorney has the staff and expertise to deal with cases of child abuse and neglect, he said. Valentine said prosecutors would not take into account cultural differences.
“We don’t analyze the case adopting a different cultural standard. We analyze the case based on the way our New Hampshire law is interpreted,” Valentine said.
He said he was impressed with the children, and how they got themselves up and ready for school most days.
Lemite’s adult son, Keneth Lemite, said he’s seen the two boys recently. Sometimes they play in the hallway. He’s amazed that they lived unsupervised for long periods of time.
“When I was 9 years old, I couldn’t keep quiet for the life of me,” he said. “I’m guessing they’re two pretty smart kids, pretty mature kids.”
mhayward@unionleader.com
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