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American Morning

Two Children Taken by Bipolar Mother Found Safe

Aired July 01, 2003 - 07:14   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


RENAY SAN MIGUEL, CNN ANCHOR: In Florida, two children, who were allegedly abducted by their mother, are safe. Police say 4-year-old Lorena and 2-year-old Moises Montana were found yesterday at a hotel in Bonifay, Florida, along with their mother, Nora Montano, and father. The parents are in custody.
Police say Nora Montano kidnapped the children by crashing a car through a glass door at the home of the children's grandmother. The grandmother has custody of the children. Nora Montano has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

Bill Robertson, spokesman for the police department in Miramar, Florida, is with us now from Miami with the latest.

Mr. Robertson, thanks for being with us today.

BILL ROBERTSON, INFORMATION OFFICER, MIRAMAR POLICE DEPARTMENT: Good morning.

MIGUEL: Good morning. What can you tell us about how this happened? Did the Amber Alert lead to this arrest?

ROBERTSON: We believe that it did assist us in locating the vehicle involved in this case. It was basically they were located by tracking their credit card use. That involved some of the rental cars that they used and also where they were staying at the hotel in Bonifay, Florida.

MIGUEL: And what was the status of the children when you found them?

ROBERTSON: Oh, they were in good condition. Everyone -- they were taken into custody without incident. The mother, the father and also the two children were in good shape.

MIGUEL: And tell us about the charges now that Nora, and if it is indeed the ex-husband, what they will face?

ROBERTSON: They're facing two counts of kidnapping, parental kidnapping, one count of home invasion robbery, and also one count of battery, which occurred inside the residence while they were taking the children.

MIGUEL: And what about the children's father? How did he get involved in this? What do we know about his involvement in the abduction? ROBERTSON: We're not quite sure at this particular time. We are led to believe that this is a former husband, and he is also -- he's the biological father of the children. So, that's how he got involved in it. So, I believe he was recruited by his former wife to assist in this kidnapping.

MIGUEL: What do we know about Nora Montano's mental state? We've heard a lot over the last 12 hours or so about bipolar disorder. Do we know any more information about her mental state and what may have led to this alleged abduction?

ROBERTSON: We're still looking into that. We've been told by family members that she's been diagnosed as bipolar and also had some other -- some mental incapacities that, you know, we're still looking into.

MIGUEL: Do we know if she was on medication and had -- you know, was on -- was taking the medication at the time all of this happened?

ROBERTSON: We were told that she was not taking her medication; that she refuses to accept the fact that she does have a mental disorder.

MIGUEL: I can't help but think that you've got some good things to say about the National Amber Alert Sstem, which we've heard so much about over the last year or so with all of these highly-publicized child abduction cases. This worked pretty much according to the way it was supposed to?

ROBERTSON: Yes. Our department received over -- you know, hundreds of tips, and we were able to, you know, wade through some of those tips and able -- some of these tips were very helpful to us in our investigation. And we just felt that the Amber Alert was a tool that -- another tool that we can use by law enforcement to help us locate these missing children or for kidnapped people. And it worked out great.

MIGUEL: And, believe me, you know, considering the way some of these stories have turned out, this is the kind of ending we like to talk about here on AMERICAN MORNING. Bill Robertson, the information officer for the Miramar police department, thanks for your time this morning. We do appreciate it.

ROBERTSON: You're welcome.

MIGUEL: Now, the mother in the case that we have just heard, Nora Montano, has been diagnosed as having bipolar disorder.

And joining us now from CNN Center to help us understand what that means is our medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

Good morning -- Sanjay.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Renay. Well, let me just tell you...

MIGUEL: I'm sorry, I just...

GUPTA: Go ahead.

MIGUEL: I wanted to make clear. Bipolar disorder is also known in some cases as manic depression as well?

GUPTA: That's right. It is known as manic depression, not known as schizophrenia. People oftentimes get those two confused. They are very different illness.

Manic depression or bipolar disorder is characterized by what you think it would be characterized by, mania as well as depression. There are all sorts of symptoms that people with manic depressive illness have.

First of all, about two million adults in the United States have this. It's about 1 percent of all adults. It often starts in late adolescence or early adulthood, and is often a life-long disease, a very important point.

The symptoms can be widely variable, which makes it sometimes different to figure out. If someone is in the manic part of the manic depressive, they're often sometimes in a very high-like state, a very euphoric-like state, sometimes they're easily irritable, things like that. Oftentimes they can have dramatic change then to being depressed, often feelings of hopelessness, feelings of guilt and maybe even feelings of suicide.

In the most severe cases, Renay, people can actually become psychotic. And what that specifically means is they have hallucinations where they see or hear things that aren't there, or delusions where they may think that they're the president or that they can fly or something like that.

Obviously all of those things are mainly characterized by poor judgment, which is why it can be such a difficult illness -- Renay.

MIGUEL: And we had heard Bill Robertson, the information officer with the Miramar police department, just say that family members had told him that she was on medication. She has been prescribed medication for this, but was not on it at the time that this incident occurred.

GUPTA: Yes, and there are really good medications out there. One of the medications that people talk about the most with bipolar or manic depressive, the same thing, is Lithium. Lithium has been a medication that has been around for a long time, and it's still widely use because it's very effective. The goal of these medications is to essentially stabilize the mood. Again, if you think about the mania and the depression, the real goal is to try and bring both of those things closer to center and stabilize the mood, so to speak.

Most often now someone who is actually on medications for manic depressive or bipolar illness, they're going to be taking something like Lithium, probably also an antidepressant, and then also sometimes an anti-conversant. That's actually medications for seizures, but they find that it has a real role as well in treating these symptoms -- Renay.

MIGUEL: And, you know, some of the research I've done on some of the Web sites involved with this, with medication and therapy there is a very high treatment success rate here. This is a treatable illness from what we’ve heard.

GUPTA: Yes, very much so. Yes, the medications, sometimes talk therapy as well, which actually go through counseling. And in the most severe cases, they actually use a combination of both.

MIGUEL: Yes.

GUPTA: So, it's very effective.

MIGUEL: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thanks so much for your time. We appreciate it.

GUPTA: All right. Thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.







Aired July 1, 2003 - 07:14   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
RENAY SAN MIGUEL, CNN ANCHOR: In Florida, two children, who were allegedly abducted by their mother, are safe. Police say 4-year-old Lorena and 2-year-old Moises Montana were found yesterday at a hotel in Bonifay, Florida, along with their mother, Nora Montano, and father. The parents are in custody.
Police say Nora Montano kidnapped the children by crashing a car through a glass door at the home of the children's grandmother. The grandmother has custody of the children. Nora Montano has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

Bill Robertson, spokesman for the police department in Miramar, Florida, is with us now from Miami with the latest.

Mr. Robertson, thanks for being with us today.

BILL ROBERTSON, INFORMATION OFFICER, MIRAMAR POLICE DEPARTMENT: Good morning.

MIGUEL: Good morning. What can you tell us about how this happened? Did the Amber Alert lead to this arrest?

ROBERTSON: We believe that it did assist us in locating the vehicle involved in this case. It was basically they were located by tracking their credit card use. That involved some of the rental cars that they used and also where they were staying at the hotel in Bonifay, Florida.

MIGUEL: And what was the status of the children when you found them?

ROBERTSON: Oh, they were in good condition. Everyone -- they were taken into custody without incident. The mother, the father and also the two children were in good shape.

MIGUEL: And tell us about the charges now that Nora, and if it is indeed the ex-husband, what they will face?

ROBERTSON: They're facing two counts of kidnapping, parental kidnapping, one count of home invasion robbery, and also one count of battery, which occurred inside the residence while they were taking the children.

MIGUEL: And what about the children's father? How did he get involved in this? What do we know about his involvement in the abduction? ROBERTSON: We're not quite sure at this particular time. We are led to believe that this is a former husband, and he is also -- he's the biological father of the children. So, that's how he got involved in it. So, I believe he was recruited by his former wife to assist in this kidnapping.

MIGUEL: What do we know about Nora Montano's mental state? We've heard a lot over the last 12 hours or so about bipolar disorder. Do we know any more information about her mental state and what may have led to this alleged abduction?

ROBERTSON: We're still looking into that. We've been told by family members that she's been diagnosed as bipolar and also had some other -- some mental incapacities that, you know, we're still looking into.

MIGUEL: Do we know if she was on medication and had -- you know, was on -- was taking the medication at the time all of this happened?

ROBERTSON: We were told that she was not taking her medication; that she refuses to accept the fact that she does have a mental disorder.

MIGUEL: I can't help but think that you've got some good things to say about the National Amber Alert Sstem, which we've heard so much about over the last year or so with all of these highly-publicized child abduction cases. This worked pretty much according to the way it was supposed to?

ROBERTSON: Yes. Our department received over -- you know, hundreds of tips, and we were able to, you know, wade through some of those tips and able -- some of these tips were very helpful to us in our investigation. And we just felt that the Amber Alert was a tool that -- another tool that we can use by law enforcement to help us locate these missing children or for kidnapped people. And it worked out great.

MIGUEL: And, believe me, you know, considering the way some of these stories have turned out, this is the kind of ending we like to talk about here on AMERICAN MORNING. Bill Robertson, the information officer for the Miramar police department, thanks for your time this morning. We do appreciate it.

ROBERTSON: You're welcome.

MIGUEL: Now, the mother in the case that we have just heard, Nora Montano, has been diagnosed as having bipolar disorder.

And joining us now from CNN Center to help us understand what that means is our medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

Good morning -- Sanjay.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Renay. Well, let me just tell you...

MIGUEL: I'm sorry, I just...

GUPTA: Go ahead.

MIGUEL: I wanted to make clear. Bipolar disorder is also known in some cases as manic depression as well?

GUPTA: That's right. It is known as manic depression, not known as schizophrenia. People oftentimes get those two confused. They are very different illness.

Manic depression or bipolar disorder is characterized by what you think it would be characterized by, mania as well as depression. There are all sorts of symptoms that people with manic depressive illness have.

First of all, about two million adults in the United States have this. It's about 1 percent of all adults. It often starts in late adolescence or early adulthood, and is often a life-long disease, a very important point.

The symptoms can be widely variable, which makes it sometimes different to figure out. If someone is in the manic part of the manic depressive, they're often sometimes in a very high-like state, a very euphoric-like state, sometimes they're easily irritable, things like that. Oftentimes they can have dramatic change then to being depressed, often feelings of hopelessness, feelings of guilt and maybe even feelings of suicide.

In the most severe cases, Renay, people can actually become psychotic. And what that specifically means is they have hallucinations where they see or hear things that aren't there, or delusions where they may think that they're the president or that they can fly or something like that.

Obviously all of those things are mainly characterized by poor judgment, which is why it can be such a difficult illness -- Renay.

MIGUEL: And we had heard Bill Robertson, the information officer with the Miramar police department, just say that family members had told him that she was on medication. She has been prescribed medication for this, but was not on it at the time that this incident occurred.

GUPTA: Yes, and there are really good medications out there. One of the medications that people talk about the most with bipolar or manic depressive, the same thing, is Lithium. Lithium has been a medication that has been around for a long time, and it's still widely use because it's very effective. The goal of these medications is to essentially stabilize the mood. Again, if you think about the mania and the depression, the real goal is to try and bring both of those things closer to center and stabilize the mood, so to speak.

Most often now someone who is actually on medications for manic depressive or bipolar illness, they're going to be taking something like Lithium, probably also an antidepressant, and then also sometimes an anti-conversant. That's actually medications for seizures, but they find that it has a real role as well in treating these symptoms -- Renay.

MIGUEL: And, you know, some of the research I've done on some of the Web sites involved with this, with medication and therapy there is a very high treatment success rate here. This is a treatable illness from what we’ve heard.

GUPTA: Yes, very much so. Yes, the medications, sometimes talk therapy as well, which actually go through counseling. And in the most severe cases, they actually use a combination of both.

MIGUEL: Yes.

GUPTA: So, it's very effective.

MIGUEL: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thanks so much for your time. We appreciate it.

GUPTA: All right. Thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.