MIRAMAR
School bus kills troubled mother
A mentally unstable woman -- who three years ago was the focus of a national 18-hour manhunt -- was struck and killed in an accident Monday.
By SARA OLKON AND HANNAH SAMPSON
solkon@MiamiHerald.com
Nora Montano's life ended Monday morning almost as violently as she had lived it.
At 35, Montano had a long history of mental illness, capturing national headlines in 2003 after she rammed her car into a house and snatched her two sleeping children in a late-night, commando-style abduction.
Montano, who had been diagnosed as bipolar, was later found not guilty by reason of insanity, and sent to a group home where, in recent weeks, her deranged behavior resumed, as she attempted to take residents hostage, her lawyer said.
Kicked out of the group home, she was sent to live with a temporary caretaker in Miramar when, on Monday morning, she decided to take a bike ride to a nearby Wal-Mart.As she pedaled west on Miramar Parkway near Dykes Road, she was struck by a school bus carrying 28 students to high school about 7 a.m. Police said Montano ran a red light.
She was airlifted to Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood, where she was later pronounced dead. Authorities said she died of head trauma.
The students were not injured, according to Broward school district officials. Everglades High School Principal Paul Fetscher said the students on the bus did not see the accident happen, but he put the school's counselors on standby in case any of the students needed to talk to someone.
GRABBED FROM BEDS
A former Army private who had been in and out of mental wards, Montano and her husband, José Montano, executed a brazen middle-of-the-night kidnapping in July 2003.
Lorena Montano, 3, and her brother, Moises Montano, 2, where living with Nora Montano's mother in Miramar when they were grabbed from their beds by the couple, who, clad in military garb, barreled into the house in their car about 2:30 a.m. The couple was caught following an 18-hour manhunt. The children, who were unharmed, were returned to their grandmother.
Nora Montano's mother, Nora Sarria, had been given custody of the couple's children because of her daughter's unstable mental state, court records show. In August 2002, Nora Montano had disturbing thoughts about her children, whom she described as ''good'' and ''evil,'' saying that she felt that her son represented evil and was ''possessed by demons,'' the records show.
In recent weeks, Montano was kicked out of a Pembroke Pines group home after she had stopped taking her medication and lost control, according to her attorney, Patrick Rastatter. He did not have details of the hostage incident, and an official with the group home, Bayview Center for Mental Health in Pembroke Pines, declined to comment Monday.
WITH CARETAKER
Montano was placed with a caretaker in the 3800 block of Southwest 167th Avenue in Miramar while her guardians looked for a new group home.
It was from here, at 6 a.m., that Montano left a note for her caretaker, telling her she was biking 3 ½ miles to a Wal-Mart Supercenter, open 24 hours, police said.
It was unclear whether Montano was allowed to come and go as she pleased.
Her death cut short a life frequently punctuated by pain.
SERIES OF MARRIAGES
As she entered her late teens, Montano's mother noted that her daughter was growing increasingly delusional.
After graduating from North Miami Beach High School, Montano worked in retail and customer service, then enlisted in the Army Reserves. All the while, Montano swirled in and out of intense romantic relationships, resulting in a series of short-lived marriages.
In her late 20s, Montano married José Montano and had two children within two years. Shortly after, she began the first of several involuntary admissions to mental hospitals.
After Sarria became the children's caretaker, she filed a restraining order against her daughter.
''She also said this was a war between us,'' Sarria wrote to justify the restraining order. ``And that one of us was going to leave the house, dead.''
FK took the liberty of highlighting her favorite parts. The best part, by far, is the incorrect grammar. But FK what about the incoherent presentation of the facts? The subheadings help with that one. Why does her marital history matter in her getting hit by the bus? Was she cycling to another husband? Finally, would one expect a school bus and its passengers to be harmed when hit by a bicyclist? Ridiculous
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