Pocono News Section

Neighborhood Devastated by Attack on Little Girl

Neighborhood Devastated by Attack on Little Girl - Monday, July 6, 2009 at 5:45PM EST

Reported by: Mark Hiller
Monday, Jul 6, 2009 @ 05:45pm EST
TAYLOR, LACKAWANNA COUNTY- A Lackawanna County neighborhood is devastated after a brutal attack on a 5-year-old girl. It happened Sunday morning in Taylor at Maple Manor Trailer Park.

A man is charged with raping and trying to kill the girl in her bedroom. Now neighbors are struggling to come to terms with the horrific attack. "My first reaction was horror, fear," said Bonnie Kresge.

She has lived at Maple Manor for 7-years. She can't believe someone tried to rape and kill a 5-year-old girl in this park. "It's taken away so much of what we feel is our own, you know. You can't even put your children to be at night without someone breaking into your house," she said.

40-year-old Felix Montoya also lives at Maple Manor. Neighbors are outraged at the crimes he's accused of committing. Warner Robacker said, "They really should have beat the living daylights out of him."

Robacker demands his own form of justice for an attack so horrible that's hard to comprehend. "You're talking about a 5-year-old baby. You know what I mean, It's just. He's lucky I wasn't around. 'Cause he wouldn't have gotten out of that bedroom. Not alive," he said.

Many of Felix Montoya’s neighbors say they really don't know him -- that he's only been living in their neighborhood less than a year.

Dean Martin and his wife and children live just doors down from Montoya. They learned what happened during a holiday weekend family gathering.

"It went from a happy, cheery time to sitting with our hands in our faces, faces in our hands shaking our heads asking why and wanting to do nothing more than cry," he told Eyewitness News.

Neighbors want to help the victim and her family somehow get past a crime that no one will ever forget. The little girl underwent surgery yesterday and is recovering.

Montoya is locked up on $200,000 bail.