Shock twist for Indiana mother who left baby to die in horrendous rat-infested home

An Indiana mother who left her 6-month-old son to die in a horrible, rat-infested home will face no jail time.

Angel Schonabaum, 29, was sentenced Thursday to three years of probation under an agreement that gave her a one-year prison term. Evansville Courier & Press reports.

She will also need to undergo a mental health evaluation and pursue and recommend treatment. according to Law & Crime.

Angel had initially pleaded not guilty to child neglect charges stemming from the September 2023 incident in which police found her young son with more than 50 rat bites on his forehead, cheek and nose, but changed her plea in late September, just days earlier. she would appear before a jury.

The child’s father, David Schonabaum, 32, meanwhile, was convicted in September of child neglect of the baby and two other children at their Evansville home.

Her husband, David Schonabaum, 32, was convicted of child neglect in September and was sentenced to 16 years behind bars, while her sister, Delania Thurman, 25, pleaded guilty to two counts of neglect of a dependent and was sentenced to time served of two years behind bars. year probation

Prosecutors have said David called Evansville police on September 3, 2023, reporting that he woke up to find his son “covered in blood” and claimed the boy’s fingers appeared to be “chewed off.”

When officers arrived on the scene, they found the child in a bloody crib about three feet from where his parents were sleeping in a room full of half-eaten food and rat feces.

Detectives wrote that there was a “large amount of blood” in the crib, along with a “boppy pillow” and a blanket that were both “covered in blood,” Law & Crime reports.

The child’s diaper container also had “blood everywhere” and what appeared to be a series of rodent footprints left in the blood.

“All four of (the victim’s) fingers and the thumb of his right hand were missing flesh at the top, exposing the fingertip bones,” Detective Jonathan Helm wrote in an affidavit, describing the damage done to the baby that night had suffered.

“The damage to (the victim’s) index and pinky fingers was the most severe,” he added, noting that the appendages were “missing the flesh halfway down each finger.”

Authorities responded to the Schonabaum home on September 3, 2023, and found the baby boy in a bloody crib about three feet away from where his parents slept in a room full of half-eaten food and rat feces.

An affidavit details trash and trash detectives were observed both inside and outside the home after arriving on the scene — where they said they found several discarded food items in the victim’s room.

First responders immediately attempted to treat the child and were able to stabilize him enough to take him to a local hospital, from where he was flown to another hospital in Indianapolis for more specialized treatment.

Hospital records provided to police show that doctors described the child’s condition as ‘near fatal’. They say his blood oxygen level is only 69 percent and he needed a blood transfusion after nearly going into shock.

Doctors also described how the boy was missing skin on his fingers, had bone exposed on all five fingertips of his right hand, and suffered bites on his arms, legs and feet.

‘From what the doctors and nurses told the detectives: [he was] very close to death,” Evansville PD Sgt. Anna Gray said WEHT when asked about the boy’s condition.

“The child had lost so much blood that the child actually had to have a blood transfusion,” she said. ‘Several fingers had to be amputated.’

When later asked how the baby’s parents could have allowed such horrors to happen, Gray replied: ‘Their excuse was that they had not heard the child crying.

“The house was overrun with rodents,” she added. The home, which investigators said contained clutter and trash such as discarded food left in the victim’s room, was also believed to house four other small children.

“It’s one of those situations where they just aren’t paying attention,” she continued in the department’s official statement.

Evansville Police Sgt. Anna Gray said the boy’s parents (pictured) ‘just weren’t paying attention’

But it was later revealed that the Indiana Department of Child Services began making biweekly visits to the family’s home in April 2023, when a social worker noticed that the home at the time was littered with trash, animal feces and dirty dishes.

However, the social worker claimed that the condition of the house was ‘slowly improving’ and no action was taken against either parent.

Just a few days before the baby’s near-death experience, another DCS practitioner also traveled to the home and spoke with Angel’s sister Delania Thurman, 25, who had moved in with her children several weeks earlier.

She reported that the house only had a “normal amount of mice.”

The social worker added that when questioned about what appeared to be bite marks on the feet of one of the children, she denied that the wounds were caused by rodents.

All of the children have since been placed in foster care, including the child, after he was released from the hospital.

Meanwhile, David was sentenced to 16 years behind bars on charges of child neglect, and Thurman, the boy’s aunt, pleaded guilty to two counts of neglect of a dependent and was sentenced to two years’ probation.