An infant who was nearly gnawed to death by rats last week has been released from the hospital, cops said – the latest development in an Indiana suburb that officials are calling one of the worst cases of child neglect they have ever seen.
The child, just 6 months old, suffered more than 50 bites to her forehead, cheek, nose, thigh, foot and toes while sleeping in her crib in Evansville, police said – before being found with all of her fingers by her father the next morning missing from his right hand.
Because the child did not bleed to death, he required a blood transfusion, according to an affidavit about the Sept. 13 incident – and was subsequently taken to a hospital before being airlifted to Indianapolis, 170 miles away.
Specialists there were working around the clock on the child’s “traumatic injuries,” police said in announcing his release Friday – adding that the damage caused was mostly limited to the minor’s right hand and forearm.
“All four fingers and the victim’s thumb.” [that] “The hand was missing flesh from the top, exposing the fingertip bones,” cops wrote Monday after arresting the children’s parents and live-in aunt, who remained in jail Friday on neglect charges.
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An infant who was nearly gnawed to death by rats in this Evansville, Indiana, home last week has been released from the hospital, police announced Friday – after the child was transported 170 miles away for a life-saving medical procedure Indianapolis was flown
The child’s father, David and Angel Schonabaum, ages 31 and 28, were booked into the Vanderburgh County Jail Thursday on multiple counts of neglect and other criminal charges for allegedly allowing the incident to occur
Police officers in the town near Kentucky say the trio of 31-year-old David Schonabaum, 28-year-old Angel Schonabaum and 25-year-old Delania Thurman, who also lived at the Evansville residence, allowed the incident to take place .
“Their excuse was that they didn’t hear the child crying,” Sergeant Anna Gray of the Evansville Police Department said Friday after the infant’s release, noting that he was nearly eaten alive.
“The house was full of rodents,” she added of the home, which investigators said was full of clutter and trash like discarded food left in the victim’s room and also reportedly housed four other young children.
“It’s one of those situations where they just weren’t paying attention,” she continued in the department’s official statement.
“The injuries were significant and the child lost a lot of blood.
‘[He] could have gone into shock fairly early on.’
Although the officer’s statement did not provide much information about the child’s condition, she did say, “From what the doctors and nurses told investigators, [he was] very close to death.’
She revealed: “The child had lost so much blood that he actually had to have blood transfusions too.”
“Several fingers had to be amputated.”
Meanwhile, the affidavit filed along with the arrests of the Schonabaums and Thurmans on Monday provided a glimpse into the squalid conditions the child was subjected to while living in the South Linwood Avenue home – which police said was full of trash, rodents and There were footprints and feces.
Police Det. Jonathan Helm wrote about how emergency responders found the child after receiving a frantic 911 call from David – who reportedly woke up to the grisly scene around 6:30 a.m. and wasn’t sure if his son was still alive.
“All four of (the victim’s) fingers and the thumb of his right hand were missing flesh on the top, exposing the fingertip bones,” Helm wrote, describing the damage the baby suffered overnight.
“Damage to (the victim’s) index and little fingers was most severe,” he added, noting that the limbs were “missing flesh halfway up each finger.”
Delania Thurman, the boy’s 25-year-old aunt, had been living in the home with her own two children for about four months, cops said
Police officers in the town near Kentucky say the trio of 31-year-old David Schonabaum, 28-year-old Angel Schonabaum and 25-year-old Delania Thurman, who also lived at the Evansville residence, allowed the incident to take place
“Their excuse was that they didn’t hear the child crying,” Sergeant Anna Gray of the Evansville Police Department said Friday after the infant’s release, noting that he was nearly eaten alive
“The house was full of rodents,” she added of the apartment building, where investigators say there was clutter and trash like discarded food in the victim’s room
Five children – including the victim – lived in the apartment, suspects told police when they were arrested Monday
The affidavit also describes the clutter and trash that investigators observed both inside and outside the home after arriving at the scene – where they said they found several discarded food items in the victim’s room.
In the room where the child slept, some rodent footprints left in the blood were also discovered, as well as rodent feces and several items in the room that appeared to have been chewed on.
In other rooms, the police said they found more feces as well as a number of rat traps and a bait box.
Police also revealed that a foul smell was emanating from both the kitchen and the basement of the house and that the child’s parents had two other children, aged three and six, living in the apartment.
It also showed that both David and Angel – who are both charged with neglect of a dependent over the incident – had a case pending with the Indiana Department of Child Services over the deplorable conditions at the home since one of their children was injured in December due to a “lack of supervision”.
Police said the service also began conducting twice-weekly visits to the family’s home in April, with a caseworker’s notes indicating the home was littered with trash, animal feces and dirty dishes at the time.
However, the caseworker wrote at the time that the condition of the home was “slowly improving” and no charges had been filed against either parent.
The affidavit filed alongside the arrests of the Schonabaums and Thurmans on Monday, meanwhile, provided some insight into the squalid conditions the child was subjected to while living in the South Linwood Avenue home – which police say was full of trash, rodents and There were footprints and feces
Police Det. Jonathan Helm wrote about how emergency responders found the child after receiving a frantic 911 call from David – who reportedly woke up to the grisly scene around 6:30 a.m. and wasn’t sure if his son was still alive
The affidavit also describes the clutter and trash that investigators observed both inside and outside the home after arriving at the scene – where they said they found several discarded food items in the victim’s room
Meanwhile, records show a Maglinger Home Based Services caseworker visited the home much later – four days before the father called 911 – but again, no action was taken.
It also shows that an allegation of physical abuse was also made against David on June 17 and that the claim at the time was even substantiated by DCS.
However, because the family was already receiving services at the time of the report, the decision was made to proceed with initial services, police said.
Days earlier, on Sept. 5, another DCS caseworker traveled to the home, police wrote, and spoke with Thurman – who told her there were a “normal number of mice” in the home.
The case worker added that when questioned about what appeared to be bite marks on one of the children’s feet, she denied that the wounds were caused by rodents.
A few weeks earlier, at the beginning of the summer, Thurman and her children began living in the house – which, David told the cops, actually belonged to his cousin and the clan was supposedly there on the sole condition of maintaining the house was allowed to live.
Gray said Friday that all of the children are now in foster care, including the child who was just released from the hospital.
In a statement, she said this was the best of the countless police neglect cases she has seen over the past two decades.
“I’ve been an officer for 20 years and we’ve seen some serious cases of neglect, but none that involved rats eating a child,” Gray said. ‘It’s terrible.’
David, who is facing three counts of neglect for violations of his dependent/child, and his wife, who is facing five felony counts, are currently being held on a $10,000 bond, while Thurman is being held on a $10,000 bond He is being held on $2,500.