Mum avoids jail after six-month-old son's 'fingers chewed to the bone' in rat attack

An Indiana mum, who confessed to neglect after her six-month-old son was horrifically attacked by a rat, leaving him with disfiguring injuries, has been given a probation sentence. This comes just weeks after her husband was handed a hefty prison term.

In an incident that shocked the nation, the boy suffered extensive rat bites and his fingers had been gnawed to the bone. Angel Schonabaum, 29, was sentenced to four years in prison on Thursday by a Vanderburgh County judge.

However, she was credited for a year already served and the remaining three years were suspended to probation, as reported by the Evansville Courier and Press. In September, Schonabaum pleaded guilty to a felony count of neglect of a dependent.

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Her legal representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment made on Friday. Schonabaum and her husband, David Schonabaum, were arrested in September 2023 after he dialled 911 to report that their infant son had been severely injured by rats in their Evansville home, according to law enforcement.

Investigators revealed that the child had suffered more than 50 rat bites and required hospital treatment, reports .

David Schonabaum was convicted by a jury in September on three felony counts of neglecting a dependent. Earlier this month, he received the maximum sentence of 16 years in prison for these charges.

An Evansville police detective noted in a probable cause affidavit that all the fingers on the child's right hand "were missing the flesh from the top of them, exposing fingertip bones."

When paramedics and police arrived, they found a young boy lying bloodied in his crib, having suffered severe bites even on his face, which left him "permanently disfigured," revealed county prosecutor Diana Moers.

On Thursday, Diana Moers' office posted on stating that Angel Schonabaum "was not residing in the home at the time of the rat-bite incident; however, she was held accountable for the deplorable conditions of the home which she was responsible for when residing there."

The house, once occupied by the Schonabaums and Angel Schonabaum's sister, Delaina Thurman, was reportedly in a terrible state, filled with rubbish and suffering from a severe rodent problem.

After pleading guilty to two counts of neglecting a dependent, court records confirm that Delaina Thurman received a sentence of two years probation.