This is the horrific moment an Indiana father admitted that his baby was bitten by rats more than 50 times as he slept on the couch.
David Schonabaum called for help on September 13, 2023 after he woke up to find his infant son covered in blood with his fingers chewed to the bone by rats.
‘Blood was all over the pillow,’ he told Evansville Police during questioning. ‘I picked him up, I seen [sic] the blood everywhere, his diaper was half hanging off of him.
‘I took him into the bathroom and I didn’t know what was going on at the time yet, because I hadn’t seen his hands…I thought he had a nosebleed.’
After his sister-in-law pointed out the boy’s hands, Schonabaum ‘instantly’ thought ‘it’s the rats,’ he told investigators, an interrogation video obtained by Law & Crime showed.
The boy’s flesh had been chewed off the top of his fingers and his thumb on his right hand, causing several of the baby’s fingers to later be amputated, according to Fox 59.
The child suffered from more than 50 bites across his entire body, including his forehead and cheeks.
The father immediately called 911 after determining the cause of his child’s injuries and the six-month-old was taken to the hospital, where he received a blood transfusion, according to Fox 59.
David Schonabaum called for help on September 13, 2023 after he woke up to find his infant son covered in blood with his fingers chewed to the bone by rats. ‘Blood was all over the pillow,’ he told Evansville Police during questioning
Schonabaum, who was sentenced to 16 years in prison, admitted to Evansville Police that his home had a rat problem during initial interrogation, but insisted no one had ever been bitten by one in the home
Schonabaum, who was sentenced to 16 years, admitted to Evansville Police that his home had a rat problem during initial interrogation.
The dad insisted, however, that no one in the home had ever been bitten by a rat before, and that he had an exterminator coming once per month to help with the problem.
When police investigated the home, they found discarded food in the father’s room and rodent feces in the house, according to Fox 59. A prosecutor called the inside of the home a ‘house of horrors.’
Trash in the backyard had also been flagged by the terminator as a reason rodents would be attracted to their home, according to Fox 59.
Every day, when his wife was home, Schonabaum would rise around 5:30am and he admitted he would normally see rats in the bathroom, which was next door to his bedroom, where the baby was sleeping in a bassinet.
He had slept on the couch the night it happened because he was ‘trying to be a good husband and make sure the house is clean’ for when his wife was expected to arrive the next day.
Although police released him after the initial interrogation, he was later arrested and convicted of three counts of child neglect – one for each child living in the house at the time.
He was sentenced to 16 years in October.
His wife, Angel Schonabaum (left), also pleaded guilty to one count of neglect of a dependent. Schonabaum’s sister-in-law, Delaina Thurman (right), was sentenced to probation
His wife, Angel Schonabaum, also pleaded guilty to one count of neglect of a dependent. She received a year credit for time served and was given three years of probation under a suspended sentence.
Schonabaum’s sister-in-law, Delaina Thurman, was sentenced to probation.
Prior to the incident, the parents had a Department of Child Services (DCS) case open against them after one of their children was injured due to lack of supervision in December 2022, according to Fox 59.
DCS also substantiated a claim of physical abuse by David that allegedly took place in June 2023, but the department determined the child could stay with the parents.
Three DCS employees were later fired for not removing the children from the home before the rat attack.
The employees later filed a federal lawsuit.
