The Misery Machine - The Case of The Schonabaum Family Rat Infestation

Episode Date: December 28, 2023

Merry Christmas! In the wake of the holidays and Drewby's surgical recovery, we decided to release an episode that we recorded back in September that we thought was lost. This week, we discuss the case of the Schonabaum family from Indiana who kept their house in such a state of squalor that their 6-month-old baby boy was eaten alive by the rats that infested their home. Support Our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/themiserymachine PayPal: https://www.paypal.me/themiserymachine Join Our Facebook Group: https://t.co/DeSZIIMgXs?amp=1 Instagram: miserymachinepodcast Twitter: misery_podcast Discord: https://discord.gg/kCCzjZM #themiserymachine #podcast #truecrime Source Material: https://lawandcrime.com/crime/the-baby-was-covered-in-blood-infant-almost-eaten-alive-by-rats-allegedly-suffered-near-fatal-event/ https://www.americanscientist.org/article/the-bright-side-of-the-black-death#:~:text=The%20Black%20Death%20was%20so,when%20the%20plague%20reached%20London. https://www.terminix.com/blog/home-garden/homeowners-rat-infestations/#:~:text=One%20of%20the%20main%20reasons,and%20contaminate%20other%20dust%20particles. https://nypost.com/2023/09/22/dad-of-baby-boy-gnawed-by-rats-said-he-goes-from-zero-to-prison/ https://www.14news.com/2023/09/21/affidavits-baby-nearly-dies-after-being-found-with-more-than-50-rat-bites-nearly-missing-fingers/ https://www.facebook.com/angel.lear.54 https://www.facebook.com/david.schonabaum https://www.facebook.com/cheyenne.hayes.2020 https://www.tiktok.com/@davidschonabaum5

On September 13, 23, officers with the Evansville Police Department responded to a call at a home located at 1606 South Linwood Avenue in Evansville, Indiana. The caller later identified as David Shaughnabom told dispatches that there was a baby in his house that required immediate medical attention. Allegedly, David awoke to find his six-month-old son covered in blood, and it looked like the little boy's fingers had been shoot off. When first responders arrived at the scene, they quickly realized that David was serious. The baby's hand looked like something out of a horror film and his tiny bones were exposed. There was blood everywhere. Paramedics quickly provided emergency medical treatment and stabilized the little boy before transporting him by ambulance

to a local hospital. But soon after arrival, the little boy was brought by helicopter to Riley Children's Hospital in Indianapolis for more specialized treatment. Yes, he was that bad off. In fact, the medical staff that treated the baby described what he had gone through as a near-fatal event that required a blood transfusion because the little boy was starting to go into shock due to blood loss. According to the doctors, he suffered more than 50 bites to his forehead, cheek, and nose alone. When he arrived at the second hospital, the little boy had an internal body temperature of 93.5 degrees. His blood pressure was 50 over 30. Now remember, a normal body temperature is about 98.6 degrees.

but what was really unsettling were the little boy's hands, which was the injury that occasioned the 911 call in the first place. The baby was missing flesh from all four fingers in his thumb on his right hand. As you mentioned previously, the bones were exposed on all of his fingertips. The worst damage occurred on his index finger in his pinky. On these fingers specifically, he was missing flesh down to his second knuckle. The wounds were so severe that some of his fingers needed to be amputated. Little boy also suffered bite wounds to his arms, legs, feet, and toes.

But who or what would cause this type of damage to a helpless baby? Hey, everybody. According to our analytics from the previous two years, only our most die-hard subscribers watch us on Christmas week. So I figured we would do something we don't normally do, and I would quickly take the time to say thank you very much for all of the comments and messages wishing me well after my surgery. A surgery I am roughly 36 hours removed from at the time we are recording this.

I am stupidly humbled and grateful for all of your support. Furthermore, on behalf of Yergy, I would like to thank you all for your part in helping to grow our channel. We've gotten more than 220,000 subscribers this year, which has over doubled the size of our channel. I cannot thank you enough for that, and I'll never be able to repay you all for that. So we are constantly looking for ways to try to give back. So as you know, our channel struggles with demonetization with YouTube ad revenue, but as we've mentioned before, whenever we get a sponsor, we donate a portion to charities in our area. One such charity is the Trinity Jubilee Center here in Lewiston, Maine. They are a soup kitchen, food pantry, day shelter, and resource center, and they have been working very hard to provide food for families in need this holiday season.

We will be donating the entire proceeds of the following sponsor segment to the Trinity Jubilee Center. Links will be down below. You are under no obligation to donate, but all I ask is if you could stay with us for the entire sponsor segment. And be extra clear, no, it's not a gambling app. It's all play money for fun. This episode that you're watching was one we recorded back in September. I thought the files were lost, but I was able to recover it. And I apologize for all the rough cuts between this and the rest of the video. But we will be back to our regular schedule and video quality after January 1st. Thank you again for all of your support this year, and please, please have a safe and happy new year. This week's episode has been brought to you by Jackpot World, a fun, entertaining, and free way to experience authentic casino slots under Android, iOS, and Windows devices.

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What they found after a cursory search was shocking. About three feet away from the bed where David and his wife Angel slept was a bassinet. The room was full of clutter and looked like a scene from the TV docu-series hoarders. There was trash, half-eaten food, and rodent feces covering almost every surface. After taking a peek inside of the bassinet, police found copious amounts of blood. A blanket, a boppy pillow, and the bassinet itself were coated in it. It's important to note that boppy pillows are used. as an aid for breastfeeding and shouldn't be placed in a crib or bassinet due to the risks

associated with suffocation. David and Angel were definitely at the top of the running for parents of the year at this juncture. In addition, the diaper disposal container was also smeared in blood, and it had what appeared to be little rodent footprints covering it, as if the rodents were traipsing about in the blood. It was pretty clear who the culprit or culprits were that had inflicted such horrendous injuries on the little boy. What asked how they could allow such horrors to be inflicted upon their son, because this didn't just happen all in one night, David and Angel claimed that they had never heard the child cry.

Where the bassemant was just three feet from the couple's bed, I find this claim to be utterly ridiculous, and the two of them are horrible liars, in my opinion. When local news station WFIE News 14 spoke with the Shannabaum's neighbors, they had this to share. They're good people. They have always been nice. They have always been cool.

I've always seen her take care of that baby. If you spoke to people living on South Linwood Avenue, they would tell you their neighbors were good people. That's because they had no reason to believe otherwise. They take good care of their kids. I'm always seeing them loving food in the house. But everything was not as it seemed. People can put up a front or maybe you just don't know them well enough

or behind closed doors. There's things going on. And there were. Police made their way out to the home on South Linwood for a medic run. The only reason why we even knew about it was because the dad woke up and the baby was covered in blood. And that was our first involvement. We should have been involved. Someone should have picked up the phone and called us prior to that.

Inside of the home, police say were deplorable conditions. An affidavit cited feces on the floor. Rats in the home and trash scattered about. That affidavit was for three people arrested in connection to the severe neglect of a six-month-old. Parents, David and Angel Sondobam and Delana Thurman, Angel's sister. Did you hear how severe the injuries were to the six-month-old? No. Police believe that a rat mice bit the skin off of the fingers of the child.

Oh, my God. The child almost actually died. It was rushed to Riley's children in Indy. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. I didn't know about the finger. She told me that his face was disfigured. Yeah, they believe that he was bitten a little over 50 times. Oh, my God.

Neighbor Teresa Favors didn't know how bad it was until we spoke with her. How does a child get bit over 50 times and nobody knows that the child is bit? Would you have ever suspected something like that to happen here? No. In the affidavit, police say the family was already under investigation by the Department of Child Services. The last home visit, September 9th. That was from a home-based therapy company called Maglanger Home Services. We reached out to the DCS to attempt to understand how the situation

could have gone on for months. They told us they couldn't comment on the case. EPD Sergeant Anna Gray says it's one of the worst child neglect cases she's seen in her decades on the force. It's really hard to see that and it's really hard sometimes to just maintain composure and be professional. As for the accused, they face multiple charges of child neglect, a case so bad it nearly killed a baby who couldn't defend itself. Any forms of neglect, none shown, none of that. I've never seen it. According to Evansville Police Department Sergeant Anna Gray, quote, from what the doctors and nurses told the detectives very near to death,

the child had lost so much blood that the child actually had to have blood transfusions as well. Several fingers had to be amputated. This was a case where rats had been living in the home. The home was overwhelmed with rodents. They said they were trying to get rid of the rats, but I think they were like trapping about for a day at least. I mean, that's a lot of rats, end quote. As I'm sure you're all pretty well aware if you've watched our show for any length of time,

Drewby and I are big animal lovers. We have three cats and I've kept fancy rats for the bulk of my adult life and believe that they make wonderful pets. But there are many dangers that occur when your home falls victim to an infestation, and it's not just the potential bites. Rats can spread diseases that are dangerous or fatal to humans or pets. They can spread diseases through their feces, urine, saliva, and below. They can also carry ticks, lice, and other pests into your home, which can spread even more diseases.

Now, some of these diseases are pretty nasty. It include the hantavirus, tularemia, leptospirosis, salmonella, rat bite fever, and the dreaded bubonic plague, you know, the one that killed 30 to 50% of the entire population of Europe. A rat infestation can also trigger allergies and contaminate food. It can also affect your mental health. A study in Baltimore found that residents who reported daily rat sightings reported greater depressive symptoms than residents exposed to rats less frequently. Infestations can also cause property damage by chewing through wiring in homes and car engines. This can start fires by shorting out appliances or lighting fixtures.

The little boy's parents, David and Angel Shana Baum, as well as his aunt Delana Thurman, who also goes by the name Cheyenne, were arrested and charged with numerous felonies stemming from the baby being nearly eaten alive by rats while in their care. Delana was living at the couple's South Linwood Avenue home at the time of this incident. David was charged with one count of neglect of a dependent resulting in serious bodily injury and two counts of neglect of a dependent by placing said dependent in an endangering situation. Angel was charged with two counts of the former and four counts of the latter, while Delana faced two counts of neglect of a dependent by placing said dependent in an

endangering situation. What's even more troubling is that Delana had two children of her own that were living at the house at the time, and a search of Angel's social media displayed family portraits that showed three additional kids. David's social media profiles further confirm this. So there was a potential of a total of six children living in a rat-infested squalor. Her social media also displays that Angel worked as a direct care professional. Now, hopefully she wasn't also treating her clients with the same care she gave her care.

kids. All three adults are currently being held at the Vanderberg County Jail. David and Angel's bond was set at $10,000 while Delanis was set at 2,500. The trio were scheduled to appear in court on Friday, September 22nd at 1 p.m. It should be noted, this was not David's first run-in with the law. In 2021, he entered a plea agreement for possession of meth and was given a one-year suspended sentence, which he served on home detention and completed community service. David was already a felon, but he had never spent any time in prison. On a somewhat unrelated note, in June of 2023,

police were called to their home after a relative threatened to blow up their house over the phone. So who knows what other kinds of turmoil these children were being put through. As his case is still developing, we'll keep an eye out for updates as they become available. It's unclear how the little boy is doing or what became of the other five children

living in the derelict home. Let's just hope that he makes a full, recovery and that he and the other children will be placed in a home that is clean, free of rodents, and with adults who will love them and keep them safe.