On camera during questioning, a man from Indiana mentioned that he was tidying up their house for his wife. Shockingly, he later came across their young child severely harmed by rats.
David Schonabaum, aged 32, expressed in a recording from September 13, 2022, that he was striving to prepare a clean and welcoming home for his wife. He stated, “I’m trying to be a good husband and ensure the house is neat for her when she returns.”
Regrettably, in the absence of his wife, Schonabaum and his sister-in-law made a gruesome discovery of their infant son’s injuries. As remembered by Schonabaum, the sister-in-law noticed, “It’s the fingers.”
David Schonabaum (Evansville Police Department).
As previously reported, investigators said the baby was missing flesh from the fingers and thumb on his right hand, even exposing bone on all five of the fingertips. He had more than 50 bites to his forehead, cheek, and nose, not to mention other bites on his arms, legs, feet, and toes, authorities said.
Schonabaum is currently serving a 16-year prison sentence, having been found guilty of three counts of child neglect — one for the baby and two for the other children in the Evansville house. Meanwhile, the mother, Angel Schonabaum, pleaded guilty to one count of neglect of a dependent, received credit for a year of time served, and got three years of probation under a suspended sentence.
In the footage, David Schonabaum said that regarding the bites, the first explanation that popped into his head was the rats: “Instantly, it was the rats because that’s the only thing that could have been in that room all night.”
He acknowledged having significant rat problems in the home and insisted he hired Terminex to attempt to fix it.
No one in the home had been bitten by rats before, he maintained.
