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Amanda Osmon and Jeffrey Scheda mugshots via Vanderburgh County Sheriff's Office
Images via Vanderburgh County Sheriff's Office

Indiana parents leave teenage daughter at a mental hospital and get drunk instead of picking her up

There have been two bizarre true crime cases involving child neglect from Indiana in recent weeks.

An Indiana teen checked herself into a mental hospital on Saturday, Jan. 25, for a mental health evaluation, but her parents refused to pick her up, and police now allege it’s because they were drunk.

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It all happened in Evansville, IN, about 165 miles southwest of Indianapolis. The teenage girl, 13, told staff at Evansville’s Ascension St. Vincent Hospital she fought with her mother that day, 36-year-old Amanda Osmon, and needed a mental health evaluation. Multiple reports state the girl admitted she bit her mother. The hospital evaluated the girl, who arrived at the hospital alone, and then tried to contact her parents, Osmon, and the teenager’s stepdad, 41-year-old Jeffrey Scheda, but couldn’t get ahold of them.

Osmon finally picked up her daughter at 10pm

Amanda Osmon and Jeffrey Scheda via Amanda Osmon/Facebook

Hospital staff told the police they called Osmon and Scheda several times. Staff said Scheda answered once but hung up when they asked him to have Osmon call them back. Officials say Osmon finally answered around 10pm and said she seemed “agitated” when asked to get her kid. Things got heated, staff said, and Osmon reportedly told a social worker, “I’m not dealing with this s*** tonight.” The social worker told police Osmon seemed drunk.

Hours passed, however, and Osmon and Scheda’s daughter remained at the hospital, so finally, the hospital called the police, who showed up at Osmon and Scheda’s place around 3am. Osmon told them she had only just been notified the girl needed to be picked up and seemed to forget the 10pm phone call. Osmon and Scheda admitted they got drunk and passed out, according to Evansville news outlet, 14 News.

Dependent neglect charges followed

via Perez Hilton/X

Osmon and Scheda were arrested and charged with Neglect of a Dependent, but they were later released on bond. As a condition of their release, Osmon and Scheda can’t consume alcohol or contact their daughter without permission from Indiana’s Department of Child Services. Scheda and Osmon are expected back in court on Jan. 29. The teenage girl’s current whereabouts and the results of her mental health evaluation remain unknown, but based on those allegations, it seems her home life is troubled. Hopefully, she gets the help she needs.

Meanwhile, the Osmon-Scheda case is the second unusual child neglect situation in Indiana in recent weeks. In December, 29-year-old Ashley Gibson in Bloomington, IN, was arrested when she pulled her 2-year-old child out of a suitcase on a city bus. Gibson said she zipped her son in the suitcase to keep him warm in Bloomington’s winter weather, and her caseworker told her it was OK to do so.

The boy, however, was dressed appropriately for the cold temperatures and had been in the suitcase for at least 18 minutes, officials said, based on when Gibson brought it on the bus, Indianapolis news Fox 59 reported. Individuals in suitcases can suffocate. Gibson, who pleaded not guilty, was arrested on child neglect charges and then freed on her own recognizance. Her son’s whereabouts and condition have not so far been reported, and Gibson’s investigation is ongoing.


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Author
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William Kennedy
William Kennedy is a full-time freelance content writer and journalist in Eugene, OR. William covered true crime, among other topics for Grunge.com. He also writes about live music for the Eugene Weekly, where his beat also includes arts and culture, food, and current events. He lives with his wife, daughter, and two cats who all politely accommodate his obsession with Doctor Who and The New Yorker.