Indiana Mom Claims 3-Year-Old Daughter ‘Sleepwalks’ After Life-Threatening Injuries; Arrested Alongside Boyfriend

An Indiana woman and her boyfriend have been charged after they were accused of inflicting serious injury on the woman's 3-year-old daughter. The nature of the injury was so serious that the 3-year-old had to go on dialysis and is currently fighting for her life in the hospital.

A young mother and her boyfriend in Indiana were accused of nearly killing a 3-year-old child in an Airbnb. Both adults allegedly beat her up so severely that nearly every part of her body was bruised.

The accused is a 23-year-old woman, Kami Nelson, who is the mother of the 3-year-old child. Nelson told police that she thought the bruises on her daughter’s body came from her walking into the door handle and similar items during sleepwalking.

Both Nelson and her boyfriend, Lee E. O’Donnell Jr., 25, are each charged with one count of neglect of a dependent resulting in catastrophic injury and one count of neglect resulting in serious bodily injury, according to court records.

The investigation began after an early morning call on March 25 when police were dispatched to a rental home on Broad Street in New Castle, Indiana, after reports of an unresponsive child were received, according to Star Press, citing the probable cause affidavit.

Upon arriving, emergency medical personnel performed life-saving measures before rushing the 3-year-old to a hospital for treatment. The child was later airlifted to Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis. Doctors determined that her injuries were far more severe than initially believed. They reported “non-accidental” lacerations to her colon and lower intestine, internal bleeding, and acute kidney injury requiring dialysis.

Medical staff said the child was “critically ill” and “in shock” after suffering from serious abdominal trauma that required emergency surgery, according to the Courier Times.

“The report indicated there were no signs of a medical condition contributing to these injuries, nor was there any medical condition that would cause such severe injuries that were seen in the juvenile,” the investigator wrote in the affidavit.

Without medical intervention, these injuries could have been fatal. The juvenile remains in the hospital under guarded prognosis. The only explanation offered by the caregivers was that the child sleepwalks, which would not account for the severe abdominal injuries, according to the documents.