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Inset, left to right: Alice Bredhold (Browning Funeral Home) and Ashley Marie Bredhold (Vanderburgh County Sheriff’s Office). Background: The Indiana street where the family lived when Alice died (Google Maps).
An Indiana mother, aged 40, is now facing the possibility of spending many years behind bars following her conviction for the death of her 12-year-old daughter, whom she failed to assist in managing her diabetes.
The jury in Vanderburgh County reached a verdict on Friday after deliberating for less than a day, finding Ashley Marie Bredhold guilty on two counts of neglect of a dependent resulting in death. This verdict relates to the tragic 2024 death of her daughter, Alice Bredhold, as revealed by court documents.
Alice’s father, Brent Bredhold, had already been convicted last year of a lesser charge—neglect of a dependent resulting in serious bodily injury. Circuit Judge Ryan D. Hatfield sentenced him to nine years in a state prison.
“This is a devastating case where a young girl with Type 1 diabetes was left without the care she desperately needed, leading to her premature death,” commented Vanderburgh County Chief Deputy Prosecutor Winston Lin. “Her parents should have been her advocates, ensuring her health and safety, but instead, they responded with apathy, indifference, and neglect.”
On July 4, 2024, law enforcement and emergency responders were called to the Bredhold residence on South New York Avenue in Evansville, Indiana, after a 911 call reported an unresponsive 12-year-old. According to a previous news release from the Vanderburgh County Prosecutor’s Office, first responders arrived to find Alice on her bedroom floor, where she was pronounced dead at the scene.
According to the Vanderburgh County Coroner, Alice died from diabetic ketosis — a serious condition which, according to the Mayo Clinic, manifests numerous telltale symptoms.
Alice was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in March 2020. Typically, children with the disease live “long, mostly normal lives,” prosecutors said, but Alice was dead within four years of her diagnosis.
Evidence revealed during the parents’ trials showed that Alice’s diabetes was poorly handled — and sometimes outright ignored — from the start.
For example, prior to her death, the Indiana Department of Child Services contacted Alice’s parents because her blood sugar levels frequently tested in an exceedingly high range while she was at school. In the state’s opening statement against Brent Bredhold, prosecutors cited a school nurse who reported 44 readings in excess of 300 and 14 readings above 600 in the weeks leading up to her death.
Blood sugar levels less than 180 two hours after starting a meal are considered typical targets for people living with diabetes, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
Witness testimony and cellphone data from Ashley Bredhold’s trial showed that in the days before Alice died, her parents knew her Omni Pen was not working but failed to get replacements, local ABC affiliate WEHT reported.
When the child complained that drinking water “felt like drinking acid,” Ashley Bredhold reportedly responded by telling Alice to “drink more water.”
“Parental responsibility is not a 9-to-5 job, to clock in or clock out when convenient,” Lin said. “That said, this was an extreme case where Alice was not properly supervised for years, and the long-term neglect placed her in a precarious situation that cut her life short. Of the hundreds of Type 1 diabetic kids under the age of 18 seen by her pediatric endocrinologist, she was the only one to have died directly due to her diabetes.”
Ashley Bredhold is currently scheduled to appear for her sentencing hearing on March 19. She faces a possible sentence of up to 40 years in prison.