Prosecutors say a medically fragile 4-year-old was neglected over time before he was found unresponsive in a south Indianapolis home.

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — An Indianapolis mother and her boyfriend have been charged after police say her 4-year-old son, a child with severe disabilities, was found unresponsive March 23 in a basement closet beneath a staircase at the home where the family was living.

The case matters now because prosecutors have moved it from an emergency death investigation to a felony neglect case built on medical records, child interviews and the adults’ own statements. Marion County prosecutors say Angel Lovely, 37, and Nicholas Bergdoll, 36, failed to provide basic care to Malichi Lovely, whose health problems left him unable to walk, talk or feed himself. The filing also raises fresh questions about how long the child had been isolated inside the house before his death.

Police were called to the home on Monticello Drive at about 4:25 p.m. on March 23 and found Angel Lovely performing CPR on the basement floor, according to court records summarized in local reports. Officers said Malichi had been in a small closet under the basement stairs, where they found blood on his mouth, shirt, bedding and pillow. He was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead. Investigators said Bergdoll told them he had rolled the boy into the closet the night before. Lovely told police the child was still awake around 9 a.m. as she got the other children ready for school. Both adults later said they had been asleep when he died.

The most direct accounts in the charging records came from the boy’s siblings, who were interviewed two days later by child abuse detectives. Investigators said the children described Malichi as “trapped in the little room” and said their mother kept him in the closet and did not pay attention to him. One sibling was the person who found him unresponsive. Prosecutors say those interviews matched the physical setup investigators found in the basement and supported a broader claim that the closet was not a one-time sleeping space but a place where the child was routinely confined for long stretches. Authorities also said Malichi was medically fragile and depended fully on adults for movement, feeding and care, making the alleged isolation more serious because he could not call for help or leave on his own.

Records described in the case show that Malichi had cerebral palsy, congenital hypertonia, hip dysplasia, spastic quadriplegia, epilepsy and other serious conditions. Local reports, citing court papers and investigators, said he weighed 22 pounds at the time of his death. Prosecutors allege the adults contributed to a worsening medical condition by failing to seek proper treatment and by not meeting his daily care needs. Ryan Mears, the Marion County prosecutor, called the allegations “absolutely devastating” when formal charges were announced. He said children depend on adults for protection and care and that the investigation remained active. Investigators have not publicly released a final cause of death, and the filing does not answer every question about the precise medical event that ended the child’s life that afternoon.

The case also reaches back before March 23. Court-record summaries reported by local outlets said Malichi had previously been removed from Angel Lovely’s care in April 2024 because of concerns about medical neglect, including whether he was being fed properly and taken to appointments. By the time of his death, the family had been staying in the Indianapolis home connected to Bergdoll’s relatives, according to investigators. That history gives prosecutors a wider timeline to examine: not only the final day, but whether warning signs had already been documented in child welfare and medical systems. It also sharpens the public stakes of the case, because investigators are now comparing what was known about the child’s special needs with the conditions in which he was allegedly being kept.

On April 1, prosecutors formally charged Lovely with two counts of neglect of a dependent resulting in death, Level 1 felonies. Bergdoll was charged with two counts of neglect of a dependent resulting in serious bodily injury, Level 3 felonies. During initial hearings that day, a judge set Lovely’s cash bond at $10,000 and Bergdoll’s at $2,000, according to local television coverage from court. Prosecutors have said the charges filed so far are only the first step and that detectives are still working to determine every circumstance surrounding the child’s death. That means additional filings, amended charges or further disclosure of medical evidence remain possible as the case moves deeper into Marion County’s criminal courts.

What remains in public view is a small basement space at the center of a much larger accusation. The closet beneath the stairs has become the defining image of the case because investigators say it was where a child who needed constant care spent critical hours of his life. The father, Bear Schmidt, told one local station he was still in shock after learning what investigators believe happened. Prosecutors, meanwhile, have framed the case less as a sudden tragedy than as a prolonged failure of care inside a home where several children lived and where one child, by all accounts, was the least able to protect himself.

Lovely and Bergdoll’s criminal case remains open, the investigation is still active and no public filing had yet resolved the unanswered medical findings that could shape the next court milestone.

Author note: Last updated April 18, 2026.