Ashley Marie Bredhold received a 30-year prison sentence for the death of her 12-year-old daughter Alice, who suffered from untreated Type 1 diabetes. Vanderburgh Circuit Judge Ryan D. Hatfield imposed the term after Bredhold's February conviction on neglect of a dependent resulting in death. The girl's father had earlier been sentenced to nine years for related neglect.
On Thursday, prior to March 20, 2026, Vanderburgh Circuit Judge Ryan D. Hatfield sentenced 40-year-old Ashley Marie Bredhold to 30 years in a state correctional facility. This followed her jury conviction in February on one count of neglect of a dependent resulting in death. The case centered on the death of her daughter, Alice Bredhold, on July 4, 2024, at the family home in the 500 block of South New York Avenue in Evansville, Indiana. First responders found Alice unresponsive in her bedroom and pronounced her dead at the scene. The Vanderburgh County Coroner determined the cause as diabetic ketosis, a serious complication of Type 1 diabetes, with which Alice had been diagnosed in March 2020. Prosecutors noted that children with the condition can typically lead long, normal lives with proper management, but Alice died within four years of diagnosis. Evidence from trials showed poor handling of her diabetes, including high blood sugar readings at school—44 above 300 and 14 above 600 in weeks before death, per a school nurse. The Indiana Department of Child Services had contacted the parents over these levels. Cellphone data and testimony indicated the parents knew Alice's medication delivery system malfunctioned days before her death but did not replace it. When Alice said water 'felt like drinking acid,' Ashley Bredhold told her to 'drink more water.' Alice's father, Brent Bredhold, was convicted last year of neglect of a dependent resulting in serious bodily injury and sentenced to nine years. Vanderburgh County Chief Deputy Prosecutor Winston Lin described the case: 'This is a heartbreaking case where a 12-year-old girl with Type 1 diabetes was left to fend for herself until her untimely death. Her parents should have been her strongest advocates to keep her healthy and alive, but unfortunately all they had to offer was apathy, indifference, and neglect.' Lin added, '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.'