Ever imagine a movie turning into a real-life crisis? That’s exactly what happened with this Chicago-based family who abandoned their minor daughters home alone for Christmas, left to fend for themselves in a large Tudor-style home with frozen dinners. Except this wasn’t a two-hour distraction in a movie theater, and instead it led to two toddlers shivering in the cold outside their neighbor’s door. The incident occurred back on December 21, 1992, two years after Macaulay Culkin’s film had become popular. The parents, David Schoo and his wife Sharon, promptly left to catch a flight and enjoy their Mexican vacation.
A neighbor to the reclusive Schoo family was Connie Stadelmann, who was first informed of the shocking incident when 9-year-old Nicole and her 4-year-old sister Diana knocked on her door. They were shivering in the cold as they came up to ask for help over a fire alarm that went off, and something leaking. The two of them said that their parents had gone off for a nine-day-long Christmas vacation to Mexico. Later, it was reported that David and Sharon had abandoned them just a day before, asking the kids to live off alone and fend for themselves with the help of frozen dinners, cereals, and a detailed note on when to eat and hit the bed.
What was more shocking was that the Schoos had not left their children in the care of a babysitter and were just left to deal with the circumstances in a massive Tudor-style home. Nicole and Diana did not have access to an emergency contact number as well, where they could perhaps reach out to their parents when needed. The elder of the two siblings even mentioned that she and her sister had been previously abandoned as well. Nicole recalled their mom and dad previously left them alone and spent four days in Massachusetts in the summer before.
With the help of Connie Stadelmann, local police authorities and firefighters were alerted to the situation and reached out to the Schoo residence. The Sheriff’s office also sent investigators over after reports of smoke, and were surprised to find that no adults were there at the scene. The girls, Nicole and Diana, were later placed with their maternal grandmother and then taken in by foster care.
In the meantime, the authorities continued to search and locate their parents, who were found eight days later on December 28. David and Sharon were spotted at the airport customs office in Houston as they were planning to return home after the Mexican trip. The couple was immediately charged with two counts of felony for child abandonment and cruelty to children. They were also accused of misdemeanor charges of child endangerment.
An arrest warrant has been issued for a Portland mother accused of child neglect after authorities say she failed to appear in court. https://t.co/YUG9t0IjGJ
— KATU News (@KATUNews) November 21, 2025
Soon, the case struck a national nerve and made headlines everywhere. Reports described that the parents appeared to be extremely withdrawn and odd from their own families. Interestingly, David had a blocked history himself when he stole about 1900 high-potency Valium tablets from a drugstore where he worked. He later left his pharmacist job and took up engineering. On the other hand, Sharon’s father described her as someone extremely reclusive. She even had allegedly asked her mother to make an appointment prior to meeting her.
All in all, the case gathered much attention to the extent of changing state laws around children in Illinois. By 1993, the parents shockingly gave up their daughters for adoption, which was when the government passed a new law regarding the legal definition of child abandonment. It would mean leaving a child less than 14 years of age alone for more than 24 hours.
