Woman, 64, serving 20-year sentence for the starvation death of her adopted teenage granddaughter is arrested after prison break
- Carla Bousman charged with escape from custody after allegedly walking away from the Iowa Correctional Institution for Women in Mitchellville on May 2
- She was caught a short time later half-a-mile away from the prison
- Bousman had been serving a 20-year sentence for her role in the starvation death of 16-year-old Sabrina Ray
- Sabrina was found unresponsive and weighing just 56lbs at her adoptive parents’ home in Perry, Iowa, in May 2017
- In January, Sabrina’s adoptive mother, 41-year-old Misty Jo Bousman Ray, was sentenced to a life in prison
- Teen’s adoptive father, 43-year-old Marc Ray, was handed an 80-year sentence
The adoptive grandmother of a 16-year-old Iowa girl who was starved to death faces new charges of trying to escape prison where she had been serving a 20-year sentence.
Carla Bousman, 64, appeared in court on Thursday to face a new felony charge of escape from custody.
The Iowa Department of Corrections says Bousman walked away from the Iowa Correctional Institution for Women in Mitchellville on May 2.
Authorities caught up with the 5-foot-6, 260-pound inmate about half-a-mile away from the facility.
Carla Bousman, 64 (left), the adoptive grandmother of 16-year-old Sabrina Ray who was starved to death in 2017, has been charged with trying to escape prison
Bousman is accused of walking away from the Iowa Correctional Institution for Women in Mitchellville (pictured) on May 2
A spokesperson for the Iowa Department of Corrections told WHO-TV Bousman had been placed in a ‘minimum live-out’ unit located outside of the prison fence.
Inmates housed there are allowed to work outside the prison with supervision and return to the prison at the end of the day.
Bousman was imprisoned last year after pleading guilty to neglect of a dependent person and six other charges in the death of Sabrina Ray in 2017.
The grandmother admitted that she locked Sabrina’s two sisters in a room with the girl as she was dying of starvation. She also admitted concealing evidence after the girl passed away weighing just 56lbs.
If convicted of the escape charge, Bousman faces an additional five years in prison.
She has pleaded not guilty to the felony count. Her next court appearance is on July 11.
Sabrina’s adoptive mother, 41-year-old Misty Jo Bousman Ray (left), was sentenced to a life in prison, and her adoptive father, Marc Ray, 43, (right) was handed an 80-year sentence
In January, Sabrina’s adoptive mother, 41-year-old Misty Jo Bousman Ray, was sentenced to a life in prison without the possibility of parole, and her adoptive father, 43-year-old Marc Ray, was handed an 80-year sentence.
Bousman Ray pleaded guilty to one count of first-degree kidnapping and two counts of third-degree kidnapping involving two other adopted children who lived at her Perry, Iowa, home.
Sabrina’s brother, Justin Ray, 22, pleaded guilty in February to two counts of willful injury and was sentenced to 10 years in prison
Marc Ray pleaded guilty in December 2018 to child endangerment causing death and three counts of third-degree kidnapping.
Sabrina’s brother, Justin Ray, 22, pleaded guilty in February to two counts of willful injury and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Prosecutors said he drop-kicked the emaciated Sabrina down a basement staircase, leaving her unable to walk, talk, eat or drink normally.
Marc and Misty, who ran a daycare center they called Rays of Sunshine Daycare at 1708 First Avenue in Perry, took in Sabrina as a foster child in 2011 and adopted her in 2013.
Officers found her adopted sisters in the room with her lifeless body when they arrived at the home in May 2017.
Sabrina was discovered wearing a diaper and covered in wounds.
In a report briefly unsealed last year, an officer called the home ‘the most horrific scene in my entire career and life.’