The baby’s final hours became the focus of a prosecution built on injury findings, phone records and conflicting statements.
LINCOLN, Neb. — A traumatic brain injury found after a 4-month-old girl died in a Lincoln apartment became the key evidence in the case that sent her father to prison for 65 to 80 years.
Ryan Greenwood, 36, was sentenced May 8 after a Lancaster County jury convicted him in March of intentional child abuse resulting in death. The prosecution centered on the death of his daughter, Elizabeth Greenwood, who was found dead Aug. 14, 2025. Greenwood told police he had been “playing rough” with the infant the day before. Investigators, doctors and prosecutors later described a case of nonaccidental trauma, not an ordinary household emergency.
The first public time stamp in the case was the 911 call. Police were sent about 5:20 to 5:30 a.m. Aug. 14 to the Greenwoods’ apartment near South 27th Street and Woods Boulevard. Ryan Greenwood reported that the baby was dead. He said he found her cold and unresponsive after checking on her that morning, performed CPR, called his mother and then called emergency dispatchers. Officers arrived to a scene that quickly moved from a medical response to a suspicious death inquiry. Tanya Greenwood, the baby’s mother, was also at the home when police arrived. The child’s body, the parents’ statements and the condition of the apartment all became part of the investigation.
Ryan Greenwood’s account of the previous day gave detectives an opening timeline. He told officers that he had been “playing rough” with Elizabeth and that the baby began crying uncontrollably. He said he later gave her a bottle around 11 p.m., put her to bed and believed she was fine. That account placed the child alive late on Aug. 13, but it did not explain the medical findings that followed. An autopsy determined that Elizabeth died from a traumatic brain injury consistent with shaking. A child abuse specialist also reviewed the case and concluded that the injuries were nonaccidental. The specialist said immediate medical attention could have improved the infant’s chance of survival.
The mother’s statement created a second version of the same evening. Tanya Greenwood told police she returned from grocery shopping and heard the baby crying in a way she described as “the worst cry I had ever heard.” She said she wanted to take Elizabeth to a medical center, but Ryan Greenwood told her not to do that. Her statement mattered because it placed an unusual cry before the baby was put to bed and before the 911 call the next morning. It also gave prosecutors a way to argue that the child showed signs of serious distress while medical help was still possible. The full record does not show every medical decision made that night, and the precise window of fatal injury remains limited to what investigators and experts described in court-related reports.
Police did not rely only on the parents’ first interviews. Investigators with the Lincoln Police Department’s Special Victims Unit conducted multiple interviews, collected physical evidence and reviewed surveillance video. They also obtained information from phones and online activity. Court records described in local reporting said Tanya Greenwood had searched for shaken baby syndrome after the death and had previously sent texts to Ryan Greenwood asking about injuries she saw on the baby. She also allegedly told police she had seen him shake Elizabeth on at least one occasion and squeeze the child’s leg tightly another time. Those details widened the case beyond a single statement about rough play.
The evidence produced two arrests late in August. Ryan Greenwood was arrested Aug. 26, 2025. Tanya Greenwood was arrested Aug. 28, 2025. Each was charged in connection with child abuse resulting in death, and each was initially held on $1.5 million bond. Police said their findings showed injuries consistent with nonaccidental trauma. At the time, investigators described the case as ongoing, leaving open the possibility of more evidence from records, interviews and expert review. The charge against Ryan Greenwood later became intentional child abuse resulting in death, the count on which jurors convicted him after the five-day trial.
At trial, the state’s burden was to move jurors from uncertainty about a dead infant to a finding of criminal responsibility beyond a reasonable doubt. The reported evidence gave prosecutors several building blocks: Greenwood’s admission that he had handled the baby roughly, the uncontrolled crying described by both parents in different ways, the lack of immediate medical care, the autopsy finding and the child abuse specialist’s conclusion. Defense details from the trial were not fully reported in the public summaries, and the court record available through news accounts does not give a complete transcript. The verdict, however, shows jurors found the state’s evidence strong enough to convict him of the felony charge.
The sentencing completed the father’s court path at the trial level. The 65-to-80-year term means Greenwood faces decades in prison and will not return quickly to the community. Local reports said he received credit for time served since his arrest. The punishment followed the statutory seriousness of child abuse resulting in death and the jury’s finding that the abuse was intentional. The sentence also gave the case a clear date marker: May 8, 2026, nearly nine months after the baby died and about two months after the jury verdict. Any appeal or later filing would proceed separately from the sentencing order.
Tanya Greenwood’s case remains in a different posture. A court found her not competent to stand trial, and prosecutors said she could become competent in the future. A competency review was set for May 14. Competency does not determine whether a person committed a charged act. It determines whether the person can understand the court process and assist a lawyer. The allegations against her include her presence in the timeline and claims that she failed to get help despite signs of injury. Her case remains unresolved, and the public record does not show a trial date.
The medical findings remain the center of the case because they turned a father’s explanation into a criminal prosecution. “Playing rough” became legally important only after doctors described injuries consistent with shaking and nonaccidental trauma. The severe cry described by Tanya Greenwood became more than a family detail because experts said fast care could have mattered. The phone searches and texts became part of what investigators believed the parents knew. In the end, jurors did not have to solve every unknown about the home. They had to decide whether Ryan Greenwood’s actions caused Elizabeth’s fatal injuries.
For now, Ryan Greenwood has been sentenced, and Tanya Greenwood’s case remains pending through the competency process. The next public milestone is any future court ruling on whether she can proceed to trial.
Author note: Last updated June 3, 2026.