Nebraska prosecutors have charged Alyssa Parkins with intentional child abuse resulting in death following the Alyssa Parkins infant death investigation launched by the Box Butte County Sheriff’s Office on 22 June 2026, after her 9-month-old daughter was brought unresponsive to Box Butte General Hospital in Alliance, Nebraska.
Parkins, 27, faces two counts of intentional child abuse resulting in death and one count of strangulation resulting in death, along with two further counts of intentional child abuse not resulting in injury or death. The alleged killing occurred almost exactly four years after her former partner, Riley Lenhart, was found to have suffocated their 10-month-old daughter, M.L., on 19 June 2022.
What Court Documents Allege
Court documents allege that Parkins covered the infant’s head with a blanket and held it down while the child was described as ‘crying bloody murder.’ When she brought the baby to hospital, Parkins reportedly told staff the child had choked on a cracker but had cleared most of it, and that she found the girl unresponsive later that day. She did not call 999’s American equivalent, 911, before travelling to hospital.
Responding deputies found the infant’s feet described as ‘almost black with dirt’ and her scalp covered in ‘scaly, dead skin.’ A search warrant executed at Parkins’ home revealed no running water, little food, and a bathroom housing dogs and faeces.
A statement issued by the Box Butte County Sheriff’s Office said: ‘During the course of the initial investigation, numerous concerns were identified. Those concerns led Deputies to conduct an extensive and ongoing investigation into the circumstances surrounding the child’s death.’
Another child, identified as Parkins’ son, told police that she frequently disciplined her children by spanking them.
The Alyssa Parkins Infant Death Case in Its Prior Context
The current charges arise less than five years after Parkins was at the centre of a separate child death inquiry. On 19 June 2022, Lenhart, then of Chadron, Nebraska, killed M.L. while the infant and her brother were both in his care; Parkins was at work at the time, according to the Nebraska Supreme Court’s published opinion on Lenhart’s subsequent appeal.
The Nebraska Supreme Court found that M.L.’s death was caused by ligature strangulation, based on bruising and other injuries to the front and sides of her neck identified by a forensic pathologist. Lenhart was arrested in June 2022 and was found guilty in October 2023 of intentional child abuse resulting in death, a Class IB felony. Judge Travis O’Gorman in the District Court subsequently sentenced him to 60 years to life in prison, as the Rapid City Journal reported at the time of sentencing.
Lenhart sought to appeal that conviction. Among his grounds, he challenged the district court’s handling of an unsolicited statement made by a trial witness: the district court struck the testimony, overruled his motion for a mistrial, and instead directed the State to make a stipulation explaining the statement, according to the Nebraska Courts’ official opinion portal. The Nebraska Supreme Court denied his appeal in October 2024.
Rural Radio (KOLT) reported on Lenhart’s sentencing, describing him as a Chadron man at the time of proceedings.
Charges and Potential Sentences
Under Nebraska law, a Class IB felony, the most serious charge Parkins now faces, carries a mandatory minimum of 20 years’ imprisonment and a maximum of life imprisonment upon conviction. The strangulation resulting in death count is classified as a Class IIA felony, and each of the two intentional child abuse counts not resulting in death carries Class IIIA felony status.
The investigation is described as ‘extensive and ongoing’ by the Sheriff’s Office. Subject to any further developments in charging or pre-trial proceedings, the Alyssa Parkins infant death case is expected to proceed through the Box Butte County District Court. A preliminary hearing date had not been publicly confirmed at the time of publication.
