Sean Greenwood, 48, who lived in Englewood, was found badly hurt in an alley in the 3500 block of West 24th Street in Little Village, on Chicago's Southwest Side, on Saturday, December 28, 2019. He died a little over a week later. Area Central detectives of the Chicago Police Department investigated, and the Chicago Sun-Times homicide tracker, which lists every homicide in the city, records his death as a homicide by assault.
According to Chicago police and the Cook County medical examiner's office, Greenwood was found about 5 p.m. that Saturday with head trauma and extensive swelling. He was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where he was pronounced dead about 7:20 p.m. on Sunday, January 5, 2020. An autopsy determined that his injuries were caused by an assault, and the medical examiner ruled his death a homicide. No one else was reported hurt.
Police released no description of a suspect, no vehicle and no motive, and no arrest was announced.
It has never been made public whether he was attacked in the alley where he was found or somewhere nearby, how long he had been there, or whether he was robbed. Because he survived for more than a week, his death was not counted as a homicide until after the autopsy, by which time the scene was more than a week old. No reward tied to his case appears in the public record.
Beyond his age and his Englewood address, almost nothing about Sean Greenwood's life has been made public. No obituary, family statement, memorial page or fundraiser for him could be found. He surely had relatives and friends who noticed when he did not come home over the holidays, but none of that has entered the public record.
Little Village, also known as South Lawndale, is a largely Mexican-American neighborhood known for its busy 26th Street shopping corridor, one of the city's best-known commercial strips. The 3500 block of West 24th Street is a residential stretch a short walk from that corridor, with alleys running behind homes and garages. Neighbors or passersby there on the afternoon of December 28, 2019, the quiet stretch between Christmas and New Year's, may have seen him earlier that day or seen someone leaving the alley.
Chicago recorded about 500 homicides in 2019 and about 780 in 2020, a sharp rise. Police reported clearing roughly half of homicides in those years, though that figure counts some cases closed without charges. Beating deaths in which the victim dies days later often receive little news coverage, and Greenwood's death drew only a brief report.
Sean Greenwood is also a name shared by other people, including a longtime Ben & Jerry's public relations executive, an Army veteran turned photographer and a British historian. Searches for his name are dominated by them, which may help explain why so little about the 48-year-old Englewood man has surfaced.
No arrest, criminal charge or court case connected to the death of Sean Greenwood could be found in news archives or public records. More than 6 years later, there is no public sign that anyone has been held responsible. Anyone who knew him, who saw him in Little Village in the last days of December 2019, or who heard talk afterward of a fight or attack near West 24th Street, may be able to help. Even a small detail, such as a name overheard, a person seen running from the area or a conversation remembered, can help detectives move a case forward. Anyone with information can call the Chicago Police Department's anonymous tip line at (833) 408-0069 or submit a tip online at CPDTIP.com, or contact Cook County Crime Stoppers at (800) 535-STOP (7867).
