U.S. Marshals arrested a University of Kentucky pediatric ICU nurse on Nov. 3, 2026, ending nearly three months on the run on a warrant accusing him of abusing his 5-year-old daughter badly enough to break one of her ribs.
Daniel Keate, 37, of Richmond, Kentucky, is a registered nurse in the pediatric intensive care unit at UK HealthCare’s Kentucky Children’s Hospital, according to a Yahoo News report on the case. The U.S. Marshals Service’s Central Kentucky Fugitive Task Force, working with Richmond police, took him into custody without incident at an apartment in Berea on the evening of Nov. 3 after surveillance confirmed he was there.
What investigators say happened
A forensic interview with Keate’s daughter led investigators to allege that on Aug. 13, 2026, he squeezed the 5-year-old’s rib cage hard enough to cause severe pain, according to the U.S. Marshals Service. A doctor later confirmed a broken rib at UK Golisano Children’s Hospital in Lexington. The original warrant charges Keate with second-degree assault, domestic violence involving a child, and first-degree criminal abuse or neglect of a child younger than 13.
A second, far more serious case surfaced after his arrest
Once Keate was in custody, Richmond police filed a separate and much broader set of charges, the Richmond Register reported: attempted murder (domestic violence), first-degree strangulation, first-degree wanton endangerment, first-degree unlawful imprisonment, kidnapping with serious physical injury, and intimidating a participant in the legal process. According to the Register, arrest citations describe a pattern of alleged violence that investigators trace back to 2023 — well before the rib-fracture allegation that first put Keate on the Marshals’ wanted list.
A judge ordered Keate to have no contact with any child and set bond at $75,000 cash in the newer case, Yahoo News reported. He remains held at the Madison County Detention Center. Online court records reviewed for this story do not show an entered plea on either case, and no trial date has been set.
Placed on leave from a children’s hospital
UK HealthCare placed Keate on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation, a university spokesperson told reporters, according to Yahoo News. The hospital has not said whether he had any disciplinary history before this case.
Why this matters for nurses
I’ve worked pediatric critical care, and the detail that stops me cold here isn’t just the rib fracture — it’s the gap between it and the arrest. Three months is a long time for a warrant to sit open, and in that stretch investigators say they found a lot more than one bad day: a pattern allegedly going back to 2023, now charged as attempted murder and kidnapping. Families trust a pediatric ICU with their sickest kids precisely because the people in that unit are supposed to be the safest adults in the building. None of these are convictions. They’re allegations in two separate cases, and Keate is presumed innocent on all of them unless and until a court says otherwise. But a hospital putting a nurse on leave over a warrant like this one isn’t an overreaction — it’s the minimum.