A 10-year-old Illinois girl was kidnapped and murdered by a 44-year-old registered sex offender on Saturday, according to the Rockford Police Department.
Antonio Monroe has been charged with First-Degree Murder, Attempted Murder, two counts of Kidnapping and one count of Aggravated Battery via Strangulation.
Officers were dispatched around 12:07 p.m. after a woman advised that her 6-year-old daughter had come home and told her that a man had taken her 10-year-old sister. Police said that a conversation had taken place between the girls and Monroe before the event.
Officers were flagged down around 12:40 p.m. by a man who had reported finding the girl’s body outside a house in the 1200 block of 9th Avenue. First responders began administering CPR when they arrived.
Rockford Fire transported the child to a local hospital, where she was pronounced dead, police said. The 6-year-old sister had reportedly been strangled as well, but was able to escape, police said.
“Having kids being born and raised in Rockford, we’re not living in the time where you just leave your kids outside playing and no one is watching them,” Rockford Police Chief Carla Redd said. “When my phone rang yesterday seemingly, I was like, ‘this isn’t happening in our city. This is not something that we see here. We read about it, we hear about it in other places.’”
An officer with a K9 located Monroe near 9th Street and Woodruff Avenue. He was taken into custody after a brief struggle. He was transported to the hospital for an unrelated issue, Redd said. He will be released into police custody after treatment.
Police are investigating the incident and working to figure out why Monroe was in Rockford. He is a registered sex offender in Illinois.
“This is truly a real-life nightmare, and honestly it’s probably worse than any nightmare or situation I can think of on my own,” said Rockford Mayor Tom McNamara. “With every inch of my being, my heart and prayers go out to the family that’s been impacted by such horrific violence.”
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