Terrifying Video: Girl Abducted In Broad Daylight, FBI Seeks Tips

CHICAGO — An Indiana man has been indicted on a federal kidnapping charge for allegedly abducting a child from a Calumet City street in broad daylight last month, prosecutors said. A grand jury returned the indictment Thursday, and the following day the FBI released surveillance chilling video of the December 20 incident. Around 3:30 p.m., a girl was walking down the sidewalk in the area of 153rd Street and Burnham Avenue in Calumet City when she was forced into a red Ford Explorer before it drove away, according to the FBI.

Bryan Protho, 38, of East Chicago, Indiana was arrested Dec. 27 after the victim identified him in a photo lineup and charged with one count of kidnapping, court records show.

The girl told investigators she was walking home from school when she was grabbed by a man and dragged into his red SUV, according to an affidavit seeking a search warrant for Protho's DNA from Carrie Landau, an FBI agent specializing in child exploitation, sex trafficking and kidnapping.

The 10-year-old girl said the man began to drive away with her inside and hit her repeatedly in the face as she tried to get out. The man also covered her mouth when she tried to scream, she said, according to the affidavit.

The man then parked in an alley and demanded the child take off her pants. She refused. The man asked her "if she wanted to die" and threatened to shoot her, Landau wrote. He then forced her to remove her pants and assaulted her for five minutes.

After the assault, the girl was able to escape. She flagged down a passing vehicle and police were soon called, the affidavit stated.

Police were able to find surveillance footage of the incident and tracked down a suspect vehicle to a hotel parking lot in Lansing, the agent said. Hotel employees reportedly identified Protho as the owner of the red Ford Explorer SUV.

According to another affidavit from Landau, law enforcement interviewed Protho's wife, the Ford's registered owner. She told investigators he had left the house on the day of the kidnapping with the vehicle in question, which matched surveillance images from the scene.

The FBI and local police departments jointly investigated the case, according to a news release from the Department of Justice.

Protho is currently being held at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Chicago, according to court records.

He faces a minimum sentence of 20 years in prison and a maximum sentence of life if convicted.