Man accused of abducting teen, baby from Harvard before taking them to Kentucky in custody at the McHenry County jail

Michael A. Walton charged with one count of abduction

Michael A. Walton

A 22-year-old Indiana man accused of abducting a teenage girl and her infant last month from Harvard and taking them to Kentucky, is in custody at the McHenry County jail, according to the its prisoner log.

Michael A. Walton, of the 800 block of Roosevelt Street, Linton, Indiana, had been held in the custody of the Bourbon County Detention Center in Paris, Kentucky.

Walton and the two minors turned themselves in to the police department in Cynthiana, Kentucky two days after they were last seen in Harvard, authorities said.

Walton was subsequently arrested and charged with one count of child abduction, according to court records.

As of Tuesday afternoon, he was in custody at the McHenry County jail, held on $20,000 bond, of which he must post $2,000 to be released, according to the jail log.

The girl and her baby are unharmed and in the custody of child protective services in Kentucky, Harvard Police Chief Tyson Bauman said Wednesday.

Walton is charged with one count of child abduction for allegedly luring a child younger than 17, according to the criminal complaint on file in the McHenry County courthouse. If convicted, the Class 4 felony carries a prison term of one to three years and a $25,000 fine.

The case is still under investigation, Bauman said when asked if Walton would be charged with additional crimes.

The teenager and her infant were last seen the afternoon of June 22 near Harvard Diggins Library, where police said Walton picked them up.

Harvard police took a report of the missing children at a home in the 200 block of Roosevelt Street. The girl was staying with family in Harvard at the time of the alleged abduction, Bauman said.

The girl and her child “were willingly picked up,” according to the Harvard Police Department Facebook page at the time they went missing and police were looking for them.

An intensive investigation was initiated with the assistance of local police departments, agencies from the state of Indiana and federal law enforcement, Harvard police said.

As of Wednesday morning there was no attorney listed for Walton.