Girl Found Dead After Being Kidnapped While Playing With Sister: Police

A 10-year-old girl in Illinois has been found dead after being kidnapped while playing with her younger sister, according to police.

Antonio Monroe, 44, of Blue Island, just south of Chicago, is alleged to have abducted the child on Saturday, July 8.

Rockford police were alerted at about 12:07 p.m. by a woman who said her 6-year-old daughter came home and stated a man had kidnapped her sister.

Officers were flagged down by a man who reported finding an unresponsive young girl outside a residence in the 1200 block of 9th Avenue at about 12:40 p.m.

When police arrived, they started to administer CPR and waited for firefighters who then transported the girl to a nearby hospital where she was pronounced dead.

A Rockford police release shared on July 9 said: "A perimeter was immediately established and a Rockford police officer assigned with a K9 unit located a man that matched the description of a suspect near 9th Street and Woodruff.

"The man, later identified as Antonio Monroe, was taken into custody after a brief struggle. He was taken to a local hospital for an unrelated issue and once released, Monroe will be transported to the Winnebago County Jail."

Monroe was later charged with first-degree murder, attempted murder, two counts of kidnapping and aggravated battery/ strangulation.

Rockford police added that Monroe may face further charges in connection with the young girl's death.

Newsweek found Monroe is on the Illinois sex offender register and was previously convicted of criminal sexual assault against a 19-year-old. He was 31 at the time of the offense and was convicted in Peoria, in central Illinois.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there were 1,487 recorded homicides in Illinois in 2021, the most recent year for which statistics are available.

The CDC added that the homicide death rate in Illinois that year was 12.3 per every 100,000 people.

Mississippi, where there were 656 homicides, had the highest death rate at 23.7, while the lowest were in New Hampshire, Vermont and Wyoming, each of which had fewer than 20 recorded homicides.

Illinois crime statistics gathered by the FBI state that Rockford, which had a population of 145,719 in 2019, experienced 14 reported murders and manslaughter cases that year.

Anyone with any information about the death of the 10-year-old girl has been asked to contact the Rockford Police Department (RPD) at 815-966-2900 on Facebook (@RockfordIllinoisPoliceDepartment) or on Twitter (@RockfordPD).

Newsweek has contacted the RPD for comment via email.