Suspect in NH girl's kidnapping faces 200 charges

CONCORD, N.H. -- A man used death threats, a stun gun, zip ties and a shock collar to control a teenage girl he's accused of kidnapping at gunpoint, imprisoning and sexually assaulting over nine months, according to indictments released Wednesday.

The two sweeping grand jury indictments against New Hampshire man Nathaniel Kibby include 205 charges, reports the Boston Globe.

Kibby was arrested in July and initially charged with kidnapping the girl Oct. 9, 2013, in the White Mountains town of Conway. Despite a massive search and widespread public outreach, there was no trace of her except for a letter she wrote to her mother that November.

The girl, who turned 15 a week after she disappeared, returned just as mysteriously in July 2014, a week before Kibby was arrested.

Media outlets, including The Associated Press, repeatedly published the girl's name and picture after she disappeared and when she returned home. The girl's family and prosecutors have asked that her name and image no longer be published because they fear the publicity and association with sexual abuse will slow her recovery.

Kibby, 34, was indicted this week on charges including kidnapping, sexual assault, robbery, criminal threatening, illegal use of a gun and illegal use of an electronic restraint device. More than 150 of the indictments were heavily blacked-out. The charges carry penalties that could effectively send Kibby to prison for life if convicted.

According to the indictments, Kibby threatened to kill the girl, her family and her pets and used a "taser-like" device to punish her when she "carved" information about his identity in a letter to her mother. Prosecutors say he forced her to lie in that letter and made her rewrite it. As he began to fear an investigation, Kibby put a gun in her hand and told her it would be better to shoot him than give authorities any information, according to the indictments. He also forced her to wipe down the surfaces of a shipping container outside his trailer to remove her fingerprints and to pour cleaning fluid into plumbing trains to remove hair or DNA evidence, the indictments say.

Kibby also is accused of falsifying evidence by destroying or removing gags, anti-barking dog collars, a fake surveillance camera and an aquarium pump with tubing that had been used to provide the girl with water when she was restrained on the bed.

The charges say Kibby also gagged the girl, put a shirt over her head and face, then put a motorcycle helmet over that. During her confinement, he used the stun gun to control her, made her wear a shock collar, bound her wrists with zip ties and taped her eyes shut.

Kibby has been held on $1 million bail since his arrest at his home in Gorham, about 30 miles from the girl's home. He has a criminal history dating to 1998, including convictions on simple assault, criminal trespass and breach of bail conditions, according to court records.

A call to his public defender, Jesse Friedman, wasn't immediately returned Wednesday.

Police said the girl, now 16, disappeared after leaving Kennett High School in Conway. She walked her normal route down a busy road toward home and sent several texts to a friend. But when her mother returned from work, the girl wasn't home. Prosecutors said she "went dark" and could not be traced through social media for the duration of her absence.

A police officer who has known Kibby for two decades said he's very bright, opinionated and thrives on conflict.

In an interview in July with The Associated Press, former Conway Lt. Chris Perley said Kibby, "was smart, but he was also brutally myopic in whatever view he had. You could not shake him or redirect him in the way he saw the world."

Kibby grew up and attended school in Conway, a tourist-dependent town of about 1,800 people in the southeast corner of the White Mountain National Forest. He worked as a machinist at two gun makers - Green Mountain Rifle Barrel Co. and E.M.M. Precision.