Formal child abduction charges were filed Monday against a Willow Hill, Ill. man accused of taking his 13-year-old girlfriend on the run for nearly a week.
Ricky Wayne Brown, 19, was formally charged Monday in Wayne County Circuit Court with a class-3 felony charge of child abduction of a victim under the age of 16 with the suspect being at least two years older.
Brown is accused of picking up his 13-year-old girlfriend Faith Ellison in the early morning hours of July 5 in a pickup truck allegedly stolen from Jasper County, Ill. The two were spotted in Parke County, Ind., later that night when the truck broke down. Witnesses who stopped to help the pair positively identified them, police said.
In the early morning hours Sunday, Brown and Ellison showed up at the home of one of Brown's relatives in Indiana seeking shelter. The relative, not named by police, told Brown he knew he was being hunted by police because of accounts in area newspapers and television stations.
Refusing to help Brown, the relative drove Faith Ellison to Olney, Ill., where he dropped her off at a pay phone with enough money to phone her parents at her home in Wayne County. He then drove Brown to the Jasper County jail in Newton, Ill., where he turned him in on an outstanding warrant fo failure to appear in court on a criminal damage to property case and being a juvenile in possession of tobacco.
A judge Monday afternoon set bond on Brown at $150,000. He remains in custody in Jasper County pending transfer to the Wayne County jail at Fairfield. Additional charges related to the alleged vehicle theft and the pair's flight across state lines are pending as authorities in Illinois and Indiana continue their probe.
