Nathaniel Kibby.
Credit: New Hampshire attorney general’s office
A 34-year-old man was arrested in connection with the case of a New Hampshire teen that was missing for about nine months.
Nathaniel Kibby, of Gorham, N.H., was charged with one count of kidnapping for confining Abigail Hernandez in Conway, N.H. last October, according to the New Hampshire attorney general’s office. He was arrested Monday afternoon without incident at his home.
“Over the course of the past week, law enforcement officers have worked around the clock to ascertain the facts and circumstances surrounding Abigail’s disappearance and return,” authorities said in a statement. “Abigail Hernandez provided the police with details of her kidnapping sufficient to warrant [Monday]’s arrest.”
Hernandez went missing when she was 14 last October. Earlier this month, Hernandez, now 15, returned home and since then authorities had been searching for answers.
Since her return home, the New Hampshire attorney general’s office had released pictures of the clothes she was wearing on the night she reappeared in the hope that someone would have seen her before then. They also released a sketch of the man who was believed to have been involved.
Hernandez was the subject of a search by local, state and federal authorities. She returned home about nine months after she went missing.
On Monday, Hernandez’s mother said in an interview with TODAY that her daughter was not pregnant and that she believes her daughter did not run away.
Kibby will be arraigned Tuesday.
Follow Michael Naughton on Twitter @metrobosmike.
