The 15-year-old girl left home for school early on Tuesday, sometime after 6 a.m., and headed for a bus stop down the block in the Belmont-Cragin neighborhood on the Northwest Side. She didn't get far.

Around 8 a.m., a neighbor went outside for a smoke and saw the girl sprawled on the ground in the back yard in the 2400 block of North Long Avenue. There was a pool of blood around her head and her pants were off. She didn't say anything but was moving slightly. The neighbor, Michael Klockowski, called 911.

“There was a lot of blood,” Klockowski said later. "We've got somebody that's really bad out there."

The girl was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where police said she was in critical condition with severe head injuries. A police source said she was in a medically induced coma.

No one was in custody this morning and police had no description of the attacker. Police said officers tracked some shoe prints from the scene but lost them.

Detectives believe the girl was hit in the head while walking down the street to grab a bus at Long and Fullerton that would take her to a charter school about six miles away. She was then dragged into Klockowski's backyard and assaulted. Police found her lying near the back door, bleeding from the back of her head and covered in blood.

She was still wearing a jacket but her pants were off, according to the police report. She was awake "but very lethargic, possibly suffering from hypothermia," the police report said. Blood was splattered across the yard and down the gangway along the house, the report said.

There was a large pool of blood midway down the gangway, another around the corner by a window and another where the girl was found, the report said. There was also blood smeared on the house. Klockowski said some of the blood smears were on the door, as if she had been trying to reach the doorbell.

The girl's bookbag was lying on a snowbank, and a set of keys, a pair of gloves and one of the girl's boots were strewn around the patio walkway, the police report said. Officers said they found a condom wrapper at the end of the gangway.

Klockowski told police he had just gotten up before going outside and heard no odd noises or screaming, according to the police report.

The girl's mother told police her daughter had left home after 6 a.m. to catch the Fullerton bus. She later got a call from the girl's father saying she had never made it to school.

The mother noticed police down the street and walked up to officers and asked what was going on. Police took the mother to the hospital, the report said.

The attack happened less than half a block from one of Chicago Public Schools' Safe Passage routes, patrolled areas that were set up for the current school year to help students who have longer walks in the wake of dozens of elementary school closings.

Chicago police spokesman Adam Collins said this morning the route near the assault was staffed beginning at 6:30 a.m., apparently after the attack happened.

CPS Safe Passage workers for the route start at 645 a.m., according to CPS spokeswoman Keiana Barrett. Fourteen workers are assigned to the route, she said.

"We have since sent letters to principals in the area to notify them of what has happened and asking them to correspond with parents to make sure they're aware of this heinous incident and stressing the importance of safety and students traveling in groups while walking to and from school and being conscious of their surroundings at all times," she said.

Hanson Park Elementary School, 5411 W. Fullerton, is down the street from where the girl was found. Assistant Principal Esmeralda Roman said Tuesday that school officials were told nothing about the attack on Tuesday.

Northwest Middle School, at 5252 W. Palmer St., is about five blocks away from where the incident occurred.

"There are so many schools here they better find who this is," Klockowski said. "This is particularly vicious and you certainly don't want to see this happen again."

Ald. Ariel E. Reboyras, 30th, said Tuesday police hadn't initially notified him.

“I am very concerned, I want to know where the kid is from and how the family is doing,” said Reboyras. “I'm especially concerned because it is a Safe Passage, that whole area is Safe Passage.”

Police are asking anyone with information to call Area North Detectives at 312-744-8261.

csadovi@tribune.com

mmanchir@tribune.com