Kibby has been held since July on a kidnapping charge related to the girl’s disappearance, which had prompted public appeals from law enforcement officials for information leading to her safe return. She was reunited with her family in July.

The chilling indictments, totaling 205 counts in two counties, were handed up Monday against Nathaniel Kibby, 34, of Gorham, N.H., and unsealed Wednesday.

CONWAY, N.H. — The case of a teenage girl who vanished in October 2013 and resurfaced nine months later took a shocking turn Wednesday, when prosecutors announced indictments charging the suspected kidnapper with repeatedly raping the girl, forcing her to wear a shock collar, controlling her with a stun gun, and leaving her bound and gagged.


At a news conference in Concord Wednesday, officials from the state attorney general’s office and an advocate for sexual-assault victims asked reporters not to identify the girl, whose name had been widely publicized when her disappearance was being treated as a missing persons case. Now, officials said, the girl is entitled to the same protections afforded to every sexual-assault victim.

The girl, who is 16, turned 15 shortly after being abducted.

“None of us can put ourselves in this child victim’s shoes, let alone in the circumstances described in these charging documents,” said Lyn Schollett, executive director of the New Hampshire Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence, who spoke at the news conference.

The indictments recount a horrific ordeal for the teen, whom Kibby is accused of kidnapping on Oct. 9, 2013, in Conway, where she lives.

Most of the charges are related to the succeeding nine months, when Kibby allegedly imprisoned the girl on his Gorham property and sometimes put a shock collar for dogs around her neck to maintain control over her, court records show.

The indictments also allege that on multiple occasions, Kibby sexually assaulted the teenager, leading prosecutors to file 160 sexual-assault-related counts.


Kibby’s public defenders maintained his innocence in a brief statement.

“By N.H. rules we are not able to respond publicly to the specifics of these allegations and will respond appropriately through the judicial process,” the lawyers said. “It should be noted, however, that these are in fact mere allegations, and Nate Kibby, like anyone accused of a crime, is constitutionally entitled to the presumption of innocence.”

According to prosecutors, Kibby’s crimes included pointing a rifle at the girl and threatening to kill her and her family, as well as harm her pets, if she disclosed his identity to police; taping her eyes shut for extended periods of time; gagging her and putting a shirt and motorcycle helmet over her face, partially cutting off the flow of blood and fresh air; using a Taser-like device on her; and binding her wrists with zip ties that left scarring and caused her hands to go numb.

Shortly after the abduction, Kibby allegedly forced the girl to write a letter to her mother with “false information about the female’s condition,” court papers said.

Kibby is accused of showing “the female a rifle and [telling] the female that he could hurt the female’s family, bystanders, and/or police if the female provided information about his identity to the police or anyone else, a rifle being a deadly weapon.”

He also allegedly told the girl that the rifle could pierce body armor.


Authorities have not provided details on how the girl returned home, and prosecutors on Wednesday explained why the new indictments were partially redacted.

Jane Young, an associate attorney general, said publicizing the graphic details of the indictments, as well as the girl’s name, would “cause further trauma and humiliation to the child in this case.”

“While we cannot un-ring the bell as to her identification, we can stop ringing it by not using her name or her likeness,” Young said. “As this case proceeds forward, we will give her the opportunity to continue not only to survive but to thrive.”

It is Globe policy to name the victim of sexual crimes only if that person agrees to be identified.

Attorney General Joseph A. Foster added that redacting victims’ names in sexual-assault cases shields them from “additional indignities” and encourages other victims to come forward, knowing they will have the same protections.

“It is the simply the right thing to do,” Foster said.

Kibby is scheduled to be arraigned on the new charges — which include kidnapping, aggravated sexual assault, and felonious sexual assault, as well as several weapons violations and criminal threatening — on Jan. 8 and 9 in Coos County Superior Court and Carroll County Superior Court.

A spokesman for the girl’s family declined to comment on Wednesday, but residents of her hometown of Conway expressed shock and disgust at the new details.

The charges “make you want to cry,” said one resident, who would identify herself only as Eleanor. “She’s got her life to live.”


Susy Eldridge, an employee at a hospital in North Conway, said her sister recalled seeing Kibby at parties in high school and was struck by behavior that she thought was odd. “It’s just so scary,” Eldridge said of the allegations.

Brian Clarke, who manages a furniture store, said he started to read the court papers but stopped because they were too disturbing.

“I don’t need to read what this guy did,” he said. “Justice will be served. . . . What kind of person does those things?”

John R. Ellement and Martin Finucane of the Globe staff contributed to this report. Travis Andersen can be reached at travis.andersen@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @TAGlobe. Sarah Schweitzer can be reached at sarah.schweitzer@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @SarahSchweitzer.