{"id":872,"date":"2025-05-30T20:05:44","date_gmt":"2025-05-30T20:05:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/starkecountysheriff.com\/?post_type=news&#038;p=872"},"modified":"2025-05-30T20:05:44","modified_gmt":"2025-05-30T20:05:44","slug":"north-judson-man-charged-with-kidnapping","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/starkecountysheriff.com\/index.php\/news\/north-judson-man-charged-with-kidnapping\/","title":{"rendered":"North Judson Man Charged With Kidnapping"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>On Friday May 23<sup>rd<\/sup>, 2025, at approximately 5:30pm, Starke County Sheriff\u2019s Deputies were dispatched to the area of 250 W. and 700 S. in North Judson.\u00a0 The 911 caller reported that a male and female were fighting in a vehicle near this intersection.\u00a0 The female exited the vehicle and the male at the scene was actively trying to shove the female back into the vehicle.\u00a0 The 911 caller then informed Starke County Dispatch that the male suspect had fled in the vehicle with the female\u2019s small child inside the car.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When officer arrived, they spoke with the victim and learned that she had been struck by the suspect multiple times in the head.\u00a0 The victim reported being pregnant and reported that her two-year-old son was in a car seat in the back seat of her vehicle.\u00a0 The victim identified the suspect as Michael Egan, age 25 of North Judson.\u00a0 She told officers that she was in a dating relationship with Egan.\u00a0 She reported she was driving southbound on 250 W. when an argument took place.\u00a0 The victim reported that Egan had pulled her by her hair towards the passenger seat where he was seated, and began striking her in the back of the head.\u00a0 She reported that the vehicle came to a stop near 700 S. and she exited the vehicle and began yelling for help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Two individuals who lived in this area called 911 and began to assist the vehicle.\u00a0 Egan attempted to engage with these witnesses.\u00a0 He then entered the vehicle and fled westbound on 700 S.\u00a0 One witness reported attempting to follow Egan since there was a small child in the car.\u00a0 The witness indicated he was unable to keep up with the vehicle due to it traveling at such a high rate of speed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A short time later, a Starke County Deputy located the vehicle on Third St. in North Judson.\u00a0 The deputy found that Egan had fled the vehicle and left the small child in the car.\u00a0 A subsequent track was performed with a Starke County K9 that lead into a wooded area near where the vehicle was located.\u00a0 Egan eventually surrendered and was taken into custody without incident.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The child was found to be unharmed. \u00a0The victim was transported to a local hospital by ambulance to an evaluation.\u00a0 The child was returned to his biological father and the Indiana Department of Child Services was contacted.\u00a0 Egan was transported to the Starke County Justice Center where he was held pending formal charges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u00a0A report was forwarded to the Starke County Prosecutor\u2019s Office.\u00a0 Michael Egan was formally charged with Kidnapping a Level 5 felony, Battery of an endangered adult a Level 5 felony, and Criminal Recklessness a Misdemeanor.\u00a0 He is currently being held at the Starke County Justice Center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u00a0As a reminder, all suspects are innocent until proven guilty.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On Friday May 23rd, 2025, at approximately 5:30pm, Starke County Sheriff\u2019s Deputies were dispatched to the area of 250 W. and 700 S. in North Judson.\u00a0 The 911 caller reported that a male and female&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":873,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"tags":[],"news-category":[],"class_list":["post-872","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starkecountysheriff.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starkecountysheriff.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starkecountysheriff.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starkecountysheriff.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starkecountysheriff.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=872"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/starkecountysheriff.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/872\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":874,"href":"https:\/\/starkecountysheriff.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/872\/revisions\/874"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starkecountysheriff.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starkecountysheriff.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starkecountysheriff.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=872"},{"taxonomy":"news-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starkecountysheriff.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-category?post=872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}