Maine man arrested in teen girl's abduction
9/28/09 | 33 comments

Maine man arrested in teen girl's abduction


By Bill Trotter
BDN Staff
COURTESY STURGEON BAY, WI PD
Archie Whalen

ELLSWORTH — A man from Maine has been arrested in Wisconsin after allegedly kidnapping a girl from her home in Kentucky.

Archie Whalen, 43, was found with the 13-year-old girl in the parking lot of a hotel in Sturgeon Bay, Wis., around 4:30 a.m. Sunday, according to officials. Whalen allegedly had taken the girl from her home in Owensboro, Ky., on Saturday morning.

Dan Trelka, chief of police in Sturgeon Bay, said Monday morning that a nationwide Amber Alert drew the kidnapping case to his department's attention. Whalen's red Ford Explorer had been spotted Saturday afternoon headed north on Interstate 43 in Wisconsin.

When Sturgeon Bay police contacted the FBI to inquire about the case, federal officials told them Whalen had a sister who lived in Sturgeon Bay, Trelka said. So police were looking for the truck when it was spotted pulling into a local motel parking lot early yesterday morning, the chief said.

"He was just pulling into the parking lot when they sprang on him," Trelka said.

Trelka said the girl had not been harmed while traveling with Whalen.

Sturgeon Bay is on Door Peninsula in Wisconsin, which projects into Lake Michigan northeast of Green Bay.

According to media reports, Whalen became a suspect after he and the girl were recorded on a video camera at a McDonald's in Kentucky on Saturday afernoon. The girl's mother, who was familiar with Whalen, identified him from the video, news reports indicated.

One news report quoted a Kentucky law enforcement official as saying that the girl's family had just moved to Kentucky from Maine last week.

Trelka said Monday that police believe Whalen is a resident of Bristol, Maine, in Lincoln County. Some reports of the alleged kidnapping indicate that Whalen is from Hancock County, where court records indicate he has faced charges such as burglary and theft and of operating a vehicle while his license was suspended or revoked. The operating charge was dismissed from Ellsworth District Court in October 2008, according to the records.

Trelka said that though the kidnapping charge originates in Kentucky, he expects that Whalen will be handed over to the FBI.

"He's probably going to be prosecuted federally," Trelka said.

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Comments
33 comments on this item
On 9/28/09 at 11:26 AM, Beelzebubba wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Archie Whalen...Maine's own Roman Polanski (without film credits...that we know of...)

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On 9/28/09 at 11:26 AM, Amazed wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Was he the girls father? Uncle? Neighbor? How did they meet?

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On 9/28/09 at 11:31 AM, Amazed wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

He's not on the Maine Sex Offender Registry.

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On 9/28/09 at 12:13 PM, skullbones wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Probably nothing to it. Don't know?

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On 9/28/09 at 12:50 PM, captainandy wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

"The girl's mother, who was familiar with Whalen......"

This could get interesting.

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On 9/28/09 at 12:56 PM, chersully2000 wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

He had known the family for a while. What a pervert. Time to lock him up so he does not do it again. Glad this young girl is back with her family.

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On 9/28/09 at 1:48 PM, captainandy wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Archie's been called up to the big league!

http://www.sheboyganpress.com/article/20090928/SHE0101/90928026/1973/SHE0205

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On 9/28/09 at 2:21 PM, olmainer wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

hopefuly uncle sam knows what to do with this scumbag ,at least hes not going to court in maine and get his hands slapped ,be interesting to see how the feds do

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On 9/28/09 at 2:44 PM, logger16 wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

The folks in Hancock County know that this guy is bad news. Always has been since he was a child. I hope they do something about him. He was not a relative of this girl and never had anything going with her mother. That's not fair.

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On 9/28/09 at 2:48 PM, mattecamp wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

ole crazy eyes himself.

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On 9/28/09 at 2:50 PM, dogood wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

is that roy's brother?

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On 9/28/09 at 3:08 PM, mikebrown wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

AS I SEE IT, by Mainer Mike Brown

Sounds like a nice guy.

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On 9/28/09 at 3:20 PM, captainandy wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

He has a lot of siblings. Let's not bring them into it.

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On 9/28/09 at 3:49 PM, Amazed wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

If I'm not mistaken, because he crossed state lines, it becomes a federal case. He's screwed and rightly so!!

I agree, it's not his family's fault that he chose to do what he's done. We all have minds of our own!

He does look crazed for sure!!

http://www.newsday.com/news/region-state/official-ky-teen-knew-man-accused-in-abduction-1.1481003

I checked his name out on 2 sex offender registry's (the state of Maine and the national) and he didn't show up on either one. Why?

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On 9/28/09 at 4:16 PM, Amazed wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Thank God this young girl is safe now! Amber Alert worked and the officers were GREAT!! Kudos to them!!!

There's a lot of info on him... tons of articles, news clips, records, etc....

http://celebgalz.com/haley-willett-archie-whalen-willett-whalen-found-video/

http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/cgi-bin/getcase.pl?court=1st&navby=case&no=951816

http://topics.vlex.com/tags/archie-whalen-501208

http://www.14wfie.com/Global/story.asp?S=11203825

http://www.examiner.com/Subject-Archie_Whalen.html

http://www.lex18.com/tags/Archie%20Whalen/

My main question is and will continue to be: WHY ISN'T HE ON THE SEX OFFENDER REGISTRIES? Can BDN please answer this question?

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On 9/28/09 at 4:28 PM, Amazed wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

I hope the officers and the Feds dot all their i's a cross all their t's with this guy, he apparently knows his way around the law very well.

http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/cgi-bin/getcase.pl?court=1st&navby=case&no=951816

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On 9/28/09 at 4:32 PM, pcme2000 wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Nothing states WHY he actually ran off with the girl, whom is going to tell us why?

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On 9/28/09 at 5:40 PM, Amazed wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

pcme2000~ The following will explain the entire process of what took place from beginning to end. The mother states it all in the video.

http://www.14wfie.com/Global/story.asp?S=11203825

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On 9/28/09 at 5:45 PM, tju12008 wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

SCUMBAG !

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On 9/28/09 at 7:17 PM, Centaurmyst wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

His pupils look a little bit constricted. I wonder if he's on opiates or benzodiazepines.

If he's not on the sex offender registry it might be because he's a level 1 offender. Some states don't list level 1 offenders. Honestly, though, you can't go by the registry because there are people who get put on there that shouldn't be and it doesn't list everyone or people who haven't been caught. If an 18 year old high school senior and his 15 year old freshman or sophomore girlfriend have consensual sex he would be considered a sex offender and may be put on the registry.

This Whalen guy clearly has some serious issues. A teenager does look like an adult, so him finding her attractive is normal...but acting on it in this fashion shows an incredible deficit in his judgement...and taking her over state lines...not good. Sounds like she went willingly based on what her mother was saying...but at 14 you will have some poor judgement. This guy won't be seeing the outside of a prison cell for a very long time...he may even stay there the rest of his life. Federal kidnapping of a minor and crossing state lines by a convicted sex offender might just get him life in prison.

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On 9/28/09 at 7:34 PM, Robpott wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

another sick punk roaming the streets

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On 9/28/09 at 7:45 PM, firemanled wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

interesting observations captainandy

and no it's not roys brother,

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On 9/28/09 at 8:42 PM, chersully2000 wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

To others: I was merely restating what had been said on the news today; that this man knew the family. Nothing more, nothing less. My comment did not state he was a relative; my comment did not state he had anything to do with the mother. Once again, the news stated he knew the family. Maybe lived nearby, who knows. My post said nothing about this man having anything going with the mother.,etc. Maybe the news got it wrong, and she only knew this man thru the Internet, but doubt it. He had lived in Maine; so had she and her family in the past. He may have been familar in some way with who they were. Just because you know of someone, does not translate to his having a relationship with them.

The people who can read and comprehend here (minus one) can see what I wrote at 12:56 PM Don't read into things what is not there.

Amazed: I agree.

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On 9/28/09 at 9:19 PM, chersully2000 wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Issues....very very sad. You are one anonymous blogger....nothing more. You get pretty "personal" in a very weird way. I would get over it.....this forum is not made for little petty remarks like that. Maybe you should try and make some comments relevant to the article as I and others did earlier. It should not be that difficult. You know.....comments about the articles as most do. Bye now.

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On 9/29/09 at 6:50 AM, viper13 wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Mainer72 -- you appear to have hit a sore spot.

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On 9/29/09 at 12:24 PM, debutante wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

wow, the family probably moved to Kentucky to get their daughter away from this scumbag. He might have tried to molest in the past. He certainly is a crazed individual but stupid enough to take his sickness across state lines. Now it's in the hands of the Feds. I'd say that was Divine Providence.

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On 9/29/09 at 12:37 PM, chersully2000 wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

debutante: Good post at 12:24 PM He is horribly creepy and worse. So glad the young girl is back with her family. The outcome could have been so much worse. He needs to stay locked up. Many accounts of it state he was familiar to the family (including in this article.) Always appreciate your intelligent comments,debutante.

viper: Oh how wrong you are....but then that is nothing new. And such an enlightening post at 6:50 You should not be so interested....very very strange.

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On 9/30/09 at 4:04 AM, noreasternelly wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

did i miss something somewhere? where did it say in any article, on any news show, that this girl was sexually abussed by whalen? i heard on fox, that she was fine. and in this article, she is fine. whats he,s facing is kidnapping, thats why it,s federal, and as far as no sex offender listing, maybe thankgod , it never went that far, for anyone to bring him in front of a judge. dont get me wrong, i dont think much of the man at all, and he defenitly gets what he deserves, and thankgod this little girls back with her family, unscaved. but like someone said above, lets wait for the rest of the story,otherwise you people have him tried and convicted, on a sex crime, that may not of even happened, and if it did happen, he,ll get his dont worry.

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On 9/30/09 at 8:10 AM, Amazed wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Noreasternelly 9/30/09 4:04 AM post~ No-one here is accusing him of sexually molesting this little girl... but he does have a past history of rape in NY. People just want to know why he hasn't been put on the sex offender registry at all in ANY state in this country. Makes me extremely uncomfortable knowing that he's been able to allude those list! Sometimes it takes incidents such as these to bring out facts that people were not aware of... I thought ALL sex offenders were on these lists... and I wasn't aware of any law excluding those who were tried, sentenced and released before 1996.

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On 9/30/09 at 11:06 AM, MDIGuy wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Excluded? The article stated that he might have been convicted and released from jail before the sex offender registry existed - so he was "excluded" from the list just as you were "excluded" from having a social security number prior to your birth.

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On 9/30/09 at 1:14 PM, Amazed wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Maine has cases from the 1970's and those offenders are on our list... So registry's did exist prior to 1996.

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On 10/14/09 at 3:45 PM, b4bracy wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

Okay people the whole story has yet to be written. Yes the family knew him, but to say that they moved to get away from him, or call him a prevert is wrong. And yes he is not on the offenders lists, why, he has never been accused of this before. You don't know the whole story and niether do I, allthought I have a bit more input, but to sit here and judge a man gillty before his chance to speak baised on a very factual report in the paper, that had very few details is wrong. Wheither it be a mollestation thing, or a teen who wanted to runn away WE don't know. I will not judge a man before the whole story comes out, and people shouldn't be so quick.

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On 3/8/10 at 4:29 AM, nicki7912 wrote:         Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden

There is alot more to this than what most people know. Haley is my cousin. Her mom moved her to maine so they could live wit archie and another guy after meetin him on the internet. they did move back to kentucky to get away from him. They knew the guy maybe 2 months b4 he came and got haley from kentucky. It is her stupid moms fault for takein her daughter to maine to live wit someone they didn't know. idc if they moved back to kentucky to get away from him or he touched her or she wanted to go, no 43 yr old who isn't a pervert is gonna drive around the world to pick up a 13 yr old and tell her he wants to marry her and have kids. he is were he needs to be. He brainwashed haley and made her think all this was ok and he was tryin to help her when he knew what he really wanted. idk y he wasn't registered but thank god the cops found them when they did or my cousin would've been his next victom.

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