Archie Whalen. (Photo courtesy of Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, Police Department) Buy Photo

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. — A Maine man accused of abducting a 13-year-old girl and setting off an Amber Alert has been indicted in federal court.

The indictment accuses 43-year-old Archie Whalen of transporting a minor across state lines to engage in criminal sexual activity. Whalen was indicted in Bowling Green on Wednesday.

The 13-year-old Owensboro girl disappeared Sept. 26, triggering a nationwide Amber Alert. Police said they caught up with her and Whalen as he was driving his red Ford Explorer with Maine license plates into a hotel parking lot in Sturgeon Bay, Wis., early the next day.

Whalen has ties to Hancock County in Maine, but according to Dan Trelka, chief of police in Sturgeon Bay, is listed on his driver’s license as a resident of Bristol, Maine, in Lincoln County.

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

According to press reports, police in Kentucky said the girl’s family recently had moved to the state from Maine, where Whalen had been an acquaintance of the family. Officials were not specific about where in Maine.

Trooper Dan Ryan of the Maine State Police said last month that he assisted officials with the Daviess County Sheriff’s Department in Kentucky in trying to find Whalen. Ryan said that Whalen, who has sisters who live in Hancock and Damariscotta, had last been seen in the Ellsworth area on Friday, Sept. 25.

Law enforcement officials in Kentucky have said that Whalen has a criminal history that includes convictions in New York for rape, burglary and second-degree assault.

If convicted on the federal charge, Whalen faces a maximum penalty of life imprisonment and a minimum sentence of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

He is scheduled to appear in court in Owensboro, Ky., on Oct. 22.

BDN writer Bill Trotter contributed to this report.