A 34-year-old Elkhart man has been sentenced to 30 years for child exploitation, with 12 of those years to be served behind bars, following an investigation by the Elkhart Police Department's Internet Crimes Against Children unit. Ryan M. Stigner will also face 18 suspended years and 10 years of reporting probation once his prison term ends.
The sentence, handed down in Elkhart County in August 2026, closes out a case that began when the Elkhart County Prosecutor's Office filed a 13-count information against Stigner on November 13, 2025, according to the Elkhart Police Department. Stigner was originally charged with 10 Level 4 felony counts and three Level 5 felony counts of child exploitation, all stemming from a 2025 ICAC task force investigation in Elkhart. He was booked into the Elkhart County Jail on that date at age 33, per Recently Booked jail records, and was 34 by the time he was formally charged. The charges alleged that Stigner distributed and possessed child sexual abuse material, according to the police department's account.
Plea Deal Narrowed Original 13 Counts to Three
In June 2026, Stigner pleaded guilty to two Level 4 felony counts and one Level 5 felony count of child exploitation, resolving the case without a trial on the remaining charges. An Elkhart County judicial officer then sentenced him to 12 years in the Indiana Department of Correction on one Level 4 felony count, and imposed a combined 18-year suspended sentence on the two remaining counts, to run consecutively to the IDOC sentence. Those suspended sentences carry 10 years of reporting probation once Stigner is released.
Indiana law sets the sentencing range for a Level 4 felony at two to 12 years, with an advisory baseline of six years and fines up to $10,000, according to the Law Office of Jerry L. Garner. Stigner's 12-year term on the top count sits at the statutory maximum. A Level 5 felony, the charge that made up his third guilty plea, carries a range of one to six years with a three-year advisory baseline, per Indiana Code as outlined by FindLaw.
Why Nine Years May Be the Real Number
Because Level 4 and Level 5 felonies fall into Indiana's Credit Class B, incarcerated individuals earn only one day of credit for every three days served without disciplinary infractions, rather than day-for-day credit available to lower-level offenders. That structure means Stigner will likely need to serve at least 75% of his 12-year executed sentence, or roughly nine years, before he becomes eligible for release, according to Indyjustice's breakdown of Indiana's credit time law. Once released, he will face mandatory lifetime registration on Indiana's Sex and Violent Offender Registry, a requirement tied to any conviction under Indiana Code § 35-42-4-4, per the Allen County Sheriff's Department's overview of the underlying registration law. Registered offenders under that law must routinely verify their employment and residential information with local sheriffs.
Part of a Statewide Surge in Digital Exploitation Cases
Elkhart's ICAC unit operates as part of the Indiana Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, a multiagency body overseen by Indiana State Police that investigates and prosecutes people who use the internet to sexually exploit or entice children. The task force supplies specialized training, technical assistance, equipment and investigative resources to member agencies, and the police department says its participation has expanded the department's investigative capabilities and strengthened its ability to pursue online crimes against children.
That infrastructure is under growing strain. The task force logged 29,635 CyberTips from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children in 2025 alone, a 38% jump over 2024, leading to 3,164 investigations, 499 arrests and the rescue of 126 children statewide, according to the Dubois County Free Press. The task force added 50 officers in 2025 to manage the rising tip volume, the outlet reported. The pace has not slowed: the Terre Haute Police Department reported that the task force logged 2,951 CyberTips in January 2026 alone, a 29% increase over January 2025.
Similar Cases Have Followed Across the Region
Elkhart's ICAC unit has stayed active beyond the Stigner case. In July 2026, the department executed a separate search warrant that led to the arrest of a 21-year-old Elkhart resident on 10 felony counts, including Level 4 and Level 5 child exploitation charges, according to a City of Elkhart news release. Federal law under 18 U.S.C. § 2258A requires electronic communication providers and cloud platforms to submit CyberTip reports to NCMEC whenever they discover suspected child sexual abuse material, a pipeline that generated more than 20 million tips nationwide in 2025.
The specific digital evidence recovered from Stigner's devices, and whether a particular online platform generated the tip that opened the investigation, have not been detailed in available records. State authorities have reported that nearly 7,000 people were charged with child sex offenses in Indiana over the five years leading into 2026, reflecting expanded technology monitoring and multiagency enforcement across the state.
