After more than five years of uncertainty, unanswered questions, and many leads, a big change seems likely in the deaths of Liberty German and Abigail Williams, two Indiana teens whose bodies were found in 2017 on a hiking trail.
Multiple news sources say that a suspect has been arrested in connection with the girls’ deaths. But the police won’t say for sure if that’s true. Instead, they’re holding a news conference on Monday to give an update.
The murders of 14-year-old Libby and 13-year-old Abby shook up the small Indiana town of Delphi. Many people wondered who could have killed two best friends who were so young and had their whole lives ahead of them.
Police still haven’t said how Libby and Abby were killed, and they haven’t said much else about how they died.
Before Monday’s news conference, here’s a look back at the case, from the first hours after the girls went missing to the latest developments in the police investigation and the pleas from the girls’ families, who are still trying hard to get justice.
Feb. 13, 2017
A website looking for information about the teens’ deaths says that on the afternoon of February 13, one of Libby’s family members dropped the girls off near the Monon High Bridge, where they went hiking on a nearby trail. After a few hours, a relative came to get the girls, but they didn’t show up.
At 5:30 that night, the girls’ family members told the police that they were missing.
Feb. 14, 2017
Search crews found the girls’ bodies about three-quarters of a mile from where they were dropped off to go hiking.
Feb. 15, 2017
Two days after Libby and Abby went missing, Indiana State Police released photos of a man who had been seen on hiking trails around the time the girls were there. They asked the public to help them figure out who he was. The pictures, which were taken with Libby’s phone, showed the man crossing a bridge and coming toward the teens.
The police said they were trying to find the person in question on February 15, but they didn’t call him a suspect until four days later.
Feb. 22, 2017
Investigators from the state police released a recording of a man’s voice saying “down the hill” and asked anyone who could identify the voice to come forward. The audio came from Libby’s cell phone, just like the photos of the man did.
Police called the girl a hero because she recorded what could be important evidence.
March 2017
Mike Patty, Libby’s grandfather, asked the public at a news conference in March to look at photos and audio of the suspect so that someone could give a tip that would lead to an arrest.
He said, “If you think it might be true but then say, “No, he’s not like that,” trust your first thought. Let the police look into that information and decide,” at the news conference.
Patty said that he still thinks the murderer or murderers will be caught. He said that the murders had “ripped a hole in our families that will never get better.”
July 2017
On July 17, the police released a sketch of a man who was thought to be the main suspect in the girls’ murders. This was based on what someone who had seen him said about him.
The composite sketch shows a white man with a big nose and a goatee who is wearing a cap and what looks like a sweater with a hood. Police said the suspect has reddish-brown hair, is between 5 feet 6 inches and 5 feet 10 inches tall, and weighs between 180 and 220 pounds.
Police asked people to look at the picture, especially the man’s face, and get in touch if they knew anything that could help them find him.
“We want to know who he is.” “It would be great if someone would come forward with more information, like a name or at least the location of this person,” said State Police Sgt. Kim Riley at a news conference, at the time.
April 2019
More than two years after Libby and Abby were killed, police released a new sketch of the man they think killed them. They said it “better shows” the man they think killed them than the first sketch.
Police said they came up with descriptions of possible suspects early on in their investigation. They said they “initially thought the sketch” of a white man with a big nose and a goatee, possibly in his 40s or 50s, that was released in July 2017 was a “person of interest” in the murder investigation.
In a statement, the Indiana State Police tried to explain more about the two sketches for the multi-agency task force that is looking into the murders.
The latest sketch was “representative of the face of the person captured” in a video of a man walking on an abandoned railroad bridge that German took with his cellphone, according to a police statement.
Police also released a longer audio clip in which they say the suspect says, “Guys, come down the hill.”
Dec. 2021
In December 2021, authorities looked into whether Kegan Kline had anything to do with the murders. They said that one of the last times Libby talked to him was through a social media account he had made.
WTHR got an affidavit of probable cause that says Kline made the Anthony shots account, posed as a male model to talk to girls, and asked for naked pictures. Kline was never officially named as a person who might have done the killings.
A search of Kline’s home in Peru, Indiana, in 2017 led to 30 charges of child exploitation, child pornography, and child solicitation. Kline was arrested on these charges. Kline has been locked up for more than two years, and his case is still going through the courts.
Feb. 2022
In February 2022, it had been five years since the girls were killed. Libby and Abby’s family and friends still hope that one day the killer will be caught.
Kelsi German, Libby’s sister, told WTHR that she was going to spend the anniversary of the girls’ deaths with her family and remember them with a food drive over the weekend.
“I think doing nothing can be very tiring,” Kelsi said. “So when we go out and do something nice for other people, we can think, ‘This is what we’re doing for them,’ and we don’t have to think about the bad things. We can think about all the good things that have come from the bad things that have happened.”
Kelsi said she still has faith that the man who killed the girls will be found and charged at some point.
I say, ‘Today is the day. It will come, and it will. We’re going to find out,” and I just reassure myself by saying, “It’s hard, it’s frustrating, and it’s been five years, but we’re going to find out.” It’s on the way.'”
Oct. 28, 2022
WTHR said that police sources said that a man named Richard Allen was arrested for killing both girls. The Indiana State Police have not confirmed the report. Instead, they have said that the Delphi Homicide Task Force will hold a news conference on Monday morning to “announce an update in the Delphi investigation.”
WTHR says that at the news conference, which is set to start at 9 a.m. CST, an arrest will be made public.
As word spread on social media Friday that German might be arrested, his sister sent out a tweet that said, “Today is the day.”
“Please know how thankful I am for everyone. For now, there are no comments. If you have any questions, please contact the office of the Carroll County prosecutor. Monday at 10 am is the most likely time for a press conference. “Then we’ll talk more,” she wrote.
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