Every Town - Update On Teenage Girls Double Murder Cold Case, Abby Williams & Libby German - Delphi, IN

Episode Date: November 25, 2022

Teenage best buddies Liberty German and Abigail Williams shared many things in common like playing volleyball, the saxophone and going hiking. At a young age, Abigail or “Abby” and Liberty a.k.a. “Libby” had the inclination to help people, and so they dreamed of doing forensic police work someday. Sadly though, that day would never be fulfilled.💥 Watch On Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/scarymysteries🎧 Our Other Podcast: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1235579💀 Follow Our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/scarymysteries 💀 Follow Our Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andrew.fitzg👁 Follow Our TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@andrewfitzgerald💥 Follow Our Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scarymysteriesofficial Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Welcome back or perhaps just welcome if it's your first time listening to our podcast. I'm Andrew and thanks so much for tuning in. We have a strange one for you guys today. Once you're done, go check out our other podcast called Scary Mysteries. If you're looking for more or better yet, go to our YouTube channel called Scary Mysteries where you can watch all of our content, including this story in video form. Every town has a dark side. Teenage best buddies, Liberty German, and Abigail Williams, shared many things in common,

like playing volleyball, the saxophone, and going hiking. At a young age, Abigail, or Abby, and Liberty, aka Libby, had the inclination to help people, and so they dreamt of doing forensic police work someday. Sadly, though, that day would never be fulfilled. Instead, Abby and Libby have become the subjects of a massive police. lease investigation in their hometown of Delphi, Indiana, where they disappeared in broad daylight, only to be discovered lifeless on Valentine's Day in 2017. 40,000 tips have come in.

A $200,000 reward and video and audio evidence has been retrieved from Libby's cell phone. Yet who killed her and Abby? Still remains a mystery. At some point in their young lives, Libby and Abby were meant to forge a strong bond, through a friendship that lasted until their last breaths. The small parallels in their lives might have had a hand and drying them very close to one another. Libby was born on December 27, 2002 in Lafayette, Indiana.

While Abby's birth came six months later on June 23rd, 2003, in Salt State, Marie, Michigan. Both blonde girls grew up with an incomplete family. Since she was three years old, Libby lived with her grandparents, Mike and Becky Patty, who had stood as her guardian since then. And they described their granddaughter as wise beyond her years. Grandma Becky said, Libby already had her career path pretty much laid out.

She wanted to work with the FBI, she wanted to solve crimes, she wanted to help people. Abby, on the other hand, was raised by her single mother, Anna Williams, who took pride in her daughter as being very respectful and kind-hearted. Arika Gibson, a common close friend of Libby and Abby's, know that both girls were close to their respective families. Libby loved her mother so much when she was her older sister, Kelsey, showed her to cry on. Abby expectedly shared a very tight relationship with her mother

as she was the only parent that she had. Arrika described Libby as outgoing and smart, but was also a band geek and a volleyball and softball aficionado. In school, Libby excelled in math and had the answers to all the equations within seconds. But she was particularly huge in science. Abby was quite the opposite personality-wise. She was quiet and shy around people, but became her normal, jolly self, when with her group of friends. Erika said,

Abby didn't speak much in front of people, but when she did, her words really meant something. In seventh grade, Libby and Abby became teammates on the volleyball team at Delphi Community Middle School, and that gave their friendship an opportunity to really blossom and grow. He also played saxophone together in school. By the time they headed eighth grade, the two teenage girls became best friends, so much that they were inseparable, even on the weekends. After all, they resided in the same tight-knit community of Delphi, where everyone knows everyone, dubbed by the Lepard.

local sheriff as small town USA. Main Street runs through the center with the jail, city courthouse, and a cozy library all located within walking distance of one another. The network of trails surrounds this rural town situated some 70 miles north of the state's capital. One of these trails is the 10-mile park path, known as the Delphi Historic Trail. It's comprised of eight miles of rural open space and two miles of urban streetside trails. Trail routes run along the Wabash River, Deer Creek, and watered remnants of the Wabash and Erie Canal to take hikers and bikers past architectural gems and residential areas and through the Courthouse Square Historic District. For the townsfolk, the Delphi Historic Trail,

indeed made history in February of 2017 when it became the site of the baffling disappearance and murder of Libby and Abbey. 14-year-old Libby and 13-year-old Abby were enjoying a day off from school on an uncharacteristically warm February 13th in 2017. Although it was a Monday, school was closed because snow had fallen over the prior weekend. The two besties decided to spend the afternoon hiking at the Delvey Historic Trail, particularly at the scenic Monon High Bridge, an abandoned and somewhat perilous railroad bridge over Deere Creek and Carroll County.

The girls first asked permission from grandmother Becky, who permitted them to on the condition that they go there and straight back home. Abby's father, Derek Williams also agreed, provided Libby and Abby would only be out for a couple of hours, and then he would pick them up after. At 1.35 p.m., the girls were dropped off by Abby's sister Kelsey at the trailhead on County Road 300 North west of the Hoosier Heartland Highway.

It's just five minutes away by car from downtown Delphi. Libby and Abbey then went hiking on the Monon High Bridge over Deer Creek all through the woods. At 207 p.m. Libby posted a Snapchat photo of Abby wearing a beige jacket over a red blouse, jeans and sneakers while walking on the bridge. An hour later, Derek texted. Libby that he was heading to pick them up at their designated area.

But the blue-eyed volleyball player didn't reply, which was unusual. Derek waited in vain at the meeting spot, so he called up Becky at 3.30 p.m., informing her the girls weren't there yet. Their subsequent attempts to call Libby weren't answered as well, so her grandfather Mike went to the trail 10 minutes later to help Derek search for their girls. Various scenarios crossed into the adult's minds, but foul play at the time wasn't one of them. Perhaps Libby and Abbey decided to take a walk to get home.

Or probably, they were still in the vicinity, got lost or walked too far, or suffered an injury, and their phone batteries had died. The sunset loomed at 5 p.m. and darkness set in. Fear then enveloped Libby and Abbey's families as there was no sign of the girls. By 5.30 p.m. Libby and Abbey were reported missing to the local authorities who initially also ruled out foul play.

But that suspicion changed when a thorough search continued the following day using sniffer dogs. And it all culminated into a devastating discovery at around 12.15 p.m. on Valentine's Day of 2017. The lifeless bodies of Libby and Abbey were found in a wooded area, about a half-mile east of the abandoned Manon-high Bridge. Their bodies were about 50 feet from the north bank of Deer Creek. The trail system in Delphi covers just over 12 miles and is the heart of the city. Nobody believed that this would happen in the community, said Jake Adams, director of Delphi's community development. To his knowledge, there had never been any concern about security on the trails as children commonly walk them without supervision. State police sergeant Kim Riley

said autopsies conducted helped identify the girls as Liberty and Abigail. Sergeant Riley said in a news conference, there was somebody out there who did this crime, and we're going to find them. This double homicide was the first case in decades in Delphi, so it naturally concerned every citizen in this one safe and peaceful Indiana town. Police immediately launched a double homicide investigation,

but didn't publicly state how Libby and Abbey were murdered. It was said to be a disturbing crime scene. There were two to three specific signatures associated with the crime scene, suggesting a serial killer was involved. On February 15, 2017, the day after the girls were found dead, Indiana State Police began circulating a grainy still image of a man reportedly seen on the Monon High Bridge Trail, near where Libby and Abbey were killed. The photograph captured the image of a Caucasian male, hands in his pockets, walking on the rail bridge. It is head down and he was headed towards the girls.

He was wearing blue jeans, a blue coat, and a hoodie. Four days later, the unidentified man was considered a suspect in the slings of Libyan Abbey. Then on February 22nd, police released another bombshell. An audio recording with a muffled voice of the alleged assailant was heard saying most likely to the two girls down the hill. What was most surprising was when police revealed, that the source of the still photo and the short audio clip was Libby German herself, who audaciously recorded it through her smartphone.

Police regarded her as a hero for having had the uncanny foresight and fortitude to secretly gather firsthand evidence, despite the serious danger of her situation. Police indicated that additional evidence from the phone had been secured, but that they didn't release it as to not compromise any future trail. On July 17th, officers distributed a composite sketch of someone who, at the time of the investigation, was sought as a person of prime interest in the murders. It had apparently been drawn by police from eyewitnesses to a certain hiker of the Delphi Historic Trails on the day Libby and Abbey vanished. The suspect was described as between 5 feet 6 inches and 5 feet 10 inches tall, weighing between 180 to 220 pounds with reddish-ground hair. Abby's mother expressed hope that the sketch meant we were just one step closer.

She said, We really truly hope that this is the piece of the puzzle that we need to bring justice to our girls. By this time, the reward offered in the case was set at $41,000. Delphi's loyal residents had united an unparalleled way. Jake Adams said, Everybody kind of came together. people are tripping over themselves to try to do fundraisers specifically for the good of the whole cause to help support local law enforcement and the family members.

Their sense of community and sense of urgency to solve the crime motivated them to give donations as small as 5 or $10, while a larger contribution was made to the reward fund by two more prominent Indiana figures, namely former Indianapolis Colts punter Pat McAfee and team owner Jim Irons. Ursay. The reward money soon soared almost $225,000. The Delphi Community Middle School officials had also done their share to help Abby and Libby's grieving classmates. Greg Brill's, the superintendent of the schools, said that grief dogs were available to students for two days after the girl's bodies were found, while the middle school library was turned into a counseling center. A makeshift memorial had sprung up on the trail as a tribute where townsfolk decked it with flowers, balloons, and

and stuffed toys, while paying their respects to Libyan Abbey. Then, as darkness faded each day, a subtle glow illuminated many houses in a small town. Residents would place orange-yellow lights outside their homes in solidarity with the slaying girls and their loved ones. Small as it may seem, Delphi as a town has grown huge with its people's outpouring of love during a tragedy. As tips poured in after the release of the photo and audio evidence, Police analyzed the circumstances and painted a possible scenario for what had actually transpired on February 13th.

While hiking, Libby, and Abby were actively Snapchatting and taking videos of what may now be considered as their last moments alive. They were near the end of the trail, which then drops away steeply, down towards Deer Creek. They would have planned to turn back, retraced their steps back to the trail and the parking lot to meet Abby's father. but they became unsettled when the suspect approached them from the north while they were on the south end of the Monon High Bridge. Libby likely recognized they were in danger when the man approached and she then turned on her phone's video camera. The angle of the video indicated she had her phone down low, possibly next to a pocket in her clothing. Police believe Libby then concealed the phone in her pocket while the video camera was still on in a successful attempt to record those

last moments. At the end of the bridge is a walkable but steep path, twisting down a hill which was likely where the girls were told by the man down the hill. It strongly suggested that he forced them to walk down into the bridge, possibly threatening them with a firearm. Even the owner of the property where the best friend's bodies were found was investigated by authorities. Ron Logan was served a search warrant on March 17th and his home and vehicle were examined. The 77-year-old landowner was cleared three days later with no evidence linking him to the double homicide. Police had apprehended a few men who were suspected to have connection with the Delphi murders, and one of them was Daniel Nations, a registered sex offender from Indiana, who was

arrested in Woodland Park, Colorado in September of 2017, in charge with threatening strangers on a monument trail with a hatchet. Police noticed the expired Indiana plates on Nation's car, and discovered an outstanding warrant under his name. It was reported that a bicyclist had been fatally shot on the same trail at around the time that Nations was reportedly terrifying passerbyes. Authorities saw similarities of these incidents with the Delphi murders, but Nations was no longer considered an active person of interest in the Delphi double homicide by authorities in February of 2018.

Another man considered a person of interest was Paul Etter, who was also wanted for the kidnapping and rape of a 26-year-old woman on June 22nd and Tippa Canoe County located in Indiana's west-central portion. He was arrested on July 23rd, 2019, but committed suicide after a five-hour standoff with the police on July 28th. Despite all the evidence and exhaustive investigation, Libby and Abbey's case had yet to make progress by leaps and bounds. An arrest had yet to be made.

This frustrated the girls' families. Mike Patty, Libby's grandfather, said, The Unsolved Death is an open wound that can't heal until we get the justice for these girls that they deserve. The double homicide case of Libby and Abbey took a new direction on April 19, 2019. Indiana State Police, multi-agency task force Superintendent Doug Carter

released more materials in a media conference and it included a short video recording in which the suspect is seen walking along the rail bridge for a little over a second. An extended version of the audio recording was also released in which a slight rise in the suspect's voice can be detected as he utters the words, guys, before the phrase,

down the hill, which police described as the voice of evil. And the third was a new and revised composite sketch of the suspect based on an interview with a person who may have seen the culprit near Monon High Bridge on the day of the murder. Well, the first sketch drawn in 2017, depicted an older man with a goatee and wearing a cap. The 2019 version shows a much younger man with a full head of hair rather than a cap on his head. His age is estimated between 18 and 40 years old, but police caution that his youthful appearance could make him look younger than his actual age.

It speculated the killer likely grew up walking them. those woods, spent a lot of time outdoors and had come to see the bridge as the perfect trap. After anyone visiting the bridge crosses the creek, the rest of the bridge is obscured on all sides by woods, creating privacy for anyone committing a crime. It's thought that he rehearsed his plan, walked the route, and was ready to act whenever suitable victims appeared. He passed by Libby and Abbey on the bridge, then turned back, and the girls noticed him walking back in their direction. That's when Libby started recording. The culprit then gained control of Libby and Abby with a knife or a gun and then forced them down the hill.

Another theory was that the killer worked at the nearby butchery, which was why he was wearing a hoodie under his blue jacket on such a warm day. But then again, despite all these pieces of evidence, Delphi murderer is still on the loose, which made Superintendent Carter say, It's amazing we have a video. We have a still photograph. we have sound, and we don't know who this person is. Carter says the Delphi double homicide is still an active case despite no arrest to date,

and he is vowed to catch the girl's killer. Justice may come sooner, later, or perhaps never at all for Libby and Abbey. Their families have planned to immortalize them after they died. In August of 2017, the families announced their plans to build a sports complex for Delphi in the memory of the girls. A nonprofit organization, LNA Park Foundation, was formed to celebrate and commemorate the lives of Libby German and Abby Williams by creating a place for the appreciation of nature, art, play, and athleticism for generations to come. The project has been embraced by thousands, and work is currently well underway.

The Abbey and Libby Memorial Park will include a band shell, two playgrounds, three softball fields, and a walking trail, which will allow parents and children in future years to relive the memories of Libby and Abbey while they enjoy the many things the girls did. It wouldn't be too much to ask that when the park finally opens to the public, it will coincide with the attainment of the elusive justice for Libby and Abbey. So that's going to do it, guys, for this week's episode of Everytown. Thank you so much for tuning in. And make sure you come back next week for another episode.

but with scary, strange, and mysterious stories, as you never know. Maybe your town will be next. A recent update in this case is a little add-on for you guys to give you some details that, in my opinion, are very twisted. Recently in late October of 2022, authorities said that they had finally apprehended the man they believed responsible for the crime, and it came as a shock to the town's residence,

and they found out that this man was one of their own. His name is Richard Allen. He's a 50-year-old who worked at a local CVS. And here's the twisted part. The days right after the gruesome incident, one of Libby's aunts actually went to that store to have her niece's pictures printed up for her funeral, and the man who helped her was none other than Alan himself.

He even offered to pay for the printing costs. Alan has had his photos taken in front of local bars, along with the girl's posters. And prosecutors are just now saying that they believe he wasn't the only person involved in the murders. So there's really a lot more to this story. That is now unraveling, and we'll have to wait to get all the details

and see how it all plays out. You guys stay safe out there. I'll see you soon.