Indiana State Police made headway on Friday in the 2017 cold case commonly referred to as the Delphi Murders.
A 50-year-old suspect identified as Richard Allen has been arrested and booked into the Carroll County Jail in connection to the murders of Abigail Williams and Libby German, whose bodies were found near the Delphi Historic Trail shortly after being reported missing on Feb. 13, 2017.
"Just know how grateful I am for all of you," German's sister Kelsi tweeted early Friday. "No comments for now, any questions please refer to the Carroll county prosecutors office. There is tentatively a press conference Monday at 10am. We will say more then. Today is the day."
Since the discovery of the girl's bodies, just teenagers at the time of their murders, local police have pursued other suspects in relation to the case, but nothing has stuck. Throughout their investigations, a key piece of evidence discovered on the phone of German has aided in their search.
The evidence, a now widely circulated video, features a man with a medium build wearing blue jeans, a blue jacket and a hat pulled down over his eyes seemingly trailing behind the girls. In the audio of the video you can hear the man say "Guys, down the hill." The man in the video is believed to be their killer.
Watch that clip here via the FBI's Most Wanted page:
Want a daily wrap-up of all the news and commentary Salon has to offer? Subscribe to our morning newsletter, Crash Course.
German's sister Kelsi has maintained the website abbyandlibby.org since 2017, keeping it updated with any information relevant to the case. In a section labeled "murders" in the case details tab of the website, Kelsi describes what is known of the events of Feb. 13, 2017.
At 1:45 p.m. on February 13, 2017, two friends, 13-year-old Abby Williams and 14-year-old Libby German, were dropped off by a family member at an abandoned bridge where they planned to go hiking. The girls were reported missing at 5:30 p.m. after they did not arrive to be picked up from the bridge. Authorities initially did not suspect foul play was involved in the disappearance until the bodies of the girls were found at noon the next day, about 0.5 miles (0.80 km) from the bridge.[4] The bodies were discovered around noon on February 14, 2017 about 50 feet from the north bank of Deer Creek.
Police have not publicly stated how the girls were murdered.
"In response to a request from the girl's families, homeowners across central Indiana have installed orange light bulbs on their front porches, both to honor the slain girls and to indicate that their murderer remains at large," Kelsi writes.
Shares