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'Only The Killer Knows': Unsolved Delphi Murders Haunt Indiana 3 Years Later
It's "the epitome of evil," a police official said of the murders of eighth-graders Abigail "Abby" Williams and Liberty "Libby" German.
Three years have passed since the murders of two teen girls rocked the central Indiana community of Delphi –– but investigators and the families of the victims still have faith one day the cold case will be closed.
The bodies of Liberty "Libby" German, 14, and Abigail Williams, 13, were discovered Feb. 14, 2017 –– just one day after they vanished during a hiking trip. But the slayings remain unsolved to this day, according to ABC News.
The killings are "the epitome of evil," Indiana State Police Superintendent Doug Carter told the outlet.
"I'm in my 35th year and I've never experienced anything quite like it," Carter continued.
"I still have faith," Abigail's mother, Anna Williams, said. "Law enforcement has it under control. I believe in them 100%."
Liberty's older sister Kelsi German said during a YouTube livestream last year that she also had faith authorities would make an arrest soon.
“I know they’re going to get an arrest soon. We just don’t know when, and it’s coming. And they can’t tell us everything unfortunately, but to be honest, I don’t really want to know everything," she said.
The two friends never came home after going out on a hike on Feb. 13, 2017. Their bodies were discovered hundreds of yards away from a local bridge where they posted a Snapchat photo the day they vanished.
Soon after the killings, Indiana authorities released a grainy video of a suspect walking near the place Liberty and Abigail were last seen alive and an audio recording of a man briefly speaking found on Liberty's phone. There were also police sketches released of the unknown suspect.
Although some evidence has been released to the public, investigators continue to remain tight-lipped about many aspects of the case. "Only the killer knows," Carter told ABC about the cause of the girls' deaths.
Retired detective Paul Holes, who helped catch the Golden State Killer suspect, previously told Oxygen there may be a reason why the investigators are keeping something like the cause of death from the public.
“Law enforcement, when they hold back information it's not to keep the public in the dark — it really is to help benefit the case," Holes said at CrimeCon in 2019. “Knowing a little bit about that case, because I briefly consulted with one of the investigators shortly after the Golden State Killer case, I know that they have a tough investigation ahead, and they are doing everything they can to try to get that case solved.”
But even with the video and other evidence of the killer, no one has come forward with any information, police have said.
"There is obviously someone withholding information," Carroll County Sheriff Tobe Leazenby told ABC. "It could very well be somewhere along the lines someone was even threatened not to reveal the identity of the killer."
The killer could also be a Delphi resident who police have already interviewed, ABC contributor and former FBI agent Brad Garrett mused to the national outlet, and re-interviews could shed new light.
"One of the keys in cases like this is going back and re-interviewing people that you've interviewed before," Garrett said. "Sometimes people's stories change, you find inconsistencies. Sometimes people are mad at each other, they have a fight, and so they're more inclined to tell you a piece of information that they didn't two years before."
Likewise, last summer police were investigating whether kidnapper Paul Etter was linked to the killings. Etter, 55, killed himself during a standoff with police, who said he abducted, raped, and imprisoned a woman on his family farm.
"His name has come up through the process," Leazenby previously told local newspaper the Journal & Courier in Lafayette, Indiana.
However, the investigation into who killed Abigail and Liberty will "never be cold as long as I'm breathing," Carter told ABC.
Anyone with information about the case may call the Delphi Homicide Investigation Tip Line at 844-459-5786; the Indiana State Police at 800-382-7537; the Carroll County Sheriff’s Department at 765-564-2413; or by email to Abbyandlibbytip@cacoshrf.com.
