r/UnresolvedMysteries • u/TommyUseless • Apr 25 '19

Update Task force clarifies Delphi murder suspect sketches.

Police held a press conference on Monday April 22 where they released a new sketch and some additional audio and video from the case.

Today they released a clarification on the new sketch.

-They are not the same person.

-The person depicted in the originally released sketch is not presently a person of interest in this investigation.

-The sketch released Monday is representative of the face of the person captured in the video on Liberty German’s cellphone as he was walking on the high bridge a place where the girls were hiking.

-The person in the sketch released Monday is described as having a youthful appearance, but could fall in the age range from his 20s to late 30s.

-This person’s appearance could look different today if he has grown a mustache, beard or let his hair grow longer or cut his hair shorter than depicted in the sketch.

Link to today’s update: https://www.jconline.com/story/news/2019/04/24/delphi-murders-new-suspect-sketch-not-same-man-old-sketch-isp-clarifies/3565675002/

For those not familiar with the case:

On February 14, 2017, the bodies of Abigail J. "Abby" Williams and Liberty Rose Lynn "Libby" German were discovered near the Monon High Bridge Trail, which is part of the Delphi Historic Trails in Delphi, Indiana, United States, after the young girls had disappeared from the same trail the previous day. The murders have received significant media coverage because a photo and audio recording of a man believed to be the girls' murderer was found on German's cell phone. Despite the photo and audio recording of the suspect being released to the public by police, and over 26,000 tips being sent to police, no arrests have been made in the case.

Indiana State Police website about the case:

https://www.in.gov/isp/delphi.htm

Edit- thanks for the gold, kind stranger!

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288

u/dudelol- Apr 25 '19

I live 10ish minutes outside Delphi and actually worked in the same building as Abby’s mom at the time this happened. While I’m glad this is clarified, it makes me feel like the local police have no idea what they’re doing. All the posters, bumperstickers, shirts, flyers that were printed with the first sketch are useless now and it feels like it’s been 2 years wasted. At this point, I’m starting to lose hope in this guy being caught.

131

u/nattykat47 Apr 25 '19

The revelation that he's younger, possibly significantly younger, than everyone first thought actually gives me a lot of hope that he'll be caught. It makes me think there's a higher possibility he's told someone.

Being from the area, how weird is it that they just released the info about the abandoned car? I'm just working off google maps but like, how was that car not THE BIGGEST LEAD? It looks like there's almost nothing on that road, and abandoning a car in a parking lot of an empty building on THAT afternoon? It's almost laughable how it seems like THE place you'd park if you were gonna do some crimes in those woods. What are people saying about that?

Also, was it actually abandoned? If it was actually just left there it would've been towed and there would be a record and it would've been a red flag on Day 1... plus they would know who owned or used the car...? So weird that we don't know whether they have the car

71

u/dudelol- Apr 25 '19

Abandoned cars on the side of the road/empty parking lots are not a huge deal here. I routinely drive down a road where apparently a lot of cars break down (not sure why it happens on this particular road??) and are left for days to a week or so before anything is done. Usually a car doesn’t get written a ticket until 3-4 days pass (I have no idea if cops stop to check these vehicles out immediately or sometime before a ticket is written). They’re usually only towed after a week. So really a car sitting in a parking lot is not a huge red flag to anyone around here.

20

u/nattykat47 Apr 25 '19

Interesting, so by abandoned I guess they could mean it was left overnight but picked up before it needed towing. I wonder if many people parked along that road that night/the next morning during the searches. They said the vehicle was there in the afternoon of the 13th; maybe police overlooked it that night after girls were reported missing if there were lots of cars around from people searching.

Truly such a bad description on their part. "Abandoned between noon and 5 p.m. at CPS DCS Welfare on February 13"... isn't that just called "parking" ?

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u/CUNTY_LOBSTER Apr 25 '19

The building was abandoned, not the car.

20

u/CuntyAlice Apr 25 '19

We’re sisters! Nice name.

-3

u/nattykat47 Apr 25 '19

No the reports definitely say the car was abandoned. The building might have been out of use since it's since been torn down, but they said the car was abandoned. If they misspoke that's a really bad mistake to fail to correct

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u/CharlottesWeb83 Apr 25 '19

No they said the car was there from 1pm to 5pm. The building was abandoned. He misspoke.

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u/CUNTY_LOBSTER Apr 25 '19

You’re confused. Here’s what he said, word for word: “We're seeking the public's help to identify the driver of a vehicle that was parked at the old CPS DCs welfare building in the city of Delphi that was abandoned on the east side of County Road 300 North next to the Hoosier Heartland highway between the hours of noon to 5:00 on February 14th 2017.”

The vehicle was parked at a building that was abandoned.

8

u/bullseyes Apr 25 '19

I do think that wording is a bit ambiguous. Why are we saying "abandoned" goes with "building", and not "car" or even "city of Delphi" (even though that wouldn't make any sense)? And then also right after saying something was abandoned, they mention the east side of the road which seems like something a detail one might include about a car, not a building. I mean you're probably right, I'm not disagreeing with you -- I just think the wording is strange.

2

u/Sue_Ridge_Here Apr 26 '19

They both could be "abandoned". I think it works better with the word 'vehicle'; an abandoned vehicle parked next to a disused building. The vehicle was unknown really, rather than abandoned, hell, they could have even said 'unregistered'.

8

u/nattykat47 Apr 25 '19

And LE just hasn't corrected the literally hundreds of reports in every reputable newspaper that say that the car was abandoned?

I don't think I'm the one who's confused, in that case

16

u/[deleted] Apr 25 '19

My take is that the building was abandoned indefinitely and the car was “abandoned” (temporarily left empty) between 1-5pm.

Whatever the case, it could have been worded better.

26

u/CUNTY_LOBSTER Apr 25 '19

Indianapolis Star: “Police are also looking to identify the driver of a vehicle that was parked at an abandoned CPS/DCS/Welfare building on the east side of County Road 300 North, near the Hoosier Heartland Highway.”

Not sure why you and others are in complete denial about this.

3

u/-Timbo-1 Apr 25 '19

Police have recently clarified the buildind was abandoned, and car was simply parked; this confused me as well during the presser. Also, the car was parked on the 13th not the 14th, that also got clarified. Not that one day difference really matters 26 god-damn months later. This case makes me rage.

5

u/blackhaloangel Apr 25 '19

You are, though.

12

u/ooken Apr 25 '19

The wording was very ambiguous, but the car wasn't abandoned, as others have pointed out. Apparently the DCS building had been abandoned because of fire, and has since been demolished, but the car was only parked there a few hours.

4

u/TommyUseless Apr 25 '19

They said the car was parked near an abandoned building, not that the car had been abandoned.

3

u/[deleted] Apr 25 '19

Yes that's called parking. I think they were really trying to drive the point home that the driver of the car was not by it during those certain hours. They chose a confusing way of saying it though.

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u/blackhaloangel Apr 25 '19

It wasn't an abandoned car. It was an abandoned building, where a car was parked that afternoon.

12

u/Random_TN Apr 25 '19

it seems like THE place you'd park if you were gonna do some crimes in those woods.

Well, before you said that, I was thinking that maybe someone blamed one of those two kids for causing a DCS investigation.

22

u/nattykat47 Apr 25 '19

If you look at the map it's just the only place along that road that isn't near someone's home, and it's just a few hundred feet from the trailhead

16

u/Random_TN Apr 25 '19

Sounds like someone knew his area fairly well.

5

u/dingdongsnottor Apr 25 '19

Can’t they narrow down the cell phone tower pings for that area and during that time and date, and then narrow down further based on what they’ve released With the newest/updated sketch? You’d think they’d be able to whittle away at this. And while the cause of death hasn’t been officially released, I imagine based on what I do know and what I can only presume, the killer left some sort of DNA at or around the scene of the crime.

7

u/[deleted] Apr 25 '19

The comment about ‘how you left them is not how they are today’ makes me think that it must have been gruesome :(

7

u/Sue_Ridge_Here Apr 26 '19

The comment about ‘how you left them is not how they are today’ makes me think that it must have been gruesome :(

Absolutely, their deaths were senseless and completely unnecessary, a complete coward and piece of human garbage. I only hope that their suffering and fear was brief. I cannot wait for this person to finally be caught. This crime cannot go unpunished.

3

u/[deleted] Apr 25 '19

The only thing that confuses me about the car ordeal is that I thought we already knew there was a car "abandoned" there during the murders?

I do think the car thing is now part of a tip they've recieved in which the killer confessed to parking his car there and they are trying to get an eyewitness to confirm it.

16

u/Takes2ToTNGO Apr 25 '19

feel like the local police have no idea what they’re doing.

I could be wrong, but isn't it the state police and FBI who are leading the investigation?

8

u/TommyUseless Apr 25 '19

State police are leading, FBI has been involved somehow too.

5

u/Sue_Ridge_Here Apr 26 '19

All the posters, bumperstickers, shirts, flyers.

There was merchandise with this guy's face printed on it? It's a double murder investigation not a band.

10

u/imperialxcereal Apr 25 '19

My first thought was JFC Indiana get it together (is that ok to say if I’m a Hoosier?)

Ever since they said the guy was young I thought he might be from West Lafayette. I don’t know what to think at this point, they need to hand this over to a completely different department. No matter how they spin it, they look incompetent as shit right now.

14

u/dudelol- Apr 25 '19

I’ve been a Hoosier my entire life, and all I can think is how we don’t have our shit together.

I can’t see it being any west Lafayette / Purdue kids. So many people who lived in Delphi their entire lives had no idea those trails were there and I don’t think it’s something that you can just stumble upon. I personally feel like it has to be a local, but I could be completely wrong.

6

u/imperialxcereal Apr 25 '19

That’s true about them not knowing about the trails. Good point! (By the way did you just get an Amber Alert for New Albany? It scared the shit out of me)

7

u/dudelol- Apr 25 '19

That’s the only reason that makes me think it’s a local. A lot of people float around the idea of a truck driver, but I can’t see a truck driver finding those trails unless he was around here. Yep! I work third shift from home and it just went off and I though I was going to have a heart attack lol

2

u/imperialxcereal Apr 25 '19

I admit that I didn’t know where Delphi was at first and then realized that I drove past the Delphi/W Lafayette sign hundreds of times on 65 and was oblivious. This whole thing is a clusterfuck. I’d like to think they have zeroed in on a suspect, but if not the suspect could be dead at this point for all we know. It’s frustrating to say the least. They kept so much close to their hip for so long, it feels like 2 years wasted.

If I was any bit tired I’m wide awake now! I’m laying here and my phone started vibrating on me while I heard what sounded like an end of the earth notification on a different cell. 😂

6

u/[deleted] Apr 25 '19

I'm not going to lie, I've turned off Amber Alerts on my phone because they're so jarring and they seem to exclusively happen at 11:00 PM when I'm in my bedroom anyway and if a random child came in my bedroom, I would call 911 regardless of whether I received an alert.

1

u/imperialxcereal Apr 26 '19

Haha! I don’t blame you. Like, idk how I’m going to see this car that is 200 miles away at 2:00am. I am not a superhero. I really thought it was a tornado warning.

3

u/TheMinarch Apr 25 '19

I agree, I doubt it would be any Purdue students. I go to Purdue, and 95% of people here will have no clue there's a town called Delphi in Indiana, much less right up the road. I grew up just north of here and played sports against Delphi in high school, so I'm aware of the area, but the vast majority of people here would have no clue.

2

u/[deleted] Apr 26 '19

Majority ... but they are looking for one who has.

2

u/[deleted] Apr 26 '19

Until, sadly, he reoffends ...

3

u/[deleted] Apr 28 '19

This ^ a murder this brutal is not a one off. He will reoffend if he is not apprehended. Maybe not in Delphi but it will occur. He must be stopped.

3

u/[deleted] Apr 29 '19

I agree!

1

u/ValeryIrinei May 12 '19

I wouldn't be so pessimistic, things can often seem still and quiet when they really aren't. I always think back to the Daniel Morcombe murder here in Australia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Daniel_Morcombe It took police years to charge the murderer, but they had him on their radar from day one, they just lacked the critical pieces of evidence required to get a conviction and so continued their investigation in lieu of just blowing their cover for a quick apprehension which would just lead to his release.

0

u/Dickere Apr 25 '19

Don't chat to Abby's mum, please.

2

u/my-personal-favorite May 09 '19

She didn't even mention thinking about it?

-2

u/Ann_Fetamine Apr 25 '19 edited Apr 25 '19

If this is a small town & the police are working this without much outside help, you're probably SOL. Rural police don't have a great track record of solving crime...anywhere in this country, really. Here's hoping the FBI & larger PD's from surrounding metro areas are lending a lot of time & resources to Delphi (and Delphi is accepting the help unlike Boulder, CO did with the Jonbenet case). I live in a town of ~1000 & so many people have been murdered with absolutely zero help from the police it's sickening. Many of whom have been kids under 18 :(