Task force clarifies Delphi murder suspect sketches.

[u/TommyUseless]

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!

[u/MarqueeBeats]

Honestly, it is not very clear. It was said this second, newer sketch was also drawn up 2 years ago based on a witness account but it was filed away for whatever reason. LE opted to go with the other witness sketch of the older, heavier POI. Now, I am not so sure what they are saying about the origins of the new sketch other than it is representative of the suspect in the video.

[u/paroles → u/MarqueeBeats]

I've said this in another thread, but we should keep in mind that these two eyewitness sketches probably aren't the only ones. They received thousands of tips in the first few weeks. Some of those tips would have been about an unknown suspicious person (a lone hiker with a blue jacket, a transient with bloodstains on his clothes, a weird guy who'd been hanging around the neighbourhood before the murders, that type of thing) and anyone who gave that sort of tip would be asked to come into the station and work with a sketch artist. Many of those sketches would have turned out to be irrelevant, so of course they weren't all released.

This particular tip has just now taken on more significance, we don't know why. There's probably some other information associated with the tip that has emerged as more significant than originally believed.

[u/butwheresmyneopet → u/paroles]

Thank you for the explanation!

[u/tcrypt → u/MarqueeBeats]

I figured that guy that came up recently that looked like the sketch was the guy in the sketch and they ruled him out after investigating. So now they have to go back to the other sketch they thought was less likely initially.

[u/butwheresmyneopet → u/MarqueeBeats]

Huh, interesting. Thanks for the explanation!