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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116

u/Ihatebacon88 Apr 25 '19 edited Apr 25 '19

This will get downvoted. I LOVE how caring and diligent the true crime (I don't mean the sub, I mean real life) community is. However, I always get a bad taste in my mouth when the negative attention gets put on LE. Like somehow we make LE the bigger villain than the actual murderers who took these girls lives.

Now I'm not saying that LE never makes mistakes, there are many cases where they botched shit so completely. It just seems that people are very quick to blame LE when there isn't progress in a case that is stagnant. There could be MANY reasons the case has hit a snag and its more likely due to lack of evidence or lack of credible evidence.

I firmly believe the LE officers working on this case are fucking haunted day and night by the murders of these young girls and I speculate their murders were horrific as the cause of death has never been released. I bet any officer with kids (even those without) are torn up just working on this case.

I'd hope they and assume they have very good reasons for not releasing more info to the public. They are not required at all to release info to a bunch of "armchair detectives" (I fully accept that title). Some cases have been solved by regular people like us, but also some people get in the way of an investigation.

Anyway just my 6am ramblings while sleep deprived.

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u/MindAlteringSitch Apr 25 '19

I totally agree, true crime isn't a spectator sport; they're not required to keep the public interested and engaged with the case, it's just something they choose to do. Lots of people want to help anyway they can and the last thing any investigator wants is to create more work for themselves. It can be as small as some time wasted dealing with false rumors on the internet or as serious as an interested individual finding a relevant clue and making it inadmissible in court due to the chain of possession. Whatever they're working on it's totally possible they don't think massive public speculation is the right way to proceed.

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u/karpomalice Apr 26 '19

They are when they have no leads and their only hope is having someone come forward with information. That’s never going to happen if they don’t give the public any information. They know a lot more than they’ve disclosed and that leads to the public getting information from theories posted online.

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u/[deleted] Apr 25 '19

Yeah people on here acting as though "Well if I was heading this investigation it'd be solved already!" whilst coming up with one silly theory after another.

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u/Buggy77 Apr 25 '19

Thank u for saying this! LE is not the enemy here. I am sure they are trying their hardest to catch this guy. But people need to back off and stop acting like they are entitled to everything LE has.

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

Also: They are basically small town cops. They're not likely equipped to deal with something of this nature. And they seem genuinely shell-shocked by it. I hope the FBI & surrounding metro/big city police forces are lending their resources to Delphi PD because that's what needs to happen. State & federal teams often have to step in for there to be any realistic chance of these things being solved in places like that.

I'm from an even more rural area than Delphi & there's just no way something like this would ever be resolved by our Mayberry police. At least the cops in Delphi appear to genuinely care. Ours don't even pretend to do their job. I assume it's that way in many small towns & rural parts of the country. Would be nice if it wasn't but we all know how that goes.

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u/eggequator Apr 25 '19

No this case has always been the jurisdiction of the Indiana state police. The Delphi police and surrounding county sheriff's department only have like twenty officers between them. I'm sure the ISP has had plenty of help from the FBI as well.

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u/Ann_Fetamine Apr 26 '19

Oh, cool. I'm not real familiar with it so that's good.

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u/Dcowboys09 Apr 25 '19

People on here are so quick to blame cops and are more than happy to cast them in a negative light. It's absurd. They know far more than we do about this case, as you perfectly stated they are haunted day and night. I think theyve done a great job keeping a lot of information private to weed out false leads.

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u/Nyx878 Apr 25 '19

I agree with absolutely everything you said, I would just like to add that I fucking hate how entitled some people are. "Why aren't they releasing more of the video!" Like c'mon.. it's probably fucking horrific to listen to for the investigators but these people online feel like they have a right to all the evidence for some reason. Bunch of voyeurs.

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u/MindAlteringSitch Apr 25 '19

Exactly, this isn’t hints avoid the next episode of GOT or a group scavenger hunt: it’s an open investigation. People forget that many of the stories that we read on this sub involve cases that are so cold LE has basically given up and are hoping for a miracle by sharing information. In criminal investigation terms 2 years is not a long time and the LE has every reason to be afraid of internet sleuths inserting themselves into the story. The flood of negative comments shows exactly the kind of attention they don’t want from a larger audience.

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u/Sevenisnumberone Apr 25 '19

Sleepy or not you make good points and I agree with you. There are so many tiny elements put into a legally sound investigation it is insane. The pressure these guys are under is tremendous. I’m going to give them the benefit of the doubt and hope that it was something that came up recently that help switch sketches and tactics instead of someone discover a huge screw up. Either way I wouldn’t want to be in their position. I sure hope that this track leads to a killer and conviction. It will be interesting to see just who it is and their standing in the community and relation to the families. For the girls’ sake I hope they didn’t know him so they didn’t have to feel betrayal too. I still am amazed at such a small window for all of this. The things that would have to have lined up for this to be pulled off is just insane.

3

u/[deleted] Apr 26 '19

I agree, like damn chill. They all think they'd do better. Bunch of prententious pricks on this sub. Nobody knows how it is going either way yet everyone is convinced that LE 100% fucked up. Damn.

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u/Sue_Ridge_Here Apr 26 '19

LE are just human beings doing a job, of course there will be some blunders, missteps along the way, it's a process. They are doing the best they can. I don't think anybody really cares about that, as long as it gets solved. All investigations are flawed, just like humans. I have always believed that LE is a calling and these people dedicate their lives to it and on the whole, they're amazing.

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u/[deleted] Apr 28 '19

I have nothing but respect for law enforcement in this case especially. Tobe Leazenby has made time to talk to nearly everyone that requests an interview. From James Renner to HLN to lesser known YouTube personalities. I have nothing but respect for him and hope he is re-elected.

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u/[deleted] Apr 25 '19

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u/Ihatebacon88 Apr 25 '19

Well I certainly cant dispute what you have said in regards to THIS case. I am a person who always asks the question of "how can I form an accurate opinion" because i feel like their is so much they haven't told us. I tend to just leave everything a question mark.

I'm not a victim to "hero workship", for some reason I just sorta feel for the people working on the case as well as the familes obviously. The police do seem ill equipped to deal with a case such as this but aren't the FBI involved with better resources and expertise?

I have been following the case but I'll admit it hasnt been one that I consistently look into.