Liberty German posted this Snapchat of Abigail Williams at Monon High Bridge Trail close to where they started hiking. Photo / Liberty German Snapchat
Liberty German posted this Snapchat of Abigail Williams at Monon High Bridge Trail close to where they started hiking. Photo / Liberty German Snapchat
It was the hike that ended in the grisly murder of two teenage girls.
Ten months ago, 13-year-old Abigail Williams and her 14-year-old friend Liberty German were found dead under a train bridge near a river bank in the small town of Delphi, Indiana — a horror that left the community of 3000 in shock and disbelief.
The girls, whose killer is still at large, had been taking photos while on a hike when they failed to return home on February 13. The pair were reported missing by family members that evening. Their bodies were discovered the next day.
Liberty German, left, and Abigail Williams went missing on February 13. Their bodies were found the following day.
The mysterious deaths of German and Williams have haunted their families, leaving them with a "hole" in their world where the girls should be.
After the discovery of their bodies, investigators released a haunting audio clip recorded by Liberty of a voice police believe is the prime suspect for the murders.
The recording simply says "down the hill", and was taken just before the girls were killed.
Liberty's grandparents, Mike and Becky Patty, said the audio clip, the sketch of the suspect and the photographs of Abigail around their home motivate them to find the killer.
A composite sketch of the man police consider the main suspect in the killings of two teenage girls who were murdered in Delphi, Indiana.
"We are doing everything that we can to help the law enforcement [find the killer]," Becky Patty said on US talk show Dr Phil.
"We aren't the type of people to just sit around, so we have tried to spread the word. Our goal is to get his face out there, everywhere and to every town that his face isn't staring at him.
"We have a hole in our family."
Mike Patty told Dr Phil McGraw that he believes someone in the community knows the killer, but is yet to come forward to police.
"I truly believe that somebody out there knows this guy," he said.
"Somebody knows something. Nobody lives in total isolation in today's world. And I'm asking that person please, help us out.
Abigail's mother, Anna Williams, said there were days she'd "rather just not be here" and that she fears she still won't have an answer about who killed her daughter in 10 years.
"Her bedroom is right next to mine," she said.
"I think about the fact that she's not right behind that door and even standing here and seeing these photos and listening to our story again. Every day it's brand new and it hurts just as bad as the day it happened."
Based on witnesses and the single grainy photograph of the prime suspect, a sketch was developed to help identify a man seen in the area on the afternoon the girls were killed.
This photo released by the Indiana State Police shows a man walking along the trail system as the young girls in Delphi, Indiana.
"I spent a couple of weeks out here shortly after [bodies discovered] just scanning the woods and creek bank looking for clues and items and anything I could find that would possibly help catch this guy," Mike Patty said.
Becky Patty explained how she failed to reach her granddaughter Libby on the afternoon of the murder, and thought that perhaps they'd fallen or hurt themselves on the trail.
"Maybe they fell and the phone came out of their hand or something and couldn't answer, so we were just looking for them," she said.
"A little after five I called the police," Mike Patty added.
"We'd been searching as a family and couldn't find anything. It's going to get dark let's get the police involved here.
"They immediately came out in force and started walking the trails with us looking for the girls.
"By six o'clock most of the town was out. People were out on the streets, flashlights, people just walking in groups. Hundreds of people coming out to help us look."
Indiana State Police are looking beyond the town of Delphi for the man photographed near the trail around the time a relative dropped off the girls, Sergeant Kim Riley told WLFI-TV in Lafayette.
Their deaths have been ruled a double homicide, but authorities have not disclosed how the girls died.
It is unclear whether the man heard in the recording is the same one depicted in an image of a suspect released by authorities last week.
