Dephi Murders Case (Abby & Libby)

This case is also live on my podcast, find that here.

This case is one of the most recent I have ever looked at, being that it only happened in 2017. This case has been an intrest to me for the last year and a half due to similarities in my highschool activities. These were young women who tragically lost their life and need as much exposure to their case as possible in order to catch the person who did this. Strap in, this is a long one.

Abigal Williams (13) and Liberty German (14) had a day off of school on February 13th, 2017. Since it was an unusually warm February day in Delphi, Indiana they thought they would spend it outside. Around noon they convinced Libby’s sister, Kelsi, to bring them to a trail that had Monon High Bridge connected to it. Monon High Brdige was a cool old railroad bridge where the girls wanted to take some pictures and explore.

Kelsi said in a debunking myths video on youtube that the girls had been asking her to bring them to this trail on Monday all week. If so this changes some things.

1:45p.m. is the time that they arrived at the trail head on Contry Road 300 N and took off down the trail, sadly this is the last time they were physically seen. However, SnapChats shown them for some time after they got to the bridge. At 2:07p.m. Libby posted a photo of Abby on the bridge along with a picture of just the bridge.

There are some who believe you can see a white car at the end of the train tracks (in the photo with Abby), if so then that could point towards the color of the car and that someone was there from at least 2:07p.m. Some also believe you can see a man hiding behind a tree, if so then this shows their murderer watching them…a very terrifying thought. I can see the man behind the tree but cannot see the car. If there is anyone behind the tree we can definitley see the blue which would link the man in the blue jacket later seen in a video. I have included the grainy suspected images below so you can decide for yourself.

I found this image although I am not sure if it is actually from the video just really cleared up/altered, or if it was a reenactment to show how the man was standing in the picture.

After these photos no one is sure what time the video happened but Libby did post a video to snapchat with a man walking towards the girls on the bridge. This place was not very frequented from what I read so this man probably startled them and they began to record. I will link the video but I would like to discuss some things to look for first.

I reviewed a thread on reddit showing frame by frame pictures from this video. These pictures show that the man’s jacket was most definitley stuffed with something, whether it be weapons or just clothes to throw police off his trail. I discovered this because in one picture his jacket rises up some and you can see that his waist is much thinner.

Also watch how this man walks, for two reasons. Reason 1 is that he walks so easily with his hands in his pockets, this shows that either he has great balance or he has walked this bridge before. Reason 2 is that right before the video cuts off you can see his right foot completley turn and he takes a step directly towards the girls.

Lastly, listen carfully during the video, the man seems to say “Guys…Down The Hill.” To me this means one of two things. Either he is luring them down the hill by telling them theres hurt animals or people or something in order to get them to a trap. Or he was ordering them down the hill and after the video cut off he enforced it with a weapon. To me the luring makes more sense due to the fact that there’s one of him and two of them. Getting them into a trap would be much easier for him then trying to control two people.

Alright, here is the video.

Video

So after this, around 3:11p.m. Derrick German, Libby’s dad, trys to call her to say he is almost to the trail head to get them. He trys to call her again at 3:13p.m. stating he is there but he gets no answer. He starts to walk the trails and runs into a man in a flannel but the man in the flannel says he hasn’t seen the girls. This man was never a suspect, just in the wrong place at the wrong time. After not finding the girsl Derrick calls his mother to ask if the girls were back home. Obviously, they are not so the grandma starts to call all of the girls friends to see if they have heard from them at all, they all say no.

Around 4p.m. family and friends go out to search for the girls, fully believing they would be lost someonwhere off the trail or be at a friends house somewhere. When they didn’t find the girls they reported them missing at 5:30p.m. From 6p.m. till 11:45p.m. the town and the cops search for the girls with no luck. However, at 11:45p.m. the Sheriff calls off the search off because there “is no reason to believe the girls are in danger.” The girls were obviously not at any friends or families house so that leave either they are lost or they have been taken, which are both dangerous situations. It puzzels me how the Sheriff was okay with that and the towns people didn’t question it. Some have speculated that the police know who did it and that is why they didn’t seem to be very dilligent.

On February 14, 2017 searches started again at 9a.m. At 12p.m. a volunteer found a shoe and asked Kelsi, Libby’s sister, if it could be one of the girls…she said yes. At this time the same volunteer saw deer across the way and took his phone out to view them. As he soomed in he panned down and found the bodies on private land. The bodies were less than a mile from the bridge. Some of the girls clothing was also found in the river.

Cause of death has never been released. I believe this is so that when they catch someone who confesses to the murders they know they really did it rather than someone just getting notoriety for it.

Lets move into the suspects, of which there are 4.

Paul Etter: Considered a suspect because of criminal history of kidnapping and raping a 26 year old woman and the police recieved a tip he was involved in this. July 27th, 2017 he killed himself after a 5 hour stand off with police over a stolen car.

Daniel Nations: Considered because he threated people on a trail with a hatchet once and the same approximate time he was there a biker was fatally shot as well. He was also a registered sex offender.

Thoman Bruce: Considered because he had a criminal record of 17 felonies, killed one woman, and sexually assualted two others. When he hurt those women he was wearing a flat hat and a navy blue jacket just like the man in the video.

Charles Eldridge: Considered because he was arrested on child molestation and solisitation befrore, the Randalph County PD alerted the FBI of a possible involvement in this case, and he matches the old sketches of the suspect.

Suspect Description Over All: 5’6″ – 5’10”

180lbs – 220lbs

Red/Brown Hair

From around the area, or familiar with the area

Here are the two sketches, the one with the hat is the one they released directly after the murders and the one without the hat was released April 2019. They’ve stated that they look so different because the first sketch was of a different suspect, not the man on the bridge. This seems odd to me because where else would they get a description of a suspect in the first place. But also why would they not release a sketch of the man from the video since that is the most likely suspect? It seems like they were trying to cover up a bad first sketch or something along those lines. I also 100% believe that the man in the video is wearing a hat.

Anyways, you can decide what you think about this, but lets move onto theories.

u/Ridgeway on Reddit believes it is possible someone saw Kelsi drop the girls off and then parked somewhere else and went in after them.

Bourbontown on Reddit says:

I have always thought he simply sat and waited on one of the benches aong the path. They passed him sitting on a bench and all he had to do was wait a bit and make sure nobody followed behind them. Once he has them on the bridge, they were trapped.

AwsiDooger on Reddit Says:

I think the victums were completley random. He picked the area first and them waited for the ideal opportunity. He knowns there are no cameras. He knows a female(s) who walks across that brisge is essentially trapped….Once this guy targeted High Bridge as ideal, he knew where he would park and how he would depart. There likely were other days in which he went there but everything did not unfold properly and he went home frustrated. He may have looked considerable different each time.

My theory is that if Kelsi is telling the truch and the girls were planning this trip for a week prior then there might be others that knew this. Someone could’ve overheard them talking about it a week earlier. This would give time to plan this murder. Then the day of they could sit in hiding and wait for the girls.

Whatever your theory is please let me know it though either a voice mail to my podcast here. Or comment it down below. Can’t wait to hear the theories and post another case on Thursday at 5p.m.

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