Indiana, 13th February 2017, 13 year old Abigail Williams and 14 year old Liberty ‘Libby’ German were dropped off by Libby’s older sister at a trail-head on County Road North as 1:35pm. The girls had begged to be dropped off at this site that was mainly visited by locals, and they knew the area well. Libby’s father planned to pick them back up at 3:15pm.
Libby posted several pictures onto her snapchat showing Abigail on the bridge, and then a black and white picture of the bridge, which feels so eerie to look at knowing what happened next.
The Deck Girder Bridge:
The last post the girls shared on social media was on Libby’s snapchat at 2:07pm.
When Libby’s father went to meet the girls, he rang her phone repeatedly but there was no answer. He set off along the trail to find them where he spoke to a man who stated he had seen “two people on the bridge”. By 5:30pm the family contacted the Sheriff’s Department to report the girls missing.
14th February: The search for the girls resumed the following day after being called off due to nightfall. Unfortunately around noon, one of the searchers found the bodies of the girls 0.5m east of the abandoned Deck Girder Bridge.
The police never released a statement saying how the girls were killed, or any possible motives. Leaving the public wondering if this was a sexual attack and how the girls died.
The Picture.
The next day, Indiana state police began circulating a still image of a Caucasian male, with his hands in his pockets, walking along the bridge towards the girls. The picture was taken from Libby’s phone.
22 February.
Police released an audio recording taken from Libby’s phone where the voice of this man, now a suspect, can be heard. Though muffled, you can hear him say “guys…down the hill”.
At the end of the bridge is a path that twists down a hill and it is likely this is what he was referring to. Their bodies were found across a shallow creek at the bottom of this hill.
The full video shows the two girls laughing and giggling, then the girls becoming on-guard as they were approached and spoken to by this man. This is the last thing on Libby’s phone.
My opinions of the video is that the man walking towards them does look suspicious. He is an older man, heavily built, walking towards the girls quickly with his head lowered. Why would he need to approach and talk to these girls, unless it was for a sinister motive?
Another question that bugged me is why he was talking about going down the hill? It is heart-breaking that we will never know the true context around this exchange. I personally do believe the man in this video is their killer, as it was the last video taken on her phone. Libby was very smart and quick thinking to conceal her phone from the man approaching, record him and then save it. I believe she must have felt in some kind of danger or felt uneasy in order for her to record and then save the video, as for those who do not have snapchat and do not know, you have to save the video yourself, it does not automatically save.
The Orange lights.
Despite the police refusing to call this a “cold-case” because they believe that there is enough evidence, it still remains unsolved to this day. Police arrested multiple suspects from backgrounds of domestic abuse, rape and sexual assault charges, but there was not enough evidence to link them to the murders.
The locals, upon request of the girls mothers, have put orange lights in their porches in remembrance of the girls, and to also remind others that the killer is still out there.
They refuse to change these orange lights until the killer is caught. Therefore, sadly, the porches of the locals still burn orange every night.
Links to another case?
There has been some disturbing parallels drawn between a similar case in 2012.
10 year old Lyric Cook and her 8 year old cousin Elizabeth Collins were murdered just 25 miles from where Abigail and Liberty were found. Hunters found Lyric and Elizabeth’s bodies at the Seven Bridges park in December 2012. Both were on nature trails and left for dead in the woods. When their bodies were discovered, decomposition meant it was impossible to determine a cause of death or confirm if they had been sexually assaulted.
This case too remains unsolved.
What are the theories?
As you can imagine, the internet is swarming with theories behind what happened on that abandoned Deck Girder bridge. After reading through A LOT of them, I have narrowed it down to three theories that caught my attention.
The first theory is that they were being watched/followed:
He is not to be seen in the photos which Libby took of Abigail, or in the black and white picture of the bridge. Therefore, due to the very tight time frame between those pictures and the time of the video being taken, it is believed that he must have been hiding and following them. Another theory is that he actually walked past the girls, saw there was no one on the other side, doubled back which made the girls suspicious, then when he started to approach them, they began to record. Due to the girls being at the end of the track, this idea that he must have past them at a previous point, then doubled back to almost trap them at the end does make some sense. However we will never be able to be certain how he got to the girls in such a short time frame.
Another theory is that he knew the girls location due to their posts on snapchat:
Some believe that this man may have seen the girls snapchat stories and recognised their location, maybe a local man, and quickly rushed down to trap them on the bridge. Some question why a young girl would add an older man on snapchat, but it is not uncommon, as we disturbingly learn, for older men to make accounts pretending to be someone young in order to groom children.
However there is some possible flaws in this theory in regards to the time frame. If he had seen the girls location on snapchat, he would have had only 10 minutes to get to the trail, walk down the bridge to their location which would have taken at least 8 minutes and approach them. Despite this, the idea that he had seen their whereabouts on social media and gone to them could be a possibility.
Finally the last theory which I believe is one of the most possible is that it was pure opportunity. It is a strong possibility that this was a man simply just waiting for his perfect opportunity to kill. Maybe walking up and down the bridge, or hiding watching people go by, waiting for a jogger or lone dog walker, and it was just unfortunate that he came across these girls.
Will we ever know?
The police said that the murders did seem to have some type of “control” fetish/motive, leaving the public to wonder what really happened to these girls. I do find it strange how the police have hardly released any information about the case, in regards to cause of death or what type of DNA evidence they have which makes this not a ‘cold case’. The links to the case in 2012 make me wonder if this is a case of a serial killer, and why the police seem to not be working so hard to find this man?
Also I question how no one seems to know this man? To me, I believe he must be a local in order to know this trail. There is one theory that believes he escaped through the grave yard after committing the murders, and in my opinion, he must have known the area to a certain degree. The video isn’t very clear, however you could certainly recognise him if you knew him, and you would be able to recognise his voice. This is baffling to me.
Someone out there knows this man. I believe this could be a case of someone not willing to come forward.
Social media has played a big part in this investigation, helping to put together a time line of events and to pin point their exact locations, even putting together a very good idea of who the suspect is. Libby was very smart to carry on recording as this man approached her and her friend, and hopefully this quick thinking will one day lead to the arrest of this man. If it is true that these two cases are also linked, Libby’s quick thinking may also help many other families find peace.
Until that day, the orange lights burn bright in the porches of that town in Indiana, as a constant reminder of that tragic day, and as a sign of determination to find that man in that eerie snapchat.
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