Not long after, Kelsi’s phone rang, and her life changed. They both worked at the Dairy Queen in Delphi. She left the girls walking down the trail and drove to pick up her boyfriend. Libby’s sister, Kelsi German, didn’t worry when she dropped the girls off that day.
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A 14-year-old girl recorded it in the minutes before her death, prompting the Indiana State Police to call her a hero. The general public has seen just two photographs-the one of Abby, and the one of the man in the blue jacket-and heard three words, an audio clip played on loop and shared around the world in an effort to generate leads in the case: “Down the hill.” The voice is clear. Police and the victims’ families know more about what evidence is contained on her cellphone. For at least some period before-or possibly during-the brutal crimes, Libby recorded interaction with her killer. What has been disclosed is that sometime between 2:07 p.m., when Libby shared on Snapchat the photograph of Abby crossing the bridge, and about 3:15 p.m., when Libby’s father arrived to pick up the girls, they were murdered in broad daylight near a public trail. The specific cause of death remains undisclosed. Libby and Abby were discovered in a wooded area approximately one half-mile upstream from the Monon High Bridge on Valentine’s Day 2017. “Social media runs wild with armchair sleuths and hurtful conspiracy theories, including YouTube videos with attempted “re-enactments” of the crime.
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The community remains shaken, though, plagued by questions and uncertain of how to move forward without appearing to give up hope. In a few years, the site of the town’s greatest tragedy will become a striking highlight of its trail system. Fencing surrounds the area, limiting access while workers stabilize one of the supporting piers. Structural repairs to Monon High Bridge are now being made. Looking at pictures of the bridge, one thing is clear: You couldn’t run across it. Abby has her head down in that moment for good reason-the weathered railroad ties make for dangerous walking. You get a glimpse of the isolated beauty of the spot, a sense of its history. The photos that Libby took that day capture the area around Monon High Bridge in remarkable clarity. One gone forever, one unidentified for two years and counting. Both photographs show individuals crossing the bridge alone, walking with their heads down. The subjects of the pictures change, but the backdrop remains the same. Often shared alongside the suspect’s image is a picture of her classmate, Abby, who was 13 years old at the time of her death. Libby recorded more than one picture on the last day of her life.
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Two years have passed since his image was recorded, two years of exhausting investigation that have put Delphi (population 2,882) at the center of a national news story. The man in the image is the suspect in the February 2017 murders of Libby and her friend Abby Williams, two teenagers who were just out for a walk near their tiny northwestern Indiana town. It has appeared on FBI wanted posters around the country. The picture, extracted from a video clip, shows a man in jeans and a bulky blue jacket walking across it with his head down. Three decades after the last train rattled across the tracks, 14-year-old Libby German recorded an image that would make the bridge significant once more. Long after the Monon Railroad was relegated to memories and monuments, the Monon High Bridge remained, and attracted visitors seeking its beauty and dramatic vistas. Things change, but the past marks the present, always. Trains ran across the bridge for almost 100 years, but the last of them to cross was in 1987. The railroad was a defining characteristic of Delphi, Indiana, in the early 20th century, and Monon High Bridge its ultimate symbol. It spans more than 850 feet and (at its peak) towers 63 feet above the water. The original trestle over Deer Creek in Carroll County went up for the Monon Railroad in 1891 and was christened with the accurate if unassuming name of Monon High Bridge.