Reward for Delphi killer's capture climbs to $325K after anonymous donor gives $100K

An anonymous donation of $100,000 has been given to help capture the person responsible for the 2017 slayings of two teenage girls in Delphi, Indiana.  

Indiana State Police this week announced that the large donation had raised the reward fund for information leading to a conviction in the cold case to $325,000.  

It’s been over four years since 13-year-old Abigail ‘Abby’ Williams and 14-year-old Liberty ‘Libby’ German were found dead by the Monon High Bridge Trail near Delphi on February 14, 2017. 

Investigators are still working tirelessly to catch the girls’ killer, Carroll County Sheriff Tobe Leazenby said. 

‘It has been four years, but for us, it seems like it was just yesterday when we started this thing,’ Leazenby told news station WLS. 

Liberty ‘Libby’ German (left) and Abigail ‘Abby’ Williams (right) were kidnapped and killed in Delphi, Indiana, in February 2017. More than four years later an anonymous donation of $100,000 was added to the reward fund for information leading to the killer’s capture

This man in blue jeans and a blue jacket is believed to be a suspect in the girls’ murders 

Libby and Abby were reported missing on February 13, 2017 after they were dropped off at the Delphi Historic Trails to hike but never showed when a parent came to pick them up. 

Their bodies were found about a mile off the main trail the following day. Police have not revealed the cause of death. 

Investigators believe the girls had been approached by an unknown man while they were hanging out on a bridge.   

A photo of the alleged killer was found on Libby’s phone, along with an audio clip in which he could be heard telling the girls: ‘Go down the hill.’  

Police hailed Libby as a hero for recording the evidence before she was killed. 

A grainy photo of the man along with a composite sketch were released by police in hopes that someone would come forward to identify him. 

Investigators said the suspect could be anywhere from age 18 to 40 with a deceptively ‘youthful appearance’.  

Libby (left) and Abby (right) were reported missing on February 13, 2017, after they were dropped off at the Delphi Historic Trails to hike but never showed when a parent came to pick them up. Their bodies were found about a mile off the main trail the following day

Libby posted this photo of Abby on an abandoned railroad bridge hours before they vanished

Police released the composite sketch on the left early in the investigation. The sketch on the right was released in 2019 when police said the investigation had moved in a new direction

In 2019 police announced that the investigation had moved in a new direction and released a second composite sketch that different dramatically from the first, showing a much older and bearded suspect. 

Still, the sketch didn’t appear to draw any leads and the case has remained cold ever since. 

Police have released few details about the investigation, to protect its integrity, they said.  

Libby’s older sister, Kelsi German, has been fighting hard to keep the case in the spotlight and even started studying forensic psychology at Purdue University in hopes of tracking down the killer. 

Kelsi took to Twitter at the end of 2020 to wish her sister Happy Birthday on the day that Libby would have turned 18.  

She said she was ‘praying 2021 is the year’ Libby and Abby’s killer is finally caught.  

Kelsi German marked what would have been her sister Libby’s 18th birthday in a tweet (pictured) last December and said she’s praying the killer is caught in 2021

Sheriff Leazenby said detectives have continued to receive countless tips as the investigation drags on, following up each credible lead with interviews and search warrants.  

‘We still have the up and down days is the best way to put it,’ he said of the investigation. 

‘My term ends in 2022 – would love nothing more than to see someone convicted of this crime before I am out of office.’