THE sister of a girl killed in the Delphi 'Snapchat murders' has commended her slain sibling's bravery for recording a video of her believed killer moments before she and her friend were forced "down the hill."
Kelsi German, 21, told The Sun that she was in awe of the courage shown by her 14-year-old sister Libby in the final moments of her life when she and her best friend Abby Williams, 13, were murdered in Indiana in February 2017.
Abby and Libby had been enjoying a day off school, hanging out at the Delphi Historic Trails when they disappeared on Feb. 13, 2017.
Their bodies were found the following day in a wooded area a short distance from the Monon High Bridge Trail.
The manner of their deaths has never been publicly disclosed by police. Few updates have also been issued by investigators over the last five years as the case remains unsolved.
However, one crucial item of evidence was released shortly after news of the two teens' murders made headlines across the nation: a short recording secretly captured by Libby on her phone.
The video shows a white male, dressed in jeans, a hoodie and a blue jacket, with his hands in his pockets, walking towards the eighth graders on a bridge.
Libby then slipped the phone into her pocket and continued recording. Chillingly, she captured her killer gruffly saying, "Hey guys, down the hill."
'TREMENDOUSLY PROUD'
While the man in the video is yet to be identified, Kelsi said she has listened to the recording countless times, playing it over and over again in the hope she suddenly recognizes the suspect's voice.
She also credited her sister's recording with helping to "keep the case alive", almost five years on from her's and Abby's tragic murders.
Most read in The Sun
OUT OF IT 
Brits ‘could be BANNED from mixing indoors’ in lockdown plan as PM briefs Cabinet
My boys were so excited about their 1st footie match… now I'll never take them
Emergency Cobra meeting to be held over weekend as Omicron crisis deepens
Mum was 'shopping at Sainsbury's' as house fire killed home alone twins, 3 & 4
"I'm tremendously proud of her," Kelsi told The Sun. "I don't think she imagined at the time it would be such a big thing.
"I think she was just taking a video to show us later and say, 'Hey, look at this really weird guy that was at the bridge earlier and this is what he looked like'.
"But the fact that she did take that video and she thought something wasn't right and she had to take it – it just amazes me.
"It just amazes me that she was able to think of that at that moment.
"I don’t know where the case would be if we didn't have that video," she added.
"I think that's one thing that intrigues people [about the case] to continue to look at it."
HUNTING FOR CLUES
Kelsi estimated that she has watched and listened to the clip "thousands of times." She claimed to watch it almost every day in the hope of discovering a new detail or jogging a repressed memory.
"I see it all over, every day. I'll just be scrolling through my social media and people will post it back to me and I'll watch it again every time," Kelsi said.
"I just keep listening, and every time I do, I just know that's the person that did such awful things – or a thing – to my sister.
"And it's so sad that we just know the voice, but we don't know the face and we don't have any answers yet."
Kelsi added: "So I just continue to listen to it and hope that someday I'll recognize that person or I'll meet somebody and I'll know that voice and then I'll be like, 'That's him; that's the person in the video.'"
Police, like Kelsi, have previously suggested that Libby and Abby's killer may live locally.
During a press conference in 2019, Indiana State Police Superintendent Doug Carter even went as far as to say the killer could be sat in the room with them.
"Directly to the killer, who may be in this room: We believe you’re hiding in plain sight," Carter said. "We've likely interviewed you or someone close to you.
"We also believe this person is from Delphi — currently or has previously lived here, visits Delphi on a regular basis, or works here," he added.
KILLER 'HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT'
Kelsi's belief the killer lives – or may have once lived – locally stems from the idea that the trail near to where the two girls' bodies were found is difficult to simply stumble across, she said.
"I've always thought that he has to know the area somehow," she said.
"I think that track is very hard to find if you don't know it's there already.
"So that's something I've also bought into," Kelsi continued, "that he's either from Delphi or that he's spent a lot of time here."
Kelsi said she has long struggled with the notion that her sister's killer could be lurking in the community around her.
She said she's terrified by the idea that she may have encountered the culprit on the street or served him as a customer at her work.
"I think this person could be anyone," she said. "Obviously at this point, it could have been somebody else I was familiar with at one point in my life.
"Maybe I just met him at Dairy Queen where I was at work one day and he came in and ordered a chocolate milkshake but I haven't remembered his voice yet for whatever reason.
"I could have met him, but we don't know and we don't know that it didn't happen either, which is terrifying.
"I could've walked past him on my college campus, or in the grocery store, or he could be sitting next to me in psych class.
"He could be working with people that I know or walking past me when I'm looking at Christmas lights.
"He could be right there in front of us and we have no idea. It's a frightening thought."
CATFISH LINK?
Police have never formally named a suspect in the murders of Libby and Abby, though several people have been questioned in regards to the killing.
In a rare update issued last week, Indiana State Police said they were seeking information about a bogus social media profile, called anthony_shots, that may be linked to the case.
The department asked anyone who interacted with the account on Snapchat or Instagram to come forward for information.
Investigators didn't specify why they believe the account may be linked to the girls' deaths, nor disclosed whether either Libby or Abby had interacted with the account.
However, they did say the culprit behind it used stolen images of a known male model and projected a contrived flashy lifestyle to groom underage girls and "solicit nude images, obtain their addresses, and attempt to meet them."
The man who set up that account has since been identified as Kegan Anthony Kline, a 27-year-old from Peru, Indiana, who last year was arrested for 30 felonies, including possession of child porn, exploitation of children, and soliciting minors for sex.
Those charges stem from a search of his home in Peru, Indiana on February 25th, 2017 – just 11 days after the bodies of Libby and Abby were found in Delphi.
According to an affidavit, Kline admitted to investigators that he used a series of fake social media profiles on Instagram and Snapchat to contact underage girls and solicit nude images from them.
One of those accounts was anthony_shots, which he set up in 2016 around six months before his house was raided.
It's unclear whether Kline is currently being investigated as a suspect in the relation to the Delphi murders, or why it took more than three years to arrest him on the child porn charges.
In a statement released on Monday, the department said such questions are "certainly relevant" but declined to comment further.
"During the last nearly five years, we have conducted dozens of secondary investigations based on information we received. One of those investigations included a Possession of Child Pornography case resulting in the arrest of Kegan Kline.
"The information we had, have, and continue to receive concerning Kline has ebbed and flowed over these last few years."
The statement continued: "We know there is enormous interest in the 'WHY' of everything we do, but we cannot and will not speculate. One day you will have the opportunity to see and know what we do, and we look forward to that day.”
'OLD WOUNDS'
Kelsi told The Sun that the police's update reopened "old wounds" but filled her with hope that investigators were finally zeroing in on the man who murdered her sister.
"Every time they release information, whether it's just to us or to the public, it always brings up old wounds," Kelsi said.
"It was hard to hear but it did also make us hopeful because they finally revealed something to the public for the first time in what had seemed like forever."
She continued: "It gives you a renewed sense of hope and just helps us to continue to realize that detectives are still doing absolutely everything they can to get justice for Abby and Libby – and give us, the families, the answers we deserve."
While she said the anthony_shots Instagram account was unfamiliar to her, and that her sister never mentioned anything about interacting with strangers online before her death, Kelsi said she believes police are getting "closer each day" to achieving justice for Libby.
Speaking directly to the culprit, she said: "I hope that you're squirming right now, knowing we are one step closer to finding you."
We pay for your stories!
Do you have a story for The US Sun team?
Email us at [email protected] or call 212 416 4552.
Like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/TheSunUS and follow us from our main Twitter account at @TheSunUS
Source: Read Full Article