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Two Indiana teens were killed in 2017. Police still get at least a dozen tips a day

Posted at 3:16 PM, Feb 13, 2019
and last updated 2019-02-13 17:16:31-05

Two years to the day since two Indiana teenage girls were killed while hiking in the woods, authorities put out a new call for tips to try to solve the case.

Not that those have been lacking; investigators have received about 38,000 tips since the deaths. And on any given day, they receive a dozen or more new tips, Carroll County Prosecutor Nicholas McLeland said.

“We want people to know this is not a cold case. This case is not closed. We are not done with this investigation,” McLeland said on Wednesday.

Libby German, 14, and Abby Williams, 13, were reported missing February 13, 2017, after they went on a hike at Delphi Historic Trails in Indiana and did not show up at a designated meet-up time. After an extensive search, their bodies were found the next day in a wooded area near the trails, about a half mile upstream from where they had been dropped off.

No suspect has been arrested in the case. McLeland and other authorities spoke at a press conference on Wednesday in an attempt to keep Abby and Libby in the news and get more tips.

“We anticipate more tips coming in after today’s conference and we’re prepared for that,” he said. “We have detectives, officers, and analysts working on the tips and investigating all possible evidence from these tips.”

Investigators have released a grainy photo of a suspect, which shows a man wearing blue jeans, a blue coat and a hoodie.

Officials also released audio of a male voice saying the words “down the hill,” in the hopes the public might identify the suspect’s voice. The voice recording was taken from a video found on Libby’s cell phone, police said.

Capt. Dave Bursten, the chief public information officer for Indiana State Police, previously praised Libby as a hero for having the presence of mind to turn on her video camera.

Authorities also released a sketch of the suspect. The person in the sketch is described as a white male between 5 feet 6 inches and 5 feet 10 inches tall, weighing 180 to 220 pounds, with reddish brown hair and unknown eye color, a news release said. State police asked that people focus on the man’s facial features.

“I think about this case every day. I’m confident that we’re going to get it solved,” McLeland said.

Kelsi German, Libby’s sister, spoke with HLN on Wednesday and said her sister was a fun, outgoing person who loved playing sports and photography. She said she last saw the two when she dropped them off on the hiking trails two years ago.

“They got out of my car, I made sure they both had sweatshirts and told them goodbye. I told Libby I loved her,” she said. “They walked out and that was the last time I saw them.”