Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / Teens murdered on hiking trail: Grainy photo shows suspect

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Teens murdered on hiking trail: Grainy photo shows suspect · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

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  Speaker 1: The two girls were reported missing on Monday, February. The
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  Speaker 1: bodies were discovered about twelve fifteen on the fourteen in
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  Speaker 1: the woods just as the town here. Bodies are of
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  Speaker 1: have been positive identified as Abigail J. Williams, thirteen of
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  Speaker 1: the Delphi area and Liberty Rose Lynn German, fourteen of
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  Speaker 1: the Delphi area. This is crime stories, but Nancy Grace
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  Speaker 1: and this is considered a double homicide investigation. We were
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  Speaker 1: asking for anyone to come forward who has information that
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  Speaker 1: we're either on the Delphi Historic Trail yet there on Monday,
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  Speaker 1: especially if they were near the Monon high Bridge. They
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  Speaker 1: may have taken pictures where somebody might be in that photograph.
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  Speaker 1: We would love to have pictures of that. Now police
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  Speaker 1: are officially naming the man in this picture as suspect.
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  Speaker 1: Police hope the evidence that led them to point to
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  Speaker 1: this man as a suspect will continue pushing the investigation along.
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  Speaker 1: Two little girls decide they are going for a walk
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  Speaker 1: not far from home, small town Delphi, Indiana. They're even
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  Speaker 1: photoed in snapchat of each other walking along a trestle bridge.
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  Speaker 1: It's broad daylight, two pm on a Monday afternoon on
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  Speaker 1: a public thoroughfare. They're never seen alive again. I know
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  Speaker 1: you know the story. I'm talking about two little girls,
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  Speaker 1: Liberty German and Abigail Williams. They're dead and I want answers.
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  Speaker 1: I'm Nancy Grace's crime Stories. Thank you for being with
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  Speaker 1: us tonight. Still no new leads in the search for
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  Speaker 1: the killer of these two girls, Liberty German and Abigail Williams,
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  Speaker 1: who leave, as I stated, around two o'clock in the
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  Speaker 1: afternoon to go in broad daylight for a hike, a
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  Speaker 1: walk that is popular with locals, and it's a very
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  Speaker 1: small town. Delphi, Indiana, the base of Libby German and
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  Speaker 1: Abby Williams were discovered on Tuesday, only a quarter mile
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  Speaker 1: from an abandoned railroad bridge where they had been hiking
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  Speaker 1: the day that they go missing. They start hiking around
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  Speaker 1: two o'clock. Around five six o'clock, their families know something
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  Speaker 1: is horribly wrong because the girls aren't coming home, and
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  Speaker 1: the search begins. Then we hear two bodies have been found.
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  Speaker 1: But are they the bodies of the two girls? Police
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  Speaker 1: won't say, But in a town that small, who else
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  Speaker 1: could it be? Then the worst fears are confirmed. They
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  Speaker 1: are the bodies of the two little girls, and we
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  Speaker 1: all thought was there an accident? Did they fall off
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  Speaker 1: the bridge? With what happened? Then the news got worse
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  Speaker 1: as we learned that it's homicide. Police issued a statement
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  Speaker 1: saying it's not good and we need them that Abigail
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  Speaker 1: and Liberty had been murdered, but tonight we are no
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  Speaker 1: closer to finding their killer than we were when they're
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  Speaker 1: bodies were found. Before we go further, I want to
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  Speaker 1: in the world. So thank you, simply Safe. An eerie
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  Speaker 1: shot of Abigail walking along the bridge. Liberty German posted
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  Speaker 1: a shot of Abigail a snapchat There on Monon High
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  Speaker 1: Bridge trail close to where they started hiking. So lad
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  Speaker 1: photos of Abigail ever known? Two little girls gone now
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  Speaker 1: from out of nowhere, and I'd like to know from
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  Speaker 1: where the photo of a white male has emerged. And
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  Speaker 1: police and delph I say this man pictured near the
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  Speaker 1: Mona Bridge where Abbey and Liberty started their walk, is
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  Speaker 1: the main suspect in their murders. This guy, and it's
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  Speaker 1: hard to get he's not standing near anything. He's walking
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  Speaker 1: across it looks like an elevated bridge, so I don't
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  Speaker 1: have anything to compare him to. But he is a
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  Speaker 1: white male. He's wearing jeans, a blue jacket, and it
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  Speaker 1: looks like he's got a brown camouflage or a brown
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  Speaker 1: hoodie underneath the jacket, with a shirt underneath that, brown shoes.
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  Speaker 1: Joining me right now is Alan Duke. Delphi is a
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  Speaker 1: small town. It's got the railroad track running through it,
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  Speaker 1: but that's been abandoned and and the city turned it
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  Speaker 1: a to a hiking trail, one point five mile hiking
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  Speaker 1: trail that starts inside the city and goes all the
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  Speaker 1: way over to Deer Creek. It ends at the railroad bridge.
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  Speaker 1: This is very historic old d and twenty five years.
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  Speaker 1: It's on the Historic Landmarks Registry, all of that, and
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  Speaker 1: you're not supposed to walk on the bridge. The trail
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  Speaker 1: actually ends at the bridge, and we do see one
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  Speaker 1: of these young ladies. The last picture of her, she's
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  Speaker 1: actually walking across it, which is kind of dangerous, sixty
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  Speaker 1: ft high above the creek. Not supposed to be doing that.
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  Speaker 1: The man was photographed by another hiker out there who
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  Speaker 1: was taking pictures and they started looking at and said, hey,
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  Speaker 1: look at this, and so police wanted to find out
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  Speaker 1: who it was because maybe he saw something. He wasn't
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  Speaker 1: a suspect until yesterday, after several days of putting the
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  Speaker 1: photo out there, nobody came forward. Because the theory is
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  Speaker 1: if that's you and you see your photo there, he's oh, yeah,
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  Speaker 1: that's me, yeah, and you go and you talk to
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  Speaker 1: the police, it makes it very suspicious when he doesn't
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  Speaker 1: come forward. And that's why they've got a massive man hunt,
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  Speaker 1: all out man hunt for this man. They don't have
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  Speaker 1: his name, they're not releasing a name yet if they
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  Speaker 1: do know it. I really believe that we're going to
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  Speaker 1: find out that this was not, for instance, a little
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  Speaker 1: boyfriend that they have been snapchatting with or I am
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  Speaker 1: ing nothing like that, because that would have already been
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  Speaker 1: uncovered by now. This is the work I believe a
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  Speaker 1: grown man. The moment they saw those bodies, they knew
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  Speaker 1: it was homicide. That these girls had not just drowned,
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  Speaker 1: they had not just fallen from the train trestle. This
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  Speaker 1: was a new accident. It occurs to me that since
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  Speaker 1: these these kids were snapchatting from the railroad bridge, you know,
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  Speaker 1: that's real time, and it's a small town. Let's say
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  Speaker 1: just one theory here, Nancy, there's this pervert killer out
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  Speaker 1: there who stalks them, watches the snapchat, sees it and
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  Speaker 1: says mm hmmmm, and then goes out there. Maybe maybe
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  Speaker 1: that's how the killer found his targets. Thousands of people
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  Speaker 1: allowing the streets to see this child's herst go by
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  Speaker 1: before she was laid to rest. I cannot even imagine
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  Speaker 1: the pain her family is going through. And to make
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  Speaker 1: matters worse, still, no answers. We are talking about Liberty
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  Speaker 1: and Abigail, dead little girls, tweens essentially once ones fourteen,
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  Speaker 1: out on a Monday afternoon, just going for a walk.
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  Speaker 1: You know, I remember Alan Um, my best friend, growing up,
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  Speaker 1: Joy loved across the street from me. We would ride
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  Speaker 1: bikes allday finally come home when it was starting to
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  Speaker 1: get dark on Saturdays and not think a thing about it.
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  Speaker 1: Everything that was just fine, no problem. And you know,
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  Speaker 1: to even get to the closest convenience store to have
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  Speaker 1: to ride a bike, I guess it was four or
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  Speaker 1: five miles away, and no one ever thought of that
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  Speaker 1: being a safety issue. That's not true anymore. That is
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  Speaker 1: not true anymore. Alan Nancy on the line with us. Now,
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  Speaker 1: we've got Sergeant Tony Slocum with the Indiana State Police
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  Speaker 1: and he is in Delphi, Indiana. Thank you so much
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  Speaker 1: for being with us. What is the latest. We're all
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  Speaker 1: heartbroken for these girls families and the only way they
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  Speaker 1: can move on is to get answers. What can you
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  Speaker 1: tell us? Well, the latest is we have identified as
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  Speaker 1: suspect a male white would pair of blue jeans on
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  Speaker 1: and a dark blue jacket. Uh. It's a photograph that
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  Speaker 1: we distributed through the media that person who was on
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  Speaker 1: UH we believed to be on the trails at the time.
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  Speaker 1: Liberty German and Abigail Williams are murdered, and we wanted
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  Speaker 1: to talk to this person almost since day one, but
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  Speaker 1: in light of new evidence and totality that evidence, we
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  Speaker 1: have determined this is one of our main suspects. How
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  Speaker 1: were the girls discovered? There was an organized search party
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  Speaker 1: looking for the young ladies. They've been missing since the
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  Speaker 1: day before February thirteenth, they were reported missing. They were
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  Speaker 1: actually found on Valentine's Day to fourteen, and it was
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  Speaker 1: an organized search party. Members of that party actually found
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  Speaker 1: the young ladies near the historic Delfi Trails. How did
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  Speaker 1: police know immediately that this was a homicide and not
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  Speaker 1: an accident. Well, based on obviously the evidence that was
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  Speaker 1: located at the scene, lad officers to believe that this
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  Speaker 1: is definitely a double homicide. Have their cell phones been
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  Speaker 1: confiscated and are being analyzed. We're looking at every avenue
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  Speaker 1: of investigation that we can, hopefully sooner than later, to
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  Speaker 1: get the murderer of Abigail Williams and Liberty German into custody.
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  Speaker 1: How are police trying to identify this guy for also
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  Speaker 1: on the Tryne trestle? And where did that photo come from?
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  Speaker 1: Who took that snap? No, we're not saying where the
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  Speaker 1: photo came from, but that that's the best we can
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  Speaker 1: provide at this time, and that's why we're asking for
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  Speaker 1: the public's help to call the Delphi murder tip LINEU
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  Speaker 1: to hopefully give us the final piece of the puzzle
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  Speaker 1: to identify who this person is. Can you tell us
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  Speaker 1: if there are any cameras in the area that may
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  Speaker 1: have picked up people coming in and out of the
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  Speaker 1: area where they were hiking. I'm not authorized to comment
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  Speaker 1: on on any trail or excuse me, any cameras it
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  Speaker 1: might have been on the trails, But if there are
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  Speaker 1: hunters who put cameras out trying to see wildlife in
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  Speaker 1: the area, and if they do have images on those cameras, again,
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  Speaker 1: we would like uh for them to let law enforcement know,
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  Speaker 1: and they could do so by calling that tip line.
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  Speaker 1: So just to be clear, Sergeant Slocum, you don't know
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  Speaker 1: the name of that person in that photo. You do
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  Speaker 1: not have a suspect's name. No, Unfortunately, all we have
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  Speaker 1: is that photo. We are asking for the public's help,
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  Speaker 1: and we have set up a tip line for this
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  Speaker 1: case specifically, and that numbers eight four four four or
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  Speaker 1: five nine five seven eight six eight four four or
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  Speaker 1: four or five nine, five seven, eight six and that's
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  Speaker 1: information can be reported anonymously through that tip line, and
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  Speaker 1: we're trying to identify that person. So if anyone has
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  Speaker 1: any information, we would appreciate a call. Thank you so
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  Speaker 1: much for being with us. It just means a lot
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  Speaker 1: to us to hear the latest or at least what
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  Speaker 1: you can tell us and give us encouragement that there
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  Speaker 1: is movement in the case. Again, thank you to our
• 11:41
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• 11:46
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  Speaker 1: You know, Alan, I've been looking at this area and
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  Speaker 1: it looks like every trail, every back road I've ever seen.
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  Speaker 1: Tall trees on either side. There's a bend in the
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  Speaker 1: road that you can't see around the railroad trestle going
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  Speaker 1: over some water. It's every town Delphi, Indiana. What's stomping
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  Speaker 1: me is why we can't get a line on this guy.
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  Speaker 1: Who is this guy you were mentioning earlier? If he's
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  Speaker 1: a local, why not come forward and go, hey, that
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  Speaker 1: was that's me? Certainly the locals know who he is.
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  Speaker 1: How do you miss somebody in a town of less
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  Speaker 1: than three thousand. Somebody saw him, somebody recognizes him, somebody
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  Speaker 1: knows him. He wasn't walking right near an interstate. It's
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  Speaker 1: not like you can slip in and slip out without
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  Speaker 1: somebody seeing it. And of course he didn't. I mean,
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  Speaker 1: there's a picture of him right there, at least the
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  Speaker 1: person they call a suspect, and they're saying he is
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  Speaker 1: the main suspect. Libby German and Abigail Williams, did the
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  Speaker 1: mystery man in this photo murder these two girls? Now
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  Speaker 1: the FBI has searched a home, it did not lead
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  Speaker 1: to an arrest. That has not cheered us on at
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  Speaker 1: all because nothing came. It was not fruitful. So where
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  Speaker 1: does that leave us? Everyone left trying to identify this
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  Speaker 1: one guy in the murders of two little girls. Ellen,
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  Speaker 1: give us a tip line again, place the tip line
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  Speaker 1: if you saw somebody or have any information on the case,
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  Speaker 1: and call the Delphi Murder tipline at eight four four
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  Speaker 1: four five nine five seven eight six eight four four
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  Speaker 1: four five nine, five seven eight six guys to search
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  Speaker 1: for the killer of these two little girls. Goes on
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  Speaker 1: Nancy Grace signing off, thank you for being with us,
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: Goodbye friend.