DELPHI, Ind. (WTHR) - Exactly 10 months after Libby German and Abby Williams were abducted and murdered near Delphi, their families appeared Wednesday on the Dr. Phil show.
The nationwide attention boosted morale and hopes of finding the girls’ killer.
Just about everyone Eyewitness News talked to in Delphi knew their girls, their friends and their story was on nationwide television.
Pictures of the suspected killer, images that hang in doors and windows around Carroll County, were seen Tuesday from New York to California.
“Maybe somewhere in between the person is lurking and someone might recognize him,” said Belinda Weatherwax, a florist in downtown Delphi.
Libby and Abby were found murdered outside of town on Valentine’s Day.
One of them photographed and recorded their suspected attacker. He has eluded a small army of detectives.
“We haven’t given up,” Weatherwax said.
“He needs to be found and we believe it is going to happen,” added store manager Debbie Smith.
Wanted posters and ribbons in memory of the girls are as numerous downtown as Christmas decorations. Delphi honored the best friends with a float in its holiday parade.
Appearing on Dr. Phil, their family members revealed some of their most personal feelings.
Becky Patty, Libby’s grandmother, gave viewers a tour of her bedroom. It remains the way the teenager left it.
“A Christmas stocking from last year right where it was,” she said, pointing it out.
Anna Williams, Abby’s mom, explained the pain she endures every day.
“It’s burning now in your hearts just as bad as the day it happened,” she said
Kelsi German helped searchers identify the bodies by the color of her sister’s shoes.
“I yelled down to them. I told them they were Lilly’s shoes,” she said. “They yelled again that they found them.”
Mike Patty, Libby’s grandfather, said the attacker somehow made the girls feel vulnerable.
“Was it a gun or a knife, was it some sort of weapon, or the girls, they would say, ‘I’m not going down the hill, are you crazy.’”
People here say the national attention is a morale booster and increases the hope police will find Abby and Libby’s killer.
“There is no place in anyone’s mind that they think this is a dead case. It’s still alive and kicking,” Smith said.
Carroll County Sheriff Tobe Leazenby agreed.
“There will be justice and right rules over wrong in the end,” he said.
Detectives who have already investigated 26,000 tips are expecting a new wave of leads. They hope at least one of them points to a suspected killer.