DELPHI, Ind. (WTHR) - The Carroll County Sheriff confirmed they're looking to see if an Indiana man arrested in Colorado is connected to the Delphi murders of Liberty German and Abigail Williams, according to NBC station WNDU.
The Woodland Park (Colo.) Police Department arrested 32-year old Daniel Nations Monday afternoon on suspicion of menacing people in the Colorado Springs suburb, and weapons possession by a previous offender. He's scheduled to appear in court on those charges October 16.
Wednesday evening, Carroll County Sheriff Tobe Leazenby said Nations is being considered when it comes to the Delphi investigation, but emphasized Nations has not been labeled a suspect or person of interest.
"We are aware of the arrest of the person in Colorado and are investigating to see if he could be a suspect in the Delphi double murder investigation," Indiana State Police said in a statement to WTHR. "Please keep in mind the Indiana State Police has received more than a thousand photos of persons alleged to be similar in appearance to the composite sketch of the Delphi person of interest. Each and everyone of these tips are investigated for any potential connection to our case. We will give the same attention to the person arrested in Colorado, but right now there is nothing that definitively connects this person to our investigation. If that should change - with this tip, or any other tip - rest assured we would be sharing such news with all media sources."
We've talked with relatives, residents and police. No one is outwardly excited by a potential break in the case of the murder of the two Delphi girls.
The girls disappeared in Delphi on February 13. Their bodies were found on February 14. Police released a sketch of the suspect over the summer, but no arrests have been made in their deaths.
They've been on an emotional rollercoaster for nearly eight months. They've seen hopes dashed. At best, they are cautiously optimistic.
The lengthy investigation into the murders of Abby Williams and Libby German has been exhausting and frustrating. For good reasons, family members are careful with their emotions.
"Every time something like this comes up, we hope and we pray and we hope and pray some more and we've learned that it just takes time,” said Anna Williams, Abby's mom.
Libby's grandfather Mike Patty says he is hopeful there's a break in the case.
"This tip here just happened to become public, where we had 26,000 tips that maybe didn't get the publicity that this one did. Let professionals to their job," Patty said.
The professionals, police working the case every day, call Nations a "person of interest”, just like the hundreds of other's they've investigated, although Sheriff Tobe Leazenby calls himself cautiously optimistic.
"There are some similarities to what has occurred there to what we have here. Unfortunately, I can't go into any great detail right now but there are some similarities," the sheriff said.
There are many pictures of Daniel Nations. He's on sex offender registries in Indiana and South Carolina. Besides the physical resemblance between him and the Delphi murder suspect, there are similarities in the crimes. Both occurred on a hiking trail.
"I see similarities in what some of the folks are saying," Leazenby said. "Obviously, we don't want to get too wound up and think this is it and find out the bottom goes out from underneath us."
An arrest record obtained by Eyewitness News shows he was in Indiana 10 days after the murders. Two days after police released a detailed sketch of the murder subject, Nations skipped a scheduled court appearance.
Federal, county, and state investigators have a lot of work ahead of them.
"To figure out what has to be done, how it is going to be done and follow up on what they have to do," said ISP Sgt. Kim Riley.
Nations has arrests and convictions in four Indiana counties. Prosecutors in Johnson County just charged him with failing to register as a sex offender. That and a $10,000 bond is keeping him in a Colorado county jail.
Nations was charged in Colorado Thursday for menacing, for allegedly threatening people with a hatchet. He told police he did it after his familiy was run off the road. His wife and two children were in the car when police stopped him.
Officers found the hatchet and a rifle in the vehicle during the stop. He was placed under arrest for possessing a weapon as a felon.
That fact that someone made some possible connections to the murders more than 1,100 miles from Delphi is an indication of extent of the search for Libby and Abby's killer.
"We're remaining hopefully optimistic that this is the one that this it the tip we've been looking for," Mike Patty said.