Ricky Frailey:
What would you think if your town or city's sense of safety was completely stripped away in the most violent way possible? What if it happened overnight? What would you think if the real possibility was that a monster lived amongst your neighbors, possibly your friends? That's a scary hypothetical, right?
DiDi:
Scary as hell.
Ricky Frailey:
This exact scenario unfortunately unfolded and continues to unfold in the town of Delphi, Indiana, where two families have had to come to terms with the worst pain that parents can feel. The loss of a child
DiDi:
Aw man
Ricky Frailey:
I'm Ricky Frailey, and I'm joined by-
DiDi:
DiDi from The Land, Ohio
Ricky Frailey:
On the Dark Deeds Diary podcast. And today we'll be uncovering the facts of the case of Abby Williams and Libby German of Delphi, Indiana.
[Intro]
Ricky Frailey:
If you like the work that we do here and want to support the show, you can head to patreon.com/RickyFrailey. If you join the book club, you'll have access to the research and timelines I've constructed for each of the cases that we talk about. It's totally optional though, and we're grateful just for your listenership.
Ricky Frailey:
Delphi is a city in Carroll County, Indiana. It had a population of just under 3000 people, exactly 2972 as of the 2021 census. You might not think much of the sleepy city if you're passing by on your way to or coming from a larger city, but that city size, about 3000 people, has encouraged a strong sense of community amongst its residents.
Delphi is the home of two families in particular, the Williams’s and the Germans, who prior to February of 2017 included young Abby and Libby, respectively.
The girls were best friends and they loved to hang out together in their free time. Little did they know that, unfortunately, their lives were on a direct course with a cloud of darkness. See, Abby Williams was born June 23rd, 2003, making her 13 at the time of her death. She was an eighth grader.
DiDi:
Man
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah, she was an eighth grader at Delphi Community Middle School. She played saxophone on her school's band and was on the school's volleyball team. She enjoyed reading, camping, swimming, and she also had an artistic side.
DiDi:
Mmm
Ricky Frailey:
Liberty German was born on December 27th, 2002, which made her 14 at the time of her death.
DiDi:
Mhm
Ricky Frailey:
She was also an eighth grade student at Delphi Community Middle School, where she enjoyed many of the same activities as Abby.
They did band and played volleyball together. They were friends.
DiDi:
Man
Ricky Frailey:
The girls had the day off of school on Monday, February 13th, 2017, so they planned to go on a relaxing walk along the Monon High Bridge Trail nearby town. So here in Columbus, we've got, you know, Metro parks and you've got trails that you can just go to if you want to have a nice relaxing walk or a hike, escape the city life and just be surrounded by trees and nature.
DiDi:
Yeah
Ricky Frailey:
The same kind of thing was happening there in Indiana on the Monon High Bridge Trail. The girls convinced Libby's older sister, Kelsey, to drop them off at the trail. They arrived at the park at 1:35 p.m. The plan for them was to be picked back up by Libby's father at around 3:15 p.m. So a little less than two hours.
DiDi:
Yeah.
Ricky Frailey:
Just walk around, you know? Relax.
DiDi:
Yeah, just one minute. Not get baked out here.
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah, exactly.
The girls walked around the park having fun exploring and taking photos and videos on their cell phones the way anybody would.
DiDi:
Mhm
Ricky Frailey:
It's worth noting, however, that at 2:07 p.m., Libby posted a photo of Abby on her Snapchat story. This would be the last time a photo of either girl was taken alive.
DiDi:
Oh, wow. Was it a happy picture? Like a smiling picture?
Ricky Frailey:
So they were just walking through. You can see them on the trail in a couple of the pictures, and the police also released screenshots of a video that comes up later. They're just chilling out. They don't seem... with the exception of one video, they don't seem concerned or worried about anything. They’re just relaxing, enjoying the nice weather at the park that day.
DiDi:
Yeah.
Ricky Frailey:
When Libby's father arrived to pick them up at 3:15, the girls were nowhere to be found. After waiting for a bit, thinking that they might have lost track of time, a small search began to try and find them. The search turned out to be fruitless, so the girls were reported missing by the families at 5:30 p.m.
As a result, a full scale search began along the Monon High Bridge Trail and the surrounding woods. Unfortunately, nothing was found until the next day. Valentine's day, February 14th.
DiDi:
Mmm
Ricky Frailey
The bodies of two females were found along the trail, and they were eventually identified to be the missing girls. The next day, the 15th-
DiDi:
What??
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah, they found them.
DiDi:
Still on the same trail but just further, or what?
Ricky Frailey:
They were slightly off the trail.
DiDi:
Slightly off the trail?
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah. They weren't identified until the next day, the 15th, and this information was made public in a press conference at about 2:30 p.m. on that day.
DiDi:
Mm Mm Mm
Ricky Frailey:
The police would release a photo that evening at 6:50 p.m. of a man that they believe was on the trail around the time the girls went missing. All that they said in this press release was that they wanted to speak to the man in the photo.
So there's quite a few pictures. There's a few suspect sketches. There's clips from videos. All of that information will be available on the website. It’s aezhanamedia.com and you can look at those and read a transcript.
DiDi:
You better go read that transcript
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah, you can follow along on the transcript and look at the images and videos as you watch if you like.
DiDi:
Yeah.
Ricky Frailey:
Four days later on the 19th of February 2017, the police formally named the man in the photo as their prime suspect.
DiDi:
Oh my gosh. So they really did capture him. They probably was calling for him. Ooh
Ricky Frailey:
Mhm
This is followed a few days later by the release of an audio file that was extracted from Libby's phone, which was also found at the scene. Using that photo, which is actually a still image from that video I was talking about earlier, they were able to pull the audio from that video. Along with a screenshot of the man in the video, as well as eyewitness reports from others that were on the trail on the day of their disappearance.
Ricky Frailey:
The Delphi police, in conjunction with the FBI who had gotten involved by this point, released the first composite sketch of their prime suspect. That'll be on the website.
DiDi:
Aww man
Ricky Frailey:
On September 29th, investigators traveled to Colorado to interview a man by the name of Daniel Nations, in relation to the case
DiDi:
I am stuck
Ricky Frailey:
Mhm. So this is months later by this point. This happened in February around Valentine's Day, and on September 29th, investigators traveled to Colorado to interview Daniel Nations in relation to the case. This was followed by Daniel's extradition to Indiana, because he was in Colorado, on charges of failing to register as a sex offender.
DiDi:
Oh
Ricky Frailey:
This happened on February 4th, 2018.
DiDi:
On February 4th?
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah, of the next year, when he was extradited back to Indiana.
DiDi:
Uh huh. Oh
Ricky Frailey:
Nations, however, was eventually cleared in the Delphi case.
DiDi:
Oh he was?
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah, so they extradited him back to Indiana because he failed to register as a sex offender.
DiDi:
Yeah
Ricky Frailey:
Confusingly, investigators released a new composite sketch on April 22nd of 2019. This sketch showed a significantly younger looking man, accompanied by a suspected age range of 18 to 40 years old.
Another suspect that was looked into was a man by the name of-
DiDi:
Thats a large age range, hold up. 18-40 years old?
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah. I mean, there's some young people that look older, and there's some old people that look younger.
DiDi:
Yeah. That’s true
Ricky Frailey:
So I mean, just a relatively adult looking male
DiDi:
Yeah.
Ricky Frailey:
That's what they said that they were able to get from the photos, the videos, and eyewitness testimony from that day.
Another suspect was looked into, and his name was Kegan Klein. Now Kegan Klein is special, in this case, for a couple reasons. He was on investigator's radar, as he had been in communication with Libby. He was using catfish social media accounts in order to get close to underage girls, to try to exploit explicit material from them.
DiDi:
Mmmmm
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah, he was one of those.
DiDi:
Somebody just went to jail for 20 years today for that.
Ricky Frailey:
Mhm. Yeah.
DiDi:
Exploitation is getting real because now we have the extortation (extortion) with the exploitation.
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah, the sexploitation
DiDi:
Sextorting
Ricky Frailey:
Sextortion, yeah
DiDi:
Yeah, sextortion is becoming crazy and exploitation just out of hand.
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah, so he was one of those dudes. Using fake social media accounts to get to young girls and try to get explicit content material from them. He was investigated and eventually he was charged with 30 felonies. So he was deep in it.
DiDi:
As he should
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah, he was charged with 30 felonies related to his online activities
DiDi:
As he should
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah.
Ricky Frailey:
Get people like him off the streets. Thats... I don't even want to get into that.
However, none of those felonies were anything to do with the deaths of the girls. So he was in contact with one of them, he was being a creepy internet pedophile. But, according to the police, he's not the one that was to blame for this. He was just connected.
DiDi:
That’s strange
Ricky Frailey:
It is, and that specifically goes to highlight just how much of a problem that is.
DiDi:
How large the net is.
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah.
DiDi:
Yeah.
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah. I hate it.
DiDi:
I hate it.
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah. No, I wish that there was a way that we could stop this, like, before it happens
DiDi:
Yeah.
Ricky Frailey:
Instead of just being reactive, but I don't know how we how we do that.
Anyways, like I said, even though Kegan Klein was a weirdo, criminal, and a pedophile. He was cleared of any responsibility for the death of these two girls.
DiDi:
I tell you how you do it.
Ricky Frailey:
How?
DiDi:
I feel like there should be some type of luring where you have that hologram. You know how they use the hologram on those concerts and stuff?
Ricky Frailey:
Okay yeah
DiDi:
You know how they do To Catch a Predator?
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah.
DiDi:
When they get into it, it need to be a pit. Like it need to be right on the border of... you know, one of those sinkholes? One of them great sinkholes?
Ricky Frailey:
Oh my God, yeah
DiDi:
And you just make the building and call it Candyland, and just be like.
Ricky Frailey:
Candyland?
DiDi:
Yeah, just put that hologram right there and as soon as the scumbag get in that threshold, they fall right into that pit. You know what I'm saying? And you just register him. Put a camera on the other end so it can catch they face as they go along and just check they a** out as they go down.
Ricky Frailey:
Oh my God
DiDi:
I feel like thats the best idea
Ricky Frailey:
I think that literally setting a trap would probably be entrapment, but I mean-
DiDi:
But that would be a awesome thing to do. If you know it's a 14 year old boy standing there and have him in a towel and have them be like real sensual, be like, daddy I've been waiting for you. You know what I'm saying? Or something real catchy to catch the creepiest dude that a strong man, a real man would look at that and be like, you is a kid, are you serious? Like, I'm not coming in there.
Ricky Frailey:
I mean
DiDi:
Like get away from there. Like a real man not gonna dry there. But you know what I'm saying? Just in case you skeptical. I don't know, but I feel like that's where you should get them.. But make it like a hologram floor too so they walk in, think they bout to walk right in on the floor. You know what I'm saying? Like, that's the best idea and I hope somebody with power listens to us and put that, install that. Make that house
Ricky Frailey:
I do hope someone with power
DiDi:
And then give me the Nobel Peace Prize. You know what I'm saying? That's all you got to do. Just say DiDi did it
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah, DiDi did it
DiDi:
Yeah.
Ricky Frailey:
No, I mean, I'm not.. there might be some things we have to iron out with that, but I do agree there's something that needs to be done.
DiDi:
I see no problems.
Ricky Frailey:
Mmm... I mean
DiDi:
I see no problems. I see I have solved a lot of problems right there.
Ricky Frailey:
I agree, but I don't... I don't know if the public necessarily... never mind.
Another notable suspect was a man by the name of James Brian Chadwell. He was brought to investigators attention through a tip after he was charged with attacking a nine year old girl in an unrelated incident. Finally, after sorting through thousands of tips and following up on hundreds of leads, more than five years after the deaths of the girls, police made an arrest in the case on October 28th, 2022.
The man arrested would eventually be identified through jail records as 50 year old Richard Allen. A month later, on the 29th of November, the judge unsealed the probable cause affidavit that led to Allen's arrest. This action led to the release of a lot of information that had been withheld from the public up to that point, including details like the fact that there was an unspent round found at the scene that investigators were able to trace back to a firearm owned by Allen.
During a hearing on June 15th, 2023, the prosecution came forward with evidence of a confession from Allen. Prosecutor Nick McLeland said that Allen confessed, “5 or 6 different times to the murders of Abby Williams and Libby German.” These confessions were reportedly recorded in phone calls between Allen and his wife and his mother during his time in jail.
DiDi:
Oh wow, so he told everybody that
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah
DiDi:
Okay
Ricky Frailey:
You know, I've never been to jail, but I'm aware of the fact that they record your phone calls while you're in jail.
DiDi:
Yeah
Ricky Frailey:
It's common knowledge. Calls made or received by inmates are recorded. So I don't know why he was talking about it on the phone.
DiDi:
But inmates be thinking, not this call. Man you hear all these dudes talking, sound like ‘yammer yammer’. You know, criminals don’t be thinking it out, they always take that risk. It's about the risk.
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah
DiDi:
Criminals are risk takers.
Ricky Frailey:
Criminals are risk takers. That is true.
Allen's defense attorneys attribute to what he calls false confessions as a side effect of his deteriorating mental health. What do you think?
DiDi:
I think that's bull
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah, I think it’s bull too
DiDi:
His lawyer was doing his job.
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah, his lawyer was trying to do his job.
DiDi:
You can't say ...you know what I'm saying?
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah
DiDi:
You can't lie, but you can throw the truth somewhere around the room
Ricky Frailey:
I think it's probably like he did say that. You got him recorded saying I think he might be losing his mind.
DiDi:
He said it.
You know, my client is... he been talking crazy to me too.
Ricky Frailey:
As for right now, that's all that we know for sure. For like, absolute sure. The start date for his trial is October 15th, 2024.
DiDi:
Oh so this is coming up
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah, so it's coming up
DiDi:
I’m gonna be watching
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah, I'm definitely going to be watching too.
This case... there's a lot of theories online as far as like a link to what's called... it’s called Odinism.
DiDi:
Mhm
Ricky Frailey:
There's a lot of theories online just because of how the girls bodies were found and the nature of the crime scene. They were found to have been posed in specific ways and they had, I believe it was branches from the surrounding trees had been snapped off and arranged in different what looked like symbols above their heads when they were found.
DiDi:
Ooh that's that Satan stuff. Nah that’s that ritualistic stuff.
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah
DiDi:
Yeah that's crazy.
Ricky Frailey:
No, it is crazy. And to think Richard Allen
DiDi:
Richard Allen
Ricky Frailey:
What I said in the beginning of this episode about a monster potentially living and being one of your neighbors or one of your friends. You truly never know what's going on inside someone else's head.
DiDi:
Never do
Ricky Frailey:
No. You never really fully know someone 100%.
DiDi:
Yeah. That is very true
Ricky Frailey:
A lot of people don't even know themselves 100%, let's be honest
DiDi:
Thats true
Ricky Frailey:
But with regard to something like that, because Richard Allen was in and around the community the entire time, he would go... there's this one restaurant in town that he would go to, and he would purposely choose every time that he went there to try and sit in one specific table.
That table was near the back of the restaurant, and it was next to like a poster board that had the police sketch
DiDi:
Of him? So he can look at himself and be happy
Ricky Frailey:
Yes, of the of the suspected perpetrator. No, I think it was both of the different sketches were hung up there, and he would sit there and he would just talk to random people for hours. And most of the time when he was talking to people, he would bring up the case of Abby and Libby. Yeah.
DiDi:
That is crazy, and nobody picked it up? That he looked like it and he talking about the case? But people don't be thinking about other people like that
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah, I mean regular everyday people... You're not under normal circumstances. You got to be like...
DiDi:
I mean, look at that
Ricky Frailey:
Like me, for example honestly. If I was talking to one of my neighbors about true crime or something that happened in the community, say somebody was murdered around here, people are going to talk about it. But that doesn't necessarily trigger in the average person's mind, “hey, this might actually be the dude that’s involved.”
DiDi:
I tell you one thing I saw in the news, a neighbor was arguing with another neighbor about a smell and, you know, after going in so many times, the police was like, well, it is really a public nuisance.
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah
DiDi:
And they said people in a home or something... somebody died or something.One of them killed each other. I don't know, but anywho, they got in there and they discovered all these dead animal sacrifices laid out and arranged with all these crazy symbols and stuff over em all over the house. Like dead sacrifices to Satan all over the house. It was really crazy. And this is Ohio, this is the area out here in a regular neighborhood and it just happened
Ricky Frailey:
I mean, this was just a regular neighborhood in Indiana.
DiDi:
You never know what the heck somebody is believing in and what’s really going on and they able to have regular conversation with regular people.
Ricky Frailey:
Mhm. Yeah
DiDi:
Just like he's talking about this case in the corner right next his picture. Like, I dare you to catch me. Catch me.
Ricky Frailey:
He probably thought he was a genius or he had gotten away with it
DiDi:
It’s gratifying
Ricky Frailey:
But that entire time between 2017 and 2022 when he was arrested, you got to think the entire time police, the FBI, everybody's investigating it. They had they had their eyes on him the entire time.
DiDi:
It was gratifying to him, he was so proud of himself
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah
DiDi:
And it's so horrible because they were so young. They deserved-
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah 13 and 14
DiDi:
They were into everything! They were really athletic girls. They were happy. They just were trying to take in nature. I don't know if they were happy. I'm not gonna put happy on nobody but I'm gonna say that they were. They were thriving. They had plenty to live for and they didn't deserve no crap like that.
Ricky Frailey:
No they didn't.
DiDi:
That was crap.
Ricky Frailey:
They didn't deserve it. Nobody deserves it, especially not children. You haven't even gotten to the point where they can live life and function autonomously. You know?
DiDi:
It’s so sad, I don't even want to know how he killed them. And I'm just like... it's crazy.
Ricky Frailey:
It was ...from what I've been able to find online, and I'll link some of the articles on the website aezhanamedia.com. It was a bizarre scene. That's why there are so many links to Odinism, and like you said, Satanism, and all that stuff. It seemed to have been a ritualistic kind of thing.
But like I said the case is going to trial in October. I'll be watching, and I'm sure much, much more information is going to come out at trial because as an ongoing investigation there's not a lot of info.
DiDi:
You guys get help. If you need help talk to somebody. You know, we were in the house for so long and so many people have developed tendencies and if you have any type of unhealthy thoughts, get some help. Because it's worth it to give somebody else a chance to thrive and live is worth it. If you feel like yourself is just tipping over get some help. Talk to somebody and leave these kids alone.
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah.
DiDi:
Yeah. And if you know somebody, say something. If you know anything about any of our cases, say something.
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah, please. Please. That’s what we’re doing here
DiDi:
Don’t listen and gratify yourself here
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah, that's what we're doing. Trying to spread information because a lot of these cases, some of them are solved, but a lot of these cases that we're going to talk about are either being investigated or are cold cases that were never solved. And you never know what significance that information you're holding on to may have.
DiDi:
Yeah
Ricky Frailey:
It may be the key to giving a family some closure or finding someone who's missing who might just honestly be missing.
There's some weird cases out there where people have an accident and have amnesia and then just start a new life, and meanwhile their entire life is looking for them
DiDi:
And go back and kill they killer. And whole click
Ricky Frailey:
I mean.
DiDi:
And kill and steal the p*ssy wagon. I seen that case. I saw that one. I’m familiar with Kill Bill
Ricky Frailey:
I mean yeah that happens too. Yeah that does happen.
But yeah, if you see something, say something. Please, please.
Throughout the investigation into the deaths of Abby and Libby, there has been a national outpouring of support for the families.
DiDi:
Yes, as it should be.
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah. Delphi Daughters, The Untold Story of Abby and Libby was aired on April 27th, 2017. This showed the families of the girls sitting down for an interview for the first time. This was followed by an appearance of both families on the Doctor Phil show. This aired on December 13th, 2017, in which they went over the publicly available facts at that time
DiDi:
Mhm
Ricky Frailey:
The Abby and Libby Memorial Park and Softball Field was opened on October 9th, 2021, in Delphi. I think honestly, this case, it's a sad one. It's always a sad case when there's children involved.
DiDi:
Yes.
Ricky Frailey:
It's always a sadder case because they're all sad. But this one is particularly harrowing. I'm sure that the people of Delphi, Indiana, thought that they were in a safe place. Like I said, it wasn't a small community, but it was a small town. It was a small city. Less than 3000 people live there. This is not the kind of place where you don't know your neighbors. You don't know the schoolteachers and the postman. But even in knowing everybody that was around them, a killer was lurking in the shadows.
I can't imagine having that sense of safety and that sense of community ripped away in such a violent manner. So I want to say, rest in peace to Abby and Libby, and I want to say that no matter how safe the area that you're in is, if there's people there, there's the potential for danger there. So we don't need to live our lives in fear or paranoia, but we do need to keep our heads on a swivel.
DiDi:
Yeah
Ricky Frailey:
Keep your eyes open and stay alert. That's why I say every time, One: There's crazy people everywhere. Because there are. And two: that I want you to stay safe, stay alive, and stay listening to the Dark Deeds Diary podcast
Once again, I know this was a little bit of a shorter episode, but a lot of the meat of this case has to do with the pictures and the videos, all of which, like I said, will be linked on the website. So you can go there and check it all out. As well as all of the research that I did for this case and we'll see you again next week.
DiDi:
on aezhanamedia
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah, on aezhanamedia.com
So like I said, thank you for letting me ruin your day knowing is half the battle and now we know a little bit more. Stay safe, stay alive, and stay listening to the Dark Deeds Diary podcast. We love you all. Bye
DiDi:
Bye
Ricky Frailey:
The Dark Deeds Diary podcast is produced by Aezhana Media Group, LLC. A black veteran owned company. Thank you for listening.
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