Former FBI agent theorizes about elusive search for answers in Delphi murders
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — News 8 continues to search for answers and the truth in the murders of Abby Williams and Libby German in Delphi.
Monday marked five years since the girls’ bodies were found on a trail.
Michael Tabman, a retired FBI special agent in charge, talked Monday with News 8 about the possible connection between the deaths, a child porn case, and a social media account. Tabman is not involved in the investigation of the murders.
Kegan Kline has admitted to creating the “anthony_shots” profile, which is being investigated by Indiana State Police in the murders of Abby, 13, and Libby, 14.
Kline has not been charged in the girls murders; no one has. He’s in the Miami County Jail awaiting trial on 30 counts including child porn and child solicitation. He is due back in court at the end of this month.
Tabman said about Kline, “If he was let go after confessing, if he was let go after all these documentations and forensic evidence that the FBI and the state police shared and he was so cooperative, my guess is that he was cooperating on something else, against someone else and they didn’t want to bring that to anyone’s attention.”
State police didn’t share the “anthony_shots” profile with the public until almost five years after the girls’ murders. State police also didn’t name Kline as the creator of the account; that detail was found in documents discovered by News 8 a day later.
Tabman says he isn’t sure why. “I don’t know that not naming him by name would protect anything. Once the information on that account is out, anyone involved with that would know that I need to get off that account.”
The former FBI agent, though, does have a theory about the profile. Oftentimes, he says, child porn cases cast a wide web.
“If that account is communicating with Girl A from one ISP (internet service provider) and Girl B from a different ISP at the same time, it would indicate that more than one person was signed on that account. So, there’s probably some digital evidence that there was more than one person using that account, and it wouldn’t surprise me in that, with these child predators, (they) do tend to work in groups because they share videotapes and they share methods and they share girls.”
Questions have also surfaced over the years about why there were two different sketches of possible suspects, and if there is more to the video clip investigators found on Libby’s phone.
Tabman said sometimes information is released to see what people know. To get the answer investigators are looking for, law enforcement will intentionally leave things out.
“Sometimes investigators just hit a brick wall, not because they’re doing bad work, but they can’t create evidence that is not there,” Tabman said.
News 8 also asked Tabman about possible DNA in the Delphi murders. He said if any was recovered from the girls, it would have been run through the FBI.
However, if the person responsible was never arrested before, they would not be in the FBI’s system. Tabman added, though, that doesn’t mean the person won’t be in the FBI’s system in the future.
