Judge delays Kegan Kline court hearing, sets trial date
PERU, Ind. (WISH) — A hearing has been delayed for a man tied to a social media catfishing account that has drawn the attention of police investigating the Delphi murders.
On Tuesday morning, Miami County judge granted a defense request to reschedule Kegan Kline’s hearing regarding child porn and child exploitation charges. Kline is accused of using a social media profile with fake profile pictures and the handle “anthony_shots” to have underage girls send him nude photographs.
Kline was due in court this Thursday. The hearing has been rescheduled for Feb. 24, 2022. The judge also set the trial to begin May 9, 2022.
On Dec. 6, Indiana State Police troopers investigating the murders of Abigail “Abby” Williams and Liberty “Libby” German asked for tips regarding the “anthony_shots” profile. The next day, News 8 uncovered that Kline had been connected to the account.
ISP investigators first spoke to him on Feb. 27, 2017, about two weeks following the murders after receiving info about a man soliciting underage girls on social media. It took more than three years for Kline to face charges in the child porn investigation. Nothing in redacted court documents reviewed by News 8 ties him in the Delphi murders.
On Monday, ISP released a statement regarding the Kline case.
The Indiana State Police has received many media inquiries since our December 6th press release concerning “anthony_shots” and eventually the identification of Kegan Kline. Your questions are certainly relevant as they relate to a long, complex, and extremely complicated murder investigation.
During the last nearly five years, we have conducted dozens of secondary investigations based on information we received. One of those investigations included a Possession of Child Pornography case resulting in the arrest of Kegan Kline. The information we had, have, and continue to receive concerning Kline has ebbed and flowed over these last few years. We understand there was a period of time that passed between 2017 and 2020 when Kline was not arrested and incarcerated for Possession of Child Pornography. Once the Indiana State Police presented the criminal case to the Miami County Prosecutor in June of 2020, immediate action was taken by both the Indiana State Police and the Miami County Prosecutor’s Office, which ultimately resulted in Kline’s arrest.
Like so many other pieces of this investigation, we will always review, learn from, and make any necessary adjustments. We do not believe that any person has done anything intentionally wrong, but we will continue to critically evaluate our efforts.
We know there is enormous interest in the “WHY” of everything we do, but we cannot and will not speculate. One day you will have the opportunity to see and know what we do, and we look forward to that day.
Indiana State Police
