‘They both were just full of light’ Delphi Community Middle School principal, counselor remember Abby and Libby
DELPHI, Ind. (WISH) — Hanging on one wall in Dephi Community Middle School Principal Sarah Gustin’s office is a poster about Abby Williams and Libby German.
A poem written by a student is on the other.
Their names are on a bracelet on her wrist and on hearts around her neck.
“This isn’t just a case, they were our girls. These are people and these are our families in our community. They both were just full of light and so much promise and ya know, it’s hard because they’re not here to experience the first, that they should be experiencing being freshman this year. But I think just keeping the memory alive and thinking about the good things and their smiles especially, that’s something as we move forward in the grieving, in the healing process and that’s something you want to stand out. You want to remember the good things about them,” Gustin said.
Gustin was at the school when a member of the search team looking for Abby and Libby came to tell school leaders the girls’ bodies had been found.
“The day that the girls were found was the hardest day. I think it was just unimaginable,” she said.
‘I’d driven by the fire station to get home and thought ‘I hope they find them soon.’ I heard the sirens, my heart dropped,” said counselor Angela Bieghler, who knew when she heard the sirens, something had happened to the girls she’d just met with to plan out their freshman year.
“The fact that they didn’t get to complete that, it’s just sad,” she said.
Bieghler says she’s had many sad, and many angry students in her office this year.
“They’re just really angry and they don’t really understand,” she said.
Why this happened to girls they loved, in their town.
“We live right in the middle of town and so you used to hear things, you used to see things. yYu would see kids all the time and then right after it happened, it was like a ghost town, people rolled up their sidewalks and we locked our kids inside. I think that it’s just now getting to the point where they’re letting kids do things,” said Bieghler.
It’s been a year of many heavy hearts for their angels, Abby and Libby.
