DELPHI, Ind. (WXIN) — For five years, the unsolved murders of 13-year-old Abby Williams and 14-year-old Libby German have hung over Delphi, Indiana.
On Feb. 13, 2017, the two best friends went for a walk on the remote historic trails of Delphi. All that has come out of the woods is questions, sorrow and speculation.
Who killed the girls … and why?
Now, a familiar name in the investigation of their deaths has surfaced in interview transcripts provided to NewsNation’s Indianapolis affiliate by The Murder Sheet podcast. No arrests have been made, but the transcripts are pointing the spotlight back on the cold case as authorities try to make a long prayed-for break in the investigation.
For years, the best evidence police had of the girl’s killer came from video on Libby’s cellphone that captured both an image of a man approaching her on the High Bridge and a recording as the man told the girls to go down the hill.
Several suspects have emerged over the last five years, but it’s in interviews with the most recent potential suspect where answers in the cold case could be taking shape. In August of 2020, 27-year-old Kegan Kline, of Peru, was arrested on 30 counts of child solicitation, child exploitation and possession of child porn.
But to Libby, Kline may have been known by another name: his online persona Anthony Shots, a social media account that used fake pictures of a male model to solicit nude photos of teenage girls in 2016 and 2017. Kline admitted to police the anthony_shots account was used to talk to underage girls. He told police he’d find girls, both people he knew and didn’t know, on Instagram and ask them to message him on Snapchat or other apps.
Past reports revealed Kline was questioned by police after a search of his home in Peru 12 days after Abby and Libby were murdered.
In the newly obtained transcripts that were briefly posted on a Miami County court website earlier this month, Kline is interrogated by a state trooper and a sheriff’s deputy Aug. 18, 2020, confronted with the knowledge that detectives knew he was communicating with Libby and her friends the night before her disappearance when Libby was at a sleepover.
Police: Umm you had told investigators umm and I know you say you don’t remember a girl that you ever talked to but I know you remember Liberty German?
Kline: (inaudbile)
Police: Right and you know you talker (sic) to her and you admitted to talking to her? And-
Kline: I don’t think I ever did, though. I think I talked to one of her friends like I told them. (inaudible)
Police: You, you admitted you talked to her …
Kline: (inaudible)
Police: … for a few hours at a sleepover and then you blocked her because she was annoying you, remember?
Kline: You’re right, yeah.
Police: You remember that?
Kline: Yeah.
A couple of pages later in the transcript, the trooper confronts Kline, saying that Anthony Shots was supposed to meet Libby on the Delphi High Bridge the day she died.
“See I don’t remember ever saying to meet up with me, though,” Kline responded.
Earlier, the trooper quoted Kline’s message to another person after he learned about Libby and Abby’s murder where Anthony Shots wrote “Yeah, we were supposed to meet but she never showed up.”
“That’s a d*** lie,” Kline said.
But police told Kline they believed at least two people had access to the anthony_shots account based on the forensic investigation into the syntax, or wording, used by the account.
“We have two different people using Kik messenger, talking to people from our residence,” police told Kline. Earlier in the interview, Kline said he gave his password to his account to “a lot of people.”
But in another transcript given to FOX59 by the Murder Sheet, Kline speaks to HLN producer Barbara McDonald in a Dec. 9, 2021 jailhouse interview. In the interview, Kline said his father had access to the anthony_shots account.
Kline also told McDonald that Indiana State Police allegedly told him “they knew it was my dad” who killed Abby and Libby.
McDonald: Do you think you’re going to be charged with anything related to Abbey and Libby’s murder?
Kline: No. No, I don’t.
McDonald: So they haven’t, the State Police haven’t threatened that?”
Kline: No. No.
McDonald: Do you feel like they’re trying to get you to pin this on your dad?
Kline: Yes. Yes, I do.
McDonald: And that’s probably why he’s not speaking to you?
Kline: Right. ‘Cause when I first got arrested, they told me that they knew it was my dad and if th-, if I tell ’em all my charges will be dropped.
In the interview with McDonald, Kline said his father was abusive, once holding guns on him and his mother. Kline also said his dad has past domestic violence cases filed against him and a history of violence toward women, saying he had “been to jail over beating (his ex-wife) up.”
Kline said his father also liked “younger women” and claimed he once slept with a 17-year-old when Kline was 20.
In the 194-page transcript of the police’s conversation with Kline, the man was questioned about using his anthony_shots account to communicate with Libby German the night before her death.
Kline told investigators he didn’t exchange photos with Libby, but did admit to receiving photos from a friend of hers who was at the same sleepover, according to the transcript.
Investigators said they knew Libby was speaking to Anthony Shots at the sleepover the night before she went to the Delphi trail with Abby, the document stated. Police said they believe Libby was being groomed by the account. .
“Unfortunately, she was completely enthralled with Anthony Shots,” investigators said in the transcripts.
The transcripts also reveal that police told Kline he failed a polygraph test when asked if he knew who killed Abby and Libby. They also say he deleted search history on his phone between the dates of Feb. 10 and Feb. 15, 2017. The transcripts also revealed he used another persona, “Emily Anne,” to message underage girls and asked them questions like “My dad asked your age limit.”
Kline claimed his father was “freaking out” when Kline told him in February of 2017 that detectives said Kline was a suspect in the Delphi murders, according to the transcript.
Kline told McDonald his father weighs 280 pounds, that he is a deer hunter and was robust enough to walk through the woods and strong enough to retrieve a deer.
The Indiana State Police issued a statement to FOX59 stating they want to make it clear they did not release this information.
“This is an ongoing investigation, and out of respect for that, the ISP decline to comment at this time.”
Indiana State Police investigators continue to seek additional tips and urge citizens to call the Indiana State Police if they have information on this case.
Read the full transcript below of Kline and his interview with police: