(NewsNation Now) — Indiana State Police Superintendent Doug Carter believes there will be an arrest made in the Delphi murder case.
Five years ago, the bodies of Abby Williams, 13, and Libby German, 14, were found in a wooded area just hours after the two were reported missing.
The day before, they were on their way to the Delphi Historic Trails for a walk. But a Snapchat sent just after 2 p.m. that day was the last time anyone heard from them before their bodies were found.
Even with the help of thousands of tips from online sleuths, Carter told NewsNation he doesn’t have any updates to announce in the case. But he does have a message for the person responsible.
“They’re watching,” Carter said. “They’re watching. We’ll meet them soon.”
Below, you can see a transcription of Carter’s sit-down interview with NewsNation’s Rich McHugh, which has been edited for clarity.
Rich McHugh
Superintendent, we’re on five years now. What does this case mean to you?
Supt. Doug Carter
Oh, gosh, it would take me a while to explain it. But I think it’s the totality of of evil in my career, me personally. But the beauty of it is I get to represent some just amazing, amazing people that have given their entire life to this. That’s one of the last things I think about every day, and one of the first things I think of in the morning.
Rich McHugh
What is the focus of your investigation right now? And what is the evidence telling you?
Supt. Doug Carter
Well, I’m not going to talk about the evidence. I think we’ve done a fair job of doing that over the course of these last five years. There’s been a tremendous amount of speculation, Rich, about what we know and what we don’t know. I think most people’s intentions are good when they’ve done their own courses of investigations globally. But I’m pretty confident in the place where we are right now. And eventually, the world’s gonna know what we do. I still get between probably 25 and 40 direct tips a week, right here, literally from around the world. Germany, Australia, of late Italy, and then almost every state in the country. And, you know, I’ll forward down and I’ll forward that up to our investigators in Carroll County. It’s just amazing to me that [our troopers] have that same energy in the same gumption today that they did almost five years ago. It’s an extraordinary thing to watch.
Rich McHugh
You say, eventually the world is going to know. Does that mean you are close in your opinion?
Supt. Doug Carter
I think we’re closer every day. We’re closer every single day. The tips keep coming. Once that completes itself, then we’re going to have to assign another 60 or 80 detectives to this and go back through every single lead that we’ve ever gotten. I’m confident that there’ll be a successful conclusion for Abby and Libby, for Mike and Becky and Anna, and for that community, I’m confident that there will.
Rich McHugh
Do you have a person or persons of interest? Or do you have a suspect?
Supt. Doug Carter
I’m confident that this will come to a conclusion eventually.
Rich McHugh
In the past, you have said we have likely interviewed the killer. Do you still think that?
Supt. Doug Carter
I think that we’re not going to singularly identify anyone right now, at least publicly. The detectives that have been assigned to this task force have talked to hundreds if not thousands of people. And again, one day we’ll be able to tell you why we did that and who did it.
Rich McHugh
Early on, you released a sketch and later you released a different sketch. Why have the sketches changed so dramatically.
Supt. Doug Carter
Well, investigations evolve. One of the things that I’ve said consistently throughout this entire process is a sketch is not a photograph. But there’ll be pieces and parts of that sketch that will make that photograph whole. So, if we didn’t evolve with information, and we didn’t evolve with what we know, then shame on us. Unfortunately, we’re not in a position where we can tell everybody why we switched gears, why we make a slight turn to the right or slight turn to the left. And that’s where the speculation begins. And that’s where the animosity comes, and the frustration. And I understand it; I do understand it. Because very selfishly, other than the family of Abby and Libby in that community up there, there’s nobody that wants to find this monster more than me.
Rich McHugh
In December … (you) asked for the public’s help and saying, anybody who’s communicated with this Anthony Shots profile on social media, please get in contact. Did Abby and Libby communicate with this profile?
Supt. Doug Carter
I’m not going to talk about that. But I am going to say that we learned a tremendous amount (in) that particular investigative course.
Rich McHugh
What can you tell me about this man who has been arrested, the creator of this profile, Kegan Kline?
Supt. Doug Carter
All I can say about Kegan is that entire issue, and the entire release has allowed us to glean significant investigative leads. That’s all I can say about him.
Rich McHugh
I’ve spoken to some people who were involved in the investigation early on, and they say that there’s, there’s more. There’s there’s more video, there’s more sound. Why not release more of that?
Supt. Doug Carter
It’s important that we don’t show our hand, quite frankly, very directly. We’re not going to explain what we know about the killer. We’re not going to do that. We’re not going to explain some of the intricate details of the death of Abby and Libby. Unfortunately, one day we’re going to have to, but then that’s going to create a whole other issue with family and friends in the community and the like. So from an investigative standpoint, I’m not going to talk any more about it.
Rich McHugh
The audio that you released, says “guys down the hill.” Does “guys” and “down the hill” come right next to each other in the original recording?
Supt. Doug Carter
Again, there’s speculation about what that means. What was actually said? Who said it? Was it connected? Was it the same as the same voice? And again, that’s an investigative component of this and I’m not worthy to discuss it.
Rich McHugh
Were the girls active on social media?
Supt. Doug Carter
Again, I’m not going to I’m not going to talk about that.
Rich McHugh
From what we’ve seen, there’s footage of this person of interest from, I believe, Libby’s phone. Is there surveillance video of the girls at anytime?
Supt. Doug Carter
I’m doing this interview to talk about the effects that this gruesome crime has had on a community, on a state and on a nation. I’m not going to talk about the evidence. I’ve got nothing new to release.
Rich McHugh
Okay. I’ll switch gears here. Social media has kind of tried to devour this case. They’re consumed with it. Has social media affected the investigation? Positive or negative?
Supt. Doug Carter
That’s a great question. And I think we have this amazing ability to communicate today. And I don’t understand it. I’m not going to pretend to. But what I do know is we have been able to glean information, literally from around the globe. The intelligence that we’ve received not only on this case, but on many other criminal cases and criminal matters around the country, has been extraordinary. So I think when people start doing their own investigation and start comparing what they think, that creates problems. We ask them not to do that. There are a lot of people that look like the sketches that we’ve released. And then when you blow that out there with a picture of somebody that they think, next to a sketch, imagine what it does to that person if … they’re not involved at all? So we’ve tried to be very, very careful and very cautious there with how we’ve done that. But I gotta tell you, every time a tip pops up on my screen, I smile, because I’m so grateful. Now, the downside of that is we can’t respond to every one of them. I get so many of these where people want a direct response, and an explanation from me as to what we’re thinking. And for obvious reasons, I just can’t do that. But I think it’s been an amazing effort in collecting an extraordinary amount of data and intelligence. And then, how are we going to correlate that? Because I think the vast majority of people are doing what they think is right. I hope that answers the question, because it’s a really good point. And it’s been something like I’ve never seen in my entire career.
Rich McHugh
How can the public continue to help with this case?
Supt. Doug Carter
Keep doing what they’re doing. I hope that this has brought a light, maybe even a glimmer of hope, to monitoring what happens out there, from a perspective, a peer’s perspective, a relative’s perspective, a neighbor’s perspective, whatever that might be, because, again, of the way in which we have the ability to communicate. And finally, what I’ll say to that is, law enforcement should never talk about what we think. We only talk about what we know. And it’s easy for someone else, for a person out there trying to do the right thing to make what they think what they know. You see what I mean? It’s really important. I know you see it all the time. And it’s really important as particularly as we face head on a complete planet that’s out of balance right now. And the vitriol and the negativity associated with every single thing we do. And it just breaks my heart, whether it’s race, whether it’s … white, or Black, or Asian, or or whatever, it doesn’t make any difference. It seems if we don’t agree, we hate each other, and I don’t hate anybody for trying to help us.
Rich McHugh
How important a piece of this puzzle is that video that Libby pulled out her phone and started recording — the wherewithal she must have had in that moment to do that?
Supt. Doug Carter
Yeah … I’m not going to talk about that specifically. But what I will say about it is … it adds, again, a little bit of weight to a very complicated murder investigation. So I’d much rather have it than not, I think is how I’d respond to that.
Rich McHugh
I’m going to ask it, and if you if you don’t want to go there, I understand. The crime scene — the area where their bodies were found — from what I’ve been told, from being there, it’s very hard to reach. Some have speculated that it’s only reachable if you cross this creek. The speculation is that this is a person that was very familiar with the terrain. Can you speak to that at all?
Supt. Doug Carter
Well, I think I’d say is any place in the country that’s rural, there’s multiple points of access, generally speaking. Especially in Indiana, it’s hilly, but mostly flat. So again, there’s a lot of speculation as to why they might have been there. But I’m not going to talk about it right now.
Rich McHugh
I’ve seen in press briefings in the past where you’ve addressed this person or persons directly, is there anything that you’d like to say to them?
Supt. Doug Carter
They’re watching. They’re watching. We’ll meet them soon. We’ll meet them.
Rich McHugh
Anything you’d like to talk about? Because I’m not asking you about it. But Abby and Libby or their families or anything like that, like that you really want me to get across?
Supt. Doug Carter
I hope everybody asked me that question. Because that’s why we do what we do. Right? That’s why you do what you do. It’s why I do what I do. And that’s why all of us have a little bit of piece of the puzzle here. Or a piece of the pie or whatever. I want to meet with Mike and Becky and Hannah. And I want to tell them we did it. That’s what I want to tell them. We collectively did it. And you know, it’s it’s the last year (of) the sheriff’s term up there. I’m sure that he wants this resolved, by the end of it because he’s lived it for now five years too, like everybody else. The community, my gosh, what an extraordinary community. Two deputies, a jail officer and a merit deputy were just killed in a car accident. You know, on the 29th of January, just a couple of weeks ago. The fire that killed those four beautiful young girls in November 2016. They seem to have a shadow up there, and I don’t understand why. But I’ve seen such an enormous, enormous outpouring of support. And not just not just for people dressed funny like me, but for really, for everybody up there. They taught us a lot about humility. And they taught us a lot about human interaction, and a lot about caring for one another, and they didn’t even know it. They didn’t even know that at the time. And then from a very personal perspective, I believe that I’ll see their smiling faces once again. One day, one day.
Rich McHugh
Here we are at five years. Yeah. How often do you think about this case?
Supt. Doug Carter
My number one worry throughout the course of the day, because there’s such a violent world we live in, is my hope and my prayer for my officers to get home every day. We’ve got a lot of work to do in the way in which we treat other people. But there’s not … many waking minutes that I’m not thinking about those two little girls.
Rich McHugh
Seems like a great place to end it unless there’s other other things you would like to introduce.
Supt. Doug Carter
Please talk about those those folks that are up there continuing to do this work. The sheriff and Tony and Jerry Holman and David Vito and J. Harper. And we have so many other people from our laboratory personnel that are so committed to this. Intelligence people that deal with it, work on it every single day. The U.S. Marshals, the task forces of federal agencies, it’s been an extraordinary thing to see, and it’s made us better. Their work collectively has made us better. It’s not been perfect. You put two people in a room and then you’re going to argue, right? Eventually. We fuss with each other just like brothers and sisters do. But everybody’s intent is the same … and their life’s focus is Abby and Libby. And then the family and then the community, and then the county, and then the state and then the nation and then the countries from around the world that we’ve talked with. I guess with such violence and such horror, some good’s come out of this.
