This is my long-awaited update. But a lot of new text has been added including things that have never been revealed in the media. I hope this is useful to you (I don’t want to say I hope you enjoy it as that sounds terrible)
Note to commenters: Please stop referring to Unsub as a pedophile. He may well be one, but that’s something that cannot be determined from this crime, as it was not a pedophilic offense. Pedophilic crimes only refer to those against victims who are 12 years old and under.
A hebephilic crime would target a victim of 11-14 years of age. As you can see, there is some overlap around the tweens. Instead of being a pedophilic crime, this was a hebephilic offense. And while the perpetrator could certainly be seen as a hebephile, he’s not necessarily one. If you want to refer to the nature of the offense, use the word hebephilic instead of pedophilic. If you wish to refer to Unsub’s paraphilia, please refer to him as a hebephile and not a pedophile.
Pedophilia: Strong or exclusive sexual preference for girls 12-under.
Hebephilia: Strong or exclusive sexual preference for girls ~11-14.
Age of victims: 13 and 14
You do the math.
Thank you so much for this.
Note to commenters 2: I am getting tired of saying this over and over, but most of the material below is made up of rumors and my own opinions and theories. None of that is represented as fact. Furthermore, I am not using rumors as reliable sources as has been alleged. I never said they were reliable sources.
How reliable is a rumor? That’s for you to determine, but in general a rumor is not considered to be a reliable source, and they are not treated as such below. The only thing that is represented as fact are statements sourced from LE or the media. If you have issues with rumors, theories, opinions. etc., just quit reading right now and save yourself the heartache.
Sexually-motivated double homicide of two teenage girls, one 13 and the other 14. For some background on this heartbreaking case, see here.
This is a new update containing lots of new information, mostly in the form of photos, including the first ever published photos of the actual crime scene! This should be a blockbuster post.
How Do I Know All This Stuff?
First: How do I know all this stuff?
Question: “Robert, How Do You Know So Much about Serial Killers, Pedophiles, Hebephiles and Sexual Sadists?”
I have done a lot of research on this case including released information, rumors and statements by LE. I have also spoken to people close to the case, including those close to the search party and LE. I also spoke to other sleuthers and people interested in the case. I am getting my very best information from people who are close to the girls’ families. Of all of the rumors and information I get, these are some of the best. Other information is derived from my own theorizing about the case.
So there’s the source of all of the information.
My Musings on This Case
This was not a crime of opportunity. He planned this very well. He plans his crimes with the utmost meticulousness. That is why he is armed with the gun and disguising himself. Source: My speculation based on the nature of the offense and the obvious skill involved.
Unsub is 5’10, 180 pounds with a bit of a middle aged man’s stomach paunch. Source: Expert on CNN, paunch obvious in photo.
In my opinion, Unsub’s age is ~60. LE’s latest estimate is that he is 40-50 years old, but that’s seems too young to me. At the very least, that style of pants is outdated, and nowadays is only worn by men over 40 in that area. Conclusion: Anywhere between ~40-60, with an emphasis on the high end. t Sources: LE, sleuths commenting on the photo.
Excellent drawing of Unsub from an LE artist.
Clearly Unsub has a pistol, a .45 or 911. The pistol was holstered to his right side, which means he is left-handed. The outline of the pistol can clearly be seen in the photo released of the man. A photo exists showing the pistol outlined with graphic software. Source: Gun is obviously visible in photograph. Left-handedness concluded from the holstered gun pointing backwards on the right side.
Photo clearly shows a semiautomatic .911 or 45 mm handgun holstered on his right, which means he is left-handed. If you cannot see that obvious gun there, I do not know what to say to you.
Unsub may be trying to disguise himself in the photos by using a hat and a scarf. Source: LE.
Unsub is wearing a hat, a jacket with a hoodie and blue jeans in the photo. In my opinion, the hat is a camouflage hunting cap with padded ear muffs. Unsub is overdressed for the weather. He seems to have layers of clothing on. He has almost his entire body covered with clothing. Part of this is no doubt to disguise himself, but another reason is so he will have few exposed areas of his body where the girls could leave scratch marks if the girls fight back hard, although they still could scratch up his face pretty well. Source: LE, my own theorizing and conjecture, common sense.
In my opinion, this is the type of cap that Unsub is wearing.
What LE refers to as a fanny pack is actually what is called a deer kit. This contains knives, scissors, etc. for cutting up the deer after you kill it. So he is a hunter and he is going out to hunt these girls, and it appears he might be ready to do something terrible to their bodies. Source: A fellow sleuth researched it and discovered that that is actually a deer kit such as a hunter would use. It is too flat to be a fanny pack. Unsub must be a hunter. I doubt if he is a non-hunter because no non-hunter would know about a deer kit.
GIF image of Unsub photos run together.
There has been much talk about whether or not there were two murderers or one. Initial statements by LE implied that there were two killers, but they have not made any statements to that effect in quite some time. Conclusion: At the moment, the two killers theory is pretty dead ,and it looks like LE is leaning towards one killer. Source: A variety of LE statements and lack thereof.
There have been persistent rumors since even before the case was released to the media (these early rumors coming from family members) that Abbie survived until the next day, 2-14. There were different rumors, including that she was found alive but died on the way to the hospital, that she was alive when found but died soon after, that the coroner said she survived the attack but died of hypothermia in the woods, that her body was still warm when found, etc.
These rumors started almost instantly from people close to the family. We now have some excellent information that she somehow survived the attack and tried to crawl a ways away until she died. I am still getting reports that Abbie died on 2-14, and her body was still warm when found from some of my best sources close to the families, so this version is still strong.
Conclusion: The best analysis now is that Abbie did indeed survive the initial attack and died at some point later on on 2-14. The thing we do not know is how long she survived after she was attacked. She lingered for anywhere from 5-7 hours, which is my theory, and actually, that is nothing short of miraculous considering the gravity of her wounds. Sources: Rumors, people close the family, people close to LE.
Rumors from the search party stated that the girls had to have been moved since the dump site found on 2-14 had been searched on 2-13. The searchers were adamant that they had searched the dump site thoroughly on 2-13.
There is now evidence stating that searchers ran a thermal imager over the area on 2-13 (perhaps with an aircraft?), and while there were plenty of living things down there, none of them were human. In other words, the only things alive in that woods when the imager was run were wild animals. One would think that if the girls had been put there by 4 PM or so on 2-13 that the bodies would have shown up on the thermal imager.
In addition, there is now excellent information that the girls were removed immediately to a structure nearby where they were tortured, raped and homicidally attacked over a period of at at least ~12 hours. LE now accepts that they were removed and returned to site. Also they had to be returned after 2:30 AM when all of the searchers left and no doubt before dawn in the morning, as returning them in the daylight would have been stupid and crazy. Dawn was at 7 AM that day, so they had to be returned between 2:30-7 AM. Sources: People close to the search party, people close to the families, leak from LE.
The actual body dump area with Ron Logan and an elegantly dressed FBI gumshoe. Dig the long tails on that jacket. Stylin!
Truck parked at SW corner of cemetery at the edge of the trash dump ravine.
Trash dump ravine from the road to the cemetery. The killer drove down this road from the barn to the cemetery, then to the cemetery, then through the SE gate to Ron Logan’s land and the trail where he dragged the bodies. The entire distance from barn to beginning of trail is no more than 200 yards.
The SW side of the cemetery near the trash dump ravine.
This is the actual trail down which the bodies were dragged very early AM 2-14.
SW corner of the cemetery near the edge of the trash dump ravine.
More trash at the trash dump site on the SW end of the cemetery.
This is apparently the trash dump site on the SW corner of the cemetery, a ravine where people throw trash. At first we thought this was where he dumped the bodies, but then we found the SE gate and the trail and it all made better sense
This is the trash dump site on the ravine in the SW corner where people throw trash. Initially thought to be the body dump site, we realized that that was not possible. My investigator could not walk down that ravine in daylight and he wasn’t dragging two bodies either. We concluded that there was no way for the killer to drag two bodies down this un-navigable ravine in the middle of night. You can’t even walk down it in the daytime with no bodies. How do you do it at 3 AM dragging two heavy bodies. Just forget it.
Gate at the SE corner of the cemetery. The killer drove down a road to this gate early in the AM, opened the gate and drove 10 feet on Ron Logan’s horse pasture to the beginning of a trail to the dump site. He dragged the bodies down this trail in the middle of the night.
This is a three point turn SW of the cemetery leading to a ravine where people throw trash. Originally we thought he threw the bodies down here or dragged the bodies down the slope, but the slope is too steep to hike down, much less drag two bodies at night. And tossing the bodies over would not put them at the dump site. Later we focused on the SE corner of the cemetery where there is an unlocked gate leading to Ron Logan’s horse pasture. 10 feet further, a trail begins down the slope. This trail takes you directly to the dump site. So the killer must have driven to this spot, parked and dragged the bodies down the trail to the dump site. This is doable late at night, though difficult.
There is a rumor about how the girls were moved to the dump site. The rumor said that searchers followed drag marks, presumably left by the girls, to the dump site. So the killer returned the girls to the forest where they were abducted somehow. But this might not be difficult as he kept them alive for at least 12 hours in a barn across the road from Logan’s property. No searchers would have gone near Ron Logan’s outbuildings as they were located far from the search zone, so he had no fear of being caught.
Hence the killer was torturing, raping and homicidally attacking the girls at the same time that searches were ongoing for 10 hours straight. But from the kill site, the killer had a perfect view of the area, and he could determine when the searches were going on and when they stopped. Therefore, he knew when the searches had stopped at 2:30 AM, and he returned them sometime between then and 7 AM that morning.
The kill site is only 200 yards from the cemetery. He took the girls from the kill site to the cemetery and drove to the SE corner of the cemetery. There is a gate there that is open. When you walk through the gate, you are on Ron Logan’s horse pasture. The trail that the girls were dragged down to the dumpsite starts only 10 feet from the cemetery gate.
It is not known how the killer kept the girls quiet, but perhaps he terrorized the girls with a gun. Surely he must have bound and gagged them, probably very soon after he said “Down the hill,” in the tape. They were definitely bound when they were kept in the barn. It also makes sense that he would have kept them alive during this time. The killer remained with the girls the whole time they were in the barn committing his crimes right under the noses of the search parties!
I believe that the homicidal attack on the girls, no doubt the throat slitting, may have been done not long before they were dumped on the hill. One more thing we need to note is that there is no way the killer dumped those bodies there on 2-13 or even up until 2:30 AM on 2-14, as there were loud and obvious searchers with their shouts and lights in the area. You don’t dump bodies right in the middle of a search party that is looking for just those bodies. No one does that.
Yet somehow he dumped those bodies there between 2:30 AM-7:40 AM on 2-14.
There is a rumor says that the killer thrust a large pointed wooden stick into Abbie’s stomach. This brutal spearing must have occurred at the dump site, especially since even that spearing somehow did not kill Abbie! In fact, she survived for at least 3 and maybe 7 hours afterwards! He would not have speared her before being placed at the dump site because it makes no sense to drag a girl with a spear in her down a hill. Further, Abbie survived the spearing, which means she must have been speared at the dump site.
Obviously they were dragged down the hill, placed at the dump site, and then the killer speared Abbie in the stomach as one final Parthian Thrust shows the profound rage, hatred and contempt that this killer must have felt for his victims.
Source: Leaks from LE, people close to the families, my own theorizing. The theory that he removed them from the site to the barn is quite solid, and I believe it is fact, in addition to the location where they were driven in the early AM to the trail where they were dragged, which I also regard as fact.
Fence around cemetery on the road to Ron Logan’s horse pasture at the SE end of the cemetery at a gate. The killer drove this route very early in the AM on route to body dump.
This is the photo that initially led us to consider the barn as a kill site. What is that cop with a dog doing there? That’s a crime scene, and a bad one. We noticed this photo of police with dogs searching the barn and put two and two together. We knew an outbuilding had been used, but we had no idea where it was. The media reports got this all wrong, describing this photo as a search of Ron Logan’s land, when actually it was a search of the Mears property, probably especially the barn.
The first ever photos of the Delphi kill site – -the barn on the Mears property across the street. Here is a side view.
The first ever photos of the Delphi kill site – the barn on the Mears property across the street. Flowers in the barn. This, in addition to the photos of dogs searching the barn and my investigator’s discussions with Mears family members, solidified my conclusion that this was the kill site. No one knows exactly where the girls were killed. Perhaps it was here?
The first ever photos of the Delphi kill site – the barn on the Mears property across the street. Here is the ill-fated barn. Even in daytime, you cannot see inside the barn. My investigator was only able to see objects at the very front of the barn. Everything else was hidden. You could also pull a car in there as it is big enough to fit a car. The car also would not be seen. Barn is about 50 yards from the road but from the road, visibility into the barn even in daylight is about zero.
The first ever photos of the Delphi kill site – the barn on the Mears property across the street. Interior of the ill-fated barn. As you can see, it is quite spacious inside. Also people inside are invisible to those on the outside even in daylight. Cloudy weather is worse.
The first ever photos of the Delphi kill site – the barn on the Mears property across the street. One last photo of the barn, this time from inside the barn. As you can see, you can easily pull a car into that barn.
Someone posted photos supposedly from the body dump site on a website frequented by Delphi residents. The photo was quickly taken down, but a number of people saw it anyway. The photo shows the two dead girls and the coroner. The person who posted the photo had some text saying that the bodies were positioned in an odd way. The only sense that the poster could make out of this odd posing of the bodies is that he thought it might have been some sort of a ritual, possibly a Satanic ritual.
I believe this is called “posing” the bodies and is a favorite with serial killers. There are no details on how the girls were positioned. Conclusion: This is probably a good rumor as people posted what they saw on the site on a family members’ site, and none of the family members said that the information was false. Source: A number of people who saw the Delphi resident’s web page.
The crime scene does not make sense in this case. The girls seem to have been attacked soon after Unsub said, “Go down the hill.” The entire south side of the creek was roped off as a crime scene. I do not feel that this is a homicide site; instead, I feel there was some sort of an altercation here as he tried to put them in a vehicle he had placed there for this purpose.
People are now saying that the whole attack was over soon after it began, and there are reports saying that the 6-minute audiotape contains the horrifying record of a homicide. This would imply that the girls were murdered very quickly. But the logistics of the case do not support a homicidal attack soon after abduction, at least in the case of Abbie.
Reports that the crime was over quickly after it began do not make sense for a variety of reasons. Furthermore, assuming Abbie’s body was still warm when found, if she was murdered at 4 PM, how does she linger for 17 1/2 hours until the next day? Simple, it didn’t happen.
However, there is some brutal audio and perhaps video that Liberty recorded on her phone. Some of the audio was recorded right before the abduction, and there is 40 minutes after that. The audio right after the recording of the man saying, “Down the hill,” records the girls screaming.
Does that imply that the girls were attacked soon after being told to go down the hill? Yes.
There is a big question about the phone. After 5:30 PM and for several hours, Liberty’s phone was pinging all over town which means it was not in Liberty’s possession. The question about the phone is whether or not it was recovered. The latest and best theory seems to be that Liberty’s phone was not recovered and all of the audio and video was taken from the Iphone Cloud. There is an option on an Iphone to immediately save all data to the Cloud.
If she threw the phone in the woods, it should have been found by now.
OK, so why was Liberty’s phone pinging all over town for several hours during the search? This would make sense if the phone was in the woods, but it appears now that the phone was not in the woods. So why did it ping all over town?
The killer had the two girls in his remote structure soon after they were abducted. If the structure was not far from the dump site, the phone could have been on Liberty’s body while she was in the structure as Logan’s property is near the forest where they were taken. Perhaps in the process of disrobing her, the killer found Liberty’s cellphone. Perhaps it was dead by this point.
Under this scenario, Unsub either disposed of or destroyed the phone after it died, and this is why it has never been found. Perhaps he smashed it to bits. Perhaps he discarded it in the garbage somewhere. Or even better yet, he threw it in the river. Conclusion: It now appears that the phone was indeed not recovered, but that is not as solid of a fact as we would like it to be. Source: People close to the search party, people close to the case.
A large tree down the slope from the north side of the bridge. We believe the killer may have hid here lying in wait for the girls to start across the bridge, at which point, he followed them from north to south and essentially trapped them on the south end of the bridge.
A pack of cigars maybe left by a hunter under the tree where the killer may have lay in wait for his victims. The cigars are not the killer’s. My investigator told me that the entire area seemed to have been gone over with a fine tooth comb by LE. It seems that LE was suspicious of this area on the north side just as we are. Perhaps their theory is the same as ours.
The beginning of the bridge on the north side. We believe that the killer accessed the bridge from the north side like all hikers do and set off down the trail to the north side of the bridge, where he descended and lay in wait for his victims.
The south side of the river was roped off as a crime scene, not the north side. Yes, the tape was removed two days later, but so what? This is standard procedure in a park. But if the south side was not a homicide scene but instead some other sort of scene such as an abduction scene, it could have been gone over quickly, and there would be no reason to keep it roped off. The girls were not attacked much at the dump site, as the dump site was described as pristine. Conclusion: The best theory right now is that the south side was the scene of some scuffle probably as he was trying to tie them up and get them in his vehicle. The best evidence now suggests that the girls were killed in the barn across the street from Ron Logan’s property. Sources: LE, media reports, sleuths.
The FBI interviewed a man who had property on the south side of the creek. They asked about his gun(s), his vehicle(s), and whether there were any outbuildings. From this we can conclude that the FBI believes that a gun, a vehicle and an outbuilding were used in this crime.
In addition, the notion of the barn as kill site fits well into the very earliest statements from family members 1.5 hours before the media even reported the crime saying that the girls were found raped and killed in a cabin. Since the girls were found dumped in the forest, the rumor about being found in a cabin made no sense.
But now there is a way that we tie this all together. Sure, the cabin or structure played a serious role in the crime, but not as a dump site. Instead, the cabin (actually a barn) was the place where they were abused, raped and killed! So the Cabin Theory (actually a Barn Theory) makes a new appearance, this time making a lot more sense. Conclusion: The Cabin Theory is fact, except the kill site was a barn and not a cabin. As the cabin talk started up right away, this also implies that LE found the kill site very soon after they found the bodies. Sources: Family members, people close to the family, leaks from LE.
There is a rumor stating that LE says that Liberty could have escaped several times, but she chose to stay by her best friend’s side to the end. In real life, they were inseparable. That means that Libby is truly a hero for giving her life in order not to abandon her friend. And it makes this crime even more sad. Conclusion: It is probably true. It is hard to understand why LE would make up such a story, and LE would be the only people to know. Source: Person close to the family.
There is indeed a voice recording of Unsub saying, “Go down the hill.” The next thing you hear on the tape is the girls screaming. This is part of an audiotape heroically recorded by Libby by turning on the recorder on her phone as the girls were being abducted. It has also been implied, terrifyingly, that the audio is actually a recording of the rapes and murders. Conclusion: The four words are fact. From the behavior of LE, it does seem as if something quite terrible is on the rest of that audio. Source: People close to the family.
There is a rumor that says that there is not 6 minutes of video/audio but instead there is 40 minutes of video/audio! Someone posted this on a site that the families frequent, and no family members asked to take it down for being inaccurate, so there is something to it. I believe there is little more video, and most of that 40 minutes is audio. And I have heard that it’s ugly and nasty stuff, so terrifying that LE does not want to release it. Strong rumor.
Conclusion: Almost certainly true. Surely there is nasty stuff on that audio, and it makes sense that it would last 40 minutes and not 6 minutes. Furthermore, the person who said there was 40 minutes posted it on a site frequented by family members and none of them said it was false. And they would have spoken up if it were not true. Source: Posting on a website frequented by the families of the girls.
The Monon High Bridge Trail before it gets to the north side of the bridge. The girls set off down this path on their fateful journey at 2 PM, 2-13.
There is talk of a car that can be barely seen in the lower left of the photo of Abbie on the bridge below the bridge. No one even knows if that is a car or not in that photo. Many people say they cannot make out a vehicle in the photo.
That road is a very little-used road that almost no one has even heard of, and it is quite hard to get to. My on the ground investigator was not able to find this road, but he is sure it is there. It appears to have been a road used by workers to maintain the bridge. A new rumor says that LE believes that the killer’s vehicle was parked at a trail head on the south side. Conclusion: Of course a car was used in this crime, and of course it was parked on the south side on a small road or truck trail that parallels the river. There is no other way this crime could have occurred. Source: Sleuths analyzing the photo of Libby on the bridge, people close to the family.
A possible vehicle can barely be seen circled in blue.
The “vehicle” is very hard to make out in this photo, but I do see what appears to be a vehicle in that photo. At any rate, no one even knows if there is a vehicle in that photo or not. I think it is a vehicle, but that is not proven yet at all.
Is that a man hiding and watching Abbie on the bridge? I have another photo taken recently and that black figure is simply not there.
A photo of the exact location of the “man in hiding” in the photo above taken days after the crime. Notice anything? No “man in hiding” anymore. Huh? If that was just some normal shadow effect, clearly it would have been seen there at all times. But here it is not there. I am starting to think that may be the killer hiding behind that tree near the north side of the bridge waiting for his victims.
Another car photo with a possible man or human figure standing next to the car. The human figure is circled.
There is evidence from various statements from the family that Libby put up a huge fight. The condition of her body at the funeral adds weight to the notion that she fought back very hard and sustained many defensive wounds because she had many small wounds on her body and face. In addition there is a new rumor now that states that Abbie fought back so hard that her nails were shredded. However, I believe they are confused and it was really Libby whose nails were torn up.
Unsub may well have scratch marks if Libby fought like a wildcat, which it seems she did. It addition, the throat slitting attack on Libby was much more severe than on Abbie and it was Libby who was beaten to the point where she was nearly unrecognizable, not both girls. The horrendous beating and the vicious throat attack imply that the killer was enraged with Libby for fighting back so hard, so he attacked her viciously in response. Conclusion: This is certainly true, at least the part about her fighting back violently. We know this by the condition of her body at the funeral. Source: People at the funeral, common sense.
I believe the gun obviously holstered on the right under the jacket of Unsub was used to control the girls. He also got them to keep quiet with the gun. However, the gun was not used to shoot the girls either to kill or wound them. These girls have no gunshot wounds. Conclusion: Now that we know the cause of death, there is no way a gun was used in this crime. There has never been the slightest rumor that these girls were attacked with gunshots. Source: Common sense, witness reports.
There is a rumor that both girls had their throats slit. This is a strong rumor. Funerals were open casket, and both girls had scarves covering their necks, more to cover something up than as clothing. This adds weight to the theory that their throats were slit.
There is a rumor that Liberty was nearly decapitated. A recent version of this rumor said she was decapitated. However, if so, I do not understand how Unsub dragged a headless body down that trail, presumably with a human head in his hand. Further, Liberty’s head was very much on her body at the funeral. It is hard to imagine a funeral director putting someone’s head back on. This is a strong rumor as I have now heard many versions of it and no rumors saying that it is false.
It appears that the the wound to Abbie’s throat was not a particularly grievous wound. In other words, if he was trying to kill her, he did a poor job of it. If Libby did survive for at least 3 and up to 8 hours after she was homicidally attacked, her throat must not have been cut too grievously because otherwise she would not have survived for so long afterwards.
Conclusion: Of course the girls had their throats cut and this was the cause of death at least in the case of Liberty no doubt and a contributing factor in the death of Abbie. The rumor that the attack on Liberty’s neck was particularly vicious seems to be well supported as it keeps coming up and no one has said it was not true. Obviously, if Abbie survived as long as she did, the attack on her neck was not particularly grievous. Sources: Family members, people close to LE, people at the funeral.
There is a rumor saying that both girls were beaten so badly in their faces that they were nearly unrecognizable. However the latest version of this rumor says that only Libby was given this treatment. Conclusion: The best conclusion seems to be that Libby was the one who was severely beaten in the face. If Abbie was beaten in the face at all, it was not nearly so badly. Source: Source close to the family.
This offense was clearly sexually motivated, and it seems quite clear that sexual assault occurred in the course of the crime. The very first rumors from the family members said both girls had been raped. However, a new rumor says that neither girl was raped and instead both girls were sexually mutilated, which is in fact much worse than simply being raped which is bad enough. We can only imagine what sort of mutilation was involved here.
We are dealing with a real bad guy here like Ted Bundy or Jack the Ripper. He not only kills girls, but he likes to cut them up too. This is not your ordinary rapist-killer, however it is common in serial killer rape-murders that the females’ bodies are at times mutilated in some way or another, so if our Unsub is a serial, then this sort of attack is right up his alley.
Further, I feel that the mutilation may well have been done with the stick that he impaled in Abbie’s stomach before he left. This is a theory of my on the ground investigator, and I think he may well be correct. Furthermore, it solves the DNA problem for the killer. If a stick was used, there will be no DNA other than oak or pine DNA.
Conclusion: Sadly this theory is probably correct at least as far as mutilation goes. The very first statements by family members before this was even reported in the media was that the girls were “raped and mutilated.” Statements that they were mutilated have continued since then, including one very recent statement. Sadly, this is quite probably what was done to these girls. The theory of using the stick to mutilate the girls is on much shakier ground as it is pure speculation by my fellow sleuth and me. Sources: Family members, people close to LE, general rumors, sources close to family.
There is uncertain information about the state of the bodies when found. Early statements were that Abbie was nude and Liberty was clothed. But if both girls were sexually mutilated, there was no way that Liberty was clothed. This killer is not about to put clothes back on a dead girl after he kills her. Conclusion: The theory that best explains the facts is that both girls were found nude. Sources: Rumors, sources close to the family.
There is conflicting information about the DNA collected at the scene. One report said the DNA is back, but there is no match to any known person.
Another says that the DNA that came back is that of Ivan Brumbaugh, the man who found the bodies. However, it is mere tough DNA, and it is is so weak that it was not even found at first and was only found two weeks later. Further, Brumbaugh states that he touched the bodies when he found them. In addition, if Brumbaugh is the killer, I would expect that they would have something better than a tiny bit of touch DNA, which is much more suggestive of his story about touching the bodies when he found them than that he is the killer.
Conclusion: No one knows! It does appear that DNA is back. That much seems to be certain. Whether it matches no one or Brumbaugh, no one knows. Further, the only information on the Brumbaugh theory comes form a man who is certain that Brumbaugh is the killer and has made a video to that effect. He also says he was the one who turned in Brumbaugh and that he is going to get the reward. This man has a large stake in Brumbaugh being the killer, so he is not a very good source. Until we get corroboration on the Brumbaugh rumor, all we know is that DNA is back and it either matches no one or it matches the man who found the bodies.
Source: A good source in Delphi, LE, media reports, a video maker on Youtube who is making a serious claim that Brumbaugh is the killer.
There is a rumor that boot prints were found at the scene. These boots are thought to have been worn by Unsub. This would make sense, as LE had some boots in an evidence bag a few days after the killings. They innocuously said that the boots had nothing to do with the crime, but they were probably lying. They probably did not recover Unsub’s actual boots themselves. Why would Unsub discard his boots at the crime scene and walk away shoeless? Makes no sense. It is more likely that LE matched the boot prints to that type and size of boot, indicating that Unsub was wearing boots of that make and size at the time of the crime.
There is a new rumor that Indiana Packers in town was raided and a pair of boots were seized from the site. This rumor is hard to understand. Who if anyone owned the boots that they seized? Why was this man not arrested? Conclusion: Of course boot prints were found at the site. We know that for sure now. And the type of boot was surely the one shown in the evidence bag. Sources: LE, source in Delphi.
The girls’ clothing was found in the creek. This was no doubt an attempt by Unsub to destroy any DNA evidence. The clothes were probably from both girls and both were no doubt found nude. Conclusion: Certainly true as it was reported by as news reporter at the scene. Source: Statements from reporter at the scene, common sense.
There is an incredible rumor that victim Abigail Williams, age 13, was pregnant at the time of the attack. It is now known that she definitely had a boyfriend, who was 16 years old. He has been located, and we know his name. Conclusion: At the moment this is a weak rumor, but it does explain some other things such as the spearing attack. It has only been stated by one person and has not been corroborated, but there have also been no reports saying it is false. Source: A sleuth.
There is very gruesome rumor saying that Abbie’s body was found with a pointed branch driven into her stomach. In other words, Unsub stood over Abbie and plunged the stick into her belly, pinioning her like a shishkebab. If this is true, it is even more incredible for her to survive the attack and even to crawl around with a stick in her body. Conclusion: As bizarre as it sounds, this rumor is quite possibly true. It has been repeated by a resident who posted crime scene photos on his page and corroborated by those who saw his photos. Source: A source close to the family, a Delphi resident who posted crime scene photos on his site and others who viewed these photos.
Tying together both of the shocking rumors is the suggestion that Unsub knew that Abbie was pregnant, and the stick attack was an attempt to kill the fetus too. Although this makes sense, one wonders how he could have possibly known that she was pregnant given that she was not very far along. Look at Abbie in the bridge photo. Does she look pregnant in that photo? So how would Unsub discover that she was pregnant? When people are under the control of a potentially murderous person who is assaulting them with what looks like homicidal intent, a lot of victims make various pleas to their attacker(s) to please spare their lives.
These take the form of appeals such as, “Please, no, I have a wife and three kids!…No, spare me, I am the sole breadwinner for my family of five!,” etc. I am sure there are many more. Victims make all sorts of pleas and engage in various manipulations of the person assaulting them in an attempt to stay alive. Most people do not want to die and will try all sorts of desperate measures in an attempt to not be murdered.
Sometimes they work, the attacker has a change of heart and decides to spare one or more victims. If Abbie pleaded with Unsub that he would be killing not just her but another potential life, then Unsub would have learned of her pregnancy. Conclusion: No one knows if the rumor that Abbie was pregnant are even true, but the stick rumor surely is. At any rate, there is no evidence tying the stick attack in with the possible pregnancy other than a speculated theory. This was merely the conclusion of a fellow sleuth, who is actually very good. And she is a woman too. Source: Speculation by me and a fellow sleuth.
Ron Logan, the poor soul whose land the bodies were found on, is still the source of much speculation that he is the murderer. There are websites where all they do is go over and over this man as a suspect. Quite a few people still believe he is the killer. I do not believe that Ron Logan is the killer, nor do I believe that he had anything to do with this crime. However, LE seems to think he may know more about this crime than he is letting on. This was apparently behind the apparent efforts to sweat him out by throwing him in jail for a probation violation for violating his drunk driving probation.
He was supposed to neither drink nor drive and he did both on the day of the killings. Logan did indeed go to the dump and many people think he was disposing of evidence there. However, he went there at 11:30 AM, so he could not possibly have been disposing of evidence as this was 3.5 hours before the girls were even abducted. Instead, Logan was in Lafayette 25 miles away buying tropical fish, but mostly drinking in a bar somewhere, probably some “old man’s tavern.” He is said to have been drinking beer. He lied about this to LE in order to cover up his probation violation, and LE was not happy that he lied to them.
However, Logan’s wife, who has a low opinion of him, states emphatically that he is innocent of this crime and that there are time-stamped photos of him, probably taken by surveillance cameras. These time-stamped photos cover the period of the abduction, so he could not have done this crime. Logan returned at 5:30 PM from Lafayette, where searchers asked for permission to search his land, which was granted.
One thing that kept Logan’s name on people’s tongue is that his property was thoroughly searched once and maybe even twice. They are even said to have searched the interior of his home in addition to his outbuildings. His car was also searched and it was even impounded for a while. The second search of Logan’s land certainly set tongues wagging ferociously.
However, my investigator has now determined that the media was quite wrong about this search. The media said Logan’s land was being searched, but the main search was of the Mears property across the street and of course the barn. The simply mistook the Mears’ land for Logan’s land. Logan’s property may well have been searched also, but the focus was clearly on the Mears property.
Conclusion: Of course Logan is innocent. The dump accusation is false and there is hard evidence that he was in Lafayette at the time of the abductions. His land was probably searched because this poor fellow had the misfortune of having two dead girls dumped on his land. The much-ballyhooed second search of Logan’s land was falsely reported. It was actually the Mears property being primarily searched, not Logan’s. Almost everything accusatory you hear about Ron Logan regarding this crime is surely false. I really wish everyone would lay off this poor soul.
The entirety of LE’s case against Logan. People made much of this paper because it says he went to the dump. This apparently proved that he was disposing of articles after killing the girls. But he went to the dump at 11:30 AM, 3.5 hours before the girls were abducted, so unless Logan can time travel to the past, he could not have been disposing of murder items at the dump as the homicide or even abduction had not even taken place yet!
Ron Logan is indeed a drunk and a probation violator and I have learned that he has a shady past. 5-10 years ago, he had a girlfriend who he used to beat up on a regular basis. One time perhaps 7-8 years ago, he nearly beat this poor woman to death. He is also said to be quite strange sexually and he has freaked out a number of local woman with his sexual interests. He is also said to be very much into sex, but that can be said about millions of male Americans and quite a few females too.
Conclusion: Drunk, yes. Probation violator, yes. The other accusations are quite disturbing but he has never shown an abnormal interest in young girls such as pubescent teenage girls. I believe that Logan is a kinky drunk who likes to slap his women around. That’s not exactly optimal, but there are probably millions of men like this in the US. But there is huge difference with having the dubious qualities above and being a depraved rapist-mutilator-murderer of young teenage girls.
In addition to the rest of the evidence, Logan simply does not have it in him to do this crime in my opinion. His ex wife, who is not a Ron Logan fan at all, says that whatever else Ron is, he is not a murderer as she feels he is not capable of it. The social media circus around this man is most unsavory if not outright wrong. It’s time to pack up the Ron Logan theory and take it out to the dump where it belongs. Sources: A Delphi local who knew the ex girlfriend very well, Logan’s ex-wife.
There is a rumor saying that the case against Ron Logan is completely corrupt and is being led by a man who could care less if Logan did these crimes or not. All this man wants is to see Logan destroyed. This man is another local with whom Logan had a falling out. The man has money and has long wanted to buy Logan’s 40 acres, however, Logan was never willing to sell. Logan’s property is said to be choice land with waterfalls, etc.
This man figures if he can get Logan prosecuted for murder or at least have his life ruined by these allegations, then at some point, Logan will sell his land, possibly to pay his legal bills. This man figures that ruining Ron Logan will allow this man to somehow acquire Logan’s property. Conclusion: Weak rumor only from one source, which seems to be Ron Logan’s attorney. Impossible to prove until we get evidence but it is interesting. Source: Source close to the families.
Three other posts in this series:
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Alpha Unit
Robert A. Lindsay