Snapchat murder girls, 13 and 14, may have taken chilling photo of cops’ main suspect moments before they were killed
The girls' bodies were found about a quarter-mile from an abandoned railroad bridge
THE photo showing the suspect cops are searching for after two teenage girls were murdered during a hike may have been taken by one of the victims.
Officers say that the unidentified man is the main suspect in the deaths of 14-year-old Liberty German and 13-year-old Abigail Williams, who were found dead near a northern Indiana trail last week.
Cops will not say how they got the grainy photo showing a man dressed in jeans and a blue jacket - or why he’s considered a suspect.
On a Facebook page dedicated to the heartbreaking case, a woman from Indiana wrote: "To my understanding, it wasn't a trail cam (an outdoor motion-sensitive camera used to catch pictures of wildlife) that caught the man's image... it was a video.
"But from where? The girls' phones?
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"I had always thought if it was the trail cam theory, then they'd have pictures of the girls as well, and all others in the area that day and more pictures of the guy."
Another said the angle the picture of the man was taken at is unusual for a trail cam.
She wrote: "If the picture did come from a trail camera, why would someone have it pointed to the bridge? Not an ideal spot for the camera.
"It looks as if he is to one side of the bridge - which would seem like he was walking past another person?"
Abbie Williams. The girls were reported missing around 5.30pm on the day of their hike and found dead a day laterIndiana State Police are looking beyond the town of Delphi for a man photographed near the trail around the time a relative dropped the girls off, Sgt. Kim Riley told WLFI-TV in Lafayette.
Authorities said they are expanding the search for a suspect in the killings of two girls
"We are actually expanding out," Riley said. "We want people who may have seen somebody walking, that may have picked up a hitchhiker, that may have seen a hitchhiker around that afternoon."
"During the course of the investigation, preliminary evidence has led investigators to believe the person, in the distributed photo, is suspected of having participated in the murders of Abigail Williams and Liberty German," said Indiana State Police in a press release.
Police had previously said they considered him a person they wanted to speak with as part of the investigation.
The girls' bodies were found Tuesday, one day after they went missing, about a quarter-mile from an abandoned railroad bridge that's part of a trail system.
The teens had planned to go hiking on the trails during a day off school in Delphi, a community of about 3,000 people some 60 miles northwest of Indianapolis.
Their deaths have been ruled a double-homicide, but authorities have not disclosed how the girls died. Private funeral services were held Sunday.
A task force made up of FBI agents, state police and local law enforcement is investigating.