Police May Have a Break in Case of 2 Slain Girls

Indiana police investigating link after arrest in Colorado
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 28, 2017 8:20 AM CDT
Police May Have a Break in Case of 2 Slain Girls
Grandparents of victim Libby German, Becky Patty, left, and her husband Mike Patty, speak during a news conference in March.   (J. Kyle Keener/The Pharos-Tribune via AP)

Police in Indiana are urging caution about leaping to conclusions, but they're investigating whether a man arrested in Colorado could be linked to the murder of two eighth-grade girls earlier this year. Daniel Nations, 31, a registered sex offender, is in custody in El Paso County, reports ABC News. Authorities there arrested him on charges of threatening hikers with an ax on a local hiking trail. Two weeks ago, a male bicyclist was fatally shot on the trail, but police are not saying whether Nations is a suspect in that case, reports CBS4. Nations bears a general resemblance to the image of the suspect in the murders of Liberty German, 14, and Abigail Williams, 13, whose bodies were found by a hiking trail in Delphi, Indiana, in February.

"We are aware of the arrest of the person in Colorado and are investigating to see if he could be a suspect in the Delphi double murder investigation," says a statement from the Indiana State Police. It adds that it has looked at more than 1,000 such photos already and that so far no evidence links Nations to the killings. Police in Colorado say they've been asked by their counterparts in Indiana not to release more information. "Our family is hoping and praying that 'God's got this' and that today is finally the day," says Anna Williams, mother of Abigail. (One of the girls recorded audio of a man saying, "Down the hill.")

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