Cops probe link between Snapchat killing of two teenage girls and unsolved double murder of two cousins
The unsolved 2012 murders of cousins Lyric Cook, 10, and Elizabeth Collins, 8, are eerily similar to the girls' recent deaths
COPS hunting the so-called "Snapchat killer" of two teens near an old railway bridge are investigating chilling similarities to an unsolved 2012 double murder.
Abigail Williams, 13, and Liberty German, 14, were murdered in the woods after a relative dropped them off to walk the Delphi Historic Trails last month.
The case has sent shockwaves through the community and left residents - who have raised more than £80,000 in reward money - terrified after photos and a voice recording of the prime suspect was found on one of the girls’ phones.
It has also left residents of Delphi, Indiana, concerned about eerie parallels with the notorious double murder of two cousins several years previously.
Lyric Cook, 10, and her eight-year-old cousin Elizabeth Collins were murdered hundreds of kilometres away in Indiana.
But similarities between the cases have proven too compelling for investigators to dismiss as coincidence.
Each set of girls were alone on nature trails when they were kidnapped, murdered and left in the woods on the 13th day of the month.
Lyric and Elizabeth vanished on July 13, 2012, while riding their bicycles on a trail in their hometown of Evansdale.
MOST READ IN NEWS
A pair of hunters came across their remains in woodland at Seven Bridges Park in Bremer County in December that year.
Their bodies were too decomposed to determine how they had been killed or whether they had been sexually assaulted.
After hearing about the Delphi murders, Elizabeth’s father Drew Collins called detectives working on his daughters' case to make sure it was on their radar. It was.
"I wanted to make sure they were looking at it and they were already ten steps ahead of me, looking at it. They contacted Indiana State Police," Mr Collins told .
"My heart just breaks for the families. I don’t know what they are going through. I know what I went through and our family went through. It is just very hard, it doesn’t get easier."
Abigail and Liberty were last seen alive at about 1pm on February 13 when they were dropped off near Monon High Bridge by a relative.
At 2.07pm, Liberty uploaded at least two photographs to Snapchat, including one showing Abigail walking along the rickety old bridge.
There has been speculation that a person can been seen hiding in the shadows behind a tree in the photographs. Another photo shows an unidentifiable man following them.
The girls' bodies were found the following day, on Valentine's Day, in a wooded area near Deer Creek, 18m from the water’s edge, around a kilometre from where they were originally dropped off.
In audio recovered, a man’s voice can be heard saying "down the hill" but it is not clear whether it belongs to the man on the footage or an unseen accomplice.
Investigators have called Liberty a "hero" for having the presence of mind to record the man on video.
We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us at [email protected] or call 0207 782 4368.