First new lead in Delphi murders case in two years
Plus, Fairfield Twp. to trustee: Resign. Residents get state to take one more look at Wabash Twp. firefighter money. WL school bd deals with more blowback. Ron Campbell retires from Lafayette council
Police late Monday released the first new lead in two years in the 2017 murders of Delphi teens Abby Williams and Liberty German, asking for help from anyone who might have been in touch with someone at that time with the online profile “anthony_shots.”
According to an Indiana State Police release, ISP and Carroll County detectives uncovered the online profile that was used from 2016 to 2017 on Snapchat, Instagram and other social media apps.
The profile used photos of a male model and portrayed itself as extremely wealthy and owning numerous sports cars, police said. Police report the person behind the profile used it to communicate with young girls, attempt to get them to send nude photos, obtain their addresses and try to meet with them.
Abby and Libby, eighth-graders at Delphi Community School, were killed while hiking a community trail just outside Delphi, about 20 miles northeast of Lafayette. The case remains unsolved, even with photos, video and audio of a man approaching on the Monon High Bridge, as seen and heard on Libby’s cellphone.
Sgt. Jeremy Piers, public information officer at ISP’s Lafayette post, said detectives identified the model in the pictures and say he is not a person of interest in the case.
He said detectives are looking for anyone who communicated with, met or attempted to meet a person with the profile anthony_shots. He said police are looking for details about the social platform and accounts that were used, saved images or conversations.
To contact police on this: abbyandlibbytip@cacoshrf.com or 765-822-3535.
ABOUT THE DELPHI MURDER CASE
WHAT HAPPENED: Abby Williams and Libby German were dropped off to hike during a day off from school on the Monon High Bridge trail, a trail near Delphi, on Feb. 13, 2017. When they didn’t arrive to meet their ride at the trailhead that afternoon, police and community volunteers searched the trail and the surrounding are. A search party found the girls the next day, about a half-mile up Deer Creek from the abandoned Monon High Bridge rail trestle. Police have not charged anyone in the murders.
THE SUSPECT: In April 2019, Indiana State Police released a new composite photo of the suspect, putting his age in his mid-20s to mid-30s. Images and video on Libby German’s cellphone show a man walking across Monon High Bridge that day, wearing blue jeans, a blue jacket and a hat. Police also released a recording, taken from Libby’s phone, of a man saying, “Guys, down the hill.”
FOR MORE ON THE INVESTIGATION: The Indiana State Police maintains a site with composite sketches, audio and video files, along with reward information, in the 2017 murders of Abby Williams and Libby German. Go to: https://www.in.gov/isp/delphi.htm
TIPS: Anyone with information about the case is encouraged to send tips to: abbyandlibbytip@cacoshrf.com. Tips also may go to the Delphi Homicide Investigation Tip Line at 844-459-5786; the Indiana State Police at 800-382-7537; or the Carroll County Sheriff’s Department at 765-564-2413.
A CALL TO RESIGN, BUDGET DO-OVERS … JUST ANOTHER MONDAY IN A TOUR OF TOWNSHIPS
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before … but it was quite a day Monday for two township trustees in Tippecanoe County. (Can you guess which ones?)
How about let’s start …
IN FAIRFIELD TOWNSHIP: Part I of III … Township board members formally asked Trustee Taletha Coles to resign Monday.
Not that she was there to hear it or witness the vote Monday morning at the Plumbers and Steamfitters Local 157 office in Lafayette, where township board members continued to meet after being locked out of the township offices on Wabash Avenue.
And not that township board members believe it will make much of a difference in a feud that has been brewing since the early months of Coles’ term in 2019.
Board member Rocky Hession, who already plans to challenge Coles in the May Democratic primary if she runs again in 2022, said the board discussed the request more than a year ago but backed off. On Monday, he said it was time to make it formal and make it public.
In their resolution, board members accused Coles of unnecessary spending and ignoring basic functions of the position.
“Nothing has gotten better, everything has gotten worse,” Hession said.
“This is just a piece of paper, and she won’t respect it, like everything else she’s done,” Perry Schnarr, another board member, said.
Coles did not immediately respond for comment.
Part II … Barring Coles’ exit, the Fairfield Township Board continued to try to outflank the trustee, who refused to submit a 2021 budget that had substantial board-approved/trustee-loathed cuts. The upshot then: Because Coles didn’t send the board’s budget to state officials, the spending plan reverted to totals from the previous year, and her office had a $148,225 rainy day fund the board had tried to cut to zero. Coles told board members in two contentious meetings in October that she’d do the same thing again for the 2022 budget.
Since then, the board negotiated a work-around with the state’s Department of Local Government Finance, which allowed them a last-look at the budget. That happened Monday, with the board trimming the rainy day budget to zero, along with a handful of other cuts in the $840,000 budget. The main target was the rainy day fund, which board members accused Coles of using like a blank check with little oversight and sparse receipts. (Coles’ response has been that the board has just been trying to sabotage her by meddling in day-to-day operations that should be her domain alone.)
And Part III … In one final turn Monday, Luke Britt, Indiana’s public access counselor, issued an opinion that Coles violated access to public records when she refused to let the media look at itemized records of rainy day fund spending, credit card receipts and township assistance funds. The township board has been asking for similar things from Coles for months, but the opinion came after a formal complaint from the Journal & Courier.
Britt called out Coles for demanding that requests come on a “proper state form” and then providing what appeared to be an Indiana Alcohol and Tobacco Commission form – “with that agency’s address whited out and ‘FAIRFIELD’ stamped where the prior address was located.” (Britt wrote: “Notably, the acronym ATC still appeared on the form.”)
He also said that instead of laying out why she declined to share the public documents, “Coles chose to take the opportunity to lodge grievances” about the media and her township board.
“They are trying to set me up for political gains and to sell papers,” Coles wrote to Britt’s office, in a note that laid out a number of other claims she’s made in the past year about being harassed by her board and by the media.
Britt suggested in his opinion – one that is advisory, meant to clear up public record disputes but carries no legal teeth – that Coles re-familiarize herself with state laws.
If those documents are going to sell papers, Coles hasn’t made the first move. “To date, the newspaper has not received access to the financial records we’ve sought, and we will pursue other means to impress upon the trustee that the public has a right to know the details surrounding publicly funded expenditures,” Deanna Watson, J&C executive editor, said.
Which takes us over to see what happened …
IN WABASH TOWNSHIP: Trustee Jennifer Teising, who also recently found herself sideways with one of Britt’s opinions on ignoring public records requests (details in the tweet/link below), will have to face another state oversight branch this month.
The Department of Local Government Finance announced a hearing for 1 p.m. Dec. 17, after Wabash Township residents petitioned that parts of the approved 2022 budget were too low.
Eric Hoppenjans, a Wabash Township resident, was among those who carried petitions that claimed the next budget shorts the Wabash Township Fire Department, after the trustee laid off the three remaining firefighters in late-June. Teising, who controls the hiring of firefighters, has said she’s open to a paid firefighting staff, but not without a long-term plan to fund it first. The fight that ensued is one reason there were dozens of calls, including from her board and local state lawmakers, for Teising to resign.
Hoppenjans said the property owners aren’t asking to raise taxes. They just want to use remaining money from the $440,000 emergency loan the township had in 2021 – and not used once firefighters were let go – and a $500,000 fund transfer the board approved this year to bring firefighters back.
“I understand, though, that just because the funding would be in the 2022 budget, it does not mean that our trustee has to spend the funds,” Hoppenjans said. “However, it would send a strong message to her that the township deserves the fire protection they have already paid for.”
Teising did not immediately respond to messages for comment.
Angel Valentin, township board president, said he would back the move if it meant getting the firefighters back on the job.
“That’s what we’re talking about here,” Valentin said. “It’s always been about public safety.”
The state hearing is scheduled days after Teising’s two-day bench trial on 21 felony counts of theft, tied to accusations that she collected her trustee paychecks despite living outside Wabash Township for parts of 2020 and 2021 after selling her West Lafayette home. The trial begins Monday, Dec. 13.
IF YOU GO: The DLGF meeting on the Wabash Township budget will be 1 p.m. Dec. 17 via Microsoft Teams. Taxpayers who want to testify must submit a request to David Marusarz, the agency’s deputy general counsel, at dmarusarz@dlgf.in.gov by 5 p.m. Dec. 16. Details to sign in will be available here: www.in.gov/dlgf/understanding-your-tax-bill/dlgf-public-hearings.
FIRST MONDAYS, MAN …: I’m still trying to catch my breath – not to mention, simply catch up – from running around Monday. The first Monday of the month means a ton of public meetings in every corner of the community. I didn’t get to them all. But here are a few quick scenes from several. (I’ll have to catch up with the rest soon.)
The West Lafayette City Council tabled what looks like will be a controversial proposal to ban unlicensed therapists from practicing what’s known as conversion therapy on anyone under the age of 18. Here’s a look at what’s behind a measure that filled the city hall meeting room Monday night. Also, city council members stood firm on their previous votes, rejecting an attempt to override Mayor John Dennis’ veto of a proposed ban on the city’s use of facial recognition software. The council voted for the ban on a 5-4 vote in November. It needed a 6-3 vote to override the veto.
Retiring Lafayette City Council members Ron Campbell, left, and Lon Heide were grand marshals of Saturday’s Lafayette Christmas Parade. (Photo: Dave Bangert)
The Lafayette City Council gave Ron Campbell a standing ovation just before he called to adjourn Monday’s meeting. Campbell, who has been on the council a record 50 years, announced that he would step down at the end of the year, after moving out of the council’s 2nd District. (Here’s a story from a conversation with Campbell as he revealed that he planned to retire.) Democrats will have to find a replacement to round out the remaining two years I his term. He’s the second city council member is as many months to retire, after Lon Heide did after 18 years on the council in November. Mayor Tony Roswarski called Campbell, a retired teacher and principal at Tecumseh Junior High School and Lafayette Jefferson High School, a mentor to him, dating back to his school days. “I’m sure those times I ended up in your office, as the assistant principal, you didn’t dream that things were going to turn out like this – neither did my parents or anybody else, so don’t feel bad,” Roswarski said at the close of Monday’s meeting. “But the number of lives that you’ve touched through your teaching, your coaching, your involvement in the community really is immeasurable. You are an icon.”
(Photo: Dave Bangert)
The West Lafayette school board stood firm on plans laid out in June to keep the names of its superintendent candidates confidential, despite a full room in the old Happy Hollow Elementary split on how the search to replace former Superintendent Rocky Killion is playing out. The board published a proposed contract Friday, meaning it is down to one finalist. The school board set a 5 p.m. Dec. 13 public hearing at the former Happy Hollow Elementary, 1200 N. Salisbury St., to take comments on the contract. The board would have to wait seven days after that to vote on the contract. By state law, the board can wait until that final vote – in this case, tentatively set for Dec. 20 at Happy Hollow – to name its finalist. All that comes with criticism in recent weeks that the board hasn’t been transparent by revealing names of finalists and asking them to participate in community forums. (Here’s a look at how that’s gone in recent days.) Parents and teachers who spoke were split on the board’s performance. There were accusations that the board was belittling Yue Yin, with several in the audience holding up signs defending her and West Side parent Erin Moon-Walker suggesting the board member’s treatment was racist. During the meeting, Yin questioned the search process, as she has in recent weeks, saying she’d wanted it to be more open to the public, too. After the meeting, Yin declined to comment after the meeting about whether she agreed with some of the people who had spoken on her behalf. Board President Alan Karpick said the board had followed the process board members laid out shortly after Killion retired in June. Asked about the accusations, Karpick said: “I heard everything that was said tonight.”
PURDUE ‘DEEPLY GRATEFUL’ CHIANG STICKING AROUND
A day after Mung Chiang, Purdue’s engineering dean and vice president of strategic initiatives, told the University of South Carolina he no longer wanted to be considered for job – after he’d been identified as that school’s top pick – Purdue hinted that it wasn’t the first time Chiang had been targeted for a top spot at another university.
Chiang cited “various family considerations” when he passed on the offer, expected to come this week, according to the Post and Courier newspaper, citing a statement released by the University of South Carolina. In that statement, Chiang said that “the best course of action at this time is for me to focus on family and on current responsibilities at my home institution and not on other leadership opportunities.”
The University of South Carolina has eight campuses and roughly 52,000 students.
In West Lafayette, where President Mitch Daniels has lauded Chiang as a star, Purdue welcomed the decision.
“Mung Chiang is one of the nation’s most respected minds and sought after academic leaders,” Tim Doty, a Purdue spokesman, said. “We are deeply grateful that he and his family, not for the first time, have chosen to decline a prestigious presidency and remain with us.”
Chiang said Monday that he didn’t have more to add to that.
Purdue officials did not say whether they had been involved in persuading Chiang to stay with incentives, financial or otherwise.
YOUR NO. 1 BOILERMAKERS: Everyone this side of Mackey Arena knew this news was coming Monday. It was fun to watch the biggest Purdue fans groan on social media as they refreshed websites to see the moment Purdue became No. 1 in men’s basketball.
On Friday, just before the Boilers played Iowa to solidify the pending No. 1 slot, Purdue trustees asked Ethan Braden, vice president of marketing, about whether he was seeing any kick from having a top-ranked team and other ranked teams. How was that working for his part of the university?
“Short of jumping on the table and saying, ‘It’s good to be a Boilermaker,’ or ‘How ‘bout them Boilermakers’?” Braden asked.
“We’re able to tell the students’ stories, the athletes’ stories, we’re able to capitalize with different advertising with the No. 1 basketball team in the nation right now,” Braden said. “You see the logo on the floor, but you also see very customized TV and social coming along with that. A few years ago, down the road, you would have seen what we call the ‘Butler effect.’ And I think we’re living it, too, across multiple sports on a different stage, a bigger stage.”
The Butler effect came after the Bulldogs went to the national championship final game in 2010 and 2011. Purdue, finally with a No. 1 ranking, is looking to go to the Final Four for the first time since 1980.
Thanks for subscribing to Based in Lafayette. Have idea for upcoming editions? Send them to me: davebangert1@gmail.com. For news during the day, follow on Twitter: @davebangert.
Your articles on the Fairfield and Wabash Trustees mentioned that both have run afoul of the State Public Access counselor recently for failing to provided information to the public. I think it should also be pointed out that WLCSC administration has also recently been called out by the Public Access Counselor for withholding information. https://www.purdueexponent.org/city_state/article_44bad598-e3f3-11eb-a743-e7390f1ce1db.html
Mr. Bangert, I am not sure we were at the same WLCSC meeting last night. I saw you there, but we experienced things differently. The comments from parents and teachers were not evenly split. There were a handful of WLEA reps for the board and dozens of parents against. TWO WLEA union representatives, the same WLEA that created the RDP PAC that infused so much contention into the last school board election, spoke in favor of the board's actions. Past WLEA president Mrs. Forbes delivered chilling remarks about how we need to give up freedoms in order to have security. FOUR parents spoke out against board actions. The point was not that we want to know names. The point was that we want to know SOMETHING! Any information at all would be an improvement. Board VP Karen Springer went on at length about all of the things the board has done in the superintendent search. It was all news to me, and I've been following things closely. The Superintendent Search section on the WLCSC website laid dormant since September. They updated it AN HOUR before the board meeting.
Finally, I am put off by your questioning whether Dr. Yin organized the presence of community members at the meeting. We, the people, are perfectly capable of organizing ourselves. Did you ask Mr. Karpick whether he organized the presence of WLEA representatives to support him? If I were a betting man, I'd bet on that.