‘I found them’ – Testimony describes discovery of murdered Delphi teens

DELPHI — Saturday was an abbreviated and emotional second day of hearings in the Delphi double murder trial.

Jurors heard testimony from the former Delphi police chief and two people who were searching for Abby Williams and Libby German in 2017.

Saturday’s session focused on initial reports about the day the girls went missing and efforts to find them.

Steve Mullin, who is the current investigator for the DA’s office and was Delphi police chief in February 2017, described his timeline of the events of February 13.

“I thought the girls would come home. I didn’t think anything bad would happen,” Steve Mullin said.

Mullin said he was off duty when he heard police scanner traffic that the girls were missing.

He drove to the Carroll County dispatch office and stayed there the rest of the night.

Mullin said police ended their search around 2 a.m.

Mullin spent time explaining the geography of the trails and surrounding areas so the jury could better understand. He circled different locations on a map that the prosecution thought the jury would want to know about.

Delphi resident Jake Johns then took the stand and testified that he found Libby’s shirt while searching an area near the river bank below the Monon High Bridge on February 14 . Johns said he was searching with another Delphi resident when they noticed Libby’s tie-dye shirt in the water.

Johns said the water was calm that day, but it was too deep and they didn’t try to cross to look in the area on the other side of Deer Creek.

The last witness on the stand was Pat Brown. He too is a Delphi resident and a friend of Libby’s grandparents. In emotional testimony, he described the search for the girls on February 13 and 14.

After receiving a phone call, he said he headed to an area near the high bridge, eventually discovering the bodies.

When describing the moments he met Abby and Libby, he started crying and had to pause to compose himself before saying “We found them.”

He went on to say that he initially thought they were mannequins.

Brown said he called the police and had to turn his back on the bodies while waiting for them to arrive.

The jury asked some questions, including clarification about Brown’s phone provider on the day he called from the area where the bodies were found, and a timeline for when police would arrive.

The jurors were dismissed around 11:35 a.m. and will return to court Monday at 9 a.m.

This is a developing story, this article will be updated.