In the five years since the murders of Abby Williams, 13, and Libby German, 14, near the Monon High Bridge in Carroll County, state police have declined to release any information about the murders, including the manner and cause of death.

Retired Indianapolis Metro Police captain Robert Snow, says it may be a good idea to arm people with some knowledge of the killings, with an aim to get more relevant information.

“The problem with not releasing any information at all is that you can’t get the public’s help,” said Snow, who has no first-hand knowledge of the Delphi investigation and can only speak in the abstract about the case.

But, Snow does know homicide investigations. He’s written two books on cold cases, “Slaughter on North LaSalle” and “Killers in the Family”, the true story of a case that was solved many years after the crime because the detective preserved a minute blood sample.

“The more information the public has, the better chance you’re gonna catch this person. The better the chance somebody’ll come up with a tip to tell you who this person is.”

Snow says it’s always a good practice to hold back some information about a murder investigation to weed out people who, for whatever reason, may falsely confess to the crime. But, in most cases, the more information that’s available, the better the public works for police.

“You don’t know who’s heard what or just knows something that they don’t actually feel is relevant right now until they’ve heard the facts of the case, then they’re like, oh this may6 be the guy who did that,” said Snow.

So far, state police have released a recording of the person whose picture and short video were captured on Libby German’s phone in the moments before the murders, along with the picture and a short video clip. They also released a sketch, then the next year released another composite which was dissimilar.

Without knowing much about the case, Snow was able only to speak in hypotheticals, but said it’s possible that either the killer didn’t leave behind any DNA, or that his DNA is not on file.

“What they’ll have to do is wait ’til this person is arrested for a serious crime. That happens more often than you might think.”

Snow guessed that the person who did it is likely a repeat offender and a sociopath, someone who has no empathy.

“To them the victims are not real. They’re just instruments to use to get their pleasure,” he said.

Snow said that to sociopaths a murder may give them sexual pleasure, whether they molest the victims or not. He said sociopathic killers and serial killers often keep souvenirs of their crimes and that murderers many times, end up slipping up and telling someone.

Anyone with information that could help solve the Delphi murders is asked to call Indiana State Police or the Carroll county Sheriff’s Dept.