Down the Hill: My Descent into the Double Murder in Delphi by Susan Hendricks is a nonfiction book about the murders of two young girls in Delphi, Indiana. On February 13, 2017, it was a day that began like all others in the Williams and Germans household. Thirteen year old Abby Williams and fourteen year old Libby German are best friends and decided to spend their day off from school together.
After spending some time together, they decided to explore the popular hiking trails near the Monon High Bridge that is a few minutes drive from Libby’s home. Libby asked her older sister, Kelsi, to drop them off before heading out for her day. Kelsi drops them off at the beginning of the trail and waved before driving off. Little did she know that was the last time Kelsi would see them alive again.
Little less than 24 hours later, the bodies of the two teenagers are found together near the north bank of Deer Creek. It was nearly a mile away from where they were last seen together. The police have very littles clues to go on and the physical evidence is limited. The investigators did have snippets of a visual and audio encounter with a stranger that occurred just hours before their disappearance. The encounter was unsettling enough to the girls that they made a recording on Libby’s cellphone as it unfolded. It has been years since the murders occurred, and the audio and video recordings have been released to the public. The police released two different composite sketches of the suspect. There were no definite leads until finally in October 2022, a suspect was identified, arrested, and a trial date was set.
The book talks about the impact of the crime on the families, neighbors, and community. It was an interesting read to learn the details but also reading about the reactions of the family and how they were dealing with each development. The book was a quick and easy read but I wish it had gone into details about the trial. The trial was scheduled to take place after the book was published but I would have preferred if they had waited to include details from the trial. It felt a bit incomplete to hear all the facts and read about the community’s reaction but not read about the outcome of the trial.
There were times that the author talked to experts and went in a different direction than the previous chapters or talked about her personal feelings and life. I felt like she was trying to add more depth to the crime but, at times it seemed like fluff that was irrelevant to the actual story about the two young victims. In one chapter she spoke to different experts to get their opinion on the arrest but it just seemed like a recap of what was discussed earlier. If you are a true crime fan or have an interest in the case, I think you might enjoy this book.
