A 50-year-old man has been arrested in connection with the 2017 murders of two girls in Delphi, Indiana.
Richard Allen was taken into custody on Friday by authorities, more than five years after the murder of Abby Williams and Libby German.
Mr Allen was booked into Carroll County Jail in Delphi before being moved to a state facility for his safety, according to Fox 59.
It’s unclear what he has been charged with, but law enforcement sources have described the arrest as a “major development”.
Indiana State Police have said they will hold a press conference on Monday.
Soon after the arrest was made, Kelsi German, Libby’s sister, tweeted: “Today is the day.”
“Just know how grateful I am for all of you,” she wrote.
Several suspects have been linked to the high-profile cold case, but this is the first time Mr Allen has been identified in connection to the girls’ murder.
Abby, 13, and Libby, 14, disappeared on 13 February 2017 after going for a hike at Monon High Bridge, an abandoned rail bridge, just outside the town of Delphi.
Libby’s father arrived at the trailhead to pick them up a few hours later, but the girls never showed up.
The two girls’ families reported them missing, and their bodies were found the next day in a wooded area around half a mile off the trail.
Police declared the deaths a double homicide, but have never revealed how the girls were killed.
A Snapchat video taken on Libby’s phone at some time during their hike was released by authorities last year.
In it, a man wearing jeans, a blue jacket, and a hoodie can be seen approaching the girls. A male voice can be heard saying the words “guys” and “down the hill.”
Police believe the recording was made just before the murders took place, and praised the girls for documenting the video as evidence.
The suspect has never been formally identified. He is described as a white male aged between 16 and 40 years old, between 5’ 6” and 5’ 10” in height and weighing between 180 and 200 pounds.
In December last year, Indiana State Police revealed that a fake social media account may have been used to lure the girls on the hike in what’s commonly referred to as catfishing.
“While investigating the murders of Abigail Williams and Liberty German, detectives with the Carroll County Sheriff’s Office and the Indiana State Police have uncovered an online profile named anthony_shots,” Indiana State Police said in a statement.
“The creator of the fictitious profile used this information while communicating with juvenile females to solicit nude images, obtain their addresses, and attempt to meet them.”
Further details emerged in May when the hosts of investigative The Murder Sheet obtained court documents suggesting the girls’ bodies had been staged, and the killer may have taken souvenirs of the slaying.
An FBI search warrant revealed that law enforcement believed the girls lost a lot of blood during their murders with an unspecified weapon and were not killed in the same location where their bodies were discovered.
In August, The Murder Sheet hosts Áine Cain and Kevin Greenlee told The Independent they received a tip that police were searching the river in connection with the murder case.
The pair took photos of 12 police officers conducting a search of the Wabash River roughly 35 miles east of Delphi with buckets, shovels, and what looked like metal detectors.
