UPDATE: Indiana State Police have released a statement clarifying information about a newly-released sketch of a man suspected of killing two teenage girls in 2017 indicating the man in the sketch released Monday is not the same man depicted in an earlier sketch.
The statement Wednesday said that the sketch police released Monday of a youthful-appearing man "more accurately represents the person" they believe killed 14-year-old Liberty German and 13-year-old Abigail Williams in February 2017.
Their statement says a composite sketch released in July 2017 of a middle-aged man was developed early in their investigation but the man it depicts "is not presently a person of interest in this investigation."
Police add that the new sketch is "representative of the face of the person captured" in video taken from German's cellphone of a man walking on an abandoned railroad bridge.
ORIGINAL POST:
DELPHI, Ind. (AP) — A newly released sketch of a man suspected of killing two Indiana teenagers was created only days after the girls' 2017 slayings, but authorities aren't saying why they held onto it for more than two years.
Indiana State Police initially released a composite sketch five months after the February 2017 killings of 14-year-old Liberty German and 13-year-old Abigail Williams depicting a white man with a prominent nose and wearing a goatee, cap and hooded sweater. The sketch released Monday shows a clean-shaven, younger-looking man with significantly different facial features.
Master Trooper Taylor Bryant, the state police sketch artist who made the image released this week, told The Indianapolis Star on Monday that he drew it three days after the girls' bodies were found in a wooded area where they had been hiking near their northern Indiana hometown of Delphi.
Police spokesman Sgt. Kim Riley declined to answer any questions Wednesday about the sketch, saying he had been instructed "to make no comment on that."
Police Superintendent Doug Carter said at a Monday briefing where video and new audio of the suspect was also released that "new information and intelligence" on the investigation into the unsolved slayings leads police to believe the sketch depicts the killer.
The brief video released Monday shows the man walking along an abandoned railroad bridge the girls had visited while out hiking on the day they were slain.
Their bodies were found the next day in a wooded area about a quarter-mile from that bridge near their hometown of Delphi, about 60 miles (95 kilometers) northwest of Indianapolis.
Authorities haven't said how German and Williams were killed and have released few details about what their investigation has uncovered.
The video released Monday, as well as a longer audio clip that police said captures the suspect saying "guys, down the hill," came from German's cellphone. Within days of the slayings, police released two grainy photos of the suspect on the same bridge and a shorter audio cut , all taken from German's cellphone.
Authorities have hailed her as a hero for recording potentially crucial evidence before she was killed.
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