Scary Details About Daniel Nations, The Sex Offender Named A 'Person Of Interest' In Murders Of Delphi Teens Abby Williams & Libby German
He's known as the "Hatchet Man" and might be linked to another murder as well.
It's been 8 months since 14-year-old Liberty German and 13-year-old Abigail Williams were murdered during a hike near the Mono High Bridge in Delphi, Indiana.
And after looking for clues in the girls' photos and voice recordings found on Liberty's phone, investigating more then 24,000 tips, interviewing 500 people about the case, police have finally named a "person of interest" and he's in custody.
Earlier this week, a 31-year-old man named Daniel Nations was arrested Sept. 24 on a charge of weapons possession by a previous offender, but police say he was suspected in several menacing complaints in the Colorado Springs area. Police suspect that he was the man who threatened mountain bikers on a hiking trail with a hatchet.
Also, few weeks ago, a bicyclist named Tim Watkins was shot while riding his bike on a popular trail in El Paso County, Colorado near the same trail Nations is suspected of threatening people at.
Police are not saying if he's connected to Watkins murder but did say they consider him a person of interest in the murder of Libby German and Abby Williams in Delphi.
As many online crime slueths on Facebook and other chat forums have indicated, he bears an uncanny resemblance to the sketch police released after the girls were killed.
His personal history is troubling, to put it mildly. For starters, Nations is a convicted sex offender. He was convicted in 2007 in South Carolina, but the details surrounding that arrest are unclear. He plead guilty to domestic battery in front of a child in 2016 and took a plea for public indecency that same year. There's also a warrant out for his arrest on drug- and vehicle-related charges.
When he was arrested in Colorado, he was driving a red Chevrolet Prizm with expired Indiana license plates.
His car was how he was linked to the crimes on the Colorado hiking trails, including the incident with the hatchet. When arrested, he admitted to having a hatchet in his car.
A photo of his car was taken by a friend who was searching for Watkins before his body was found. The biker went missing on Sept. 14 and was found dead a few days later.
The friend said he thought it was strange that the car drove by the search group multiple times.
When Nations was first stopped by police, he had his wife and two kids in the backseat. He told officers that he had a hatchet in his car, but he didn't harass or threaten anyone. Police also found a .22 caliber rifle in the car, which is the same caliber used in Watkins' murder.
"[The hatchet] was one of the key pieces, and it's something that came in over and over from different complainants in the menacing cases we saw up in Monument and the Mount Herman road areas," said Jacqueline Kirby with the El Paso County Sheriff's Office. "When you've got a number of people corroborating each other’s stories without their knowledge, that's something we really have to take very seriously and we do."
Though police are looking into the Nations for multiple crimes — and other charges are pending — they won't comment on if they are connected.
"Even though some of the evidence may seem to support the same person may be responsible for both, law enforcement doesn't have the luxury of speculation and using that for probable cause and charges, so we have to investigate," Kirby said.
Meanwhile, in Indiana, detectives investigating the murder of Liberty and Abigail told reporters at CBS 4 in Indianapolis that they are working to get DNA samples and an alibi from Nations for the Delphi case.
The El Paso County Sheriff spokesman told KCNC-TV that there are “many similarities” between the cases they are investigating and the February deaths of Libby German and Abby Williams in Delphi, but would not elaborate because Indiana State Police have asked them to not release other details to the public.
“They have asked us not to speak on their case. So I’m not at liberty to elaborate on anything that’s related to what happened in Indiana.”
Emily Blackwood is an editor at YourTango who covers pop culture, true crime, dating, relationships and everything in between. Every Wednesday at 10:20 p.m. you can ask her any and all questions about self-love, dating, and relationships LIVE on YourTango’s Facebook page. You can follow her on Instagram (@blackw00d) and Twitter (@emztweetz).