DELPHI, Ind. – For the first week or so Kelsi German was at Ball State University, adjusting to life as a freshman on a Muncie campus with about seven times as many students as there were in her hometown, she did her best to keep her last name to herself.

Back home in Delphi, everyone had lived through the brutal news and constant reminders about how Libby German and Abby Williams, a pair of eighth-graders had been found murdered on Feb. 14, 2017, a day after they spent a school holiday on a popular hiking trail on the outskirts of town, about 20 miles northeast of Lafayette. Everyone in a town of 2,877 people seemed to have a connection, in some way.

Even then, German said, people she grew up around tended to be careful around her, not always sure what to say, even 19 months into the unsolved search for the killer of her sister and her friend. What, she wondered, would it be like to pile that into freshmen orientation at Ball State?

“I didn't want that to overpower how people thought of me or who wanted to be my friend because I was the sister of a murder victim,” German said. “Eventually, I opened up. I’m not sure I can keep quiet about this, at this point.”

Less than a month into her college career, she gave a speech in Comm 210, a class called Fundamentals of Public Speaking, about her sister and about Abby, who would have been sophomores at Delphi Community High School this semester. About how the image of a man walking across the abandoned Monon High Bridge and a recording of a man’s voice saying, “Down the hill” – each found on Libby’s phone – made national news. About how hundreds of investigators from two dozen local, state and federal agencies planted themselves in Delphi for months trying to track a suspect. About how, to this day, police have made no arrests.

And about how, more than a year after Abby and Libby were killed, German made herself a social media contact for the case, doing everything from guiding would-be tipsters to the proper authorities to posting a photo of the tattoo she got on her back in the spring, spelling out Libby’s name, followed by: “I can’t see you, but I can feel you.”

“Anything to keep the story alive,” German said.

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On Saturday, she’ll come home for the second annual Abby and Libby Celebration of Life, a day of games, raffles and concerts at the Delphi Community High School football field to raise money for a softball complex being built in the girls’ honor.

Q: You've got school going on right now. How's that transition been for you?

German: At first it was kind of difficult when you go from being with your family and friends all the time and then going to something completely new, it's really hard, of course. But I'm trying to find the good in it. I'm advocating here, and I've put out fliers in Muncie, and I'm starting a blog. So, I'm using my new resources here to help me not only cope but to advocate for the girls, too.

Q: What was it like coming from Delphi where people were really immersed in what happened to Abby and Libby to a place that was away from home – even just an hour and a half away?

German: To be honest, when I came here I wasn't going to tell anyone. … And then I kind of started to notice that when I would wear my Abby and Libby T-shirt sometimes, nobody really said anything. So, I started asking people if they had heard of Delphi. Or somebody would ask me where I'm from, and they wouldn't know where Delphi was. And I noticed not very many people here watch the news, and not very many people here knew about it, so that's kind of why I started to tell people about it.

Q: When you say that you were worried about what kind of reaction they'd have, did you think it was going to be a good reaction, bad reaction, or a reaction where they just wanted to be around you for the wrong reasons – or be away from you for the wrong reasons?

German: I guess it's a little of all of it. At first, I was worried that people would either want to be my friend or not want to be my friend based on it. And then it was I was afraid they would guard my feelings. Because at home, what people would do is they wouldn't know what to say to me, so they wouldn't talk to me. So, I think I was afraid of that happening, of people not wanting to talk to me because of it.

Q: Did you find that in Delphi?

German: It wasn't that they were avoiding me, it was that when they would talk to me, they weren't sure what they could and couldn't say. So, when they would talk to me they would kind of tiptoe around it, but you'd know they wanted to ask you how you were doing, but they wouldn't because they didn't know what they could say. … But I think it's gotten a lot better.

Q: You started your Twitter feed – @libertyg_sister – dedicated to the case in May. What was the purpose there?

German: My family, we all went to CrimeCon (a convention in May in Nashville), which was a super-cool experience. We'd never heard of it before. And I met Michelle Cruz, whose sister was the last victim of the Golden State Killer. Michelle played a really big part in the social media campaign of the Golden State Killer, of trying to find him and seek out who he was. And we had a lot in common because Michelle's sister died and then my sister died, so you don't meet a lot of people whose sisters are murdered, so we kind of grew a connection. And through her, I learned a lot of stuff that we needed to do differently.

So, I started doing podcasts and getting into social media. And when we were talking, we said one of the big problems is that people my age don't watch the news or read news articles as often as they listen to podcasts or watch YouTube or go through social media. My goal was to reach more people my age or even like a little bit older who don't watch that kind of stuff and don't hear about it, so that maybe I could reach that one person who needs to hear about it.

Q: Have you seen some results from that?

German: I haven't reached the amount of people I was hoping I would have reached by now, but I have reached so many people who needed to talk to me. There's so many more people who are wanting to get involved in the case now that I think it's reaching more people. And I am reaching more high schoolers and more college students because of it. What I've done more than anything, though, is I've met people who are going through the same things I'm going through, so I'm helping people more than anything else really.

Q: Did that surprise you to meet so many people in similar situations?

German: Yeah. When you go through it, you think that you're alone and that not very many people go through this. But when I started my Twitter and Instagram accounts, I met more people who are victims' family members than I ever thought I would meet. I've met hundreds of people who have gone through similar circumstances, or maybe not even similar, but go along the same lines of what's happened.

Q: Sounds as if you’re putting a lot into it. How are you holding up?

German: I'm a lot better than I was a year ago, but it doesn't really get any easier. I'm doing better, which is good.

Q: I saw that you talked a little bit on one of your posts about rumors. Are you getting a lot of that from people who, it seems, have put a lot into following the case, too?

German: Oh, yeah. There's plenty of rumors. I think the newest one is that I'm pregnant and married, and my dad is living with me. But I'm at college. And I'm not married. And I'm not pregnant. But I've had so many that I've had to squash that it's, like, insane. They come up with the craziest things.

Q: Why do you think that is?

German: I try to believe that they're all trying to do good, but I think that since there hasn't really been any updates or anything, they're trying to come up with something to talk about so that people will still talk about the case. But the only thing they can think of is to make something up because nothing's coming out, so that's what they're doing.

Q: I know you said you’re looking forward to the weekend being home. Do you have any concerns, too?

German: Oh, yeah. Well, I'm really looking forward to all of the activities we have. … But as for what I'm dreading, I'm scared that people are going to bombard me with questions, because I'm doing a lot of stuff now for the case, and they keep asking me instead of everybody else because I'm the one everybody sees now. I think I hate really big crowds because I look at everybody in the crowd and try to find the guy. So, I guess I'm scared that I'm going to waste the day looking for him and not enjoy it. But actually, I'm really excited for the day in general. It's going to be a great weekend.

Q: But you do go around thinking that you're going to see this guy at any minute?

German: Oh, yeah.

Q: That's always been the thing investigators say – that guy from the High Bridge is out there, and he's going to make a misstep.

German: Mm-hmm. Even in Muncie, it feels super safe here, but I'll be walking to class, and I'm, like, "What if he's walking right next to me, and I don't even notice that he's right there?" Because he could be right next to me, because I don't know who he is. But I do that pretty much everywhere I go.

Q: Do you think that's going to be a forever thing, or do you think this is going to get solved?

German: I think it's going to get solved. But thinking he could be right there someday, that’s what's going to happen until then.

IF YOU GO: The second annual Abby and Libby Celebration of Life will be 11 a.m.-8:30 p.m. at the Delphi Community High School football field, 301 Armory Road in Delphi. The event includes games, raffles and music from Levi Riggs, Karli Edging, Johnny Bhive and Grace Scott Band. Admission is $2. Proceeds will to the Libby and Abby Softball Park Fund.

ABOUT THE INVESTIGATION AND THE SUSPECT: Police continue to look for a white male between 5-foot-6 and 5-foot-10, weighing 180 to 200 pounds, with reddish brown hair. The description was taken from images on Libby German’s cellphone of a man walking across Monon High Bridge that day – wearing blue jeans, a blue jacket and a hat – and from composite done by an FBI sketch artist, based on information from a witness who saw a man fitting that description.

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

► Anyone with information about the case may call the Delphi Homicide Investigation Tip Line at 844-459-5786; the Indiana State Police at 800-382-7537; the Carroll County Sheriff’s Department at 765-564-2413; or by email to Abbyandlibbytip@cacoshrf.com.

► Donations to the Libby and Abby Softball Park Fund may be made in care of the Carroll County Community Foundation, P.O. Box 538, Delphi, 46923. Or online at: www.cfcarroll.org.

Reach Dave Bangert at 765-420-5258 or at dbangert@jconline.com. Follow on Twitter: @davebangert.