4K Monon High Bridge Trail | November 2022 | Delphi Indiana
#delphi #abbyandlibby #mononbridge
Surreal walk from the parking area to the Monon High Bridge in Delphi, Indiana. Just 3/4 mile. Rest in peace Abby & Libby!
Update Note: the old wooden trusses of the Monon High Bridge were removed just weeks after this was filmed.
The Monon High Bridge is an abandoned railway bridge that hasn’t been used as such since the 1980’s, and has since been used as a walking trail. The North-side of the bridge connects to the trail head, but the South-side of the bridge meets a dead end and turns into private property. After crossing the bridge from North to South, hikers are meant to turn around and make their way back across the Monon Bridge back to the trail head. Deer Creek, a shallow river, runs far beneath the bridge.
On February 13, 2017, the Delphi School district had declared a day off for all schools since they had not had as many snow days as they had anticipated during the winter. Because of the day off, 13-year-old Abigail Joyce “Abby” Williams and 14-year-old Liberty Rose Lynn “Libby” German had decided to go for a walk and take pictures at the Monon High Bridge, something they had done many times before. The girls were dropped off around 1:30pm by Libby’s older sister the trailhead, Libby’s father was set to pick them up from the same spot several hours later. While on the trail, the girls took pictures which they posted to snapchat and walked across the bridge.
Just after 2:00pm, Libby posted a photo on her social media of Abby walking across the bridge. At around 3:15pm, Liberty’s father went to the point near the trailhead where he had planned to meet them, but the girls were nowhere to be found. After driving to several other nearby locations to look for the girls and contacting other family members to see if they had heard from them, Libby and Abby were officially reported missing at around 5:30pm.
The search began immediately and dozens of people showed up to the trail to search, but later that night nothing had turned up. The search resumed the next morning and the size of the search party had multiplied. Unfortunately at around noon that day the bodies of Libby and Abby were discovered in a ravine on the north bank of Deer Creek, not far from the Monon High Bridge. When investigators went through Libby’s phone which they found, they disocovered something shocking – Libby had had the presence of mind to take a video recording of the man police believed had killed them. Police released parts of this video along with audio of the man saying “guys, down the hill” in hopes that someone from the public would recognize the man.
Finding the Location
The Monon high bridge is located inside the Mary Gerard Nature Preserve in Delphi Indiana. If you’d like to walk the trail and visit the bridge, parking is located in a dirt lot off of Old State Road 25 near the Freedom Bridge.