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Delphi murders: Did suspected pedophile Kegan Kline use Instagram to catfish victims?

Kegan Anthony Kline, 27, was charged last year with 30 counts including child exploitation and possession of child pornography

MIAMI COUNTY, INDIANA: Authorities have revealed that the 2017 Delphi murder victims may have been communicating with someone behind a fake catfish Instagram account and Snapchat page that was set up by a suspected pedophile in the months before they were found dead.

Kegan Anthony Kline, 27, was charged in August last year with 30 counts including child exploitation, possession of child pornography, and obstruction of justice. The charges stemmed from a 2017 search of his Peru, Indiana residence, just 11 days after the bodies of Liberty German and Abigail Williams were discovered. The search warrant came as part of an investigation by the FBI, Indiana State Police, and Peru Police Department that was focused on Kline soliciting underage girls, WTHR 13 News reported.

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A probable cause affidavit out of Miami County noted that Kline created the 'anthony_shots' Instagram account posing as a male model about six months before he was interrogated in February 2017. At the time, he told investigators he created the account to contact both girls he knew and he did not. He admitted that he would talk to girls regardless of their age and that he would find them on Instagram before instructing them to message him on Snapchat. Kline alleged said he received pictures from the girls he spoke to and had saved them. 

Court documents stated how investigators spoke to Kline shortly after he returned from Las Vegas, and allegedly told them he was "f****ed and he should've left." He had reportedly planned to leave the area that day after his dad fell asleep. Kline claimed that he received sexual photos and videos from the girls he was talking to. Authorities seized a total of six devices from the suspect, including smartphones, a tablet, and an iPod touch as part of the 2017 search warrant on the child pornography case, WTHR reported.

Court documents revealed that the iPod Touch was last used in May of 2015 and contained sexually explicit images of children. Some of the images were traced back to Hammond or Royal Center Indiana. One iPhone last used in May 2015 had sexual images of girls around the age of 14. Those photos were geo-located back to cities in Indiana, including Bunker Hill, Galveston, Indianapolis, Kokomo, Monterey, and Royal Center.

One Samsung Galaxy phone contained sexually explicit images of children between 12 and 17 years old, per the report. Another iPhone last used in November 2016 contained images of adults involved in sexual acts with children between 3 and 11, as well as images of drugs and Kline with a firearm. Finally, another Samsung Galaxy phone was found to have undergone a factory reset on February 23, 2017, just nine days after the Delphi murders. When investigators managed to retrieve the data, they found it included discussions about meeting people in Las Vegas and prostitution, WTHR reported.

Kline reportedly contacted police on February 27, 2017, saying he had located his iPhone 5, which was found to contain images of females posing in the nude. Investigators found that much of his social media accounts and apps had been deleted in the days after the tragedy. The browser history had also been deleted before the phone was turned in to the police.

Kline is still being held in the Miami County Jail and his next court appearance is slated for December 16. The outlet clarified that the 27-year-old had not been named as a suspect in the Delphi murders.

"The Indiana State Police does not confirm or deny anyone who is or is not a suspect in any ongoing investigation," Indiana State Police told WTHR in a statement. "At this time, we are looking for any information about the 'anthony_shots' profile and anyone who may have had contact with that profile. The case that you are referring to is a separate child pornography case."

Meanwhile, Kline's court-appointed public defender Andrew Achey told the outlet that his "client had nothing to do with the unexpected, untimely and unfortunate passing of the girls in Delphi."