An Indiana man arrested earlier this month on attempted murder and related charges has landed on the radar of authorities who’re working on solving the infamous Delphi murder case.
As CrimeOnline previously reported, Lafayette authorities received a report about a missing child on April 19, near Park Avenue. The child’s parents called for help after their 9-year-old had been missing for around 30 minutes, after 7 p.m.
While questioning neighbors, several of them told officers that the child’s next-door neighbor, James Brian Chadwell II, said he saw the girl after she disappeared. When the officers arrived at Chadwell’s house, he denied knowing the victim’s whereabouts but said she’d been by his home earlier and left.
Chadwell gave the officers permission to search his home. According to the Journal & Courier, authorities searched throughout the home, including the basement, which had a chain lock on the door. Officers got the door open and heard a child crying from the bottom of the basement stairs.
A little girl, locked up at the bottom of the stairs, told the officers that Chadwell tried to kill her. She reportedly had bruises all over her body, strangulation marks on her neck, and dog bites on her leg.
According to court documents, Chadwell lured the little girl inside his home by offering to let her pet his dogs. During his hearing on Monday, Chadwell asked who he could speak to about a mental evaluation.
The Journal & Courier reports that Carroll County Sheriff Tobe Leazenby confirmed that authorities are looking into Chadwell as a possible connection to the Delphi murders, but he has not been named a suspect or person of interest in the case.
“The information has obviously been shared with us, and our investigators are looking into him,” Leazenby said.
Delphi Murders
On February 14, 2017, approximately 20 miles from Lafayette, Indiana, in Delphi, two girls were found murdered near the Monon High Bridge. Libby German, 14, and Abby Williams, 13, took a hiking trip at the abandoned bridge the previous day; the outing was only meant to be for a few hours.
The girls took photos while strolling across the bridge, but as time passed and their family didn’t hear from them, they became worried and called authorities for assistance.
Police found the girls’ lifeless bodies a short distance from the bridge.
After their deaths, the incident was nicknamed the “Snapchat Murders” after Abby took a photo of Libby at around 2:17 p.m. and put it on social media. Detectives said that after the photo was taken, a man approached the girls and apparently told them to “go down the hill.”
Attempted Murder
On Monday, prosecutors charged Chadwell with attempted murder, along with charges of:
- Child molesting
- Attempted child molesting
- Battery resulting in serious bodily injury
- Criminal confinement
- Strangulation
Prosecutors filed a sentence-enhancing charge of the suspect being a habitual offender, which could add up to 20 years to Chadwell’s sentence if he’s convicted.
The story continues to develop. Check back for updates.
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[Feature Photo: Police Handout]
