Down The Hill: My Descent into the Double Murder in Delphi by Susan Hendricks
Hachette Books (September 2023)
288 pages; $19.58 hardcover; $15.99 e-book
Reviewed by Haley Newlin
As a child, I spent summers in Delphi, Indiana. I remember sycamores and cottonwood trees climbing the blue sky and the churn of gravel as we sipped on McDonald’s sweet teas, approaching “the farm.”
Reading Down The Hill: My Descent into the Double Murder in Delphi was nostalgic, hopeful, and tragic. I naively believed McDonald’s sweet tea and car rides through the small town were unique to my childhood. But I was wrong. Many kids in Delphi did the same — like 13-year-old Abby Williams and 14-year-old Libby German on the day they disappeared.
In the mid-2000s, when I was just a few years younger than Williams and German, I walked along Monon High Bridge. At first, the bridge seemed too scary, not because of the grim obscurity of vast woods that swallowed it but because of its height. The green-murky water beneath it seemed too eager for that one misstep that would send it an unsuspecting victim.
But age showed me the bridge was wider than I’d initially realized. Still, the planks beneath my feet were rickety and decaying, like the rest of the bridge. Overcoming the fear of Monon High Bridge became a right of passage for us, the transition from elementary years into middle school.
If Snapchat had been around then or if taking photos and sending them to friends didn’t cost a fortune in data packages, my friend and twin sister might have captured my “bravery” on the bridge, just as Libby did of Abby before the killer approached them.
To locals, High Bridge and its accompanying tracks weren’t scary. Not until the double murder of the two teens. Hendricks captured this oddity well in Down The Hill, even detailing how Libby’s older sister, Kelsi, drove them to the trail and another relative planned on picking them up later that afternoon. Hendricks even attempted to walk the bridge herself and struggled for the very reason I did: a fear of heights. She noted the foreboding sight ahead, where the tracks seemed to vanish in the trees. All the things we feared, but never a killer lurking in the woods.
Readers not local to the area and unfamiliar with the case will appreciate Hendrick’s thorough coverage of the crime. The author and veteran CNN and HLN journalist, with the help of the families, reports the case as it unfolds. In the sparse details released by law enforcement, I became enamored by Hendrick’s compassion and empathy that blossomed into a close relationship with the victims’ loved ones.
Many true crime books focus on the killer’s background, crimes, and psyche, listing victims like credits at the end of a film, but not in Down The Hill. Hendricks’s storytelling elevates the voices of the Delphi families and community, detailing things like the Indiana state bird, cardinals, and their association with loved ones who have passed on. Libby’s grandmother spotted two cardinals outside her home and believed them to be the spirits of the two girls.
Hendricks takes readers through Abby and Libby’s lives, their favorite sports, volleyball and softball, Abby’s reading goal that her classmates finished in her place, and Libby’s bedroom walls, three of the four painted purple, her favorite color, a project she insisted on doing herself but never had the chance to finish.
This book is not a tell-all story. It’s one of perseverance of those left in the ruins of senseless tragedy. The girls’ families are taken through the wringer as weeks, months, and eventually, years pass without many developments in the case. Hendricks consulted with field experts such as Paul Holes, retired cold case detective, who played a crucial role in identifying Joseph James DeAngelo Jr., dubbed “The Golden State Killer,” who killed at least thirteen people and assaulted fifty in the 1970s and ’80s, and Dr. Ann Burgess, a pioneering forensic nurse who aided in the development of the Behavioral Science Unit of the FBI. Both professionals’ insights on creating a profile of the killer were standout additions to an already powerful and enthralling narrative.
If you enjoy Netflix’s Mindhunter, Paul Holes’ Unmasked, or I’ll Be Gone In The Dark by Michelle McNamara, Down The Hill is for you. I highly recommend this book on audio, too. Libby’s sister, Kelsi, wrote and narrated the forward that truly captures the power of hope.
Hendricks narrates the remainder of the book, giving an emotionally evocative performance that lingers long after finishing Down The Hill.
