Wife of person of interest in girls' murders speaks out
INDIANAPOLIS -- While Daniel Nations remains behind bars in Colorado, his wife spoke with WTTV about her husband being named a person of interest in the deaths of two teenage hikers in Delphi, Indiana.
Katelyn Nations said she does think her husband looks like the sketch of the murder suspect released by police.
"I have been with Daniel for six years now and looking at that picture, there is a lot of similarities," she said.
When asked if she thought her husband was connected to the murders of Abby Williams and Libby German, she said she couldn't say for sure one way or the other.
"Honestly I do not want to say that I can see him doing it or not," said Katelyn.
The teen girls were murdered on Feb. 13. We know Nations was living homeless in Indiana at the time and checked in with the Morgan County Sheriff's Department on Feb. 14, as was required of him as a homeless sex offender.
It's still unclear where Nations was the day of the murders.
"I had an ultrasound that day and I'm pretty sure he came with me? But I'm not 100% sure," said Katelyn, who also noted Nations did not have access to her car on Feb. 13.
She was the one who drove him to check in with police on the following day.
"February 14, when he went for his check in for his registration, I'm the person who drove him. So I know he checked in," she said.
Katelyn claims Nations knew about the Delphi murders because they watched news coverage of the killings together.
"I remember watching it with him and just sitting there and shaking my head and I said, 'Can you believe this crap?' He said, 'No that is disgusting,'" said Katelyn.
Although she sees a resemblance in the sketch, she says the picture of the suspect walking on the bridge in Delphi does not match.
"Not something my husband would wear. The dark blue jacket he did not have, he does not wear a hat like that. He only wears baseball caps," said Katelyn.
She says she did not know of a possible Delphi connection until her husband was behind bars at the El Paso County Jail in Colorado.
"Even everything that I have been through with Daniel, I did not think he was somebody that I thought could do something of this magnitude," said Katelyn.
Indiana State Police say Nations is one of the hundreds that they have interviewed in connection to the Delphi case. They said they had no information that would either exclude or include him as a suspect in the murders.
Nations remains behind bars at a county jail in Colorado on unrelated charges.
DANIEL NATIONS CHARGED IN COLORADO HATCHET INCIDENT
Daniel Nations, 31, was arrested last month after he allegedly threatened mountain bikers with a hatchet. He was charged with felony menacing and reckless endangerment, the El Paso County Sheriff's Office said Thursday.
Sgt. Kim Riley, of the Indiana State Police, said the agency is speaking with Colorado authorities about Nations to determine if he could be a suspect in the February killings of 14-year-old Liberty German and 13-year-old Abigail Williams.
Nations, a convicted sex offender who has lived in Indiana, was arrested Monday in Woodland Park, Colorado, in connection with recent cases where people were threatened with a hatchet on a popular hiking trail near Monument, which is about 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Denver.
Riley said the first question is whether Nations was in Indiana on Feb. 13, when the teens vanished while hiking near their hometown of Delphi, about 60 miles (100 kilometers) northwest of Indianapolis. Their bodies were found the next day.
"We have to look at whether he was even here at that time and then we'll go from there," Riley said Thursday.
In a news release, the State Police cautioned that it has received thousands of photos of people alleged to look like a composite FBI sketch released July 17 of a man who is considered the main suspect, and that it investigates all of those tips.
"We will give the same attention to the person arrested in Colorado, but right now there is nothing that definitively connects this person to our investigation," the statement said.
Nations is jailed in Teller County, Colo., on a charge of possession of a weapon by a previous offender. The charge isn't related to the hatchet threats, said Jacqueline Kirby, a spokeswoman for the El Paso County Sheriff's Office.
It wasn't immediately clear if Nations has an attorney who could speak on his behalf.
He was pulled over and arrested Monday in a car with expired Indiana plates, and KCNC-TV in Denver reports that his wife and two children were with him in the car.
No arrests have been made in the killings of the Indiana teens, who were slain after a relative dropped them off for a day of hiking near Delphi. Authorities have not disclosed details of their killings.
Police previously released two grainy photos of the suspect and an audio recording of a man saying "down the hill." That evidence came from German's cellphone.
Her grandmother, Becky Patty, told WXIN-TV that the family is aware of Nations' arrest.
"We pray that the truth will be revealed and we will keep searching for answers and passing out fliers until Abby and Libby's killer is behind bars," she said.
Nations was convicted of indecent exposure in 2007 for exposing himself in front of a woman in a Spartanburg County, South Carolina, parking lot, according to Indiana's sex offender registry. Prosecutors in Johnson County, Indiana, charged him Wednesday with failing to register as a sex offender in the county after he moved to a new address.
Nations has convictions in Indiana on drug, domestic battery and public indecency charges, online court records show.
He pleaded guilty in January 2016 in Bartholomew County, Indiana, to public indecency for allegedly fondling himself in a public place. A message was left Thursday for the attorney who represented Daniels in that case.
The Associated Press, WTTV and WXIN contributed to this report.
