That was 2010 when her daughter was murdered. I remember Yeardley Love, the lacrosse player who was murdered by her boyfriend and the mother, Sharon, creating the One Love Foundation in her daughter's name and running that with her other daughter, and that pain continues. I think for me as a journalist, the interest was there. The emphasis used to be almost completely on the killers themselves, as you mentioned, but now the focus seems to be more on telling their victims' stories. There's been a difference in the way that murder cases are written about and discussed over the past few years. Want a daily wrap-up of all the news and commentary Salon has to offer? Subscribe to our morning newsletter, Crash Course. So by the time Richard Allen was charged with the murders -and, as you know, we have to say he's innocent until proven guilty, or course - I was going to write this no matter what, because it was the journey that the family had been through and what they will continue to go through, even through the trial. And it had been several years, and there was a lot of frustration about there not being an arrest here. And I started writing this several years ago. And I knew this, as a journalist, but I really understood it when I got to meet the family members. Not only when this happens, but in the following weeks, years, decades. You rarely hear specifically about the family members and the effect this has on them. Often times, as you know, in the news media the headline is usually about who did it or allegedly did it. Scott Peterson, Casey Anthony, Jodi Arias and the list goes on. ![]() I wanted to write about this case because of how close I felt to the family members, and I wanted their voices to be heard. The fact that there have been advancements made in the form of Richard Allen being arrested likely prompted you to write on this case instead of any of the other numerous cases you've reported on like Gabby Petito or BTK, but I'm curious to hear how the idea came to you to write a book about this case specifically. And I also think that once we got to know who Abby and Libby were, and their family members, that also drew people in to say, "How could this happen?" And then, "How could I help?" ![]() So I feel that that really grabbed the attention because we were, as the media and as the public, able to hear the voice of a killer. ![]() I really think this one struck a chord because of what Libby was able to do on her phone: capture this man's voice, take an image of him, video of him walking. That is a question I get often, and it's a good one because there are certain cases, as you mentioned, that the media pays more attention to than others. There are so many murder cases that don't make the headlines in the way that this one did. This book, " Down the Hill: My Descent into the Double Murder in Delphi," is written very well and, for me, calls to mind Michelle McNamara's "I'll Be Gone in the Dark" in that the emotions of the case really come through. The following transcript has been lightly edited for length and clarity. Has the Delphi Murders mystery finally been solved? In an interview with Hendricks conducted over Zoom, she details her coverage of the Delphi case, the relationships she formed with the victims' families, gleaning insight from Golden State Killer investigator Paul Holes, and how her previous coverage of the Gabby Petito and BTK cases were at the back of her mind while covering this one. Lives cut short in a way that law enforcement have yet to fully reveal, other than to call it "brutal." And throughout her writing, which follows the case from 2017 to just after Allen's arrest, she frequently mentions the girls' families waking up, day in and day out, telling themselves, " Today's the day." Meaning, today's the day justice will be had. ![]() For Hendricks, the decision to focus her first book on this case was not to recount the grisly details of what's been dubbed the Delphi murders, but to call to memory that Abby and Libby had lives in Delphi. It's also the title of a new book, written by veteran CNN and HLN journalist Susan Hendricks, who has reported on this case since the beginning, spending time with the victims' families in Indiana and advocating for them amidst a sea of headlines that, more frequently than not, give a voice to the girls' killer rather than the other way around. This is one of the last things Abby and Libby heard as they were led to their deaths in broad daylight. "I wanted to write about this case because of how close I felt to the family members, and I wanted their voices to be heard."
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