Barbara McDonald
Appearances
Dateline NBC
A Walk Through the Woods
And some women had a lot to say about him. They had experiences where they woke up in the middle of the night and he was standing at the foot of their bed watching them sleep. Oh my gosh.
Dateline NBC
A Walk Through the Woods
Two of the women that he had dated told me that after they had broken up, they had experiences where they woke up in the middle of the night, and he was standing at the foot of their bed watching them sleep.
Dateline NBC
A Walk Through the Woods
He had broken into their house? Had broken into their homes. They had no idea how he got in. That's terrifying. Lord.
Dateline NBC
A Walk Through the Woods
A lot of people, when that happened, thought, okay, well, this is the beginning, right?
Dateline NBC
A Walk Through the Woods
He's picked up on a probation violation. He's not supposed to be driving. He's not supposed to be driving. He's on a suspended license. And I think a lot of people, when that happened, thought, okay, well, this is the beginning, right? This is what they're getting him on now. And then there's going to be these other charges.
Dateline NBC
A Walk Through the Woods
Those girls matter. Were they out there to meet someone? Somebody was in contact with Libby, a fake persona. People wondered if there was some sort of a catfishing element.
Dateline NBC
A Walk Through the Woods
Kelsey gets called in by law enforcement, and they give her a list of names, and among those names is this Anthony Schatz. And she says, oh, that sounds familiar to me.
Dateline NBC
A Walk Through the Woods
Kelsey had the passwords and she was going through and looking to see if there were messages. And she saw this Anthony Schatz account. On Libby's? On Libby's social media. Wow. And that it had at least liked or commented on one of Libby's images. Kelsey even asked Schatz for help. So she reaches out and says, my sister's missing. Do you know anything about this? And the response is, no.
Dateline NBC
A Walk Through the Woods
You know, I talked to her earlier. I'm sure she'll turn up. I'm sure it's fine. And then it didn't go anywhere.
Dateline NBC
A Walk Through the Woods
I think a lot of people looking at this case always wondered if there was some sort of a catfishing element, why did the girls go out there that day? Were they out there to meet someone? And so I think that fit in with that theory of the case is that, oh, yes, they're catfished. That's how they got out there.
Dateline NBC
A Walk Through the Woods
It was a complete shocker and was absolutely not the direction I thought they were going to go.
Dateline NBC
A Walk Through the Woods
No history of violence. He seemed to be the type of guy who sat behind a computer and did his crimes that way. So are you aware that there's a bunch of news stories out there linking you to the Delphi murders?
Dateline NBC
A Walk Through the Woods
Okay. And you have admitted that you created this fake profile, Anthony Schatz. Is that correct?
Dateline NBC
A Walk Through the Woods
He did admit, though, to being involved in child pornography? Absolutely. You were committing crimes against children. Right. You were asking children to send you inappropriate images, correct?
Dateline NBC
A Walk Through the Woods
He said, yes, the things that I'm accused of so far, the charges I have, I did that.
Dateline NBC
A Walk Through the Woods
Are you aware whether you may have talked to Libby on the 13th?
Dateline NBC
A Walk Through the Woods
And do you have any recollection of that? No. He said he had no plans to meet Libby or Abby or anyone else that day. Where were you on February 13th, 2017? I was at my house. In Peru, Indiana?
Dateline NBC
A Walk Through the Woods
He says he'd never been to Delphi except for a high school football game and that he didn't know about the bridge or where it was. But with Kegan, it was always really hard to determine what was true and what wasn't. Did you have anything to do with the murders of Abby or Libby?
Dateline NBC
A Walk Through the Woods
These men who practice Odinism were perhaps performing some sort of a ritualistic sacrifice in the woods. What did you make of that Odinism theory?
Dateline NBC
A Walk Through the Woods
It was a complete shocker and was absolutely not the direction I thought they were going to go.
Dateline NBC
A Walk Through the Woods
This theory that these men who practice Odinism, which is this Norse pagan religion, were perhaps performing some sort of a ritualistic sacrifice in the woods and decided to target these two girls
Dateline NBC
A Walk Through the Woods
There are these sort of different groups in the area. There are these people who practice this Norse pagan religion.
Dateline NBC
A Walk Through the Woods
People from Australia, Finland, I mean, just everywhere. It's been a fascination for so many people, I think, because of how unusual it is.
Dateline NBC
A Walk Through the Woods
The prosecutor went with a little more of the emotion in the beginning to get the jury to really sense how horrific this thing was that happened to these two girls.
Dateline NBC
A Walk Through the Woods
seen those it was awful there were some members of Abby's family who chose not to be in the room there were a few members of Libby's family that left as well I remember that one juror he could not he would lean forward and put his head in his hands he couldn't look Becky testified for the prosecution my goal was to tell the jury
Dateline NBC
A Walk Through the Woods
With everything in this case, on the surface you hear, okay, there's a video of the suspect, and then you find out, okay, well, it's grainy, and it's from far away, and it's not real clear.
Dateline NBC
A Walk Through the Woods
He's not admitting to anything at this point. No, he's insisting that he was out there on the trails to go for a walk, that he was looking at fish from the bridge, that he was looking at the stock ticker on his phone, said he never saw Abby or Libby. And with that, the defense rested.
Dateline NBC
A Walk Through the Woods
I think a lot of people who were watching the trial thought, there's a possibility this is going to be a hung jury, that this could go either way.
Dateline NBC
A Walk Through the Woods
It's a long time. There's a possibility this is going to be a hung jury.
Dateline NBC
A Walk Through the Woods
I think a lot of people looking at this case always wondered if there was some sort of a catfishing element, why did the girls go out there that day?