If I understand the probable cause affidavit right, in combination what with ISP has actually said to the public in relation to this matter, I think they're being very cagey with their wording (because they have to, because they're law enforcement and they're going to be careful with what they say regarding an ongoing matter) but all they've said is that the anthony_shots account came to their attention as part of the Delphi investigation and they'd like to hear from anyone who talked to that account.
Kline was already in the news previously about this, and at the time they didn't believe he was connected to Delphi. The statement is a pretty definitive one. That was 2017, and he was arrested in 2020. This lines up with the PC affidavit, which indicates the FBI tipped ISP off to Kline's activities as a potential lead in a case which has been redacted but I'm going to go ahead and guess this would be Delphi. So they were actually looking into him as a potential lead for Delphi back in 2017, because he'd been communicating with (and soliciting sexual material from) underaged girls. How he'd come to the FBI's attention to begin with, I couldn't say, but I have some guesses. But I think that's what ISP means when they talk about how the anthony_shots account came up as part of the Delphi investigation.
I also don't think the girls were catfished and I don't think this happened as a result of anything they posted on the internet. The trip to the bridge was spur of the moment and relied on the older sister agreeing to drive so it becomes less likely it was a planned meetup. Any scenario involving their Snapchat or catfishing requires inventing a huge web of conspiracy and coordination not typically found in reality. (It's not that catfishing doesn't happen - it does - but this specific instance, producing these specific results, would just require inventing too much for catfishing to be in play.) Also (at least) one of the girls was into true crime and I sincerely doubt the person behind the anthony_shots account would have successfully talked her into meeting in the middle of the woods given the lifestyle that account pretended he had. Picture-perfect model with washboard abs and money and sports cars for days but he's meeting a 14-year-old girl in the woods in Indiana? Kline would have had no way to generate sufficient evidence to convince her he was safe to meet. Besides, Kline's MO was about getting spank material (and to a degree, it was about power, because having compromising material of a person is power if you're a , and Kline is a ). I don't think he ever intended to meet any of them.
There doesn't appear to be any coordination between Kline and any other entities involved in the murders; I'm looking at the affidavit with descriptions of his devices and the opsec he uses, and this is not a smart man. There is no dark web stuff happening here. The man used Dropbox to transmit child sexual abuse material. He used, what, Snapchat and Kik? Instagram? These are all cloud services. Whenever you hear the phrase "the cloud" in a news article, what you should really be hearing is "someone else's computer," because that's what the cloud is (though the computer is massive and redundant and is a node in an enormous data center). So Kline's place to stash the most illegal imagery it's possible for a US citizen to have was someone else's computer. He did not use any kind of VPN or onion browser, and he (or his dad) openly admitted to cops that their home wireless network was secured (meaning they admitted the only people using that wifi were the two inhabitants of the home). When he knew cops were going to be looking at his phone for the CSAM he knew was on it, he factory reset his phone and then handed it to the police. That was the level of thinking we're dealing with here. This man has a skull full of warm moist warthog poop where a brain should be. He clearly shared CSAM with somebody and I'm curious as to who that was but this isn't a secretive dark web network of people. It's an utter bonehead and at least one other utter bonehead, but doesn't seem like more than that.
To that point, another thing that makes Kline a bonehead is that he spilled just about all of the above to investigators when they came to interview him. That's actually a huge deal. I'm going to guess the investigators put some various kinds of pressure on him not documented in the summary, but he confessed outright in February of 2017, and I'm guessing he did so because they knew he was up to
something and he figured it was better to confess to the solicitation of minors he'd actually done, rather than be under suspicion of the murder he hadn't. Or maybe he's just talkative. I wasn't there so I wouldn't know. Whatever the reason, he sang like a nightingale.
I don't think Kline is connected to either of the girls at all. I can't guarantee the anthony_shots account never communicated with them, but if that did happen, I don't think it was connected to the murders. When one strips out all the speculation and unconfirmed stuff and relies only on what ISP is actually saying, here is what I think happened:
1. Sometime prior to February of 2017, Kline began catfishing underage girls on social media apps in an attempt to solicit naked photos and videos of them.
2. In February of 2017, Abigail Williams and Liberty German went fot a walk together and were murdered by the man on the Monon High Bridge in Indiana.
3. As part of the investigation into the murder of two teenage girls, the FBI alerted ISP to a person in Indiana who was catfishing underaged girls, in February 2017. This was Kline, with the anthony_shots account.
4. ISP, PPD and FBI obtained a search warrant for Kline's home, and on the same day interviewed him and his father.
5. In the course of that interview, Kline and his father proceeded to barf up an absolute mountain of evidence. During the seven hours Kline spoke to investigators, he confessed to soliciting, possessing, and distributing CSAM. He confessed how he did it, and about how many he did it to, and the services he used to do so. He confessed about how many files he possessed, he confessed the age ranges of the girls, and he confessed to the content of the media. He expressly and explicitly stated that he knew the girls were underage and that this did not dissuade him.
6. Kline was then returned to his residence. Investigators determined he was not connected to Delphi.
7. The Delphi investigation continued.
8. Despite having confessed everything listed in point number five on February 25th, 2017, Kline was not arrested for any of the crimes he had confessed to until August of 2020. I don't know why. I'm guessing it had something to do with gathering of evidence but I really don't know. The kind of forensics we're talking about don't take three years. We have a list of the devices investigated. This really should not have taken that long.
9. Time passed, from August 2020 to now.
10. ISP appears to make a plea for the public to turn in any tips they have about the anthony_shots account. They mention the Delphi investigation at the beginning, stating (accurately but misleadingly) that this account came to their attention as part of the Delphi case.
11. Today, ISP puts out another statement, cryptically being a little defensive and explaining that action was taken on the case as soon as ISP presented it to the Miami County Prosecutor:
"We understand there was a period of time that passed between 2017 and 2020 when Kline was not arrested and incarcerated for Possession of Child *advertiser censored*. Once the Indiana State Police presented the criminal case to the Miami County Prosecutor in June of 2020, immediate action was taken by both the Indiana State Police and the Miami County Prosecutor’s Office, which ultimately resulted in Kline’s arrest." The penultimate paragraph reads like the kind of statements given by PR firms when a company screws something up. I think what we're looking at here is ISP trying to course-correct after mishandling Kline's case by letting too much time elapse. They also refer to it as one of dozens of secondary investigations that have come up while investigating Delphi, which also lines up with what we know from the PC affidavit and the above article from 2017, and also means there's no guarantee this is actually connected to Delphi.
Basically, at some point there was someone who dropped the ball enough that they had a guy confess in incredible detail to solicitation, possession, and distribution of child *advertiser censored* yet they still didn't even charge him for three and a half years, and now I think some heads either did roll or are currently rolling, and I think ISP is in damage control mode trying to shore up the case with more accounts from people who interacted with anthony_shots. I don't think anthony_shots, or Kline, are connected to the Delphi murders at all. I may be wrong about that.