I believe ISP released the photo of "bridge guy" from Libby's phone to the public on Sunday, Feb 19, 2017 (see Nixle alert). I first saw it posted here on Feb 21, 2017-- see link below.
IMO, RA had not seen the photo of "bridge guy" when he called the tip line. While reports indicate the self report tip by RA had been referred to DNR's Dan Dulin on Feb 16, 2017, neither the PCA nor Dulin's testimony cite the date Dulin actually interviewed RA but I think it's safe to say this was before Sunday, Feb 19, 2017. MOO
After years of a seemingly cold investigation, despite Indiana State Police assurances the case was still active, on September 21, 2022, Kathy Shank, a volunteer who was tasked with scanning bankers boxes full of files in a central investigative data base, pulled open the drawer of a desk in a soon-to-be abandoned office and discovered a file that contained an initial tip sheet from February of 2017, just a couple days after the murders, in which a man listed as Rick Allen Whiteman called in to self-report that he was on the bridge that day if his name should come up or if investigators wanted to ask him questions.
On the tip sheet, someone had written the word, “Cleared.”
[..]
Indiana Department of Natural Resources Officer Dan Dulin received the original Rick Allen Whiteman tip to follow up on on February 16, 2017, two days after the bodies were discovered and more than five years before the misfiled original report would be discovered.
Dulin testified that he interviewed Allen in the parking lot of a grocery store after unsuccessful attempts to meet him at his home or Delphi Police headquarters.
The conservation officer said Allen told him he was on the bridge trail between 1 and 3 p.m. on Feb. 13 but later revised that timeline to 1:30 to 3:30 p.m.
Dulin said he did not find any reason to not believe Allen’s story that he had parked his car near County Road 300 North, that he spotted three young women walking on the trail, that he was focused on his cellphone and reading a stock ticker during his walk to the bridge and, upon his arrival, watched fish in the water sixty feet below.
Allen showed Dulin the phone he was carrying, and the officer wrote down its model and other identifying information.
Fox59 - Dan Dulin
Ref PCA, page 8:
View attachment 545420
Update Delphi Homicides: Man in Photo is Suspect
Carroll County- At approximately 12:15 p.m. on February 14, 2017, the bodies of Abigail J. Williams, 13, and Liberty Rose Lynn German, 14, both from Delphi, IN, were found in a wooded area near the Delphi Historic Trail, east of Delphi, IN, in Carroll County. The teens had been reported missing the previous day by family members. Their bodies were discovered by volunteers who were helping in an organized search for...