A SOCIAL media catfish linked to the Delphi murders attempted to blame his dad for a number of the child pornography offenses he is charged with – before seemingly reversing course.
Kegan Kline, an accused serial online predator, is currently in jail awaiting sentencing for more than a dozen child sexual abuse material (CSAM) charges.
Kline, of Peru, Indiana, was the operator of a catfish social media account called @anthony_shots that he allegedly used to solicit nude photographs from underage girls.
One of the victims he was in communication with was Libby German, 14, who was murdered along with her best friend, Abigail Williams, in Delphi, Indiana, in February 2017.
Kline was in communication with Libby right up until her death, even once claiming to have had plans to meet with her where she was killed on the same day she was murdered, according to police documents.
However, he has denied any involvement in the girls’ murders or any connection to their accused killer, Richard Allen. Kline has also never been named as a suspect.
In March, Kline pleaded guilty to 25 counts of child pornography, child solicitation, child exploitation, synthetic identity deception, and obstruction of justice as part of an unrelated child exploitation case.
He was due to be sentenced last month, but the hearing was suspended after Kline indicated he may want to withdraw his plea.
Speaking to The Murder Sheet podcast from his jail cell after the hearing was granted a continuance, Kline claimed his public defender – who has since withdrawn from the case – failed to show him relevant documentation before entering the plea.
Kline said the documentation included a transcript of an interview he had with law enforcement that contained evidence suggesting that someone else had accessed his bogus social media accounts to solicit nude images from children.
Directing the blame at his father, Tony Kline, Kegan then appeared to change his story, claiming that he’d only committed “maybe seven” of the 25 charges he pleaded guilty to and would never do some of the things he’d been accused of.
Kline told the hosts Aine Caine and Kevin Greenlee that he was considering altering his guilty plea and said he had no idea why his dad has not been charged for his alleged role in acquiring the sickening images.
“If you’ve seen transcripts from my interview, I think in 2020, with the state police, if you read that, you can see that they know someone else was involved,” Kline says on the podcast.
“They say to me they know it for a fact, 100 percent.”
Kline further alleged that his father has been charged with “a lot of really messed up things” in his past, including incidents involving children.
“There’s stuff that says on every single device, my dad’s logged in with his email,” Kline added, discussing the transcript.
“There are messages that say, ‘Hey, will you Skype me?’ And there has only ever been one Skype call on those phones, that says ‘Tony Kline,’ whatever the numbers are.”
Tony Kline has not been charged with any offenses in connection to his son’s case.
Rick Snay, a friend of Tony’s who runs the Delphi After Dark YouTube channel, told the podcast that Tony denies any wrongdoing.
Snay described Tony Kline as “one of the most technologically challenged people I’ve ever met” and cast doubt over the idea he’d know how to access his son’s devices and accounts.
“I would look at any accusations of Tony using Kegan’s devices very, very carefully, because [Tony] told me once he wouldn’t even have known what device Kegan was doing anything on because he had several old phones, a couple of tablets, and a desktop computer,” said Snay, adding that Tony was “vehement” when denying Kegan’s claims.
On Wednesday, however, it was revealed that Kegan Kline will not withdraw his guilty plea as he had previously been mulling.
Kline has been in custody since 2020. His case has been routinely pushed back and delayed in the past for reasons that have not been publicly released.
Prosecutors hit out at the accused predator when his hearing was delayed last month, accusing him of unnecessarily dragging out the proceedings.
His newly appointed attorneys filed a notice in Miami County court on May 31 that their defendant will not withdraw his guilty plea and that he wishes to continue court proceedings.
In an interview with The U.S. Sun before Kline’s reversal was announced, Caine and Greenlee voiced doubt over the 28-year-old’s claims that he hadn’t seen the transcript in question.
“The prosecution went back pretty hard at the suggestion that they had not provided him with proper documentation and the discovery in a timely manner,” explained Caine.
“They basically indicated they have the receipts, they sent everything, and the things he is complaining about is having not received essentially materials prepared for trial to illustrate points – and not new information.”
KILLER DENIALS
During his interview with The Murder Sheet, Kline also denied knowing the accused Delphi killer Richard Allen, but he made vague claims about having detailed knowledge of the case.
When asked by Greenlee point blank whether he knew Allen, Kline replied: “No.”
“People said that he worked or lived in Peru, Indiana, around whatever year, but someone on some podcast said: ‘Oh well, he lived right down the road from him in like 2004,'” he said.
“Like, dude, I was nine or ten years old – why would I know a grown man at ten years old?”
Allen, a 50-year-old CVS worker, was arrested and charged with the murders of Libby and Abby on October 26, 2022. He has pleaded not guilty.
An affidavit unsealed by a judge in January revealed that an unspent .40 bullet found between the bodies of the two girls appeared to have been cycled through a pistol owned by Allen.
The documents also revealed that Allen admitted to being on the bridge at the same time the girls were killed in two separate interviews.
During their extensive reporting on the case – which has included leaking transcripts of interviews with Kline and other persons of interest during a time when information about the investigation was in short supply – Greenlee and Caine told The U.S. Sun they’ve also been unable to find any definitive links between Kline and Allen.
“Nothing,” said Caine. “The big thing is that it’s not concrete at all but just proximity.
“Richard Allen is from the town of Mexico, Indiana, and that’s right outside of Peru, Indiana, where Kegal Kline is from.
“Those two towns are pretty tight-knit, you get people hanging out between the two, but that’s about it.
“And it’s such a small area that knowing each other casually wouldn’t be huge, but he denies it.
“We’ve spoken to people who know both the Allens and the Klines, so we have that degree of separation, but I don’t feel we’ve ever been able to establish a close relationship between the two.”
Caine added: “I’m from a small town, and everybody knew each other. I would hate to think if I casually knew somebody or their name, and they did something, that someone would presume: ‘Oh, they’re best friends.'”
‘DEGREE OF SEPARATION’
At the same time he denied knowing who Allen is, Kline did claim to have information about the murders that he’s previously attempted to leverage with prosecutors to strike a plea deal.
Kline was incredibly vague on the details, insisting he would share what he knew once he’s been sentenced, but claimed whatever information he has police are no longer interested in it.
“They don’t want to hear anything I have to say,” he told The Murder Sheet.
“They don’t believe me or they can’t cooperate with what I said pretty much.”
Kline suggested sometime in 2021 a deal was on the table with the prosecutors then overseeing the Delphi case, but that alleged offer no longer stands.
When asked whether Kline may have attempted to stall his case to get a deal back on the table with the Delphi prosecutors, Caine said: “I feel like the two prosecutors on this case have made it pretty clear they’re not interested in dealing with Kegan Kline in any respect.
“I think he would have a hard time making that happen regardless.
“There were discussions and negotiations that took place earlier in pre-trial hearings, but that was before these two current prosecutors were on it.
“I imagine that maybe some negotiations took place but Kegan Kline has one perception of how close that was to an actual deal, and I’m sure the prosecution team may have another perception.”
Greenlee added: “Any deal a prosecutor was going to make with a defendant would need to have really solid information and be trustworthy.
“If you don’t have that, then you can’t go forward in good faith. On top of that, he’s been charged with such serious and devastating crimes that are certainly upsetting to the public, I’m sure prosecutors would wonder what they were getting from the deal when the charges against Kegan are so serious.
“They’d be asking themselves: ‘Is the deal more for us or is it more for him?’
“And I think that strategic thinking would make them less likely to strike any kind of deal with him.”
Kline’s sentencing hearing will begin on July 27 – and prosecutors will push for the maximum possible sentence.
Richard Allen, meanwhile, is due to appear in court later this month for a bail hearing. He has been incarcerated since October 2022.
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