Police are following up on leads, hoping to identify the individuals who defaced the city’s Christopher Columbus statue at Harbor Park Oct. 15, less than an hour after Columbus Day. Middletown police Lt. Heather Desmond said Monday afternoon that the investigation is continuing.

The department released two black-and-white photographs Oct. 31 taken from an Oct. 15 surveillance video of a duo they believe spray-painted the words “lies,” “redrum” (“murder” spelled backward) and “rapist” in red on the base of the granite statue at about 12:15 a.m. that day.