LIBBY GERMAN & ABBY WILLIAMS: Indiana vs. Richard Allen for 2017 murder of two Delphi girls *TRIAL IN PROGRESS*

On February 14, 2017, the bodies of Abigail Williams and Liberty German were discovered near the Monon High Bridge Trail, which is part of the Delphi Historic Trails in Delphi, Indiana, United States, after the young girls had disappeared from the same trail the previous day. The murders have received significant media coverage because a photo and audio recording of an individual believed to be the girls' murderer was found on German's smartphone. Despite the audio and video recordings of the suspect that have been circulated and the more than 26,000 tips that police have received, no arrest in the case has been made.[1][2][3]

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Police have not publicly stated nor released details of how the girls were murdered.[6] As early as February 15, 2017, Indiana State Police began circulating a still image of an individual reportedly seen on the Monon High Bridge Trail near where the two friends were slain; the grainy photograph appearing to capture a Caucasian male, with hands in pockets, walking on the rail bridge, head down, toward the girls.[4] A few days later, the person in the photograph was named the prime suspect in the double-homicide.[5]

On February 22, law enforcement released an audio recording where the voice of the assailant,[7] though in some degree muffled, is heard to say, "Down the hill." It was at this news conference that officials credited the source of the audio and imagery to German's smartphone, and, further, regarded her as a hero for having had the uncanny foresight and fortitude to record the exchange in secret. Police indicated that additional evidence from the phone had been secured, but that they did not release it so as not to "compromise any future trial." By this time, the reward offered in the case was set at $41,000.[5]


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Article with the new BG sketch in the background. How would it work to get this thrown out?


before their brutal killings.
On the wall behind him is a police sketch released by Indiana State Police in 2019 of the man suspected of murdering the teenage best friends. Mr Allen bears some likeness to the drawing.
The selfie was posted by Mr Allen’s wife on Facebook in December 2021 – the same month investigators issued a fresh appeal urging members of the public to come forward with information about an online catfishing account thought to be tied to the murders.
Now, 10 months later, Mr Allen has been arrested and charged with Libby and Abby’s brutal deaths.

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The 50-year-old from Delphi was taken into custody on Wednesday and booked into Carroll County Jail. He has since been moved to a state facility for his own safety.
On Monday, Indiana State Police announced that he had been charged with two counts of murder. He has pleaded not guilty and is said to be refusing to cooperate with the investigation.
It is not clear what information has led to Mr Allen’s arrest now, more than five years on from the 2017 murders.
Officials would not rule out the possibility that other individuals were also involved in the teenagers’ brutal murders and, if so, vowed that they will also face charges.
The affidavit is currently under seal, with officials declining to provide additional details about the bombshell development in the high-profile case that has rocked the small, close-knit community of Delphi and gone unsolved for more than half a decade.
Family members of Libby welcomed the charges, with her sister writing on social media: “We got him.”

Richard Allen is seen posing for a smiling selfie in front of a police sketch of the killer

Richard Allen is seen posing for a smiling selfie in front of a police sketch of the killer (Supplied)
Before his sudden arrest, Mr Allen’s name was never publicly linked to the case.
At the time of the murders, Mr Allen would have been 44 years old. He appears to have no prior criminal record though jail records list him as also going by the alias of Craigh Ross Rentfrow.
The 50-year-old is a local resident of Delphi, the small, close-knit town of around 3,000 people.
His family home is less than a five-minute drive away from where the bodies of Libby and Abby were found, residing in a neighborhood southwest of the Monon High Bridge.
According to online records, Mr Allen has lived in Delphi there since at least 2006, and in Indiana his whole adult life.
Married to his wife Kathy with whom he shares an adult daughter, Mr Allen is a trained pharmacy technician, receiving his most recent pharmaceutical licence in February 2018 – one year on from the murders.
He currently works at the local CVS store – coming into contact with members of the community as part of his job.
Libby’s grandparents Mike and Becky Patty said that they recalled Mr Allen processing photos for them at the store.
CVS offered its condolences to the victim’s families and said it would cooperate with the investigation in any way it can.

Police sketches released in 2019 (left) and 2017 (right) in the search for the killer

Police sketches released in 2019 (left) and 2017 (right) in the search for the killer (Indiana State Police)
“As members of the Carroll County community, we remain devastated by these murders and our hearts go out to the German and Williams families,” the company said in a statement to local outlet WRTV.
“We are shocked and saddened to learn that one of our store employees was arrested as a suspect in these crimes. We stand ready to cooperate with the police investigation in any way we can.”
Local residents reacted with shock when news broke on Friday of his arrest, saying that he seemed “like a normal guy”.
“When I will go into CVS as a customer myself, he would say ‘do you need any help?’ I would be like ‘no’,” Chandler Underhill, the manager of the local Brick & Mortar Pub, where he said Mr Allen was a regular, told Fox59.
“Just like a normal guy that I’ve seen for the last couple years, not really thinking anything.”
Mr Underhill said that Mr Allen always seemed “normal” when he would come into the pub where he works.
“I would talk; he wouldn’t say much. He seems like a normal guy,” he said.
“One of my servers was telling me that he wouldn’t speak much.”
Libby’s grandfather told reporters on Monday that his granddaughter’s accused killer had been “hiding in plain sight” the whole time.
On 13 February 2017, Libby, 14, and Abby, 13, set off on a hike along the Monon High Bridge Trail in their hometown of Delphi.
During the walk, Libby posted a photo of her best friend walking along the Monon High Bridge. It was the last known photo of Abby before she was killed.
Later that day, the teenagers were reported missing when they failed to return to a spot where a family member was picking them up.

Richard Allen pictured in mugshot after arrest for Delphi murders

Richard Allen pictured in mugshot after arrest for Delphi murders (Indiana State Police)
The next day – Valentine’s Day 2017 – their bodies were discovered in a wooded area around half a mile off the trail.
For the last five years, no arrests were made and police remained tightlipped about the crime scene and how the girls died.
Investigators have long been searching for a man captured on Libby’s cellphone before she died.
A grainy video shows a man dressed in blue jeans, a blue jacket and a cap walking along the abandoned railroad bridge.
Investigators released a still image from the video and a chilling audio of the man telling the two girls: “Go down the hill.”
Prior to Mr Allen’s arrest, other names have fallen under suspicion but no one has ever been charged.
Investigators zeroed in on local man Ronald Logan back in 2017, according to a search warrant application filed by an FBI agent back then before being obtained by podcast The Murder Sheet and shared with The Independent this May.
The partly redacted document reveals law enforcement wanted to carry out a search on Mr Logan’s home which was just 1,400 feet from where the girls’ bodies were found.
He had also allegedly lied about where he was at the time that the teenagers disappeared, claiming he was out of the area with a friend when cellphone location data actually placed him in the area around the trail.
The document gave further details about the brutality of the murders, revealing that they were believed to have been killed elsewhere before the murderer moved and staged their bodies at the scene.
The girls had lost “a lot” of blood during their deaths and had been killed by some type of weapon – with the word redacted – the document states.
The murderer would have been covered in the victims’ blood in the aftermath of the slayings due to the “large amount of blood was lost by the victims at the crime scene”, it reads.
The killer was also believed to have taken some sort of souvenir from the scene.

Libby German (left) and Abby Williams (right) pictured together

Libby German (left) and Abby Williams (right) pictured together (Facebook)
Mr Logan was never charged and he died in 2020.
In December, investigators also honed in on Kegan Anthony Kline, a 27-year-old man with addresses in Kokomo and Peru whose home was searched on suspicion of child porn charges just two weeks after the 2017 murders.
Kline had allegedly confessed to investigators to using the fake social media account @anthony_shots to groom underage girls online and get them to send him nude photos and to arrange to meet him.
The account is believed to have been used to contact one of the victims around the time of her death.
Kline denied any involvement in the murders.
Indiana State Police announced details of the fake account to the public and urged anyone who had communicated with, met, or attempted to meet the individual posing as @anthony_shots to come forward with information.
It is not clear if this is tied in any way to Mr Allen’s arrest or what may have led to his arrest now – more than five years on from the 2017 slayings.

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It's just the fact the sketch was so far off he could sit right in front of it and no one batted an eye.
 
LOL i just realised in that article about the pic in the bar they are saying he didn't speak much. I wonder why? And why did his wife get him to pose in front of that pic? He does have a very boyish face and skin, without that long beard, which he grew for a disguise IMO.

I wonder if they ribbed him that he looked like it?
 
I really cannot see how these sketches can be taken out of the case. I mean they have gone up all over the country. Even on billboards right? So would they have asked potential jurors if they had seen them before?
 


My understanding is that evidence cannot be used in this trial but will be preserved if an appeal comes into play.

Yes, my understanding too. What a complete waste of the court's future time. Completely unproven theory. But hopefully it won't be at the public's expense. So there's that.
 
So, someone being in the area of a crime makes them guilty?



I'm going with it's not RA.

Yes it sure does as in MMO - means, method and opportunity.

Who do you now think it was?

RA was the only adult male on the trail and he admits he was there. The rest were all female or a little boy with the three teen girls. His gun matches the bullet found. He did not see BG either.

It is going to be very difficult for his D to explain all that. The D tried to get the PCA thrown out because of the bullet match. They tried to get most everything thrown out, to no avail.
 
I thought they were going to be in a hotel in Carroll County, as that is where the trial is. Or maybe in Lafayette (only 20 minutes away) which is White County, I think.

I don't think they can have any contact.
Yeah, you got me? I thought so too, I thought the jurors were only being selected n the other county and then would be housed close to Delphi. It was in an article above I think that I'mamazed linked. I think anyhow. It said they will be bused daily 100 miles or some such. Let me tell you in the news got THAT wrong, I'm about done with them. That's a huge error. THere was plenty about it in the article.
 

Delphi Murders Trial: Jury selection wraps up, motions to be considered​

Friday marks the start of the Delphi murders trial as Special Judge Fran Gull will listen to opening statements and arguments that will have a bearing on how the trial progresses.

Tuesday concluded with 12 jurors and four alternates being selected at the Allen County Courthouse. Now that jury selection is complete, the trial is set to officially begin at 9 a.m. Friday in Carroll County. Before that, Judge Gull will rule Thursday in Fort Wayne on multiple motions that have been filed.
 

According to WRTV's records, 17 people were selected but both the prosecution and defense say there are only 16 jurors. This means one of the jurors was excused; however, it is unclear which juror was excused and why.

On Tuesday, while questioning potential jurors, a defense attorney claimed hair found in Williams' hand did not belong to Allen.

Four family members of the victims were in the courtroom on Tuesday.

The grandparents of Williams were back in the Allen County Courthouse after attending the court proceedings on Monday as well. Two people from German's family were also in court for day two of jury selection.

Jurors will be sworn in on Thursday morning in Allen County before they are sequestered and transported to Carroll County where the trial will be held.

Also on Thursday, Judge Gull said she would consider the prosecution's motion to block the use of sketches in the trial.
 
Thanks, i hadn't seen this yet. Could be the last time we see the sketches.

So they will be in a hotel the whole time, as I thought.

The stray hair in A's hand could have come off L's clothes or the borrowed sweatshirt from K or K's vehicle, or from the overnight stay at L's house, so i don't see that as a problem.

Also, why are the jury seeing the defendant handcuffed? Isn't that prejudicial? Is that normal?

From the J&C link-

The panel will now head to Carroll County to sequester in a hotel through the end of the trial, which is slated to continue through Nov. 15. Opening statements start Friday, Oct. 18.

The seating capped off a day filled with surprise revelations, including Carroll County prosecutors asking to bar the defense from presenting prior sketches of potential suspects and the defense stating a hair found in Williams' hand did not match their client's.

Allen was charged in 2022 with two counts of murder and two counts of murder while kidnapping in the killings of the girls. Prosecutors allege the girls were walking along trails east of the city on Feb. 13, 2017, when they were forced off and led to a creek before being killed.

The allegation was just the first in new developments revealed Tuesday.

75687692007-untitled-design-20241015-t-095443537.png

Police released two composite sketches during the course of the investigation into the murders of two Delphi girls.
PROVIDED
In a motion filed Tuesday, the state requested the court to bar widely publicized sketches of possible suspect(s) from the trial. Two sketches appearing to show different men were released by authorities during the Delphi investigation, one in July 2017 and the other in April 2019. The drawings, along with cellphone video captured on German's phone, are among the few glimpses of the suspect released to the public.

In the motion, Carroll County Prosecutor Nicholas McLeland argued “a composite sketch is not relevant, admission would result in undue prejudice, confuse or mislead the jury, or is impermissible hearsay, and the witnesses who participated in the preparation of composite sketch(s) will not be presented by the State for the purpose of in-court identification of the defendant.”

A ruling about the sketches had not been made at the time of this article's publication.

At the start of Tuesday, the case needed two alternate jurors out of Allen County to complete the 16-member jury. Three jurors were then dismissed, dwindling the number to 11. One was dismissed over health concerns, another juror dismissed cited childcare issues. It's unclear why the third was excused.

Day 1: 14 of 16 jurors chosen in Delphi murders trial; selection resumes Tuesday

By 3:30 p.m., the final jury selection was made.

Allen appeared in court handcuffed, wearing a baby blue button-up shirt, khaki pants and glasses on top of his head.

More: Delphi murder case jurors will face unimaginable pressure, life-changing decision

The panel is being chosen from roughly 300 Allen County people summoned as prospective jurors. Special Judge Frances Gull previously decided the group should come from another county versus selecting from Delphi, a town of 2,961 people, to ensure impartiality and Allen's right to a fair trial.

(This story was updated to change or add a photo or video and new information.)

Contact IndyStar reporter Sarah Nelson at sarah.nelson@indystar.com


21 hours ago
So what do you think this means from the above:

In the motion, Carroll County Prosecutor Nicholas McLeland argued “a composite sketch is not relevant, admission would result in undue prejudice, confuse or mislead the jury, or is impermissible hearsay, and the witnesses who participated in the preparation of composite sketch(s) will not be presented by the State for the purpose of in-court identification of the defendant.

So the aren't going to ask the witnesses if who they saw could be RA or if they thought he was, and have not done this up to now either, like showing him as he looked in that year to them and on day of arrest, etc.? It doesn't state they won't be presented, just not for an in court ID of the defendant... A bit confusing... I mean it make some sense, he looks nothing as he did when they SAW him and is not dressed the same either, not same weight, not same age and so on. It's just a bit confusing though this paragraph...
 

According to WRTV's records, 17 people were selected but both the prosecution and defense say there are only 16 jurors. This means one of the jurors was excused; however, it is unclear which juror was excused and why.

On Tuesday, while questioning potential jurors, a defense attorney claimed hair found in Williams' hand did not belong to Allen.

Four family members of the victims were in the courtroom on Tuesday.

The grandparents of Williams were back in the Allen County Courthouse after attending the court proceedings on Monday as well. Two people from German's family were also in court for day two of jury selection.

Jurors will be sworn in on Thursday morning in Allen County before they are sequestered and transported to Carroll County where the trial will be held.

Also on Thursday, Judge Gull said she would consider the prosecution's motion to block the use of sketches in the trial.

If the DNA not matching is true. Did they run it through CODIS? If they did and didn't get a match, did they try a familial search?

The police also said there was a fingerprint. Did that match Allen? If not, did they run it through AFIS? Did they ask any previous suspects for fingerprints and DNA?

They've had the DNA and fingerprint since the day after the murders.
 

Delphi murders trial: Defense claims hair found with victim didn’t match Richard Allen​

Defense lawyers for Richard Allen made a startling admission during Tuesday’s jury selection.
Allen’s defense team revealed that hair was found in Abby Williams’ hand that didn’t match Richard Allen. That’s the first time that information has been made public. Attorney Andrew Baldwin made the comments during “mini opening statements” preceding jury selection.
Allen is charged with four counts of murder in connection with the deaths of Abby and her friend Libby German in February 2017. Indiana State Police announced his arrest in October 2022.
I am bringing this post forward because this is I think where I got the thought they would be transported 100 miles a day, and I believe it said more when I first read it because I recall more detail of what jurors would be dealing with. Here is the one paragraph that I think remains:

Jurors will be transported roughly 100 miles to Delphi for the duration of the trial, where they will be monitored and banned from using cell phones or watching news broadcasts.

Whatever the case, you can see where this can be taken either way. I believe more was said about it and also what they would be subjected to, could not have and more that doesn't seem to be there now either.

Regardless that bolded statement can be taken even alone (and I don't think it was alone) that this means daily. Transported for the duration is what I read and am reading... Not transported once to stay in Delphi for the duration...

Anyhow, I am glad they don't have to be but can I say again news needs to get their sh*t clear and be better at it. I had thought they'd be in Delphi until I read that article.

No biggie, just clearing this up and looked for where I got it before moving on to the news of the day.
 
So what do you think this means from the above:

In the motion, Carroll County Prosecutor Nicholas McLeland argued “a composite sketch is not relevant, admission would result in undue prejudice, confuse or mislead the jury, or is impermissible hearsay, and the witnesses who participated in the preparation of composite sketch(s) will not be presented by the State for the purpose of in-court identification of the defendant.

So the aren't going to ask the witnesses if who they saw could be RA or if they thought he was, and have not done this up to now either, like showing him as he looked in that year to them and on day of arrest, etc.? It doesn't state they won't be presented, just not for an in court ID of the defendant... A bit confusing... I mean it make some sense, he looks nothing as he did when they SAW him and is not dressed the same either, not same weight, not same age and so on. It's just a bit confusing though this paragraph...
Yeah i think it means they haven't and won't be asking the witnesses to identify him in court as the person they saw. That seems to indicate to me that they have not ever identified him from a lineup before then either. Possibly because he already indicated himself he was the guy they saw right? He himself already admits seeing the teenage girls at Freedom bridge and being on the bridge watching fish so essentially admits he was whom the witnesses saw.

What we don't know is whether he is also the guy then caught on Libby's phone? Logic says it was him otherwise there would have to be two bridge guys both wearing similar clothes and carrying a gun. The witnesses only saw one guy so it had to be RA.
 
If the DNA not matching is true. Did they run it through CODIS? If they did and didn't get a match, did they try a familial search?

The police also said there was a fingerprint. Did that match Allen? If not, did they run it through AFIS? Did they ask any previous suspects for fingerprints and DNA?

They've had the DNA and fingerprint since the day after the murders.
There could easily be DNA from the hair in Abby's hand and a different DNA elsewhere on one of the bodies. There could be a fingerprint on the bullet found that matched RA's gun too, for example. We don't yet know. Think of LISK and the different hairs found of the wife, the daughter, another female and LISK himself. It could be something like that. The hair in Abby's hand could be from Libby or Kelsey or Kelsey's boyfriend as Libby's clothes were put on Abby right?
 
I am bringing this post forward because this is I think where I got the thought they would be transported 100 miles a day, and I believe it said more when I first read it because I recall more detail of what jurors would be dealing with. Here is the one paragraph that I think remains:

Jurors will be transported roughly 100 miles to Delphi for the duration of the trial, where they will be monitored and banned from using cell phones or watching news broadcasts.

Whatever the case, you can see where this can be taken either way. I believe more was said about it and also what they would be subjected to, could not have and more that doesn't seem to be there now either.

Regardless that bolded statement can be taken even alone (and I don't think it was alone) that this means daily. Transported for the duration is what I read and am reading... Not transported once to stay in Delphi for the duration...

Anyhow, I am glad they don't have to be but can I say again news needs to get their sh*t clear and be better at it. I had thought they'd be in Delphi until I read that article.

No biggie, just clearing this up and looked for where I got it before moving on to the news of the day.
Yes i think the 100 miles was likely ambiguous and could be taken as daily or a one off but it actually was intended to mean a one off transportation to the Carroll County area for sequestration purposes.

This is why I prefer the J&C reporting as clearer, simpler and unambigous - see below.

"The panel will now head to Carroll County to sequester in a hotel through the end of the trial, which is slated to continue through Nov. 15. Opening statements start Friday, Oct. 18."
 
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