Richard Allen found guilty of killing Abby Williams and Libby German in Delphi, Indiana, almost a decade after their murder

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Richard Allen found guilty of killing Abby Williams and Libby German in Delphi, Indiana, almost a decade after their murder

时间：2024-11-12 11:00 来源：未知作者：admin 阅读：次

Abby Williams and Libby German were killed while on a hike near their hometown of Delphi in 2017.

There were two names painted on storefront windows, plastered on signs, and repeated by the anxious and impatient crowd outside a courthouse in the small town of Delphi, Indiana.

Abby and Libby.

Two girls, aged just 13 and 14 years old, who had disappeared and then been found murdered near a hiking path in Delphi in 2017.

The hunt for their killer spanned more than five years before a local man, 52-year-old Richard Allen, would be arrested.

It would be another two years before the case would go to trial.

On Monday morning local time, that same crowd – made up of not just their family and friends, but also reporters, podcasters, and would-be online sleuths – held their breath as the jury returned to the courtroom.

In the end it took the jury less than 20 hours to make their decision.

Richard Allen was found guilty on two counts of felony murder and two counts of murder while committing a kidnapping.

'I just couldn't imagine that someone would do harm to them'

The two girls disappeared from the Monon High Bridge, part of Delphi's historic walking trails, on February 13, 2017.

At 2.07pm, Libby shared a photo on Snapchat showing Abby on the bridge.

A little more than an hour later, when Derrick German arrived to pick up his daughter and her friend, the girls were not waiting for him at the beginning of the trail.

A massive search quickly unfolded.

One of the officer's involved in the effort, former Delphi Police chief Steve Mullin, said the first search lasted until just before 2am.

"We had no idea anything nefarious had happened to the girls," he testified in court last month.

"At that point, I still believed that, given time, they would return home. I just couldn't imagine that someone would do harm to them."

Their bodies were found about noon on February 14, some 800 metres upstream from the bridge.

A few days later, police revealed their key piece of evidence.

Libby German, noticing a man approaching her and Abby on the bridge, had taken a video recording, found by officers when they recovered her phone.

A photo of the man – later dubbed "bridge guy" – was shown to the media, along with a sound clip in which the man could be heard saying, "Guys … down the hill."

The image and the recording sparked tens of thousands of tips and gave the community hope that the case would be solved quickly.

But it would be years before any arrest was made.

Is Richard Allen Delphi's 'bridge guy'?

Richard Matthew Allen was 50 years old at the time, living in Delphi with his wife and working at a local CVS pharmacy.

Following his arrest in 2022, Libby's aunt, Tara German, told CNN Allen had once helped her print photos for the girl's funeral.

Ms German was "a mess", she said, and Allen had declined payment for the photo.

An arrest warrant unsealed in December of that year said Allen had admitted to being on the trail and to wearing clothing that matched the man seen in the "bridge guy" video.

Richard Allen has been incarcerated since his arrest.

He had contacted police himself in 2017 to tell them about being on the bridge, but the tip sheet had been mis-labelled and filed incorrectly.

In September 2022, a volunteer reorganising the case's tips found the report and flagged it with investigators, who decided to take a second look at Allen.

A search of his home found knives and firearms, including one which police said matched an unspent round found near the crime scene.

What was missing from their case, however, was any DNA evidence linking Allen to the scene.

Multiple confessions, witness testimony and an alleged cult ritual

Allen pleaded not guilty.

After his arrest he was taken to a correctional facility, where he was kept in solitary confinement.

While there he made a series of confessions to his wife, his mother, the prison warden and to a prison psychologist, according to statements and evidence released during court proceedings.

Cameras were not allowed inside the courtroom, leaving media to rely on courtroom sketches.

At trial a witness said she had seen a man walking with hunched shoulders "covered in mud and blood", on the road near the trail on the day of the murders.

Allen's defence team alleged before the trial that the girls were killed as part of a ritual, carried out by members of an Odinist cult in the Delphi area.

Sticks and branches laid out across the girls' bodies, they said, resembled runes and symbols.

Judge Frances Gull ruled that this theory was not allowed to be presented to the jury.

They also claimed Libby's phone had been "handled" hours after the girls were killed, and that the bodies had been moved and rearranged after their deaths.

Allen's confessions, they argued, were made during a "mental health crisis".

His psychologist, Dr Monica Wala, testified Allen had confessed to the murders in detail.

According to Dr Wala, Allen said he had followed the girls with the intention to sexually assault them, but had been startled by a van that passed by.

His confession, she said, contained details matching the crime scene.

However it was unclear whether Allen had already received trial paperwork from his legal team, which would have included those details, before making the confession.

In a recorded call to his wife, Allen could be heard telling her: "I did it. Just know I did it. I killed Abby and Libby.

"I think I did it. I wish they would kill me or let me apologise to the families at least."

In another call played for the jury, this time to his mother, he said: "I'm worried that you guys aren't going to love me because I said I did it."

After weeks of trial, both sides plead for justice

Carroll County Prosecutor Nick McLeland spoke for more than an hour during his final statements.

He told jurors February 13 had "started out like any other day".

"But that day 'Bridge Guy' stole the youth and light out of Abby and Libby," he said.

Allen's lawyer, Bradley Rozzi, used his closing argument to criticise the "bungled" investigation.

"Time and time and time again, we had to do [the investigators'] job," he said.

He argued Allen had sat in a cell for more than a year, labelling him a "fragile egg".

"You should question the credibility of this investigation," he said.

The trial had lasted more than two weeks.

Emotional scenes as the verdict announced in Delphi

As the verdict was read out on Monday morning, the prosecution team hugged.

Allen did not react.

He turned to his wife and daughters, asking: "Are you okay?"

After he had been led away in handcuffs, wife Kathy Allen left the courtroom.

"This isn't over at all," she told the waiting media throng.

Outside, a cheer went up amid the assembled crowd at the news of the verdict.

They had come with signs bearing the girls' photos, their names, and their message: "Today is the day."

Libby's grandmother, Becky Patty, hugged members of the family and cried as she left the courtroom.

But the family will not be allowed to comment on the case for at least another month, due to a gag order put in place following Richard Allen's arrest.

Allen will be sentenced on December 20, according to Indiana State Police, who said the gag order would remain until then.

Libby's older sister Kelsi had been a fierce advocate for her sister and for Abby before the gag order forced her to stop appearing on podcasts, talking to media and commenting online.

Following the sentencing, she shared a photo of the girls in front of a sunset, smiling, wearing light up glasses.