Jurors heard opening statements Friday in the murder trial of Richard Allen, the man charged in the 2017 killings of two Delphi, Indiana, teenagers – a case that left authorities searching for a suspect for five years.
Allen, 52, is accused of killing Liberty “Libby” German, 14, and Abigail “Abby” Williams, 13, who lived in Delphi – a small town about an hour northwest of Indianapolis with a population of less than 3,000 people, US Census Bureau data shows.
He faces four charges, including two counts of murder and two of felony murder, court records show. When he was arrested in 2022, Allen pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder while committing or attempting to commit kidnapping, but prosecutors amended the additional charges earlier this year.
The Associated Press reported that prosecutor Nicholas McLeland told jurors they would see photos of the crime scene: a rugged, wooded area near the Monon High Bridge Trail in Carroll County. He said the girls had their throats cut.
During his turn, defense attorney Andrew Baldwin told the jury there’s plenty of reasonable doubt about the case against Allen, the AP reported. He raised questions about hair evidence and said he believes the girls may have gotten into a vehicle at one point.
If convicted, Allen could face up to 130 years in prison, the AP wrote.
The case has drawn so much local and nationwide attention that Special Judge Frances C. Gull has issued a series of guidelines limiting public access to the case and the trial.
The judge issued a gag order in December 2022 to stop attorneys, law enforcement officials, court personnel, the coroner and the girls’ relatives from making public comments on the case. In addition, no cameras, phones, laptops or video and audio recording are allowed in the courtroom during jury selection and the trial.
While the trial will be held in Carroll County, Gull agreed to allow the jury to be selected from residents in Allen County – about 100 miles northwest. The jury was bused to a hotel closer to Carroll County and will be sequestered for the duration of the trial, CNN affiliate WTHR reported.
Teens were found dead after hiking
The teens, who were in eighth-grade at Delphi Community Middle School, were hiking on a day off from school on February 13, 2017, near the Monon High Bridge, an abandoned rail bridge along the 10-mile Delphi Historic Trail, Indiana State Police said. Hours later, they failed to meet Libby’s dad at a previously arranged time, police said.
The next day, their bodies were found in a wooded area about a half mile from the Monon High Bridge, police said.
The girls were close friends who had a shared love for the arts and sports. Libby spent much of her time swimming as well as playing volleyball, softball and soccer, according to her obituary. She loved photography and was a member of the Delphi Community Middle school band, where she played the saxophone, according to her bio posted on the girls’ memorial park website.
Like her friend, Abby played the saxophone in the school’s band and was part of the volleyball team, according to her obituary. While she was an avid reader who was often drawing and “creating little masterpieces,” she loved being outdoors and going on camping trips with her family.
Since their deaths, a new softball park and amphitheater were built and named after them.
Suspect’s gun led to his arrest
Over the years, authorities released sketches and portions of a video recorded on Libby’s cell phone in hopes of finding a suspect.
The video shows a man in a dark jacket and jeans walking behind the girls and then telling them, “Guys, down the hill,” according to a probable cause affidavit in Allen’s arrest.
Allen was arrested after investigators found that an unspent .40 caliber round – located between the two victims, less than two feet from one of the bodies – matched a pistol he owned, the affidavit said.
When Allen initially spoke to police in 2017, he admitted he was on the trail for roughly two hours on the day the girls were killed, the affidavit said. In a subsequent interview in October 2022, Allen told authorities he had gone out there to “watch fish,” according to the affidavit.
CNN previously reported that Allen, who was employed at the local CVS, helped an aunt of one of the victims print funeral photos at the store.
Defense attorneys for Allen have argued authorities arrested the wrong person and claimed that Odinism, a pagan Norse religion that has been linked to White supremacist groups, could be a theory connected to the killings, court documents show. On Wednesday, Gull ruled that evidence in support of that argument could be presented in court after previously ruling against it and saying it had a potential to mislead the jury.
Meanwhile, prosecutors have said that Allen admitted some 60 times to the killings while in custody. Court documents unsealed last year detailed an alleged April 2023 phone call between Allen and his wife, Kathy Allen, in which he “admits several times that he killed Abby and Libby.”
The defense has said in more recent court documents that Allen’s comments while held were “involuntary” and claim the confessions were the effects of being in solitary confinement for months.