Richard Allen used power and fear to kill teenage victims, prosecutors say

Richard Allen was armed with a gun when he encountered teenage friends Abigail “Abby” Williams and Liberty “Libby” German near a hiking trail in Delphi, Indiana, in February 2017 and then attacked them with “power and fear.” “Forced down the hill” before slitting their throats, prosecutors said in an opening statement Friday in his double murder trial.

When the girls’ bodies were found the next day after they were reported missing, 14-year-old Libby was naked and covered in blood, while 13-year-old Abby was wearing Libby’s sweatshirt and jeans and had thrown other clothing into a stream, according to reports Carroll County Prosecutor Nick McLeland told jurors. He choked up as he described the scene to the jury of seven women and five men.

The “last face the girls saw” was Allen’s, McLeland said.

He said Allen would later admit to police that he had walked the path that day and that an unspent bullet found at the scene and confessions he allegedly made, including to his wife, would prove that he guilty of the teenager’s death. Prosecutors also plan to call witnesses who said they saw Allen at the trial.

Defense attorney Andrew Baldwin later proclaimed Allen’s innocence, instead describing to jurors in his opening statement a convoluted investigation that was “muddled from the start” and included loss of evidence and a “turf war” between government investigators and the FBI.

He also said that a strand of hair found on Abby’s fingers – evidence that has not been made public in the case – did not come from Allen or the girls and tests should be done to determine whether she was related to a relative of the girls matches.

Ultimately, Baldwin said, the defense plans to challenge the state’s timeline to show that Allen was not on the trail at the same time as the girls and that there was other evidence that she may have been abducted in a different vehicle and then taken there were returned where they were found.

“There is reasonable doubt in this case,” Baldwin said.

After jurors were selected this week from Allen County, more than 100 miles northeast of Delphi, the trial began Friday in the small community where the killings took place, drawing renewed attention to the tangled case.

Allen, 52, dressed in a long-sleeve button-down shirt and khakis, shook his head at times during McLeland’s opening statement.

Abby and Libby, who McLeland described as always together and more like sisters, were found walking and taking photos near an abandoned railroad bridge a day after their families said they were missing.

Allen’s lawyers have maintained his innocence. In December 2022, Judge Frances Gull issued a gag order that prevented nearly everyone involved in the case from speaking publicly.

However, the trial is expected to reveal new details.

If Allen is found guilty of two counts of murder and two counts of aggravated murder in connection with the teens’ deaths, he could face up to 130 years in prison. The married father and local pharmacy technician was not arrested until late 2022, more than five years after the murders.

“For five years he lived in this community,” McLeland told jurors. “He worked in this community. He was hiding in plain sight.”

Police had said they first interviewed Allen as part of the case in 2017, and they said he admitted to being on the trail the day the teens went missing.

According to an affidavit, a bullet found near their bodies was linked to a handgun that belonged to him.

A key piece of evidence – a video from Libby’s cellphone found under Abby’s body – showed the obvious suspect. A male voice was also heard saying, “Guys, down the hill,” and one of the girls said, “Gun.”

The clip sparked interest on social media and among internet sleuths when police first released it as they sought help identifying the person in the video.

Prosecutors also said Allen confessed dozens of times after his arrest to various people, including his wife and staff at the prison where he was being held, that he committed the murders.

As the trial began this week, defense attorneys withdrew a request to allow jurors to view the crime scene, which prosecutors had rejected.

His lawyers also won’t be able to give the jury an alternative theory to the murders. Gull last month rejected her claim that Abby and Libby were murdered as part of a ritual sacrifice by people associated with Odinism, a Norse pagan religion that has spread among white nationalist groups.

However, defense attorneys can still argue during the trial why certain evidence is admissible.