DELPHI, Ind. — An Indiana judge has unsealed the court documents related to a man’s arrest in the 2017 killings of two teenage girls in Delphi on Tuesday.
According to the court documents, investigators say marks on a single unspent bullet found near the bodies tie Richard Allen to the killings of Abby Williams and Libby German in 2017.
Special Judge Fran Gull overruled objections from the prosecutor's office and released a redacted version of the probable cause affidavit that details the evidence used to charge Allen with murdering the two young girls in Delphi.
"When asked about the unspent bullet, (Allen) did not have an explanation of why the bullet was found between the bodies of Victim 1 and Victim 2," investigators wrote in the affidavit. "(Allen) again admitted he was on the trail, but denied knowing Victim 1 or Victim 2 and denied any involvement in their murders."
Allen, 50, has been charged with murder in the deaths of Abby Williams, 13, and Libby German, 14. The girls' bodies were found on Valentine's Day 2017 off a trail near the Monon High Bridge in Delphi.
Names of witnesses and detectives on the case are redacted from the public version of the affidavit. The document refers to Abby and Libby as Victim 1 and Victim 2, even though their names and photos have been widely distributed to the public since the day before their bodies were found on Feb. 14, 2017.
The affidavit details the meticulous work of investigators who spent years on the case. The evidence linking Allen to the crime includes:
- Several witnesses saw a man investigators believe was Richard Allen on the Monon High Bridge about the time the girls disappeared.
- Surveillance video from the Hoosier Harvestore, a farm equipment repair shop in Delphi, showed what police believe is Allen's Ford Focus in the area near the trail.
- Clothing that belongs to Allen was seized by investigators and matches the blue jacket and jeans worn by the killer in images captured on the phone of one of the victims just before the killings.
- A single .40-caliber bullet was found on the ground between the bodies. Ejection marks on that bullet show it had been "cycled through" a Sig Sauer P226 found in Allen's home. Allen, investigators learned, had purchased the handgun in 2001. He never let anyone borrow it, Allen told detectives.
Allen is scheduled to appear in a Carroll County court for a hearing on Feb . 17.
