DELPHI, Ind. ― The prosecution and defense gave jurors vastly different versions of Richard Allen during their opening statements Friday: A cold-blooded killer who allegedly threatened Abigail “Abby” Williams and Liberty “Libby” German with a gun before he killed them, and an innocent man who was ensnared in a bungled investigation marred by a turf war between law enforcement officials.
Opening statements and the first testimonies in Allen’s trial began Friday in a downtown Delphi courtroom packed with family members, reporters, true crime podcasters and members of the public. After hearing a month of testimonies and arguments, a jury of five men and seven women will decide Allen’s fate in one of Indiana’s most controversial and highly publicized criminal cases that shocked Delphi residents and made their small community infamous.
Allen, who’s facing two counts of murder and two counts of murder while kidnapping the girls, appeared in a long-sleeve, button-down purple shirt and khaki pants, with his eyeglasses perched on his head. His family members, including his wife, Kathy Allen, sat behind him. His long-awaited trial comes more than seven years after the girls’ murders and almost exactly two years after his arrest.
First day of testimonies: Family remember final talks with victims in Delphi murder trial
The day began with a slight kerfuffle, with law enforcement officers confiscating cameras from several journalists, including a Gannett photojournalist, after jurors arrived at the courthouse.
The first testimonies came from the victims’ family members, who provided an account of the teens’ final day ― an unseasonably warm, school-free February that began with banana pancakes for breakfast and ended with a frantic search in the woods.
Prosecutor: Allen ‘hid in plain sight’
In his brief opening statement that lasted less than 15 minutes, Carroll County Prosecutor Nicholas McLeland alleged that Allen, armed with a gun, forced Abby, 13, and Libby, 14, down a hill near the Monon High Bridge trail, where the teens went on a hike on Feb. 13, 2017, “a nice summer day in the middle of winter.”
And for five years before his arrest in October 2022, McLeland said Allen “hid in plain sight.”
“For five years, he lived in this community,” McLeland told jurors. “He worked in his community.”
A little after 2 p.m., the girls reached the famous high bridge. Allen, McLeland told jurors, was following them. He “pulls out a gun and forces them down the hill,” McLeland said, adding that a video Libby was taking on her phone shut off around this time.
“Out of fear, the girls comply,” McLeland said. Allen, he added, “had the power.”
Carroll County Prosecutor Nick McLeland speaks during a press conference addressing updates regarding the investigation of the murders of Abby Williams and Libby German, Monday, Monday, Oct. 31, 2022, at Delphi United Methodist Church in Delphi, Ind.
The girls’ bodies were found along Deer Creek the next day. Their throats had been slit. Libby was naked and covered in blood, McLeland told jurors as he choked up. Abby was wearing Libby’s sweatshirt and jeans, while the rest of the clothes were found in the nearby creek.
McLeland then summarized the evidence against Allen including his admission that he was on the trail that day. After searching his home in Delphi, investigators found knives, boots and a handgun. McLeland said an unspent bullet found at the crime scene had been cycled through the same Sig Sauer, Model P226, .40-caliber handgun that Allen owned.
As McLeland spoke, Allen shook his head multiple times.
Allen’s own words also confirmed his role in the girls’ deaths, McLeland said. Prosecutors had revealed earlier that Allen made 61 incriminating statements while he was being held at the Westville Correctional Facility, but the defense team had countered that these supposed confessions were made in the throes of a mental health crisis while being held in solitary confinement.
Defense: ‘There is reasonable doubt’
Defense attorney Andrew Baldwin said Allen is a “truly innocent” man who got caught in the middle of an investigation that “was messed up from the beginning” and urged jurors to wait before making up their minds.
“We want the truth to come out in this courtroom for the families and all of you because it is truly important,” Baldwin told jurors.
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Baldwin said the investigation has been bogged down with problems from the start. A “turf war” between investigators led to more conflicts, with state officials kicking out the FBI in the middle of the years-long investigation, Baldwin said.
Critical pieces of evidence were also destroyed, Baldwin said. Allen’s defense attorneys have repeatedly accused investigators of intentionally keeping evidence that could prove their client’s innocence.
On Feb. 13, 2017, Allen did go to the trail, Baldwin acknowledged, but he’d left by 1:30 p.m., more than a half-hour before the girls were believed to have been kidnapped. By 2:15 p.m., Allen’s car was no longer in the nearby parking lot where prosecutors alleged he had parked, Baldwin said.
“Richard Allen was never on the trail with those girls … There is reasonable doubt in this case,” Baldwin said.
As Baldwin spoke, at least two jurors were taking notes. Judge Frances Gull clasped her hands by her face as she listened.
Baldwin said the state’s theory ― that the girls’ bodies were left in the woods by 4 p.m. on Feb. 13 and were untouched until they were discovered the next day ― could not have happened. He said Libby’s phone, which was found under Abby’s leg, somehow connected to a cellphone tower at 4:33 a.m. on Feb. 14.
This means, Baldwin alleges, that “human hands handled that phone” after 4 p.m. on Feb. 13, when Allen was home and did not go back to the trail.
Baldwin offered another theory: The girls were taken somewhere in a vehicle. Sometime after 4:33 a.m., someone brought them back to where they were found.
‘Grandma, it will be OK’: Heart-wrenching testimonies from victims’ family members
Liberty German was a smart student who would’ve graduated a year early, an active teen who played volleyball, soccer, softball and swimming, and an adventurous spirit who “wanted to try anything once,” her grandmother, Becky Patty, said during an emotional testimony.
Her older sister, Kelsi Siebert, described her as a brave and outspoken teenager who would “absolutely” stand up to others. Libby also often hiked the Monon High Bridge trail and was never scared to cross the bridge, which is famous and intimidating for its height and the big gaps between the wooden steps.
Abigail Williams, on the other hand, was quiet and reserved and wouldn’t go out of her way to talk to most people, her mother, Anna Williams, testified. As she spoke, Williams choked up and paused for 10 seconds, shaking her head.
But like Libby, she was also adventurous and loved sports. Abby took part in swimming and volleyball and played in a band.
“She was a very kind little girl, helpful, smart, funny,” Anna Williams said, as she cried on the stand.
The Sunday before they disappeared, Abby spent the night at Libby’s house. That morning of Feb. 13, they had banana pancakes for breakfast prepared by Libby’s father, Derrick German. Later that day, Libby said she wanted to go to the bridge and asked her older sister to go with them, family members testified.
“The last thing she said to me was, ‘Grandma, it will be OK,” Patty said, adding that she wasn’t worried because Libby had been to the trail before. “It was a safe place in 2017.”
On the drive to the trail with Siebert, Libby’s older sister, the girls chatted as they listened to loud music with the windows open. Snapchat photos Libby took that day showed Abby sitting in the back seat of Siebert’s car on the way to the trailhead. Abby wore a gray zip-up hoodie, blue jeans and a messy bun. Libby wore a tie-dyed shirt.
The other photo Libby took that day was of Abby stepping from one wooden railroad tie to another on the high bridge.
That photo would circulate online for several years after their deaths.
Family members recall frantic search for the girls
At some point that afternoon, Libby called her father to ask him to pick them up later. Derrick German said he was driving to Frankfort, more than 20 miles south of Delphi, to run errands when he got the call from his daughter. He told her it would take him a couple of hours to get to them.
“She said, ‘No problem. We’ll just do some exploring,'” Derrick German testified.
It was the last conversation the two had.
Derrick German arrived at the trail a little after 3 p.m. and called Libby, but she didn’t answer. He looked for the girls on the trail, screaming their names and calling Libby’s phone multiple times. Nobody answered.
By 3:30 p.m., Libby was still not answering her phone, which was very unlike her, Patty testified.
“I knew we needed to go to the trails to look for them,” she said.
Family members described the frantic hours of searching for the girls late into the night.
“I kept calling and calling and calling (Libby),” Patty said.
So did Siebert.
They all came back the next day to keep looking. Patty said she and others searched nearby fields where the girls would’ve been if they had tried to walk home. Siebert said she went back to the high bridge and walked down a path to look under the structure.
Then, they learned from others who had joined the search that the girls had been found. Libby’s father and grandmother both recalled seeing the coroner’s truck.
“That’s when I knew,” Patty testified. “They weren’t alive.”
The last witness to testify Friday was Mitch Catron, a deputy for the Carroll County Sheriff’s Office who responded to a call about the missing girls about 5:15 p.m. on Feb. 13. Catron testified that he spoke with Brad Weber, who owned a wooded property near where the girls disappeared.
McLeland, the lead prosecutor, asked of Weber: “Was he covered in sweat? Was he covered in blood? Did he look disheveled in any way?” Matron said no to each question.
Weber let the officer search his property, although the defense noted that Catron didn’t look inside two outbuildings on the site. He said he likely stayed for less than 10 minutes.
Testimonies will resume Saturday. The trial is expected to conclude in mid-November.
Contact IndyStar reporter Kristine Phillips at (317) 444-3026 or at kphillips@indystar.com.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Heart-wrenching testimony in 1st day of Richard Allen’s Delphi murders trial
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