Delphi Murders

Here’s what was known before this year: two girls, Abigail Williams and Libby German, ages 13 and 14, went on a walk in their hometown of Delphi, Indiana,  never to be seen or heard from again. They disappeared in 2017, and since then multiple local men have fallen under suspicion, but no arrests were made.  The two girls went missing after a hike along the Monon High Bridge Trail in Delphi, Indiana; their bodies were discovered in a wooded area the next day. 

In October of 2017, a now fifty year old man named Richard Allen was taken into custody and charged with the girls’ murders. He was taken to Carroll County Jail and later moved to a state facility for his safety. While he was charged with the murders, he pleaded not guilty to all the charges. 

However, earlier this year, the news that Allen had actually admitted to the murders in a jailhouse phone call to his wife was revealed. His court case is set for January 8, 2024. 

For years the police department had refused to come out with details of the case such as cause of death, but shocking details came out when The Murder Sheet, a true crime podcast run by journalist Áine Cain and attorney Kevin Greenlee, obtained information through a Freedom of Information request back in 2022. 

Police documents revealed that a man named Ronald Logan was being investigated, also in the documents were some of the more gruesome details of the murders, such as confirmation that a knife and gun were used and that major blood loss was caused by the wounds. 

The case is well known due to the videos the girls took during their last moments, one of those videos included a pixelated view of a man following the girls. Richard Allen bears a suspicious resemblance to said man. Living less than five minutes away from the crime scene, as well as the blatant disrespect he showed to the victims, and the  police sketches, Allen is under immense suspicion. 

To further confirm his tie to the case, he admitted to being on the trail the day of the murders, and the bullets found at the scene belonged to his personal gun. While the police do have proof of confession, Allen’s lawyers argue his confession is unusable due to his mental state at the time of the confessions.