Murder trial begins in Indiana town for 2017 killings of two teenage girls

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WSBT) — A murder trial in the 2017 killings of two teenage girls begins Friday in the small Indiana town where all the teens and the man accused of killing them lived.

The jury was sworn in Thursday morning and was moved to a hotel closer to Delphi.

Opening statements are scheduled for Friday morning.

The jury will determine whether Richard Allen is guilty of killing teenagers Abby Williams and Libby German in 2017. Their deaths were unsolved for more than five years when Allen, then a pharmacy employee, was arrested in the case. He faces two counts of murder and two counts of murder while committing or attempting to commit kidnapping.

Abby and Libby were found dead on February 14, 2017, in a rugged, wooded area about a quarter mile from the Monon High Bridge Trail. The girls went missing the day before while hiking this trail just outside their hometown. Days later, police released files found on Libby’s cellphone that they said captured the killer’s image and voice — two grainy photos and audio of a man saying “down the hill “.

Investigators also released a sketch of a suspect in July 2017 and another in April 2019. They also released a brief video showing a suspect walking on an abandoned railroad bridge, known as the Monon High Bridge. After several years went by without a suspect identified, investigators said they went back and looked at “previous clues.”

Investigators found that Allen was interviewed in 2017. He told an officer that he was walking on the trail the day Abby and Libby disappeared and saw three “women” on a bridge called Freedom Bridge , but did not speak to them, according to an affidavit.

Allen told the officer that as he walked from that bridge to the Monon High Bridge, he did not see anyone but was distracted, “looking at a stock symbol on his phone as he walked.”

Police interviewed Allen again on October 13, 2022, when he reported seeing three “young girls” while on his walk in 2017. Investigators searched Allen’s home and seized a .40 caliber pistol. Prosecutors said tests determined that an unexpended bullet found between Abby and Libby’s bodies “passed through” Allen’s gun.

According to the affidavit, Allen said he had never been to the scene and “had no explanation as to why a bullet through his firearm would be in that location.”

The judge is expected to rule on several requests.

She has already decided to allow the defense to present her theory of Odinism in court.

This suggests that members of a white nationalist group are responsible for the girls’ deaths.

The judge has not yet ruled on the prosecution’s request to exclude the composite portraits of the suspects from the trial.

It also remains to be decided whether the jury will be allowed to visit the crime scene.

The defense made this request.

This trial is expected to last a month.

If convicted, Allen faces up to 130 years in prison.

Editor’s Note: The Associated Press contributed to this report.