When is the Delphi trial? Jury selection begins for Richard Allen, suspect in 2017 murders of Abby Williams and Libby German

DELPHI, Ind. — So far, eight women and six men have been selected to serve on a jury in the trial of a man accused of killing two teenage girls in Indiana during a 2017 winter hike.

Jury selection opened Monday in the case against Richard Allen, which has long haunted the girls’ hometown of Delphi and sparked endless speculation online.

Allen, 52, is charged with two counts of murder and two counts of murder while committing or attempting to commit kidnapping in connection with the killings of Abigail Williams, 13, and Liberty German, 14 . If convicted, he faces up to 130 years in prison. Prosecutors are not seeking the death penalty.

Jury selection is expected to continue Tuesday in Fort Wayne, about 100 miles from the scene of the murders.

Once the 12 members and four alternates are selected, they will be taken to Delphi, a town of about 3,000, sequestered during the trial and banned from using cellphones or watching television news.

If jury selection is completed Wednesday, jury instructions and opening statements could take place Friday morning. The trial is expected to last a month.

Prosecutors said they plan to call about 50 witnesses during the trial, while Allen’s defense attorneys plan to call about 120 witnesses.

The case sparked national intrigue and remained a mystery for more than five years until suspect Richard Allen was arrested in October 2022. He has pleaded not guilty to murder charges.

Allen, a pharmacy technician who had lived and worked in Delphi, was arrested in October 2022, nearly six years after the murders of the girls known as Abby and Libby.

A parent had dropped the eighth-graders off at a hiking trail just outside Delphi on Feb. 13, 2017, but the two failed to show up at the arranged pick-up location later that day. They were reported missing that evening and their bodies were found the next day in a rugged, wooded area near the trail.

Days later, police released files found on Libby’s cellphone — two grainy photos and an audio recording of a man saying “down the hill” — that they said depicted the killer.

But no arrests followed.

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In July 2017, investigators released a sketch of the suspect, and then another in April 2019. They also released a brief video showing the suspect walking on an abandoned railroad bridge.

After years of failing to find a suspect, investigators said they went back and looked at “previous tips.”

Allen was interviewed in 2017. He told the officer he was walking on the trail the day the girls disappeared and saw three “females” on another bridge, but did not speak to them. He said he didn’t notice anyone else because he was distracted by a ticker on his phone, according to an arrest affidavit.

Police questioned Allen again on October 13, 2022, when he reiterated that he saw three “young girls” during his walk in 2017. Investigators searched Allen’s home and seized a caliber pistol .40. Tests determined that an unspent bullet found between the teen’s bodies “passed through” Allen’s gun.

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According to the affidavit, Allen said he had never been where the bullet was found, did not know the owner of the land and “had no explanation as to why a bullet crossed by his firearm would be found at this location”.

The case experienced repeated delays after evidence leaked, Allen’s public defenders withdrew and was later reinstated by the Indiana Supreme Court. The Delphi murders remain the subject of widespread speculation and theories among true crime enthusiasts.

Allen County Superior Court Judge Fran Gull, who is overseeing the case, issued a gag order at the request of prosecutors in December 2022, two months after Allen’s arrest. It bars lawyers, law enforcement officials, court staff, the coroner and the girls’ relatives from commenting on the case, including on social media.

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Gull banned cameras from the courtroom during Allen’s trial.

In August of this year, she ruled that prosecutors could introduce evidence of dozens of incriminating statements Allen allegedly made in conversations with correctional officers, inmates, law enforcement and relatives. That evidence includes a recording of a phone call between Allen and his wife in which, prosecutors say, he confessed to the murders.

The judge’s decision was “a real blow to the defense,” said Hal Johnston, an assistant professor of criminal law at Indiana University who is not involved in the case.

“The incriminating statements are going to be extremely compelling because that’s what the jury wants to hear,” Johnston said.

Allen’s lawyers had hoped to present evidence that the girls were killed in a ritual sacrifice by members of a Norse pagan religion and a white nationalist group, but Gull ruled against that, saying that the defense had not provided any “admissible evidence” of such a link.

She also blocked Allen’s lawyers from arguing that the killings could have been committed by others, including the late owner of the property where the teens’ bodies were found.

Prosecutors have not revealed how Abby and Libby were killed. But a court filing by Allen’s lawyers in support of their ritual sacrifice theory says their throats had been slit.