What happened in the Delphi murders case this week: ‘Bridge Guy’ video released, timeline

Jurors in the murder trial of Richard Allen heard a week of testimony and reviewed new evidence presented in the case. Allen is accused of killing 13-year-old Abigail Williams and 14-year-old Liberty German in Delphi, Indiana, in 2017.

The teens, known as Abby and Libby, were found dead on February 14, 2017. The girls had gone missing the day before, while walking on a trail on leave from school on a warm winter’s day.

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Allen is charged with two counts of murder during or attempted kidnapping, as well as two additional counts of murder. The 52-year-old pharmacy technician was arrested in October 2022, more than five years after the deaths of Williams and German.

Authorities searched Allen’s home in 2022 and seized a blue Carhartt jacket, a SIG Sauer P226 .40-caliber semi-automatic pistol and a .40-caliber S&W cartridge in a “wooden keepsake box” from a dresser between two closets in his bedroom.

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According to FOX News the gun was consistent At the time, police stated that police found an unspent 0.40-caliber bullet at the scene of the 2017 murders.

Prosecutors revealed in court documents released several weeks after Allen’s arrest that tests determined that an unspent bullet found between Williams and German had been “twisted” into Allen’s gun, according to the Associated Press.

What are the key moments in the Delphi murders case so far?

Families of the victims spoke

Abby and Libby’s family members testified publicly on the first day of the trial on October 18, 2024. FOX News reported in 2022 that a judge issued a gag order in the case.

Libby’s grandmother, Becky Patty, was the first to speak before the court, describing her granddaughter as adventurous, intelligent and calm. Patty recalled the moment on February 14, 2017, when searchers found Libby and Abby’s bodies in the woods after they had been missing for a day.

Other family members who testified on Oct. 18 included Libby’s sister, Kelsi German Siebert; Libby’s father, Derrick German; and Abby’s mother, Anna Williams.

The scene of the incident was described

Jurors heard grisly details about the crime scene during opening statements on Oct. 18 and during testimony on Oct. 21.

Libby was naked and covered in blood when searchers found the two girls dead in wooded areas near the Monon High Bridge, prosecutor Nick McLeland said in his opening statement. Both girls’ throats had been slit multiple times. FOX 59 in Indianapolis reported.

McLeland noted to the jury that the clothes were either mismatched or thrown into a stream. Abby was wearing her own undershirt but Libby’s sweatpants. He was also wearing jeans and shoes, but no socks. One of Libby’s shoes and Libby’s cell phone were under Abby’s body.

FOX 59 reported that someone placed twigs and leaves over the girls’ bodies, spaced several feet apart but not enough to completely cover them, leaving the teen’s limbs slightly bent. On the third day of the trial, on October 21, jurors reviewed approximately 40 photographs of the crime scene.

Citing court documents, FOX News noted that McLeland claimed that Allen, who allegedly confessed to the murder multiple times in prison, shared details only the killer would know.

‘Bridge Man’ video released

A key piece of evidence in the Delphi murder case is a video Libby took on her cell phone before she and Abby were killed.

Jurors watched 43 seconds of the video in court on October 22, 2024. The footage shows Libby and Abby walking with an unidentified man wearing a hat and blue jacket, who has been known as the “Bridge Guy” for the past five years. FOX News reported.

In the video, the man can be heard telling the girls, “Guys, down the hill.” One of the girls, who experts believe is Libby, is heard responding: “There’s no road here. We have to get down here.”

According to FOX 59; video It continues to show the girls walking towards Deer Creek. Search parties found the victims’ bodies the next morning on the other side of the same stream. Indiana State Police digital forensics expert Brian Bunner said he extracted the same video from Libby’s phone four separate times between 2017 and 2019 for analysis.

“Bridge Man” witness

On October 23, 2024, witness Sarah Carbaugh testified during the trial and placed Allen near the scene of the crime on the afternoon of February 13, 2017.

Carbaugh said he saw the man shown in Libby’s video, known as the “Bridge Man,” walking down the road around 4 p.m. the day the girls disappeared. The man’s hands were in his pockets and his head was bowed. Carbaugh testified that he and the man did not make eye contact.

According to FOX 59, Carbaugh shared with jurors that there was mud and blood on Allen’s clothing and that it looked like he had fallen into a muddy creek.

Carbaugh did not report the report to police for three weeks, explaining that he delayed providing information because he was “overthinking” a traumatic situation.

The woman also stated that her videotaped interview was lost due to a technical error. FOX 59 noted that the state has previously acknowledged that some calls were lost due to errors in the system.

According to FOX News, Richard Allen’s defense attorney, Andrew Baldwin, defended Carbaugh’s statement to investigators in 2017, saying he described Allen’s clothes as muddy, not bloody. Carbaugh claims this, stating that he remembers Allen saying there was blood at the scene. time.

Richard Allen’s interview with police in 2017

Richard Allen notified police on February 17, 2017, a few days after the girls were killed.

FOX 59 reported that Allen agreed to meet Indiana Department of Natural Resources Capt. Dan Dulin in a store parking lot after Allen refused to invite Dulin to his home or meet him at an area police station.

Dulin stated that the outlet wanted to “self-report” that Allen was on the Monon High Bridge the day the girls disappeared and saw three young girls walking along the road.

Allen said he didn’t pay much attention to his surroundings at the time because he was checking the stock market on his phone.

Dulin also testified that Allen changed the timetable of when he was on the road, initially saying he was there from 1:00pm to 3:00pm, but later changed the timetable from 1:30pm to 3:30pm.

The sergeant said he didn’t think much of the interview, which lasted just 10 minutes, until Allen’s arrest in 2022, according to FOX59.

Dulin filed his notes from the 2017 interview in a Microsoft Word document saved on his agency’s computer system.

However, due to a typo, the interview was filed under the wrong name; Richard Allen Whiteman — “Whiteman” was the name of the street where Allen lived — and Kathy Shank, a retired DCS employee who was labeled “permitted,” volunteered to be interviewed. He helps Carroll County with administrative duties, he told FOX 59. Allen was not officially named as a suspect in the 2017 murders until October 2022.