Delphi suspect went to police 3 days after murders, but ‘disgraced’ for years: Sheriff

Delphi, Indiana, Double murder suspect Richard Allen He told the jury at Allen’s trial that the sheriff reported he was at the crime scene in the days after the murders, but the tip sheet “fell through the cracks” and left him “hiding in plain sight” in the small town for years.

Her best friends are Libby German (14) and Abby Williams (13). Walking the Delphi hiking trail They were killed on the afternoon of February 13, 2017. Allen, a Delphi resident, was arrested in October 2022 and pleaded not guilty to murder.

Volunteer file clerk Kathy Shank, who organized boxes of information and tips on the case, testified Thursday that on Sept. 21, 2022 — weeks before Allen’s arrest — she came across a file folder that wasn’t in other files she managed. .

The newspaper stated that on February 16, 2017 – three days after the murders – a person identified as “Richard Allen Whiteman” reported that he was on the road between 13.30 and 15.30 on the day of the murders. crime. According to Shank, the reporter stated that he saw three girls.

Shank testified that he wrote a front page and changed his name to Richard Allen. Allen lived on Whiteman Drive, so he believed the names were transferred and misfiled, he said.

He said he notified the sheriff after finding Allen’s tip sheet.

Allen’s defense attorney asked Shank: “To your knowledge, there were no other leads involving Richard Allen?” “As far as I know, no,” Shank replied.

Carroll County Sheriff Tony Liggett acknowledged on the stand that Allen was never a suspect from 2017 to 2022 and said the tip form created against him was marked “open.” When pressed by Allen’s defense about how this could happen, Liggett responded, Allen “got lost” and “fell through the cracks.”

The sheriff also acknowledged that Allen struck out on his own and never left town. “He was hiding in plain sight,” Liggett told defense attorney Andrew Baldwin.

Liggett was running for sheriff when Allen was arrested, and Allen’s lawyers argued this was good timing for his campaign. Liggett denied the two were connected.

“This was about the murder of two little girls,” he said.

Indiana State Police investigator Jerry Holeman testified about his conversation with Allen during a search of Allen’s home in the fall of 2022.

Holeman said he told Allen as the two sat in the police car that he could file a claim for compensation for any damage to his home after the search was conducted.

Holeman claimed Allen replied, “It doesn’t matter. It’s over.”

Holeman said he did not record the conversation, even though Allen was considered a suspect at the time. Defense attorneys countered Holeman’s story, saying the jury could only take his word for it.

Indiana State Police officer David Vido, who helped execute a search warrant at Allen’s home, testified that there was no physical evidence in Allen’s car or jacket that tied him to the crime scene.

Police analysis of Allen’s gun determined that the unspent .40-caliber bullet discovered by the girls’ bodies was mistaken for Allen’s gun, prosecutors said.