DELPHI, Ind. — The fate of a Delphi, Indiana man accused of killing two girls on a hiking trail is now in the hands of a jury after a trial revealed new details in the mysterious case.

Richard Allen has pleaded not guilty to murdering best friends Abby Williams, 13, and Libby German, 14. Their bodies were left in the forest on February 13, 2017 and discovered the next day.

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The crime gained national attention when police released an image of the suspect and a clip of his voice — a recording of him saying “down the hill” — that was recovered from Libby’s phone.

Allen admitted to being behind on the day of the murders but denied involvement.

Here’s a look at the trial’s main takeaways:

How the girls died

For more than seven years, investigators have remained tight-lipped about how the girls were killed, not disclosing whether their deaths were caused by a knife, gun or other weapon, and not disclosing whether they were sexually assaulted.

Prosecutor Nick McLeland then revealed in his opening statement that the girls’ throats had been slit.

Pathologist Dr. Roland Kohr, who performed the autopsies, testified that Abby had a 1-inch-deep, 3-inch-long gash on her neck.

Libby had several lacerations on the right side of her neck, Kohr said, the largest of which was about 3.5 inches long.

Kohr said he initially thought a serrated knife was used to cut the girls’ throats, but began to believe during final trial preparations that a box cutter might have been used.

Libby’s body was found empty, prosecutors said, but rape kits concluded there was no DNA evidence to show the girls were sexually assaulted, according to a forensic pathologist’s testimony.

Witnesses recall ‘bridge guy’

After Abby and Libby crossed the Monon High Bridge, they saw a man behind them, and Libby started recording on her phone, McLeland said. The man pulled out a gun and ordered the girls down “the hill,” McLeland said. The girls complied, McLeland said, and then the video on Libby’s phone stopped recording.

Libby’s cellphone video of the “guy on the bridge” was released early in the case as investigators asked the public for help identifying him.

During Allen’s trial, a pair of teenage girls who were on the trail that day shared their memories of the “bridge guy” with the jury.

Railly Voorhies said the man she saw was overdressed for the weather, wearing dark clothing, wearing a hat and with his hands in his pockets.

The prosecution released a photo of the “guy on the bridge,” and Voorhies said, “That was the man I waved to on the trail.”

Breann Wilber, who was on the trail with Voorhies, testified that she also noticed the man who was overdressed for the hot weather.

She said the man was walking with a “purpose,” didn’t respond when Voorhies saluted and gave off “weird vibrations.”

Wilber said that when he saw the picture of the “bridge guy,” “the first thing I thought was that that’s the person I saw on the trail.”

During questioning, the girls were pressed about how their description of the man had changed over time.

Timeline of the crime

A timeline of the crime was revealed through the data on Libby’s phone, which was recovered from under Abby’s body.

Libby’s phone showed the girls were dropped off at the trail around 1:40 p.m. and were near the Monon High Bridge at 2:05 p.m., Indiana State Police Sgt. Christopher Cecil testified.

At 2:14 pm, Cecil said that Libby filmed the infamous “bridge guy.”

Phone records noted a change in longitude, elevation and altitude at 2:31 p.m., Cecil said, meaning Libby’s phone was moving. By 2:32 p.m., Cecil said the teenager’s phone went dead and never moved.

Cecil testified that Libby’s phone gradually turned off throughout the night, died at 10:32 p.m., and then woke up with a spike at 4:33 a.m. Cecil said her phone then received 15 to 20 text messages at once. One of the messages, sent nearly 12 hours earlier from Libby’s grandmother, read: “You need to call me now!!!”

Cecil said he did not know the reason for that time gap.

Twenty-three devices were seized from Allen’s home, but none linked Allen to the girls or the crime scene, Cecil said.

Allen’s mental state, prison confessions

Allen’s mental state at the time of his multiple confessions while in custody became a major focus of the trial.

Allen was arrested in the fall of 2022. By the spring of 2023, his behavior had taken a turn. Allen’s strange behavior in custody included banging his head against a wall, washing his face in the toilet, refusing food, eating paper, smearing feces in his cell and applying feces to his face for two hours, according to corrections officers’ testimony.

In the spring of 2023, Allen also began confessing to the crimes multiple times to his wife, a psychologist and corrections officers, according to the affidavit.

Psychologist Monica Wala testified that in one of Allen’s confessions, Allen told her he saw the girls on the trail and followed them to the bridge.

Allen said he ordered the girls to “get down the hill” and intended to rape them, but then he saw something — either a person or a van — and flinched, Wala said. Allen told her he ordered the girls across the creek, cut their throats and covered their bodies with branches, according to Wala.

Allen also allegedly testified in several jailhouse phone calls to his wife.

Allen told his wife, Kathy, “I did it. I killed Abby and Libby.”

“No, you didn’t,” she said. Allen replied, “Yes, I did.”

“Why would you say that?” Kathy said. “I know you didn’t.” There’s something wrong.

Allen spent 13 months in solitary confinement, and a neuropsychologist who testified for the defense said he can change an inmate’s brain chemistry.

The neuropsychologist said Allen experienced hallucinations, psychosis and suicidal ideation.

A corrections officer, Michael Clemons, testified for the prosecution that Allen told him, “I, Richard Matthew Allen, killed Abby and Libby by myself. No one helped me”. Clemons said Allen would yell to the other inmates, “I’m not crazy, I’m just acting like I’m crazy.”

Another correctional officer, Michael Roberts, testified that on April 23, 2023, Allen said, “I killed Abby & Libby. My wife was not involved. I want to confess”.

Days later, according to Roberts, Allen said, “Can I talk? You can hear I killed Abby and Libby? How can I prove I’m crazy?”

Dr. John Martin, who treats inmates, was called as a rebuttal witness for the state.

Martin said he met Allen in November 2022, shortly after he was arrested. Martin said Allen arrived at the jail with a prescription for Prozac because of a history of depression, but Martin said he considers him stable.

It wasn’t until April 2023 that Allen began showing signs of psychosis, according to the doctor.

Martin said he got a call on April 13 to come visit Allen. Martin said he found Allen naked on a mattress, covered in feces and told he had eaten it.

Martin said he put Allen on antipsychotic medication; he said it took until April 25 to find the drug and for Allen to show signs of improvement.

By May 18, 2023, Allen was showing no signs of psychosis, according to Martin.

On June 20, 2023, Allen — though still showing no signs of psychosis — told Martin that he “wanted to apologize to his families and his victims,” ​​Martin testified.

Martin said Allen had not shown any symptoms of psychosis for several weeks and was under no pressure to say anything.

gun

The prosecution’s key piece of evidence is police analysis of Allen’s handgun, which determined that the unexpended .40-caliber round found in the girls’ bodies had been fired from Allen’s Sig Sauer P226.

But a defense witness, Dr. Erin Warren, questioned that.

The defense asked Warren to review the work of former Indiana State Police technician Melissa Oberg, who examined the unexpended round found at the scene and compared it to Allen’s gun.

Warren called it an “apples to oranges” comparison, saying Oberg compared the initial round — which had been cycled, not fired — to a bullet fired from Allen’s gun.

Oberg said earlier on the stand that “an ejector mark was an ejector mark” regardless of whether a round was cycled or fired.

Warren disputed that testimony, saying the lab had to identify the tool marks under the same conditions the bullet was found.

Jurors had 15 questions for Warren about the cartridge testing method, which were significantly more questions than most of the jury’s witnesses received.

Final arguments

In closing arguments, defense attorney Brad Rozzi argued his client’s innocence, noting how Allen remained living in Delphi in the years following the murder, even though he had the chance to leave at any time.

Rozzi reminded the jury that Allen came forward on his own in 2017 to tell police he was behind on the day of the murders. Rozzi said Allen cooperated in his first questioning in October 2022 and returned for a second questioning, even though he knew he was likely a suspect at the time.

Rozzi pointed out that hours of video interviews from 2017 were lost.

He also brought up the 13 months Allen spent in solitary confinement, saying all the state wanted to show was what Allen said, not his condition.

Rozzi argued that the Indiana State Police lab could not rule out that the gun belonging to local resident Brad Weber was the one that fired the cartridge found in the girls’ bodies, and said Weber had changed his story about going straight home that day in which it took place. crimes.

In closing the prosecution, McLeland said the state had proven Allen was the “bridge guy” and reminded jurors that the black 2016 Ford Focus seen near the trail that day was the only one registered in the county — and it was his to Allen.

Despite the defense’s doubts, McLeland said the state proved the unexpended round found between the girls’ bodies had cycled through Allen’s gun, and said testing was confirmed three times by the chief technician.

McLeland also went over Allen’s numerous confessions, playing for the jury the phone confessions Allen made to his wife. McLeland said Allen’s confessions were “unprompted, unpressured (and) of his own free will,” and said Allen showed no signs of psychosis at the time of many of his statements.

The prosecutor pointed out that Allen mentioned seeing a van at the scene in one of his alleged confessions. McLeland reminded jurors that Weber was believed to be driving his van home from work at the time of the murders. McLeland said it was “something only the killer would know.”