The Delphi Murders (Update)

There has been an update in the story of the Delphi Murders (episode #100 from back in May of 2019). On Friday, 28 October 2022, authorities announced a press conference to be held earlier today. In it, they withheld a lot of valuable information, but announced the arrest of 50-year-old Richard Allen, a native of Delphi that had been indicted on two counts of murder relating to the deaths of Liberty German and Abigail Williams...

Hey everyone, it's Micheal. Today I am here with an update episode of the podcast, and one that has been several years in the making.

Back in May of 2019, I covered the story of Liberty German and Abigail Williams, two teenage girls that were killed in small-town Delphi, Indiana back in February of 2017. They were first reported missing on February 13th, and their bodies were recovered the following morning, after an exhaustive search to find them in an area near Monon High Bridge, where the girls had last posted photos of themselves to social media websites.

In the months that followed, police in Delphi - aided by the Indiana State Police, who oversaw the investigation - would publish details about it , in the hopes of encouraging new tips or leads. This included a photo of the alleged offender taken by Liberty German before her death; also, audio snippets of the alleged offender, taken during the same recording.

However, in the years that followed, investigators seemed to struggle with a narrative to push forward in order to gather more clues. When I covered the case back in 2019, they had decided to throw out a suspect sketch in favor of a younger, different-looking man, and focused information on that. More recently, information arisen from another podcast seemed to focus on a named suspect, in particular... but it looks like that might have just been smoke.

Just three days ago - on Friday, October 28th, 2022 - a press conference was announced in the case, the first in more than three years. Immediately, speculation began to run rampant, with family members of the victims - including Kelsi German, the sister of Liberty - posting cryptic messages that seemed pointed to an arrest. That was confirmed today - Monday, October 31st - on Halloween, when the press conference started.

In this press conference, some police officials spoke that you may be familiar with - Sheriff Tobe Leazenby and Superintendant Doug Carter, who you heard from in my original episode - along with Carroll County Prosecutor Nicholas McLeland. While they didn't get into many specifics during the press conference, citing a sealed probable cause affidavit, they did announce that a suspect was in custody: 50-year-old Richard Allen, a Delphi native, who is being held without bond, having entered a not-guilty plea during an initial hearing on Friday... during which, he was indicted on two counts of murder.

While details are still rather-scarce at the moment, we do know that Richard Allen lived in Delphi, and worked at a local CVS. Reports from over the weekend indicated that investigators had started circling around him in recent weeks, and conducted searches of his property just recently; reportedly focused in on a burn pit on his property.

Now, I'm going to play for you the audio from today's press conference, but I must remind you that there is not a ton of information given out during it. The officials that spoke did so carefully, choosing to deliberately withhold a lot of information. Presumably because the suspect, 50-year-old Richard Allen, is not cooperating with authorities. It's also possible that there are other individuals involved in this case that investigators are still after; they seem to address this during the press conference, saying that their investigation continues despite this arrest. So keep all of that in-mind while listening, and know that this is less of an informative press conference, and more of a cathartic one...

So, while this case is far from being resolved... it seems like we're well ahead of where we were a week ago. Back then, we didn't know the name of Richard Allen, who has been indicted on two counts of felony murder with pretrial hearings set to begin in January of 2023.

I can only hope for the sake of Liberty German and Abigail Williams, as well as their loved ones, that this story isn't unresolved for much longer.