The Delphi Murders

Update 11/11/24

In February of 2017, two young friends in Delphi, Indiana went missing. That day, 14-year-old Liberty "Libby" German and 13-year-old Abigail "Abby" Williams decided to go hiking, and disappeared after posting a couple of pictures to Snapchat. Their bodies were found hours later, with both having been brutally killed by an unknown subject.

In the weeks that followed, the story of Libby and Abby would become well-known to those that follow true crime, as well as those that don't. Authorities would publish images and audio taken from one of the girls' phones, which had seemingly recorded their killer approaching, during which he'd directed them to go "down the hill," likely at gunpoint.

Back when Unresolved first covered this story in May of 2019, things seemed bleak. Investigators were struggling to determine who had killed the girls, and whether or not they'd been targeted - or if this had been the work of an opportunistic killer. Yet, it seems like they overlooked a great suspect, who admitted to being at the location of the crime at around the time it had taken place, and matched the description of the man seen in the video footage released by authorities. Yet this man, Richard Allen, wasn't treated seriously as a suspect until 2022. When investigators looked into him, they discovered a number of red flags.

When I brought you the last update in this case, prosecutors had filed charges against Richard Allen - charging him with the deaths of both Libby German and Abby Williams - and begun to formulate their case against him. Now, two years later, that trial has come to a conclusion.

On Monday, November 11th, 2024, 52-year-old Richard Allen was found guilty on all four charges filed against him: two counts of murder and two counts of felony murder as they pertained to Abigail and Liberty. The verdict was announced just after 2:00 PM, and came after three days of deliberation and three weeks of testimony.

During the trial, prosecutors had linked Allen to the crime scene through ballistics. A bullet found under one of girls' bodies was linked by a crime lab technician to a firearm belonging to Richard Allen. Beyond that, authorities were able to put his vehicle near the crime scene. And per Allen's own admission, he'd been at the crime scene - the bridge, where the girls recorded their killer - at around the same time the girls had disappeared. During his incarceration, Allen had also reportedly confessed to the crime dozens of times, including in recorded phone calls to his wife and his mother.

The defense tried to counter that the state's investigation had been sloppy. They tried to highlight inconsistencies in how authorities had recovered evidence, and alleged that Allen's time in solitary confinement had altered his mental state, leading to false confessions. Yet, it wasn't enough to sway the jury, who deliberated for three days before coming to their conclusion.

Nearly eight years have passed since the murders of Abigail Williams and Liberty German, and their case has finally found some resolution. Yet, the story is not quite finished yet. Sentencing for Richard Allen is scheduled to take place on December 20th, 2024, a little over a month from now. A gag order has been placed on those involved until then, so we'll likely learn more at that time. I'll be back to bring you a longer, more extended update at that time. But as of this moment, it appears like this story is finally resolved.