DELPHI, Ind. – Five years after Abigail “Abby” Williams and Liberty “Libby” German were found dead in the woods on the Monon High Bridge Trail, Richard Allen is no longer on the radar of investigators.
That changed on September 21, 2022.
Kathy Shank, a retired government employee who had started volunteering as a clerk to help with the investigation, found a “lead sheet” about Allen.
The document seemed to catch Shank’s attention. He had previously read that the girl had reported seeing him on the trail in the afternoon of February 13, 2017, when Abby and Libby went down the stairs and never heard from again. Allen, according to the documents, told police three days after the girls disappeared that he was also on the street that evening.
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“I thought there might be a correlation,” Shank testified Thursday.
Shank and several other witnesses took the stand Thursday, the sixth day of testimony in the double-murder trial, telling jurors about the series of events that led to Allen’s arrest on Oct. 26, 2022, just a month after he volunteered. officers found an old tip sheet about Allen and alerted investigators about it.
Allen, who appeared in court wearing khaki pants and a teal shirt, was charged with two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of second-degree murder in the kidnapping of the girls. The long-awaited trial comes more than seven years after the girls’ deaths and two years since their detention.
The route that led to Richard Allen
On February 16, 2017, Allen reported himself to investigators that he was on the street the evening Abby and Libby disappeared. He was later contacted by Dan Dulin, an Indiana Department of Natural Resources captain who was helping with the investigation at the time, and the two men met at the store.
Allen said he was on the trail between 1 and 3:30 a.m. on Feb. 13 and saw three girls near the Freedom Bridge as he headed toward the trail, Dulin testified.
However, Allen was eventually cleared, and a paper trail of interactions with investigatorswas placed in a box.
On Sept. 21, 2022 — a date Shank still remembers because it was her husband’s birthday — she found a box of tip sheets in her desk drawer, she told jurors. He opened it and began to open the file, thinking he must log into the database. Then, he told jurors, he looked at Allen’s tip sheet.
▶ ‘Bridge Guy’ video: Jurors saw the famous video, heard from witnesses who said they saw someone
Shank, who has lived in Delphi for forty years, began volunteering to help with the investigation in 2017. He started as a receptionist and, over the years, was given other responsibilities, including processing tips and logging into the database, Shank testified. He also organizes investigative reports, compiles narratives from interviews conducted by investigators and files them in several cabinets.
Allen’s file was labeled with a green dot, Shank said, meaning it had been cleared. The document also appears to be mislabeled as “Richard Allen Whiteman.” Allen lives on Whiteman Drive in Delphi.
Shank took the documents to Tony Liggett, who was the chief deputy at the Carroll County Sheriff’s Office and the lead investigator on the case. He alerted Steve Mullin, who was the chief of the Delphi Police Department when the girls were killed and later became an investigator in the prosecutor’s office.
At that time, the investigation focused on Allen.
Investigators discovered that Allen owned a 2006 Ford 500 and a black 2016 Ford Focus. Surveillance footage from a nearby Hoosier Harvestore showed the black Ford Focus passing the store onto the road just before 1:30 p.m. on Feb. 13.
Under cross-examination by defense attorney Andrew Baldwin, Mullin insisted the car belonged to Allen.
▶ Suffocation and crying: A graphic image of Abby and Libby was shown to the jury at the Delphi trial
Mullin and Liggett went to Allen’s home to interview him on October 13, 2022, the first time he had spoken to an investigator since meeting Dulin five years earlier.
Based on Mullin’s testimony, this is what Allen said in his second interview: He spent the morning of February 13 in Miami County, where he visited his mother. He went home took his jacket and headed down the street. He saw three girls near the Freedom Bridge as he walked down the street. When he reached the high bridge, he looked down Deer Creek and watched the fish.
Mullin also told jurors that Allen said he was wearing a blue or black Carhartt jacket, jeans and a beanie.
At some point during the interview, Allen became agitated and left the room, Mullin told jurors.
Mullin also said he asked Allen if he was “Bridge Guy,” the man seen in the infamous photo and video after Abby and Libby on the high bridge.
“The response was, ‘If the picture was taken with the girls’ camera, there’s no way she’s doing it,'” Mullin said.
There are some inconsistencies in Allen’s statements.
In 2017, he said he arrived at the line around 1:30 p.m. and left around 3:30 p.m. In 2022, he said he got there around 14:00 and was not on the line for more than 2 hours.
Investigators searched Allen’s home shortly after interviewing Mullin and Liggett. They arrested Allen less than two weeks later.
Allen’s lead should not have been cleared, Liggett said
Liggett admitted that Allen had not been considered a suspect in the teenager’s death for five years, although he had self-reported that he was on the trail on February 13, 2017.
Allen “was lost in the cracks,” Liggett told the jury, and the person who believes that the dispatcher cleared Allen’s lead in 2017. But he said it “should not have been” cleared.
During cross-examination, defense attorney Bradley Rozzi seemed to suggest that Liggett wanted custody because it would benefit his career. Liggett was elected sheriff of Carroll County in November 2022, a few weeks after Allen was arrested.
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“It was never about me,” Liggett said. “It’s about the murder of two girls.”
Liggett also acknowledged that none of the physical descriptions eyewitnesses provided of “Bridge Guy” matched Allen.
Knives, photo albums and guns: What the police say they found in front of Allen
The state closed the proceedings Thursday with testimony from two Indiana State Police investigators who helped search Allen’s home.
Prosecutors flipped through more than a dozen photos taken during the search, showing jurors photos of his home, a 2016 Ford Focus and multiple knives.
The jury was shown a photo of Allen’s kitchen with a basket that Det. David Vido says it carries “everyday things,” like keys. Vido said that inside the basket, or next to it, was a box cutter.
▶ ‘Grandma, it’s okay’: Family testifies as attorneys offer competing narratives in Delphi trial
Lt. Jerry Holeman testified that while the search was underway, Allen was advised to file a complaint if the home was damaged during the investigation.
“It doesn’t matter, it’s over,” Allen said, according to Holeman.
The jury was also shown a photo album with several photos of the Allen family along the road near the bridge.
During cross-examination, defense attorneys Baldwin and Jennifer Auger argued that Allen had a fishing license, and pointed out that fishermen often use knives to cut their lines. Auger also said many families in Tippecanoe and Carroll counties go through the line.
Police also found a Sig Sauer, Model P226, .40-caliber handgun that they allege was connected to the unspent round found between the woman’s body.
Testimony will continue on Friday.
Contact IndyStar reporter Kristine Phillips at (317) 444-3026 or at kphillips@indystar.com.
This article originally appeared in the Indianapolis Star: Delphi murders try to reveal how Richard Allen became a suspect
