Richard Allen was armed with a gun when he encountered teenage friends Abigail “Abby” Williams and Liberty “Libby” German at a hiking trail in Delphi, Indiana, in February 2017, and then used “power and fear” to “force them down” . the hill” before slitting their throats, prosecutors said Friday in their opening statement in his double-murder trial.
When the girls’ bodies were found the next day after they were reported missing, Libby, 14, was naked and covered in blood, while Abby, 13, was dressed in Libby’s sweatshirt and jeans, with other clothing in a creek, Carroll County, was dumped. Prosecutor Nick McLeland told jurors. He choked up as he described the scene to the jury of seven women and five men.
The “last face the girls saw” was Allen’s, McLeland said.
He said Allen would later admit to police that he had walked along the trail that day, and that an unspent bullet found at the scene and confessions he allegedly made, including to his wife, would prove him guilty to the deaths of the teenagers. The prosecution also plans to call witnesses who said they saw Allen on the trail.
Attorney Andrew Baldwin later proclaimed Allen’s innocence, but instead painted for jurors during his opening statement about a muddled investigation that was “muddled from the start” and included lost evidence and a “war” between state investigators and the FBI .
He also said that a strand of hair on Abby’s fingers — evidence that has not been made public in the case — does not belong to Allen or the girls and should be tested to see if it matches any of the girls’ relatives.
Ultimately, Baldwin said, the defense plans to challenge the state’s timeline to show that Allen was not out at the same time as the girls and that there is other evidence indicating they may have been in another vehicle were abducted and then returned to where their bodies were found.
“There is reasonable doubt in this case,” Baldwin said.
After jurors were selected this week from Allen County, more than 100 miles northeast of Delphi, the trial got underway Friday in the small community where the girls lived, bringing renewed attention to the winding case.
Allen, 52, wearing a long-sleeved shirt and khaki pants, occasionally shook his head during McLeland’s opening statement.
McLeland described the teens as good friends who were more like sisters. Libby’s older sibling, Kelsi Siebert, testified that she drove the girls to the trail on Feb. 13, 2017 — a snow makeup day the teens had off — after Libby asked her to take them.
Siebert testified that she told her sister to get a ride home.
That fell to Libby’s father, Derrick German, who testified that he planned to pick up the teens that afternoon on his way back from Frankfort, 24 miles south of Delphi.
“No problem,” German recalled her saying, according to NBC affiliate WTHR of Indianapolis. “We’re just going to explore.”
German started calling his daughter at 3:11 that afternoon, he testified, but she never answered. He also couldn’t find the teens when he searched around the Monon High Bridge Trail, he said.
German and Siebert continued to search that night, the family members testified, but they found no trace of the girls. Still, Siebert didn’t believe anything bad had happened to her sister.
“We thought they were in the woods,” she testified.
When they returned to the trail with others and continued searching for the girls, Siebert said, a search party member found their bodies.
Authorities have said they were found shortly after noon, half a mile from what was then an abandoned railroad bridge near the trail.
Lawyers for Allen have maintained his innocence. Judge Frances Gull issued a gag order in December 2022, preventing almost everyone involved in the case from commenting publicly.
But the lawsuit is expected to reveal new details.
If found guilty of two counts of murder and two counts of killing the teens, Allen could face a maximum sentence of 130 years in prison. The married father and local pharmacy technician was not arrested until late 2022, more than five years after the murders.
“For five years he lived in this community,” McLeland told jurors. “He worked in this community. He was hiding in plain sight.”
Police had said they initially interviewed Allen in 2017 as part of the case, and they said he acknowledged he was on the trail the day the teens went missing.
A bullet found near their bodies was linked to a gun belonging to him, according to a probable cause statement.
One key piece of evidence – a video taken from Libby’s cell phone found under Abby’s body – showed the apparent suspect. A male voice could also be heard saying, “Guys, down the hill,” and one of the girls said, “Gun.”
The clip attracted interest on social media and among internet sleuths when police first released it as they sought help identifying the person in the video.
Prosecutors have also said that after his arrest, Allen confessed to the killings dozens of times to various people, including his wife and staff at the prison where he was being held.
As the trial got underway this week, defense attorneys withdrew a request for jurors to visit the crime scene, which prosecutors had opposed.
His lawyers also won’t be able to tell the jury an alternative theory for the murders. Gull last month denied their attempt to claim that Abby and Libby were killed as part of a ritual sacrifice by those associated with Odinism, a Norse pagan religion that has spread among white nationalist groups.
However, defense attorneys can still argue during the trial why certain evidence is admissible.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
