The trial of the man accused of killing two girls in Delphi, Indiana, continued for a second day Saturday with testimony from a former local police chief and two people who searched for Abby Williams and Libby German in 2017.
Saturday’s testimony elaborated on the initial reports that the two teenage girls were missing and the immediate response to try to find them.
Richard Allen, the pharmacy technician accused of killing the girls, is charged with murder.
In 2017, the girls went for a walk and never returned. Their bodies were found the next day.
Allen was arrested and charged in 2022.
Two members of the search party for the girls testified.
Jake Johns remembered someone seeing footprints from the hill to the riverbank. A description that fits the prosecution’s theory that the killer forced them to walk down the hill to the side of the creek.
Later, the same witness saw what ended up being the German’s tie-dye shirt floating in the water.
Pat Brown, another witness, told the jury that he was the one who found the girls’ bodies. He remembered shouting, “We found them!” and added, “I thought they were mannequins.” His voice broke as he testified.
During Friday’s opening statementsthe jury heard the girls’ cause of death: someone had slit their throats.
Prosecutors said German was found without clothes the day after she and Williams were reported missing. Williams was wearing her friend’s clothes.
Allen has maintained his innocence.
The process will continue again on Monday. The judge told jurors to expect the proceedings to take quite a long time.
The jury will likely hear from law enforcement as they arrived on the scene and began their investigation.
