(DELPHI, Ind.) — The jury has reached a verdict in the high-profile Delphi, Indiana, double murder trial on the fourth day of deliberations.
The verdict will be read Monday afternoon.
Delphi resident Richard Allen is charged in the murders of best friends Abby Williams, 13, and Libby German, 14, who were killed on a local hiking trail on Feb. 13, 2017.
The girls’ throats were slit and they were dumped in a wooded area near the trail. Their bodies were found the next day.
As police hunted for a culprit, they released a clip of the unknown suspect’s voice — a recording of him saying “down the hill” — which was recovered from Libby’s phone. Police also released a grainy image of the suspect on the trail: a man who became known as “bridge guy.”
Allen, who was arrested for murder in 2022, admitted to police he was on the trail that day, but he denied any involvement in the crime.
Allen’s multiple confessions while in jail and his mental health at the time became a major focus of the trial.
The defense argues Allen was in a psychotic state when he made numerous confessions to corrections officers, his wife and a psychologist.
The prosecution’s key evidence is police analysis of Allen’s gun, which determined that a .40-caliber unspent round discovered by the girls’ bodies was cycled through Allen’s Sig Sauer Model P226. But the defense rejects the accuracy of that testing, calling it an “apples to oranges” comparison, because the technician compared the initial round — which had been cycled, not fired — to a bullet fired from Allen’s gun.
No DNA was found at the site to tie Allen or anyone else to the crime scene, a forensic scientist testified.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
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