Delphi murder suspect’s gun tied to teens’ deaths after bullet found: documents
An Indiana man accused of killing two teenage girls in the infamous Delphi murder case was linked to the cr🧸💛ime through an unspent bullet found at the scene, newly revealed documents show.
CVS worker Richard Matthew Allen, 50, was charged in October after an analysis concluded a 40-caliber round that was found between the bodies of 14-year-o🤪ld Libby German and 13-year-old Abby Williams had come from a gun he owned, according to a probable cause affidavit made public Tuesday.
The affidavit had been sealed until Tuesday at the request of prosecutors who had said they didn’t believe Allen was “the only actor involved” in the shocking 2017 murders.
Judge Frances Gull ordered it released with redactions T𒁏uesday, but the affidavit doesn’t indicate anyone else was involved in the killings.
Police and prosecutors still haven’t described how the girls were killed.
German and Williams disap🉐peared on Feb. 13, 2017 while on a hike on the Monon High Bridge Trail in the small city of Delphi. They were found dead the next day after they failed to show up to a designated pickup location.
Eerie cellphone video shot by German sꦇhowed the two on the trail at around 2:14 p.m. on the day they vanished as a man approaches, with one of the girls heard saying “gun,” according to the affidavit. The man later orders the girl off the trail by saying “guys, don’t the hill,” the document stated.
The video cuts as the girls head down the hill. There was no further record of cellphone communications after that v♈ideo, according to the affidavit.
The probable cause affidavit said Allen admitted to hiking on the same trail the day the girls vanished, although he denied seeing the victims or ꦑhavin𝔉g any involvement with their murders. Witnesses described seeing a man matching Allen’s general description on the trail that day, with one girl describing him as “kind of creepy.”
One witness described a man walking “with a purpose like he knew where he was go♑ing.”
A witness claims to have been walking with friends and said “hi” to a man that appeared to be Allen, who only silently “glared at them” in respon🌳se. Witness descriptions of a small SUV or “smart car” matched Allen’s 2016 Ford Focus, which was parked at the trailhead at the time of the murders, cops said.
After the time of the cellphone video, other witnesses did not ꦛreport seeing a 💝man on the trail, which authorities concluded was evidence he had walked off the trail with the victims.
Allen,▨ who i♊s married and had no prior criminal record, had been interviewed by police in 2017.
It isn’t clear what took authorities so long for investigative follow-ups, but a search of his home on Oct. 13 uncovered several weapons including a Sig Auer Model P222. Analysis connected that gun to the unspent round with extraction marks on it found by the bodies, according to the poꦺlice records.
Allen continued to deny involvement in the murders but couldn’t explain the bullet. He told autho✤rities no one else had access to his gun nor would anyone else have used it, the docume🔯nt showed.
Lawyers for Allen had said they welcomed the release of the probable cause affadvit, saying they 🧸felt the information within would help exonerate him. This week they also filed to ask for his trial to be moved out of Carroll County to another city, citing “extensive media attention” on their client and the case generally.
