Abby and Libby, the Delphi Murders: Verdict, Sentence, and Appeal

The Delphi murders are the February 13, 2017 killings of 13-year-old Abigail Williams and 14-year-old Liberty German, who vanished during an afternoon hike near the Monon High Bridge trail outside Delphi, Indiana, and were found dead the next day. The case sat unsolved for more than five years. In October 2022, local resident Richard Allen was arrested; a jury convicted him on all four murder counts in November 2024, and he was sentenced to 130 years in prison. His appeal is now before the Indiana Court of Appeals.

What Happened to Abby and Libby

On the afternoon of February 13, 2017, a relative dropped Abby Williams and Libby German near the Monon High Bridge, an abandoned railroad trestle, so the two eighth graders and best friends could hike.¹ Around 2:07 p.m., Libby posted a photo to social media showing Abby walking across the bridge. It was the last confirmed sign of them alive.

When the girls missed their agreed pickup, their families reported them missing. A search that night turned up nothing. On February 14, searchers found their bodies in a wooded area near Deer Creek, roughly a quarter-mile from the bridge. Both had died from sharp-force wounds to the throat.¹ Investigators noted that sticks had been placed over the victims in what appeared to be a deliberate arrangement.

The Evidence That Broke the Case

Libby’s Phone

The single most important piece of early evidence came from Libby German’s iPhone, which police extracted the day the bodies were found. It contained a 43-second video showing Abby walking along the trail with a man visible behind them, the figure who became publicly known as “Bridge Guy.” The audio captured a male voice saying, “Guys, down the hill.”² Police released only stills and the short audio clip publicly for years, hoping someone would recognize the man. The full unedited video did not become public until March 2025, when Allen’s defense posted it on a website tied to the appeal.

An Unspent .40-Caliber Round

An unspent .40-caliber cartridge recovered at the scene became the case’s key physical evidence. Melissa Oberg, a forensic firearms examiner with the Indiana State Police, first analyzed the round on February 17, 2017, and noted it showed no weathering, suggesting it had not been outdoors long. It bore extraction and ejection marks consistent with having been cycled through a firearm’s chamber without being fired. When police recovered a Sig Sauer P226 from Allen’s home in October 2022, Oberg concluded the round had been cycled through Allen’s gun.³

An Overlooked 2017 Tip

Richard Allen had already spoken to law enforcement in the days after the murders. Conservation officer Daniel Dulin met Allen briefly in a grocery store parking lot after Allen came forward to say he’d been on the Monon High Bridge trail between 1:30 and 3:30 p.m. on February 13, and had encountered three girls there. The five- to ten-minute interview was not recorded, and the resulting lead sheet was marked “cleared.”⁴

In September 2022, Kathy Shank, a former Department of Child Services worker volunteering to help organize tips, found the old sheet in a box on her desk. Dated February 16, 2017, it identified “Rick Allen Whiteman” (a reference to Allen’s home on Whiteman Road) and his account of being on the trail that afternoon.⁴ That discovery reopened the file on Allen.

The Arrest and the Disputed Confessions

Investigators interviewed Allen on October 13, 2022, and again on October 26. He was arrested the same day. At the time, he was working as a pharmacy technician at a store blocks from the courthouse. He was initially charged with two counts of murder; prosecutors later added two counts of murder while committing or attempting to commit kidnapping, for four total. Allen pleaded not guilty.¹

Allen was held at Westville Correctional Facility under a safekeeping order, spending 13 months in solitary confinement. His mental health deteriorated. By April 2023 he had been diagnosed with serious mental illness, and staff documented episodes that included hitting his head against the wall, refusing food, eating paper, and smearing feces in his cell. A psychologist described the condition as “situational psychosis” that came and went.

Prosecutors said Allen made 61 incriminating statements during this period, to prison staff, on phone calls, and to family. The defense argued those statements came during a mental health crisis brought on by the conditions of his confinement and were not voluntary. Prosecutors responded that Allen confessed both before and after his psychotic episodes, and that his mental state alone did not explain the statements.

The Trial and Verdict

Allen’s trial began on October 14, 2024, in Carroll Circuit Court before Special Judge Fran Gull.⁵ Cameras were barred, and a gag order limited what the attorneys could say publicly.

The defense pursued a theory that the murders were a ritualistic killing tied to Odinism, a form of Norse paganism, and pointed to the arrangement of sticks over the bodies. They also sought to introduce alternative third-party suspects, including individuals they linked to a white nationalist group.⁶ Judge Gull excluded the Odinism evidence, finding insufficient factual basis to put it before the jury. Defense filings also cited geofencing data they said placed three unidentified people near the scene at the relevant time, and argued police failed to investigate.

Over 17 days of testimony, the prosecution’s case rested on four items the jury reviewed in deliberations: enhanced audio from Libby German’s phone, an enhanced Bridge Guy video, and recordings of Allen’s two October 2022 police interviews, tied together by the ballistics testimony on the unspent round.⁷

Jurors deliberated roughly 19 to 20 hours over several days. On November 11, 2024, they returned guilty verdicts on all four counts.¹

The 130-Year Sentence

On December 20, 2024, Judge Gull sentenced Allen to 130 years in prison, imposing 65 years for each murder count to run consecutively.¹ Allen was 52 at sentencing, and the term effectively means he will die in prison.

Where the Appeal Stands

Allen’s attorneys filed their appellate brief with the Indiana Court of Appeals in December 2025, raising ten arguments for overturning the conviction. The main challenges are:

The search warrant for Allen’s home, which the defense says rested on a probable cause affidavit containing false statements and material omissions, with the trial court wrongly denying a hearing to challenge it.
The 61 incriminating statements, which the defense argues were involuntary because Allen was “gravely disabled” during solitary confinement they say violated the Indiana Constitution.
Excluded defense evidence, including the Odinism theory, third-party suspects, expert testimony challenging the forensic toolmark methodology, and evidence that would have impeached the reliability of Allen’s confessions.
Allegedly false testimony from a prosecution witness that the defense says the state failed to correct.

In March 2026, the Indiana attorney general’s office filed a 94-page response opposing the appeal. The state argued the probable cause affidavit was valid, the confessions were voluntary because the required level of state coercion was absent, and the trial court properly excluded the Odinism theory as speculative evidence that would have “confused the issues, turning the trial into a sideshow.”⁸ As of early 2026, the Indiana Court of Appeals has not scheduled oral arguments or issued a ruling.