Ron Logan and the Delphi Murders: Alibi, Confession, Trial Role

Ron Logan owned the rural property along Deer Creek near the Monon High Bridge in Delphi, Indiana, where the bodies of teenagers Libby German and Abby Williams were discovered on February 14, 2017. He was never charged in connection with their murders, but he became a central figure in the early investigation after police found he had lied about his whereabouts, executed a search warrant on his home, and fielded numerous public tips identifying him as the man captured on Libby German’s cellphone video. Logan died on January 24, 2022. His name resurfaced years later when an inmate claimed Logan had confessed to the killings, an allegation prosecutors rejected and a judge declined to act on during post-conviction proceedings for Richard Allen, the man ultimately convicted of the crimes.

The Property Where the Bodies Were Found

On February 13, 2017, Libby German, 14, and Abby Williams, 13, were dropped off to hike near the Monon High Bridge, an abandoned railroad trestle more than 60 feet above Deer Creek. Their bodies were found the next day in a wooded area roughly half a mile from the bridge.¹ The land belonged to Ron Logan, then 77, and the girls were found approximately 1,400 feet from his residence. Days after the killings, Logan told a local outlet he had been surprised by the crimes and that he knew the families involved.²

The case turned on a piece of evidence recovered from Libby’s phone: a 43-second video showing a man walking behind the two girls on the bridge, and audio of a male voice saying “guys, down the hill.” Police released a still image and later a composite sketch, asking the public to help identify the man they called “bridge guy.”³

Why Investigators Looked at Logan

After the “bridge guy” image went public, an FBI tip database received at least 15 submissions identifying Logan.⁴ An FBI agent later wrote in an affidavit that Logan’s physical build was “consistent” with the figure in the video and that his voice was “not inconsistent” with the recording.⁵

Two former girlfriends told investigators Logan had been violent toward them and had threatened to kill them, and both said they believed he was the man in the video.² One of them, Connie Dillman, later went public on the NewsNation program “Banfield,” calling their relationship “very volatile” and describing Logan as “aggressive” and “manipulative.” She said she had reported Logan to police three or four times before the video was ever released, and alleged he had shown inappropriate interest in young girls, citing an incident involving a 13-year-old to whom he sold a horse. On the video itself, Dillman said, “I know his build, and to me, that looks exactly like him. I know when he walks.” She acknowledged her identification rested on personal familiarity and “intuition” rather than forensic analysis.⁶

The False Alibi

Logan told investigators, and a news reporter, that he had spent the afternoon of February 13 at an aquarium store in Lafayette, Indiana, and that a friend had picked him up between 2:00 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. During a limited search of his home tied to a probation matter on March 6, 2017, investigators found a receipt from the store with a checkout time of 5:21 p.m. With a 30-minute drive back to his home, the timeline Logan had asked his cousin to confirm — that he returned between 5:00 and 5:30 p.m. — did not hold.⁵

According to the affidavit, Logan asked his cousin on the morning of February 14, before the bodies had been discovered, to give police that false account. The cousin initially corroborated the story on March 7, 2017, then admitted two days later that Logan had asked him to lie. The FBI agent wrote that “the creation of an alibi prior to the discovery of a crime indicates culpability or knowledge of the crime.”⁷

Cell tower data placed Logan’s phone in the area near the Monon High Bridge Trail on the afternoon of the murders. A text sent from his phone at 7:56 p.m. that evening indicated the device was “likely outside of his residence” and in the “proximity” of the crime scene.⁵ Earlier that day, between 11:53 a.m. and 11:58 a.m., Logan had driven a pickup truck to a local transfer station to dispose of trash, a trip that itself violated his driving restrictions.⁸

The March 2017 Search Warrant

On March 17, 2017, authorities searched Logan’s home, outbuildings, vehicle, and digital devices. The warrant was authored by FBI Special Agent Nikkole Robertson, who wrote that there was “probable cause to believe that RONALD LOGAN has committed the crime of murder.”⁷ Investigators sought hair, bodily fluids, weapons including guns and cutting instruments, and electronic devices and storage media.⁴

Indiana State Police publicly stated on March 14, 2017, that reports connecting Logan to the murders were “FALSE” and that his arrest was solely for a probation violation.⁷ Logan was never formally named a suspect in the killings.

What Logan Was Actually Charged With

On March 16, 2017, one day before the search warrant, Logan was arrested for violating probation from a 2014 drunk driving conviction. He was also charged as a habitual traffic offender for driving to the transfer station on February 13, a day his records showed he was prohibited from being behind the wheel. He pleaded guilty to both the traffic charge and the probation violation and was sentenced to two years in prison with credit for 31 days served. At sentencing he told the judge, “Maybe in the future no one will be murdered in my backyard.”⁹ In January 2018, his sentence was modified to in-home detention and he was released.²

Logan’s Death

Ron Logan died on January 24, 2022. The specific cause of death has not been publicly reported. A notice of estate administration was published in the Carroll County Comet naming Ryan E. Logan as personal representative of the estate.¹⁰ He was never charged in the Delphi murders during his lifetime.

The Jailhouse Confession Claim

Logan’s name returned to the case through an inmate named Ricci Davis, who was serving a 50-year sentence for dealing methamphetamine near a youth center in Huntington County.¹¹ Davis said he had been housed in the same cell block as Logan at the New Castle Correctional Facility in 2017.

In a signed statement in June 2017, Davis alleged Logan told him he had killed Abby Williams and Libby German. According to Davis, Logan said “it got out of hand”: he had walked with the girls in the woods, they panicked when he grabbed the younger one, and he ended up cutting one of them with a box cutter. Davis said Logan told him he killed both girls “because it was took too far.”¹² Davis reported the alleged confession to Indiana State Police in May 2017 and was interviewed by an investigator the following month. He later said he had sent as many as seven or eight letters about the confession to Carroll County Prosecutor Nicholas McLeland, all of which he said were ignored, and that he had offered to wear a wire but was told it “isn’t necessary really.”¹³

Davis added further allegations in 2024 after Kegan Kline, the man behind the fictitious “anthony_shots” social media profile used to contact underage girls including Libby German, was placed in the same prison. Davis claimed Kline corroborated details Logan had described, that Logan and Kline had known each other and shared child pornography using burner phones, and that Kline told him Richard Allen “had nothing to do with the murders.”¹² No independent evidence has been reported to corroborate a Logan-Kline connection beyond Davis’s claims.

Prosecutor McLeland rejected the account. He said Davis “miserably” failed a polygraph when investigators questioned him about it, and that specific details in the alleged confession were contradicted by the evidence, including claims that the girls’ clothing had been burned, that a phone battery had been removed, and that one body had been temporarily taken from the scene.¹⁴ The state also argued the defense had possessed the information in discovery since January 2024 and had chosen not to present it at trial.

Logan in the Richard Allen Trial and Appeal

Richard Allen was convicted in 2024 of murdering Abby Williams and Libby German and sentenced to 130 years in prison.¹⁵ Before trial, Allen’s defense sought to present a third-party suspect defense pointing to Logan, Kegan Kline, and Kline’s father Jerry Kline. A detective testified that investigators had devoted “significant resources” to the Klines but concluded through cellphone evidence that they were in Peru, Indiana, not Delphi, on the day of the killings.¹⁶ Judge Frances Gull denied the defense’s attempts to introduce alternative suspects at trial.¹⁷

After the conviction, Allen’s attorneys filed a motion to correct errors in January 2025 that included the Davis allegations about Logan, arguing they warranted a new trial. Judge Gull denied the motion without a hearing in February 2025 and separately denied a defense motion to preserve evidence related to Davis, ruling the defense had “cited no authority or case law” to support it.¹⁸ Allen’s appeal, filed in late 2025, argues in part that excluding the alternative-suspect defense denied him a fair trial. The Indiana Court of Appeals has scheduled oral arguments for September 21, 2026, at the Indiana Statehouse in Indianapolis.¹⁹ In March 2026, the Indiana Attorney General’s Office filed a brief urging the court to uphold the conviction.¹⁵

Why Logan Was Never Charged

The circumstantial evidence documented in the search warrant affidavit was substantial: a false alibi arranged before the bodies were discovered, cellphone data placing him near the scene, more than a dozen public tips, an FBI assessment that his build and voice matched the video, and reports of violent behavior from former partners. Even so, Logan was never charged and never publicly named a suspect. The Carroll County Sheriff said in 2017 that Logan was “still involved” with the investigation but was “not considered a suspect,” and Indiana State Police characterized the search of his property as “a normal course” of the investigation.⁹ Investigators eventually pursued Richard Allen, and no public explanation has been offered for why the evidence gathered against Logan did not result in charges. He died in January 2022 without ever being formally accused.

1
NBC. Teens Libby German, Abby Williams Killed in Delphi Murders
2
Journal & Courier. Delphi Murders: Search Warrant Details
3
Fox 32 Chicago. Timeline in 2017 Delphi Murders of Abigail Williams and Liberty German
4
CrimeTimelines. Search Warrant and Application, Ronald Logan
5
FOX59. Search Warrant: Delphi Killer Took Souvenir, May Have Staged Murder Scene
6
NewsNation. Bridge Guy Not Richard Allen, Woman Says
7
WISH-TV. FBI Search Warrant Raises Questions About Delphi Property Owner’s Arrest
8
NewsNation. New Details in Delphi Murders Link to Suspect
9
WRTV. Delphi Property Owner Sentenced in Charges Unrelated to Murders
10
Carroll County Comet. Public Notices
11
The Indiana Lawyer. COA: Dealing Statute Not Unconstitutionally Vague
12
FOX59. New Delphi Motion: Requests for Ricci Davis Interviews, Kline and Logan Argued to Be Suspects
13
FOX59. Exclusive: Inmate Says Delphi Prosecutor Ignored His Letters About Ron Logan Confession
14
FOX59. State Says Inmate Who Claimed Ron Logan Confessed to Delphi Killings Failed Polygraph Test
15
21 Alive News. Indiana Attorney General Submits Brief Calling Delphi Murders Conviction to Be Upheld
16
WTHR. Delphi Murders Hearing Marked by Graphic, Emotional Testimony
17
FOX59. Former Delphi Murders Suspect Made Detailed Confession to Killings, Attorneys Say
18
WANE. Delphi Murders: Gull Rules Against Defense Motions Seeking to Reexamine Richard Allen’s Conviction
19
WNDU. Court Schedules Oral Arguments in Delphi Murders Appeal