Case File: Richard Allen

The Delphi Historic Trails are a small network of hiking pathways around Delphi, Ind., connecting the town to Deer Creek and the Wabash River. On the afternoon of February 13, 2017, Abigail Williams and Liberty “Libby” German were dropped off by German’s older sister at one of the trailheads.

Shortly after starting their hike, German posted a photograph on social media showing Williams crossing the Monon High Bridge over Deer Creek. But when the two friends didn’t meet up with German’s father later that afternoon, the families began searching, then called the police.

The following day, the girls’ bodies were found together about one-half mile from the Monon High Bridge. Their throats had been slashed and their bodies dumped in the woods nearby. Between the girls’ bodies, investigators found an unspent .40 caliber bullet.

As police searched for clues, they released an image found on German’s cellphone showing a burly man wearing a hat and a dark blue jacket walking along the same trail with his hands in his pockets and his head down. He soon became known as “the Bridge Guy.” Police also released audio from German’s cellphone in which a muffled male voice tells the girls to go “down the hill.”

Police continued their investigation and offered a reward for information. By the end of March 2017, the reward amount contributed by volunteers spiked to more than $224,000, and over 11,000 tips came flooding into a telephone tip line. Dozens of volunteers combed across the town and surrounding area, looking for anything that might point police investigators toward the killer.

Investigators chased a number of leads, and a few suspicious characters were soon charged with crimes, but nothing concrete could tie the suspects to the two Delphi murders.

For example, a man named Kegan Kline admitted that he had communicated online with German—and dozens of other teenage girls—while amassing a collection of more than 100 sexual images of young girls. He pleaded guilty to charges of child exploitation, child solicitation and possession of child pornography, but no real evidence linked Kline with the girls’ deaths.

Then, in September 2022—more than five years after the murders—a hawk-eyed volunteer receptionist named Kathy Shank found a tip that had been mislabeled as “clear.” The tip specified that a resident of Delphi named Richard Allen confirmed in an interview with an Indiana Department of Natural Resources officer that he had been on the hiking trail at the time of the Delphi murders and had seen girls on the trail.

Shank forwarded the mislabeled “clear” tip to a detective who had been trying to find a man who witnesses said they saw on the trail the day of the murders. One of the witnesses, a teenage girl named Railly Voorhies, testified that she said “hello” to a man who seemed overdressed for the weather, wearing a hat, a mask and dark clothes. He “did not seem like a happy person,” Railly said, and when she saw the “bridge guy” image, she realized that was the same man she had seen the day of the murders.

Allen, born in 1972, was a pharmacy technician at the local CVS pharmacy who had previously served in the U.S. Army and the National Guard. An unassuming married resident of Delphi, Allen was described by a local tavern manager as “[j]ust like a normal guy that I’ve seen for the last couple years … I would talk; he wouldn’t say much. He seems like a normal guy."

When police served a search warrant on Allen’s home, they found his .40 caliber handgun, which prosecutors later said matched the bullet found between the girls’ bodies. Armed with enough evidence, police arrested Allen on October 26, 2022, and charged him with two counts of murder. Upon his arrest, Allen reportedly told his wife, “Well, it’s over, it doesn’t matter anymore.”

In 2025, videos were released to the public showing Allen’s interrogation by investigating officers. Included in that release were recordings of phone conversations Allen had with his wife and mother. During one of the recorded conversations, Allen tells his wife, “I killed Abby and Libby.” He repeated that claim in other recorded conversations, but his lawyers state that those confessions were not made voluntarily. 

Allen—who was 44 years old at the time of the murders—admitted to police that he was on the trail that day, but he denied being involved. He stated that he was at his mother’s house that morning and went to the Monon High Bridge trail around noon.

After his wife told him that police were looking for information from anyone who had been in the area, Allen also voluntarily reported his presence on the trail to the Department of Natural Resources officer three days after the murders.

During his incarceration, Allen reportedly made multiple confessions to his wife, his mother, a psychologist, the prison warden and other prison employees and inmates. At his 2024 trial, prosecutors played recordings of some of Allen’s confessions for the jury. 

It came out during the trial that 13-year-old Williams was discovered fully clothed, but she was dressed in German's clothing, while German’s body was discovered nude. Additionally, the .40 caliber bullet found near the girls’ bodies was also positively identified as coming from Allen’s gun.

Allen’s defense countered that he was suffering from a mental health crisis when he made those confessions and that Allen had a long history of major depressive disorder and anxiety disorder.

In November 2024, a jury found Allen guilty of the two murders; he was later sentenced to 65 years imprisonment for each killing, for a combined sentence of 130 years.

The judge in the case, Fran Gull, said to Allen at the end of his trial, "I've spent 27 years as a judge and you rank right up there with the most heinous crimes in the state of Indiana. You rank right up there in the extraordinary impact on family, including the generational impact … These families will deal with your carnage forever.”

Noting Allen’s apparent lack of remorse, Judge Gull added, “You sit here and roll your eyes at me like you rolled your eyes at me through this trial.” Allen is currently serving his 130-year sentence at the Lexington Assessment and Reception Center in Cleveland County, Oklahoma.

The murders of the two girls shocked the nation with their brutality, and public interest didn’t wane even as the case dragged on for years.

The public outpouring of grief after the two murders was matched by the generous reward that was offered to Shank, the volunteer who helped crack the case. She turned down the $325,000 reward, and instead asked that the funds be used for a memorial athletic field and foundation honoring the two girls.

The case was unusual in that social media featured prominently in the proceedings, beginning with the photo of Williams that German posted online the day they were last seen alive. Interest on social media was at a fever pitch throughout the murder investigation, which some observers believe might have influenced the outcome of the case. 

The school library at Delphi Community Middle School, which the girls were attending at the time of their murders, has since been renamed the Abby and Libby Memorial Library.