DELPHI, Ind. — It's been more than seven years since the bodies of Abby Williams and Libby German were found near the Monon High Bridge in Delphi. Richard Allen, the man accused of killing the two teenagers, is on trial at the Carroll County Courthouse.
13News will be there every day of the trial. Even though the judge has banned cameras, we will still be bringing you everything that happens during the trial.
Sixteen Allen County residents were selected to serve on the jury. Twelve of those people will begin the trial as jurors and four will serve as alternates.
The jury is made up of eight women and four men. The four alternate jurors are two men and two women.
You can click here to see the developments in the case leading up to the trial. As the trial moves forward, we will be posting summaries of every day's events on this page.
13News uncovered an confession letter, allegedly signed by Allen and addressed to the warden of the prison he was held at, in the exhibits for the case.
In Delphi, jurors were shown the evidence collected from the scene where Abby and Libby's bodies were found in 2017.
Indiana State Police investigator Brian Olehy continued his testimony Tuesday morning.
Prosecuting attorney Jim Luttrell handed Olehy a brown bag, and Olehy was asked to describe what was inside the bag, of contents of which were all recovered from Deer Creek and taken to the Putnamville Post:
- Pair of Hollister blue jeans
- Tie-dye XL shirt
- Gray-hooded medium sweatshirt
- Sonoma pink underwear
- Black and purple sock
- Pink sock
- Green head scarf
- Black spaghetti strap large shirt
Olehy also said the following items were found at the crime scene and taken to the Lafayette Post:
- Converse right tennis shoe
- Converse left tennis shoe
- .40 caliber Smith & Wesson cartridge
- Stranded material taken from between Abby's fingers
- Stranded material from Abby's left hand
- Swab from inside Libby's left wrist
- Swab from inside Libby's right wrist
- Swab from Libby's belly button
- Swab from Libby's thigh
- Strand of fibrous material from Libby's left hand
- Swab of blood stain on a tree
- Black Nike tennis shoe that Abby was wearing
- Swab from area of blood found on the ground
- Swab from the ground near Libby's feet
- Swab from the ground below Libby's head
- Swab from the ground near the tree that had blood on it
- Swab of red stain on the ground below Abby's head
- Swab sample from the tree with red stains
- Swab from the red stain on the north side of the tree
- Swab from Libby's left index finger
- Swab from Libby's left pinkie finger
- Cellphone found at the scene
- Swabs collected from the cellphone
According to Olehy, the autopsies for Libby and Abby were conducted on Feb. 15, 2017.
Here is what was collected from the autopsies, with the evidence then taken the Lafayette Post:
- Swab collected from Libby's left thigh
- Swab from Libby's right breast
- Swab from Libby's left breast
- Sex assault evidence collection kit for Abby
- Sex assault evidence collection kit for Libby
- Trace fiber from Abby's upper left arm
- Black sweatshirt 2XL with Delphi swimming on it and "German" on the back. The sweatshirt had red stains on it.
- Blue jeans XL with red stains and dirt on them
- Gray cotton bra with red stains
- Pink sleeveless shirt
- Black bra with red stains
Libby's mom wiped away tears as Olehy explained the sex assault evidence collection kit.
Indiana State Police digital forensic examiner Brian Bunner is testifying on the cellphone extraction of Libby's cellphone, which was found at the crime scene.
Here is a list of photos Bunner took of Libby's phone:
- Package content
- Property record receipt
- Front of the phone
- Back of the phone
- Back of the phone with the case removed
- SIM card and tray
- Screen lock
- Unlocked homepage
- Settings, with the name of the phone "Liberty's iPhone"
- Settings on iCloud "liberty.german@icloud.com"
- Screenshot of the Apple ID
- Settings in iMessage
- Snapchat settings showing username "Liberty"
Bunner was asked if it was true that every time data is extracted from a phone, some data is lost.
"We know that now but didn't know that in 2017," Bunner said, noting there is a possibility some data was lost, such as being overridden or had fallen off over time.
You can read our full report on Day 4 of the trial here.
We learned that the defense file a motion related to how jurors will hear and see the video and audio recovered from Libby German’s cellphone on Sunday, Oct. 20.
The motion does not try to prevent jurors from seeing and hearing the recordings, but the defense does want to create guidelines about how the jurors hear the recordings and what questions can be asked of witnesses on that topic.
In court, jurors were shown sometimes graphic images of the crime scene where the bodies of Abby Williams and Libby German were found.
At one point, a juror put their hand over their mouth as they were looking at the photos, and the mothers of both girls were crying.
Carroll County Sheriff's Office Detective Darron Giancola was the state's first witness of the day.
"Both had lacerations to the throat," Giancola said. "Both had a substantial amount of blood on their person and underneath."
Sgt. Jason Page, a 24-year Indiana State Police veteran, was the next witness.
Page said the day after the girls' bodies were found, the area was "saturated still with a large quantity of blood" on the ground.
Duane Datzman, who spent 20 years as a crime scene investigator with Indiana State Police and now works for the Benton County Sheriff's Office, was also called to the stand.
Datzman said he was working at ISP's Lafayette Post when he was notified he was needed at the Delphi crime scene. He arrived shortly after 1 p.m. on Feb. 14, 2017 and took photos of the scene on the ground and from a helicopter.
Jurors saw 117 photos, about half of them extremely graphic. 13News reporters who were in the courtroom say some jurors and family members were visibly shaken. The pictures showed the injuries to both girls' throats and blood on both of the girls.
Datzman described his crime scene photos to jurors, including photos of the victims in the woods, the girls' bodies, a close-up shot of Abby's neck injury and blood on the ground underneath Libby's foot and leg.
Abby's mom looked away and Libby's mom kept her head down and was crying during this part of the testimony Monday, 13News senior investigative reporter Bob Segall noted in the courtroom.
Datzman described how investigators found a .40-caliber cartridge under the leaves near the girls' bodies, the only cartridge found at the crime scene. The cartridge was collected by ISP Sgt. Brian Olehy, who also testified Monday.
Olehy and Datzman both spoke of limbs and branches that were "placed on the bodies." Datzman said he and two other investigators determined the sticks had no evidentiary value, so they did not collect DNA from them.
However, Datzman said he returned the next day, Feb. 15, 2017, and collected the sticks, taking crime scene photos with him to identify the correct sticks. He then took them to the ISP Lafayette Post.
The defense has maintained - but is not allowed to bring up - that the sticks indicate the deaths were part of a ritualistic sacrifice. The defense also pushed back on how investigators collected a bullet cartridge from the scene, one prosecutors say matches a gun owned by Richard Allen.
The defense asked investigators how the bullet cartridge was handled and why there are no pictures or video showing it being removed from the crime scene. They suggested to the jury that there were lapses in the chain of custody to protect the integrity of that evidence.
You can read more details on what happened in court on Day 3 of the trial here.
Former Delphi Police Chief Steve Mullin takes the stand as the state's fourth witness.
Mullins said he still had hope when the first round of searching ended on Feb. 13, 2017.
"I still believed at that time they would returns home," Mullin said.
The next witness was Jake Johns, who helped with the search for the missing girls. He wasn't the one that found them, but he did locate Libby's tie-dyed shirt.
The third witness of the day was Pat Brown, the man who located Abby and Libby's bodies on Feb. 14.
During his testimony, Brown told the jury, “First, I thought they were mannequins.” He then began crying as he told jurors he realized, “We found ‘em.”
You can read more details on what happened in court on Day 2 of the trial here.
Special Judge Frances Gull read the jury their instructions, and both the prosecution and defense made their opening statements to the jury.
Carroll County Prosecutor Nick McLeland said the state's case centers on the man on the Monon High bridge, an unspent bullet found at the scene, and the murders of Abby and Libby.
"The last face the girls saw before their throats were slit was Richard Allen's face," McLeland said.
Defense attorney Andrew Baldwin said the state's case was built on a faulty timeline and evidence that didn't match up. He highlighted witness statements and forensic evidence that cast doubt on the state's case.
"Please wait," Baldwin said in closing. "Richard Allen is truly innocent."
The state's first witness was Becky Patty, Libby German's grandmother. Becky said the last thing she said to Libby was to wear a jacket, which Libby responded, "Grandma, I'll be OK." Becky wiped away tears as she recounted this.
Libby's sister, Kelsi Siebert, took the stand next. She was the one who drove the girls to the trail. She said Libby "was more my best friend than my sister."
Libby and Kelsi's dad, Derrick German, took the stand next. He told the jury he made the girls banana pancakes the day they disappeared. He was out searching for the girls when he learned they had been found.
"I saw the coroner go by and saw 12 cop cars go by," Derrick remembered. "So I went to find Kelsi."
You can read more details on what happened in court on Day 1 of the trial here.