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Coverage of the Richard Allen trial continues; the jury sees videos, photos of the crime scene

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Coverage of the Richard Allen trial continues; the jury sees videos, photos of the crime scene

Testimony continued Tuesday in Delphi in the case against Richard Allen.

Allen, 52, is accused of killing Abigail “Abby” Williams and Liberty “Libby” German, who went missing on February 13, 2017 and were found dead the next day. Allen, of Delphi, was arrested in 2022 and faces two counts of murder and two counts of murder while abducting the girls.

Reporters from the Indianapolis Star and the Lafayette Journal & Courier will cover the case as it moves through the court system.

▶ Monday, October 21: Slaps and tears as graphic images of Abby and Libby shown to jurors in Delphi trial

This story will be updated throughout the day.

Defense says initial descriptions of “Bridge Guy” differ from Richard Allen

Three witnesses who were on the Monon High Bridge trail the day Libby and Abby were killed, including one who said she was Libby’s older sister’s best friend, testified Tuesday that a man they saw on the trail is “Bridge Guy”, the prime suspect. depicted in a grainy photo that police later shared to aid their investigation.

But witnesses portrayed the man they saw as younger than 40, large and fairly tall, all in contrast to Richard Allen, the now 52-year-old man who prosecutors say killed the girls when he was 44 . Allen has been listed as His defense attorneys are 5 feet 4 inches tall and 5 feet 5 inches tall in jail records.

The initial police description of the person of interest known as “Bridge Guy” was a white male between 16 and 40 years old, between 5 feet 6 inches and 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighing between 180 and 220 free

Breann Wilber, one of Kelsi Siebert’s best friends at Delphi High School, missed seeing Siebert’s younger sister, Libby German, on the Monon High bridge by a few minutes on Feb. 13, 2017, she testified.

Wilber walked the trails with Railly Voorhies and two other friends that day. Libby responded to Wilber’s Snapchat post showing the wooden railroad bridge about 10 minutes after Wilber had left that area.

Surveillance footage from a nearby business shows Siebert, who dropped off Libby and Abby at the trailhead that day, walking away from the trailhead around 1:49 p.m.

Closer to the west end of the trail, where it crosses US 25, the two high school sophomores said they saw a man. Wilber said it was giving off “strange vibrations” and was “walking with a kind of purpose, like it knew where it was going.” He didn’t look nice. After Voorhies waved at her, she didn’t look back and seemed to be looking at her.

Defense attorney Andrew Baldwin noted that in an earlier police interview, Wilber said it was “as high as his forearm.” She said Tuesday that “at the time, that’s what I guessed.”

Betsy Blair didn’t live in Delphi in 2017, but she would walk the same route on the Monon High Bridge trails several times a week. On Feb. 13, he stopped by the same business whose cameras captured Siebert’s car at about 1:46 p.m., surveillance footage shows, to go for a walk for about half an hour. The footage implies that he had parked and started walking right before Siebert dropped off Abby and Libby.

Stopping near a platform at the start of the Monon High Bridge, Blair saw a man standing on the wooden tracks about 50 feet away. She had never seen him before, she said. When the man turned to look at her, Blair said, it looked like he was waiting to see someone else.

“He was kind of looking upriver,” Blair said, meaning away from where he was, “but when I was there he turned and looked like he was looking for somebody.”

Walking west away from the bridge, he passed two girls he later came to know as Abby and Libby. They were quietly chatting with each other, Blair testified, heading toward the bridge. It was probably just before 2pm

When he saw Bridge Guy’s photo, “I knew immediately … that it was the guy I’d seen on the bridge.”

In a 2019 interview with police, Blair described the man as “boyish-looking,” Baldwin noted in his cross-examination.

Baldwin then alluded to his client, Richard Allen: The man on the bridge “didn’t look like someone who had been married for 25 years . . .”

The prosecution objected, saying Baldwin was stating facts rather than cross-examining the witness. Judge Frances Gull sustained the objection and Baldwin was forced to move forward.

Witness who claimed to have seen ‘Bridge Guy’ on track: ‘I waved at him’

Railly Voorhies went to the Monon High Bridge Trail on February 13, 2017 with three friends to hike and take photos. Around 2:15 p.m., she said she passed a man who appeared to be overdressed for the weather. It was an unseasonably warm February day, but the man was dressed in a jacket and hat. His nose and mouth were covered with what looked like a running mask, and he walked with both hands in his pockets.

“I remember I waved to him and said ‘hello,’ and he didn’t say ‘hello,’ and he sort of kind of looked at me,” Voorhies testified. “He didn’t seem like a happy person.”

After learning what happened to Abby and Libby, she thought about the “creepy man” she saw on the trail. He gave a statement to police on February 15, 2017. After police released a picture of the man later named “Bridge Guy,” Voorhies said, “I realized it was the man to whom he had greeted on the track who did so does not respond.”

Defense attorney Jennifer Auger sought to cast doubt on Voorhies’ testimony, pointing to descriptions he gave to police in 2017.

For example, Voorhies was able to tell police that the man had dirty blond hair, even though he was wearing a hat. She also initially told police that the man she saw had brown eyes, a wrinkled face and a square jaw. On the stand, Voorhies said, “I don’t know how he could have said that since his face was covered.”

He then admitted his memory was “shocked” by the “Bridge Guy” photo and said he couldn’t remember exactly what he saw that day.

Voorhies also stated that she believed the man was taller than her. He is 5 feet 7 inches tall. Richard Allen is a short man, the defense later noted.

Towards the end of the testimony, Voorhies said she was confident of his identification.

“I could say with confidence that the person I saw in the photo is the person I passed,” he said.

Earlier in the afternoon, the prosecution played the last part of the “Bridge Guy” video as Jeremey Chapman, an Indiana State Police system administrator, testified. The video, with enhanced audio, was played in court and jurors heard a man’s voice.

“My opinion,” Chapman testified, “is that it says, ‘Down the hill.’

The defense filed a motion Sunday to uphold the jury’s testimony about the enhanced video. It is unclear whether Special Judge Frances Gull has ruled on the petition. Before playing the video, the defense tried to prevent Chapman from saying what he believed was said in the clip, but he let it slip during testimony.

The prosecution plays the video of ‘Bridge Guy’ following Abby and Libby

to play

The ‘Bridge Guy’ video becomes a key part of the case against Richard Allen

A short clip released to the public in 2019 shows a man walking across the Monon High Bridge in Delphi. The 2024 jurors got more context from the video

Indiana State Police

The prosecution played for jurors a portion of the infamous “Bridge Guy” video that was taken from Libby’s phone.

The clip showed Abby walking towards the end of the Monon High Bridge, which the teenagers walked on the day they disappeared. Libby, who crossed in front of Abby, was recording on her phone. Walking behind Abby in the background is the man who became known as the “Bridge Guy,” dressed in a blue coat and blue jeans.

One of the girls was heard saying, “There’s no way, so we have to get down here.”

As the video played, Libby’s mother, Carrie German Timmons, cried as a family member comforted her.

▶ Saturday, October 19: ‘I thought they were mannequins’: Testimony in Delphi murders trial turns emotional on Day 2

▶ Friday, October 18: ‘Grandma, she’s going to be fine’: Family testifies as lawyers offer dueling narratives at Delphi trial

Tuesday’s screening was the first time prosecutors released a portion of the video showing the man, who they allege is Allen, following the girls. Law enforcement previously released an extended clip of the video that did not show Abby.

In a motion Sunday, Allen’s defense team sought to block testimony “about the words and sounds allegedly contained in the video.”

It’s unclear whether Gull has commented on the request. The portion of the footage played to jurors did not show the teenagers interacting with the man. It didn’t show what happened after the two girls crossed the bridge, including the part where a voice was heard saying “over the hill”, or where Libby said to Abby “gun”.

The jury asked if the floor beneath Abby’s body was disturbed while she was clothed

Testimony in Allen’s trial continued Tuesday with the admission of several dozen pieces of evidence, including swabs taken from the girls and clothing recovered from the crime scene. It is a tedious but critical part of any criminal trial.

One of the highlights of the testimony involved a juror asking if the undergrowth on the ground where Abby was lying appeared to have been disturbed, which would suggest she was clothed there. Abby found herself fully clothed, but it looked like she was wearing Libby’s clothes. The jury asked the question in the form of a note that was handed to the judge.

Brian Olehy, an Indiana State Police crime scene investigator, said there were no signs the area was disturbed.

Allen appeared in court wearing a gray plaid shirt and dark pants, with glasses on his head. He was not handcuffed or chained. As Olehy testified, Allen rocked subtly in his chair for several minutes. Defense attorney Andrew Baldwin later leaned over to whisper something to Allen.

Under questioning from defense attorney Bradley Rozzi, Olehy said he knew of no DNA evidence linking Allen to the crime scene. Rozzi asked if there was any attempt to recover fingerprints from the sticks and branches that were strewn over the girls’ bodies. Olehy said the sticks were dirty and not a good source of fingerprints.

Rozzi asked if there were any signs that anyone came out of the creek near where the girls’ bodies were found. Olehy said there was none. Rozzi also asked if a .40 caliber pistol is common. “I’d say not,” Olehy replied.

Prosecutors have alleged that an unspent bullet found between the girls’ bodies had gone through the same .40-caliber Sig Sauer Model P226 pistol that Allen owned.

At one point during his cross-examination, Rozzi referred to the evidence as a “magic bullet.” Carroll County Prosecutor Nicholas McLeland objected to the sentence.

“Your characterization is inadequate,” Gull told Rozzi.

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