Delphi Murders: Juror sees disturbing crime scene photos

People in the packed courtroom reportedly gasped loudly when a close-up photograph of the young victim’s bloodied face was shown on a large monitor to the jury.

This week, prosecutors in the double-murder trial of 52-year-old Indiana man Richard Allen shared publicly for the first time how Libby German, 14, and her best friend, Abby Williams, 13, were killed, and the gruesome scene that awaited searchers who found their bodies a day after they disappeared from a hiking trail in the small town of Delphi on February 13, 2017.

For years, the public had little to no information about the circumstances of the murders, even as true-crime fanatics shared theories online and the girls’ families regularly spoke out to alert anyone with information. Ultimately, it was these details of the crime, which only the girls’ killer could have known, that prosecutors said Allen himself revealed when he confessed to the murders of he recorded the calls he made from prison to his wife and mother.

Allen, a Delphi resident who was arrested years after the October 2022 murders, pleaded not guilty to the murder and kidnapping charges. His defense lawyers have argued that his more than 60 alleged confessions were coerced and unreliable because his mental health had deteriorated while he was incarcerated.

As the long-awaited trial began, the judge warned jurors that the crime scene photographs they would see would be chilling and, according to reporters in the courtroom, they were visibly distressed when the dozens of graphic photographs were shown during the testimony of three crime scene investigators.

The jurors covered their mouths, held their heads, exhaled audibly, and their faces reddened, WRTV i WTHR he reported, when the first set of photos was shown on Monday.

Allen, who is allowed to wear street clothes and remain unchained during the trial, had been taking notes and did not visibly react to looking at the photos, the reporters said.

The photographs reveal it grotesque wounds suffered by the girls, the Journal and Courier reported, who were last seen on a local hiking trail where prosecutors said they filmed their alleged attacker approaching them with a gun.

Both Libby’s and Abby’s necks were slashed, investigators said multiple media points of sale. Their bodies were found in a wooded area next to a creek, about half a mile from the site of a bridge where the man, later named “Bridge Guy” by online detectives, ordered them to get “down to hill,” according to a video investigators said they recovered from Libby’s cell phone. The video, which had only been shared in fragments by the police over the years, was played in its entirety for jurors on Tuesday. Capture images of the girls going down to a stream, Fox 59 reportedwhere a series of articles of clothing were discovered in the water, according to the Carroll County Comet. Their bodies were found on the opposite bank of the creek the next day.

The phone was found under Abby’s body, investigators said, and near Libby’s ankle they found an unspent bullet that prosecutors said they had. linked to a gun owned by Allen.

Additional details about the scene, shown in photos and described by crime scene investigators, were strange.

The girls’ bodies were several meters away. The ground beneath them was saturated with blood, crime scene investigators said, according to WRTV and other points of sale.

They said they also noticed blood in an unusual place: a tree near Abby’s body, with blood stains on the trunk that were clearly visible in crime scene photos shown in court, the Kokomo Tribune reported.

Allen’s defense lawyers had alleged in a court presentation of bomb Last September, a tree near the girls’ bodies had been painted in blood with a rune associated with the pagan deity known as Odin, evidence, they claimed, that the Odinists had killed the girls in a ritual sacrifice.

Last month, the judge dealt Allen’s defense team a blow when he ruled that they had he could not present the theory of odinism to the jury

Another find at the crime scene confirmed a peculiar detail in last year’s defense filing: that sticks and branches had been placed on the girls’ bodies.

Three large branches formed a triangle on Libby’s body, more than twice the size of the girl, WISH News 8 informed. At least two large poles covered Abby’s body.

Another crime scene investigator, Duane Datzman, he told jurors Monday afternoon that the sticks and branches were not immediately collected from the crime scene, WTHR reported.

Datzman also said he saw a “glitter” on the leaves at the crime scene. It turned out to be an unspent shell casing, which prosecutors said was linked to a gun owned by Allen. No other cartridges were found at the scene, he said.

Allen’s lawyers asked why no video or photos they picked up the cartridge from the floor, Fox 59 reported. In opening statements, defense attorneys had claimed that Allen is the victim of a botched investigation, that evidence was mishandled and that Ballistic tests were unreliable.

Prosecutor Nick McLeland said in his opening statement last week that witnesses would testify that they saw a man who looked like Allen on the court the afternoon the girls disappeared. In court documents released in December 2022, investigators said a woman reported seeing a “muddy and bloody” man later that afternoon. McLeland said he told investigators it looked like he had just done it he killed a pig, according to reporters in the room.

Still, researchers said this week that they had found no proof linking Allen’s DNA to the bloody crime scene, the Indy Star i other points of sale informed

Despite the massive interest in the case and the secrecy surrounding the investigation, very few people have been able to see the court proceedings.

The judge refused to allow the case to be broadcast live, filmed or audio recorded. He banned photography and video cameras in the courtroom and even in areas outside it. Last week, he announced that police had seized the video and still cameras of several media outlets, including NBC and The Associated Press, and destroyed their memory cards. Reporters had allegedly been filming and taking photographs when the jury’s charter bus arrived, which the judge said violated his order.

The jury of eight women and four men (plus four alternates) are being held hostage for the entirety of the trial, which is held six days a week and is expected to last a month. They are staying at a hotel in Lexington, about 20 minutes from Delphi.

according to Bob Segall, WTHR reporterjurors can only access their phones, which are in the hands of court staff, to call loved ones in the presence of a bailiff.

Journalists are also prohibited from bringing their phones or other electronic devices into the court. The media has relied on updates from reporters who rush out of the courtroom to share their written notes during breaks or at the end of the day. Even accredited members of the media line up outside the court overnight, alongside true crime content creators and members of the public vying for a seat in the small courtroom.

The trial has also provided the girls’ families with their first opportunity to speak since a gag order it took effect in December 2022. On the stand, family members described them as bright, adventurous and always smiling.

Abby was “a very kind, helpful, smart, funny little girl,” her mother, Anna Williams, said through tears as she testified Friday afternoon, the Indy Star reported.

Almost every day since the trial began, Libby’s grandmother, Becky Patty, has posted different pictures of her granddaughter smiling playfully at the camera.

And while the trial is a milestone in the families’ long search for justice, Patty posted a poignant reflection in a facebook post about whether it could bring closure to the grieving family.

“In the end, you will never come back to us, nothing changes, the missing will never stop, the pain of losing you will never stop, loving you will never stop, there will never be real healing,” Patty wrote. “Maybe when this is over, we will learn to move forward, maybe not. However, one thing is certain: we will live our lives loving and honoring you. I love you and miss you so much Libby.”