How Abby and Libby Walked Down the Hill to Their Deaths

Script for Humble Mysteries, episode 9

Apr 27, 2024

When you’re a teenager growing up in a small town, your options for hanging out are limited. You can go grab some food, drive around or hang out at a friend’s place. Doors are rarely locked in small towns. Keys are left in the cars. Everyone knows everyone, after all. But what happens when all of that changes overnight? When your small town haven suddenly becomes the home of a predator of the worst kind, the one that preys on children? What happens when trails and forests and creeks that should be blooming and booming with the laughter of younger generations suddenly get soaked with blood of girls who just wanted to spend their day off outside, having fun?

Please join me as we explore the murders of Libby German and Abby Williams.

February 13th 2017 was a Monday. In the small town of Delphi, Indiana, kids were making big plans for their day off. That winter had been mild, so the dedicated snow days hadn’t been used. The schools then decided to give the students one of those “snow days” to have a long weekend instead.

Delphi is a small community. In 2010, around 3,000 people lived in Delphi. About an hour and 20 minutes away from the state capital, Indianapolis, Delphi is home to… not much. A lot of people will say that there isn’t much to do in Delphi, especially if you’re a teenager. If you’re interested in history, then maybe Wabash and Erie Canal would be something you’d like to see. And if you’re interested in spending some time outdoors, in nature, then maybe you’d visit the historical Monon High Bridge Trail. Located just out of Delphi to the east, the trail offers a nice place to hike around Deer Creek. The trail ends where the old, rickety railway bridge begins. The bridge was completely refurbished and reinforced in 2023, but back in 2017, it looked pretty scary. The bridge had no railing, and the gaps between the beams were so big, a smaller person could easily fall through. On top of that, the Monon High Bridge sits about 21 meters, or 70 feet above Deer Creek which is definitely not a harmless fall.

Delphi, being a small community, always felt safe to its residents. With low crime rates, people felt comfortable leaving their houses and cars unlocked. There were no strangers in a town as small as Delphi. Everyone pretty much knew everyone, and if they didn’t, they knew someone who did.

But that all changed on Valentines’ Day 2017.

As I mentioned, Monday, February 13th, was a day off for the school kids in Delphi. That meant that Libby and Abby, best friends, could have a sleepover.

They were attending 8th grade at the Delphi Community Middle School, and were at the same time polar opposites, and soulmates.

Liberty German, or Libby, as everyone called her, was born to her parents on December 27th 2002. She had two sisters, and two step siblings on her mother’s side, and lived in the custody and care of her grandparents, Mike and Becky Patty. Her father, Derrick, also lived with them, while her mother Carrie, lived in Kentucky with her new family.

Abigail Williams, or Abby as she was called, was born on June 23rd 2003. She lived in Delphi with her mother, and she was Libby’s best friend.

Both of them had very similar interests - they both played the saxophone in the school band, they played volleyball, and Abby was planning on joining the softball team, where Libby had already been playing for a while. Libby was the extrovert of the pair, a true social butterfly. Her sister, Kelsi, remembers that numerous people had told her that Libby was their best friend. She was a doer, and an encourager, and with her lively, approachable personality, she was exactly who Abby Williams needed in her corner to help her get out of her shell, to encourage her to do new things, and make friends.

Abby was an introvert, and loved her quiet activities like reading and painting. She was a little quieter than Libby, but loved her fiercely, nonetheless.

Their friendship seemed to work really well, most likely because of their shared interests, and complementing personalities.

On Sunday, the girls had a sleepover at Libby’s house. They watched a movie, painted, ordered pizza and had a fun evening. The next morning they slept in, got up around 10am, and asked Libby’s dad to make them pancakes.

Libby’s grandma, Becky, ran an appraisal business and she asked the girls if they would like to help her with some admin work and make some money. They agreed and spent a few hours helping Becky with some documents and paperwork. Kelsi, Libby’s older sister, said that they had a normal morning. As the morning moved on, Libby started itching to get out and do something. The day was unseasonably warm, and it was their day off, so spending it inside would be a wasted day in Libby’s book. She asked her sister, Kelsi, if she’d like to go to the Monon High Bridge with her and Abby. Kelsi said that she had other plans. She was supposed to be at work at 4pm, and had plans to clean out her boyfriend’s truck before work.

Libby was ok with that, but as Kelsi thought about it more, she said that she would take them on her way to her boyfriend’s place. Becky, Libby’s grandmother, told the girls they could go if they get a ride home, and if Abby’s mom approves it. Eventually, they told Becky they got a ride home, and the girls were on their way. Becky remembers telling the girls to bring their coats, because even though the day was nice and warm, it was still February. Abby and Libby got sweatshirts instead, and as they drove to the start of the trail, Kelsi was given a beautiful memory. Abby, Libby and her rolled down their windows and spent the drive singing, laughing and having a great time. No one could have known that once the car door slammed behind them, and Kelsi drove away, the girls would never be seen alive again.

So, on the drive to the trail, Libby called her dad and he agreed to come pick them up on his way back from a job he was doing in a nearby city. They didn’t set a time, but he said that he would call them when he’s close so they could start making their way back to the parking lot.

Kelsi estimated that she dropped them off around 1:40pm at the parking lot at the start of the Monon High Bridge Trail. By 2:05pm, the girls had walked the trail and made it to the Monon High Bridge, and we know that because at 2:05pm, Libby uploaded a photo to her Snapchat account. It was a black and white photo of the Monon High Bridge. It was taken at the beginning of the bridge, just off the trail that Abby and her walked minutes earlier.

At 2:07pm, Libby uploaded another photo - this time it was a photo of Abby walking on the Monon High Bridge. Abby can be seen with her hands in her pockets, her head down, clearly being very careful about where she was stepping.

This was Abby’s first time crossing the bridge, and Libby, who had crossed it on a few occasions before, was there to commemorate the moment and take photos of her.

I am not sure I would dare to walk across this bridge, I truly am not sure. I understand that this was almost like a coming of age thing for the Delphi youth, crossing the bridge. And apparently, the locals said that people were very respectful about others who were walking the bridge, and would wait until they had gotten off the bridge to start crossing because it would be a little tricky for two people to bypass each other on the bridge.

In any case, the second photo, the one of Abby crossing the bridge, was taken a little ways across the bridge already, so I think it’s safe to assume that the girls did cross the bridge.

At 3:11pm, Libby’s dad called her phone. She didn’t answer. He was already close by, so he parked his car at 3:14pm and called Libby again. No answer. He got out of his car and looked around but couldn’t see the girls, so he started walking the trail to meet them. He was fully expecting them to be walking towards him at that point. Around 3:15pm, Derrick stopped a man dressed in a flannel shirt to ask him if he had seen two teenage girls on the trail. The man said he had not seen them. By 3:30pm, Derrick called Becky and Kelsi, and neither of them had been in contact with Libby and Abby since they were dropped off earlier. No one was able to reach them on their phones at this time.

Becky, Mike, Kelsi, Derrick and other members of their family gathered at the Monon High Bridge trail around 4pm. They were worried that the girls had fallen off the bridge, or that one of them was injured. They thought they might have lost their phones, or dropped the phones into the creek. Of course, many things were going through their heads as they were searching, but probably at this point they still thought that everything would be ok and that the girls would be found soon.

At one point, Kelsi crossed the bridge with her uncle, all the time calling Libby’s phone, hoping that she would hear the phone ringing somewhere in the woods.

The area around the bridge is a heavily wooded area, and not particularly accessible. Even though there was no foliage in February, the terrain was hilly and pretty steep in places off the trail path.

Libby’s family was trying everything they could think of at that point. They even called AT&T to ask them if they could pinpoint the location of Libby’s phone. Obviously, they weren’t able to do that for legal reasons. Libby didn’t have the location switched on on her phone, and her grandmother wasn’t tracking her location on her Find My Friends app. While all this was going on, Becky was desperately trying to reach Anna, Abby’s mom. She worked as a waitress and didn’t have her phone with her.

At 5:20pm, as darkness was already starting to creep in, the family called the police and reported Libby and Abby missing.

Only 5 minutes later, Abby’s mom picked up the phone, and Becky explained what was happening. They agreed to meet at the police station.

Around this time, both police officials, and volunteer firefighters gathered at the Monon High Bridge, and started searching for the girls.

Naturally, friends and family also started posting to social media, and a lot of people saw these posts and decided to come to the Monon High Bridge Trail and help search for the girls.

The initial search wasn’t very well organized even though a lot of people came to help, and because it was dark, the search was called off around midnight. This was an extremely controversial decision at the time, and people still question it to this day.

This decision was partially due to the fact that the police chose to view the girls as teenage runaways. Again, Delphi is a safe place, and Abby and Libby one time walked over to a different town without telling anyone, so once the police had that information, they just assumed something similar had happened this time around as well.

However, the Fire Chief who commanded the volunteer fire department of Delphi, later explained that, having searched the most immediate area, and not having the resources at the time to search in the water, he had to send his men home. He said that all of them are men who have livelihoods, jobs and families, and that he wasn’t willing to risk any of that for a prolonged search in the night.

The many people of Delphi who came to search for the girls, lit up the night in the woods around Deer Creek and the Monon High Bridge. Hundreds of flashlights meandered through the trails and among the trees and the names Abby and Libby were yelled into the dark nothingness. But nothing was found that night.

The next morning, the search by the police and the fire department continued. The volunteers were told to gather at 7:30am, and this time they decided to do a proper grid search of the entire area.

The fire department created a grid, and then groups of searchers were made and dedicated a portion of a grid each. The reason grid searches are done in areas like this, is to avoid continuous search in just one area, to make sure every inch of the area is searched, and to utilize the resources, in this case people, to their full potential.

Around noon, while Libby’s sister Kelsi was searching just under the bridge, one of the groups that was downstream from them on Deer Creek noticed a shoe floating in the water. The group members called for Kelsi and asked her what kind of shoes the girls were wearing. When she described their footwear, it was clear that the shoe they found belonged to Libby.

Not long after, around 1:50pm, in a wooded area about half a mile from the Monon High Bridge and not far from the shore of Deer Creek, the searchers found the bodies of Abby and Libby lying in the grass. This is unconfirmed, but I found the information that one of the searchers saw two deer in the woods. He used his phone camera to zoom in on the deer, and as he moved the camera down, he noticed the bodies. Additionally, some of the girls’ clothing was found in the creek.

The crime scene was immediately taped off, and the forensic teams took over. The bodies were found on the bank of the creek closer to the entrance to the trail, which meant that they crossed the bridge, were then taken down the hill towards the creek, crossed it and were then murdered on the other side of the creek.

I think it’s safe to assume that finding the girls dead was not the outcome anyone had expected, nor hoped for.

In the press conference after the bodies were found, the police said that they suspected foul play. When asked about the reasons, all they could say was: “Just the way the bodies were found.”

The police have to this day remained incredibly tight-lipped about the details of this case, especially when it comes to the crime scene. I will come back to this later, as the details were, unfortunately, leaked, and also discussed in legal documents. But for now, we’re still in 2017, and there was almost nothing in terms of how these two girls were found, what their cause of death was or how they were killed.

The only thing we knew was that the crime scene was brutal and horrific, and the officers and volunteers who witnessed it, said that the images will haunt them forever. We also didn’t know initially what kind of evidence was collected from the crime scene, though, interestingly, Libby’s phone was found at the scene and it was in perfect working condition. When it comes to any DNA evidence, we, again, don’t know what, if anything, was found.

The bodies were officially identified and the autopsies were performed on February 15th, 2017, however, the details were never released to the public.

That same day in the evening, the police released a grainy photograph of a man walking on the Monon High Bridge. The man in the photo is dressed in lighter, loose fitting jeans, boots, a dark blue canvas jacket and is wearing a cap.

The police said they released the photo because they were interested in talking to the man in it, as they believed he was walking the Monon High Bridge trail at the same time Abby and Libby were there. They also invited anyone parked near the trail or walking the trail on the day of February 13th to come forward for interviews.

With tip lines open, tips started trickling in.

Libby and Abby were laid to rest on February 18th, and a beautiful memorial service was held in their school.

The next day the police confirmed that the man in the photo they released is the main suspect. On February 22nd, the police confirmed that the photo of a suspect came from Libby’s phone, and released an audio recording, also from her phone. In the recording, a male voice can be heard saying: “Down the hill.” This voice was confirmed to be that of a suspect.

So at this point the public had an image of a man and a voice to go with it.

For the next few months, Libby’s family pleaded with the public to come forward if they knew anyone who matched the photo, or the audio recording. I think at this point, when you’re already a few months in, and no arrests have been made, the hope starts to flicker a bit. It comes off and back on again, like an old neon light almost. I’m sure the families were doubting if the person who did this will ever be caught and if Libby and Abby will ever get justice.

Billboards had been put up all over the state and across the country. The FBI assisted with going through the many tips that came in. Memorials were held for the girls, and people found nice ways to honor them and remember them. One of those gestures was switching the porch light bulbs to orange, and many porches in Delphi were lit orange in memory of Abby and Libby.

Now, the place where the girls were found was actually private property. The property wasn’t fenced off, and was accessible from the rest of the woods and trails. The owner of the property was Ron Logan, and he was investigated and looked into heavily. About a month after the girls died, Ron Logan’s house was searched, however, nothing really came out of that search. Apparently, Ron Logan had an alibi for the time of the murders, but as this case went on, the relative who provided an alibi for him came forward and said that Ron Logan asked him to lie for him and give him an alibi, on the same day the murders happened. Now, I wasn’t able to find when exactly Ron asked this person for an alibi. Because if you think about it, if he had asked anytime before the news of the girls being missing had come out, that’s really suspicious. Again, we don’t know how deeply the police looked into Ron Logan and his possible involvement. He was an elderly person at the time of the murders, and it is questionable whether or not he would have the physical strength to carry out the murders. If he was in any way involved, we may never know, because Ron Logan died in 2020.

Now, back in 2017, months go by again, and in July of that year, the police released a composite sketch of a suspect. The sketch depicted a white man, about 40-50 years old wearing a cap. He has on a cap, you can see some hair peeking out under the cap. He has a stubble, or very short beard, thin lips and hooded eyes.

He doesn’t appear to be particularly skinny or heavy, just an average looking guy. So, we learned that this sketch was made based on two witnesses' testimonies. The first one was a 16 year old girl who at 1:30pm saw a man whose expression frightened her at the Freedom Bridge - which is a different bridge, at the very beginning of the trail, close to the parking lot. She reported the incident before the bodies were even found, and before the police released that image of a man on the bridge. She described the man as wearing jeans, a hat and a blue jacket, but said she could not make out his face as he was wearing a scarf. The second witness whose testimony added to this composite sketch was a 20-something old male. He called the police when he saw the image of a man on the bridge and said that he had seen him around 3pm on the Monon High Bridge Trail, walking from the High Bridge to the Freedom Bridge. He again said the man was wearing a hat and a scarf over the lower part of his face.

Now we had a photo, albeit grainy, an audio recording and a composite sketch of a suspect. Surely somebody will come forward with something, right? Wrong.

And mind you guys, this sketch was posted everywhere in Delphi - businesses, bars, stores, any public place, there was a composite sketch posted. Years were passing, and there was no major news about this case. And this is where I learned about this case, in April of 2019 the true crime community online exploded.

On April 22nd, 2019, law enforcement held a press conference and announced that they had a new sketch to share. And I think everyone probably thought at that point that they will release an updated, more detailed sketch from 2017, or maybe an enhanced photo of the man on the bridge. But instead, they released a completely new composite sketch. This sketch depicted a seemingly much younger man. He was clean shaven, was not wearing a hat and had shorter hair that was curlier on top.

At the conference, law enforcement officials announced that they are taking the investigation in a new direction, and as if this whole thing could not get more confusing, it was announced that this composite sketch was actually the first one created, only 4 days after Abby and Libby were murdered. The sheriff said that the sketch was an artist’s composite of the information, although I’m not sure if we ever learned which witnesses provided information for this sketch. He said: “This is information we received from persons who were in the area around the time the girls went missing.”

In any case, this new sketch was now considered relevant, although one of the officials later said that both sketches are relevant, and that both sketches should be considered.

In the same conference, the police also urged the public to come forward if they have any recollection of a vehicle parked near an abandoned CPS building on the day of the murders.

This conference also provided us with additional audio of the suspect.

Whereas before we only had “Down the hill”, the new audio had an extra word spoken by the same male voice, and could be heard as: “Guys, down the hill.”

On top of that, the police released a very short video of the man walking on the bridge. So remember the grainy photo of a guy on the bridge we had at the very beginning of this investigation? Well, now we had a video, and it was clear that the image the police shared initially was a screenshot of this video.

It was said that this is a part of a longer video that Libby took because she felt unsafe and the guy walking behind them on the bridge seemed suspicious. The police said that Libby was extremely brave to try and capture this person on camera, providing them with potential evidence.

And, like I mentioned earlier, this is where I got sucked into this case. I found it incredible that even with all the evidence that the police were able to present to the public, no one came forward with anything useful.

And guys, it will be years before we get a break in this case. You can only imagine the public’s interest and the theories flying around. And, I have to admit, I am not immune to theories either, especially in this case. There were so many things that just didn’t make sense, and so many questions. I never understood why the police were so incredibly tight-lipped about the whole thing. Obviously, in any investigation, the police will keep a certain amount of information away from the public. They do so for many reasons, but usually, especially in America, they do it so that the jury trial isn’t compromised. Some information is generally hidden from the public because if someone came out with knowledge that isn’t accessible to the public, the police would know that this person knows more than what was publicly shared about the case.

And then sometimes, and I’m guessing this was the case here, they are trying to protect the victims’ privacy and minimize the mental toll on their families and their communities. Remember, Libby and Abby were 13 and 14 respectively, their community was very young.

During this gap some more information came out. It was said that the murderer left signatures at the crime scene, and took souvenirs. Now, that sounds very graphic, but it can be something as simple as positioning the victims’ bodies, or taking items of their clothing. Nothing was specified during that time.

Naturally, there were multiple persons of interest as the years went on. I think the police were trying their hardest to not give an impression that this case was getting cold. Because there are now developments in this case, obviously, as I mentioned in the intro, the case is going to trial next month, I won’t get into all of the theories and persons of interest now.

The one person I will mention, however, has to do more with what we can learn about online safety, as this person is not considered a person of interest nor is he considered connected to the crime.

On December 6th 2021, Indiana State Police announced that they are looking for information about a fake social media account that used the handle anthony_shots. They claimed that there was a potential unspecified connection between the account, or the account’s owner and Libby and Abby. Not long after, a probable cause affidavit was released and in it, Kegan Kline was named as the owner of the aforementioned account.

At the time when this information was coming out, Kegan Kline was actually in jail in Miami County, Indiana. He was charged in August 2020 with 30 counts, including child exploitation, possession of child pornography and obstruction of justice.

Now, the reason the police were interested in Kegan Kline was because he was, through his fake anthony_shots account, in contact with Libby on the day of the murders.

And that’s the reason I wanted to mention this particular person of interest. Unfortunately, it took Libby getting murdered for information about her being in contact with a child groomer to come out. And this is not blaming her grandparents or parents for monitoring her online activities, but I think it raises very important questions on how much independence children should have on their phones, how much we as parents are allowed to monitor their online presence and how to educate our children not to fall for these kinds of accounts.

Basically, what Kegan Kline did was this: he opened an instagram account, and found a lesser known male model, presumably also a teenager. He stole his photos and regularly posted them on his fake accounts. He then used that account to contact young girls and get into conversations with them, often discussing topics of sexual nature with them or asking them for nude photographs.

All the while, these young girls believed they were talking to a teenage model, when in fact they were chatting with a 27 year old chubby dude. And not only that, Kegan Kline revealed that he actually allowed other men to use that fake account which would give other men access to these girls as well.

It has been said that Kegan Kline arranged to meet Libby at the bridge the day she was murdered. I don’t know if that’s a rumor or not, I wasn’t able to find a lot of corroborating information, but in any case, we know that his fake account was one of the last ones to be in contact with Libby before her death.

And again, with everything that has come out since, I don’t think Kegan Kline had anything to do with these murders. I think he is a disgusting pedophile who should rot in prison, away from children. And that’s exactly where he is because last September he was sentenced to 40 years in prison for crimes against children.

Quite frankly, I don’t think we punish crimes against children harshly enough, especially with how easily accessible everything seems to be these days. But that’s a story for another day.

On October 28th 2022 it was announced that an arrest had been made in the case of murdered girls, Abby and Libby.

5 years after their tragic deaths, a man named Richard Allen was arrested and charged with their murders.

The way this arrest came about is really interesting. So, Richard Allen actually came forward when the murders were announced and the police started asking anyone who had been on the trails or the bridge the day of the murders to come forward. It was reported that he called a tip line and then later briefly spoke to one of the officers. Now, during that initial interview, if we can call it that, he did say that he was on the trails and that he was on the bridge watching fish, approximately at the same time Libby and Abby were there. I don’t think anyone asked him what he was wearing that day, unfortunately, because if they did, maybe once the video was extracted from Libby’s phone, the puzzle pieces would start fitting together.

But instead, he was asked that question 5 years later, and he said that he wore a dark blue Carhartt jacket, jeans, boots, a hoodie and a hat. First of all, who would just randomly remember what they wore on a certain day 5 years ago? I know I wouldn’t. But maybe he just couldn’t forget it because he kept seeing his photo everywhere. Not only that, the blue Carhartt jacket was actually found when his house was searched.

But let’s not jump too far ahead. So, 5 years have passed and someone in the investigative team decided to go over all of the tips, notes, reports and everything that was made from the beginning of this investigation. And in the pile of information, they found a note with Richard Allen’s information - that he was on the bridge and on the trail the same time the girls were there.

They then decided that Richard Allen deserved more looking into. They invited him for an interview on October 13th 2022, in which they asked him what he was wearing and whether or not he owned any firearms. Richard told them what he was wearing and that he did own firearms. He also told them which firearms he owned, and was adamant that he was the only one who ever used the firearms. He said there was absolutely no way anyone else had access to his weapons because he doesn’t let anyone borrow them.

The same day, a search warrant was executed and in Richard Allen’s house, investigators found boots, knives, jackets and firearms, including a .40 Sig Sauer pistol.

We then found out that a bullet was found at the crime scene, and that the bullet found was a live bullet, which means it hadn’t been fired out of a gun, but it was cycled through a gun. I’m no gun expert, so if I totally mess up this explanation, please don’t come for me, I did my best to educate myself.

But basically, the way I understood it, they found a bullet which had extraction marks on it. This bullet was live, meaning it wasn’t fired, it still had gunpowder in. But the bullet was in a gun at some point, which is where those extraction marks come from. How exactly one gets the bullet out of the chamber of the gun, I don’t know, but that’s basically what the police say happened with this bullet - it was in the chamber, and then it got out of the chamber, but wasn’t fired.

The bullet was found at the crime scene, between Libby and Abby’s bodies.

The gun found in Richard Allan’s home was sent for ballistic examination, and it was found that his gun makes the exact same marks on bullets that are cycled through the chamber, but not fired, as the marks found on the live bullet at the crime scene. The police took that information as crucial evidence that Richard Allen was at the crime scene.

He was interviewed after these findings and could not explain how or why a bullet from his gun would be found at the crime scene.

In the probable cause affidavit that came out following Richard Allan’s arrest we learned that the girls saw him walking on the bridge behind them, and that one of them could be heard saying “gun”. This all came from the video taken on Libby’s phone. The affidavit also states that towards the end of the video, the man can be heard saying: “Guys, down the hill.” The girls then proceeded to walk down the hill, and the video ended.

And honestly, before we go further, this is exactly what I always had as a theory in my head. I always thought that he must have threatened them with a weapon to get them to comply with his orders. And I always thought that the weapon was most likely a gun, because if he had a knife, the girls could have and probably would have ran. I know I would, and I’m not athletic at all. But two girls who regularly played sports, versus a guy in his 40’s-50’s… They win every time. Unfortunately, a gun changes those chances significantly, because if he aims well, you can’t outrun a gun, so I always thought he must have flashed a gun and they just did what they were told. I can’t even imagine the fear they must have felt, and that was all just the beginning of the whole ordeal.

I think at this point in the story, all of us who have been following this case, hoped that this case would go to trial, and justice will finally be served for Abby and Libby. Unfortunately, more shenanigans occurred, and to me that just means the prolongation of suffering for these families.

I want to also give a quick insight into who Richard Allen is. Well, believe it or not, he is a family man, an Indiana local, he moved to Delphi in 2006. He used to work as a pharmacy tech in the local CVS, and actually developed photos from Abby’s and Libby’s memorial service for Libby’s grandparents. He even refused to charge them for that service. He lived with his family in Delphi, not even a 5 minute drive from Libby’s house. At the time of the murders he was 44 years old. And I keep remembering the words of one of the detectives early in the investigation when he said he believes that the killer a Delphi local and is hiding in plain sight.

Nothing proves this more than a photo of Richard Allen at a local bar, smiling and posing for a photo while a flier with a composite sketch of a murderer can be seen behind him.

He also apparently has at least one daughter, a few years older than Abby and Libby, who also frequented the Monon High Bridge.

Richard Allen’s lawyers have filed an array of motions. They claimed he was being mistreated in jail, that he has suffered from psychosis in jail. Probably the most shocking motion came in September 2023, when his defense lawyers brought forward a theory that Libby and Abby were murdered by a white nationalist cult with ties to Odinism, an ancient pagan religion.

It was through this document that we finally found out that the girls’ throats were slashed and that the crime scene looked ghoulish. It was claimed that their bodies had both been staged with tree branches and sticks across their bodies in the shape of pagan symbols which resemble possible Odinism signatures.

Libby was found at the base of a tree with four tree branches of varying sizes intentionally placed in a very specific and arranged pattern on her naked body and blood spots and drippings all over her body.

Abby was fully clothed, but not in just her clothes. She wore Libby’s sweatshirt and jeans. There was no blood on her clothing, which probably means she was murdered naked and then re-dressed. The branches and sticks were also arranged on her body.

It appeared that both victims were murdered, and then moved into positions they were found in.

According to the defense, Libby’s blood was used to paint a rune similar to the letter F on the tree bark of a tree. According to the prosecution, that was just a bloody palm print indicating that the murderer, or one of the girls, touched the tree with a bloodied hand.

The defense also brings forward a connection between Odinism and a teenage son of one of the alleged cult members. They claimed that this teenage son was dating Abby at the time of the murders and that his father was openly posting imagery related to Odinism on his Facebook profile, around the time of the murders.

This person was, according to the prosecution, interviewed in February 2017 and cleared by March.

The defense also stated that this information was willingly withheld by the prosecution, and that the probable cause affidavit failed to disclose all of the findings related to Odinism.

And all of that would be perfectly understandable, but it was then reported that Richard Allen confessed in jailhouse phone calls, both to his wife and to his mother, no less than 5 times!

And this is the information we have heading into this trial. Richard Allen will be tried in Caroll County, but the jurors will be selected from Allan County, both in Indiana.

So we will wrap it up here, I hope this was a decent overview of the case. I will try to keep up with the trial and post updates on my social media. If there are any major revelations, I will probably also make an updated episode about it.

I wonder what you guys think, do you think he’s guilty as hell? Because I think he’s guilty as hell. I’m one of those people who think that when it comes to life and true crime cases, the most simple explanation is usually the one that’s true. And in this case, that would be an opportunist predator seizing an opportunity to murder two little girls in broad daylight.

I know people will be hung up on the possible Odinism connection, but to me, that seems too complicated and too involved to be the explanation for this case.

I think he was walking the trails regularly, probably fantasizing about doing exactly what he did. He probably got a lot of enjoyment from what he did, because the nature of the crime is very personal. He obviously had a gun, he could have shot those two girls, but he chose not to do that. He chose to exert power over them, to command them what to do and where to go, and then he slashed their throats after he was finished with them. I think you will agree with me when I say that slashing someone’s throat is a much more personal manner of killing someone than shooting them.

And of course, I have to say, all of this is alleged. Richard Allen has not been convicted of anything yet, so he is presumed innocent. I will have to put this case in my “Unsolved murders” playlist on YouTube, but I hope that once this trial is done we will have a conviction, and I will be able to move this case to the “Solved murders” playlist.

I cannot even begin to explain to you how much this case has occupied my thoughts and my free time since 2019 when I first learned about it. I still cannot believe how long it took for these families to get to where we are now. And this is such a difficult way of losing someone. I think it’s easier when it’s an accident. Had those girls fallen off the bridge, it would be just as tragic, but at least for the families there is a sense of closure, and you can move on after a while.

For these kinds of cases, when murder is involved, it takes so long for families to be able to move on. They lay their children to rest, and then they have to wait for the investigation to conclude, they have to hope that they catch the person who is responsible. Then if they’re lucky and the police actually bring the case to trial, they have to sit down and listen about their children’s suffering, be re-victimized over and over again… And hope that the prosecution brought forward enough evidence for the jury to put this person behind bars.

Only then can they possibly think about moving on. And for these families, it has been 7 years of that. I truly wish that they get their closure, I hope that the prosecution proves their case beyond reasonable doubt and I hope that this tiny community can begin to heal.

To Libby’s and Abby’s families I express my sincerest condolences. I am truly in awe of your dedication to this case, and your relentless fight for justice. Libby and Abby would be turning 21 and 22 respectively this year, and it’s hard not to think about what beautiful young women they would have grown into.