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In April, an Indiana man charged with two counts of murder called his wife from jail and confessed to her that he was responsible for the killings, according to a newly unsealed court document.
Richard M. Allen, 50, was arrested in October in the killings of Liberty German and Abigail Williams, two Delphi, Ind., teenagers who went missing on a hike in 2017. When Allen called his wife from a Westville, Ind., jail months later in April, he admitted “several times that he killed Abby and Libby,” the document states. His wife then “abruptly” ended the phone call.
On Wednesday, a judge unsealed more than 100 files related to the ongoing case, which captured nationwide attention as the girls’ families and the Delphi community waited for answers. One of the documents released Wednesday stated that the girls’ autopsies showed that their wounds were “caused by a sharp object.” The full autopsy reports have not been released.
In the June 28 order to unseal, Judge Frances Gull wrote that “public interest is best served by transparency, but that certain pleadings should remain sealed,” including the original, unredacted probable cause affidavit, which would outline why investigators suspect Allen of committing the crimes.
Attorneys for Allen, the prosecuting attorney and the families of Abigail and Liberty have been ordered by the judge not to comment on the case.
On Feb. 14, 2017, the day after 14-year-old Liberty and 13-year-old Abigail disappeared while hiking, volunteers from a search party found the girls’ bodies in a wooded area near the Delphi Historic Trails. Their deaths sent shock waves through Delphi, a small town about 70 miles northwest of Indianapolis.
In the following weeks, police shared that a video recovered from Liberty’s cellphone showed a man wearing blue jeans and a blue coat or jacket. They also released a recording from the video, which they said might depict the killer’s voice.
In the clip, a man appeared to say, “Down the hill,” as if giving an order.
Though investigators continued to work on the case, it would be years until an arrest was made. As Liberty and Abigail’s families awaited updates, they repeated a mantra to each other and to the community: “Today is the day.” It was a hope that a suspect would be arrested.
The day came on Oct. 28, 2022, when Indiana officials arrested Allen more than five years after the teenagers were killed. Indiana State Police Superintendent Douglas Carter said at a news conference at the time that additional details would later be released.
An affidavit that was unsealed the following month revealed that police first interviewed Allen in 2017 because he was on the trail the day the girls went missing but that investigators did not speak to him again until October 2022. After executing a search warrant at Allen’s home in mid-October and analyzing a pistol recovered from the residence, police found that an unspent bullet located near the teenagers’ bodies had been cycled through the firearm.
Now, eight months after Allen’s arrest, one of the newly unsealed documents reveals details about a call he allegedly made to his wife on April 3.
“He admits several times within the phone call that he committed the offenses as charged,” the document states.
After April 3, Allen stopped making phone calls at the jail, according to the document, which alleges that he later broke the tablet he’d been using for texts and calls. His attorneys have said Allen’s “mental capacity has declined” while at the facility.
The document added that case investigators believe there is “video evidence that will include his admissions, plus his behavior prior to the admission and directly after,” though the unsealed filings did not include any such exhibits.
The families of Liberty and Abigail told WRTV in 2019 that, even as the investigation dragged on, they were confident an arrest would be made.
“We know it’s coming. You know the right thing will come up,” Anna Williams, Abby’s mother, said. “We know the right time, the right lead, the right person will come forward.”
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Source link: https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/06/30/richard-allen-delphi-confessed-call/