In 2017, two teenage girls, Abigail Williams (13) and Liberty German (14) were walking alone on the Monon High Bridge Trail, in Delphi, Indiana. The girls had the day off of school and had planned to go hiking. The story takes a turn for the worse, when they noticed a man following behind them with no one else in sight. On instinct, German used her phone, though exceedingly pixelated, to take a photo of the man and a bone-chilling video of him saying, “Down the hill”. 

The girls’ bodies were found the next day, a quarter mile from the abandoned railroad bridge where they were walking the day before. The deaths were ruled as a double homicide, and the police desperately searched for clues to the killer. In 2017, a sketch of the supposed suspect was released, and the property where the bodies were found was searched. Ron Logan, owner of the property, had the land searched with a warrant. The police found that Logan’s alibi was not true, and was also reported to be near the area the day the girls died. However, Logan passed away in January with COVID-19 complications, and was not charged. This leaves the question of if Logan was connected to the case. 

After no news surrounding the case for almost two years, another image of the suspect was submitted, vastly different from the first in 2017. The police raised the question if the man from 2017 had somebody else working with him, or if the updated drawing was the same man. Further investigations in 2019 were carried out, leading to observations of a dead rape suspect, to no avail; and a child pornographer and his connection with German. However, no further investigations were carried out, and no charges were made on either man. 

On Monday, October 26 of 2022, more than five years after the murder of the girls, Richard Allen(50) from Delphi, Indiana, was arrested and charged with murder. Allen pleaded not guilty, and his trial is scheduled for March 20, 2023, where he is held up on a bond for $20 million, ensuring that he shows up to his court date.

Allen is a local to Delphi, where he continued to live even after the bodies were found. The families of the girls were always suspicious that “the killer could be living right under our noses” and therefore continued the search. While Allen’s trial looms, the police are still doing everything they can to find more about the case and those responsible.