Richard Allen found guilty in 2017 “Delphi murders” of two Indiana girls – National & International News – MON 11Nov2024

Richard Allen found guilty in 2017 “Delphi murders” of two girls in Indiana.

Ukraine fighting to intensify ahead of Trump’s push for peace talks.

NATIONAL NEWS

Richard Allen found guilty in 2017 “Delphi murders” of two girls in Indiana

After more than three days of deliberation, a jury in Delphi, IN, has found Richard Allen guilty of the 2017 murders of Abby Williams, 13, and Liberty “Libby” German, 14. Allen is potentially facing 130 years in prison having been convicted of two counts of murder and two counts of felony murder. Sentencing is set for December 20 and all parties remain under a gag order until then. His defense team will certainly appeal, and many observers say they have strong grounds.

Abby and Libby were kidnapped on February 13, 2017, while spending time on a local nature trail. They were traversing an old rickety railroad bridge called the Monon High Bridge when Libby began recording video on her phone. The video shows Abby on the bridge, and over her shoulder some distance behind her, a man in a coat and hat is briefly seen walking. This figure has become known as “Bridge Guy”. A few seconds later, a man’s voice is heard telling the girls, “Guys… down the hill”. Many consider Bridge Guy to be the prime suspect, but the image captured of him is too poor for a positive identification. The following day, the girls were found dead a short distance from the bridge. Their throats had been slashed.

Public scrutiny and controversy

In the seven years since the brutal murders, the girls’ families and the small town where they lived and died have been turned upside down. The case has drawn interest from all over the world, and that scrutiny only intensified after Allen, 52, was arrested in Novem

ber 2022. Public opinion has been sharply divided as to Allen’s guilt or innocence.

In 2023, his attorneys filed a motion detailing a theory of the case pursued and subsequently abandoned by law enforcement that the girls’ murders were linked to an obscure Odinist ritual. Odinism is the ancient religion of Scandinavia and some white supremacists in America have adopted the practice. Experts have testified that the way the girls’ bodies were posed and the apparently deliberate and symbolic placement of branches over them indicated a ritual component.

The attorneys’ petition named several promising third-party suspects whom Allen’s attorneys felt were dismissed too easily. However, in a ruling that raised eyebrows at the time, Judge Frances Gull barred Allen’s attorneys from presenting any of this evidence to the jury or even presenting any evidence of alternate suspects.

The case against Richard Allen

Shortly after the murders, Allen called law enforcement when they asked for information from anyone who was in the park that day. Allen spoke to an officer and told him that he was on the trail that day.  This was not followed up for 5 years until a volunteer file clerk flagged the tip. Police then reinterviewed Allen and conducted a search of his home. They seized, clothing, hunting knives, and Allen’s Sig Sauer P226. 

Unlike most pretrial detainees, who are kept in county jails, Allen was kept in solitary confinement in a maximum security prison for 13 months. The maximum is supposed to be 30 days. While there, Allen’s physical and mental health deteriorated drastically, and he slipped into a state of psychosis. In this state, Allen made more than 60 confessions, some of which were made in recorded phone calls to his wife and mother. The defense has argued that these confessions should have been inadmissible due to Allen’s mental state. However, it appears they carried sufficient weight with the jury.

Aside from the confessions, many observers felt the state’s case against Allen was flimsy. There was no DNA evidence to implicate Allen. Witness testimony was conflicting and no one who was present at the time the girls were there described seeing anyone meeting Allen’s description.

The only physical evidence linking Allen to the crime scene was an unfired .40 caliber cartridge found near the girls’ bodies. Indiana State Police toolmark examiner Melissa Oberg determined that this unfired cartridge was cycled through Allen’s. Oberg’s determination has been criticized since she compared the unfired round from the crime scene to a round she fired from Allen’s gun. Oberg testified that she could not replicate the marks on the crime scene cartridge merely by cycling a round through the gun.

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INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Ukraine fighting to intensify ahead of Trump’s push for peace talks

Ukraine has launched its biggest drone attack on Moscow to date, forcing several airports to divert flights. Russia also launched over 140 drones on Ukraine. With President-elect Trump vowing to begin working on an agreement to end the war as soon as he takes office, both sides will be trying to gain or hold as much territory to put themselves in the strongest position possible for negotiations.

Although they have taken heavy losses, Russia has managed to make significant territorial gains this year. Meanwhile, Ukraine has lost much of the very little ground it had gained since the beginning of the year. In a surprise move over the summer, Ukraine’s forces took some territory in Russia’s Kursk region. They have managed to hold it without much opposition since Russia has fully committed to taking territory in Ukraine. However, a few weeks ago, North Korea sent several thousand of its own troops to aid Russia’s war effort after signing a mutual defense pact. Ukraine says it recently encountered some North Korean troops in Kursk.

Despite Trump’s statements pushing for peace talks, British PM Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron have vowed to continue supporting Ukraine. The Biden administration has put off an authorization for Ukraine to use US-supplied long-range missiles to strike deep into Russian territory. There hasn’t yet been any word on when or whether this authorization could come through. This could certainly improve Ukraine’s tactical situation but could also lead to a dangerous escalation.

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