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Delphi Murders Suspect Confessed in Jailhouse Calls "No Less Than Five Times," Prosecutors Allege in Newly Unsealed Documents
Murder suspect Richard Allen admitted that he killed Liberty German and Abigail Williams during calls with his wife and mother on public jail phones, prosecutors say.
New unsealed documents in the infamous Delphi murders case allege that accused killer Richard Allen admitted to the double homicide numerous times while behind bars.
Allen, 50, is charged with two counts of murder in the 2017 slayings of Abigail “Abby” Williams, 13, and Liberty “Libby” German, 14. He was arrested in October 2022.
A day after the friends went missing on Feb. 13, the victims’ bodies were found near the Monon High Bridge hiking trail in Delphi, Indiana.
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The public revelation of Allen’s alleged jailhouse confession on June 28 came after Special Judge Fran C. Gull issued a ruling to lift a gag order on numerous Delphi murders court filings in effect since December 2, 2022.
Of the 137 documents that have been filed by prosecutors and defense attorneys, 118 of them were unbarred, Law & Crime reports. The confidentiality order was put in place to prevent public comment and was lifted after the judge conferred with both lawyers on both sides.
“Counsel agree with the Court that the public interest is best served by transparency, but that certain pleadings should remain sealed,” Judge Gull wrote in the order issued Wednesday. Nineteen documents remain under the seal order, including filings listing names of juvenile witnesses.
Among the unsealed documents is an April 20 filing by prosecutors. It states that Allen “admitted that he committed the offenses that he is charged with no less than five times while talking to his wife and his mother on the public jail phones available at the Indiana Department of Corrections,” according to Law & Crime.
More recently, in court on June 15, the prosecution said Allen “confessed five or six times to killing the girls.”
Allen’s attorneys argued the statements are inconsistent with the suspect's previous denial of the crimes. They added that the statements shouldn’t be trusted based on their client’s diminished mental state.
In April, a judge granted a prison transfer request for Allen after his attorneys argued that “prisoner of war” conditions of his incarceration were causing his physical and mental health to decline.
In addition to the details related to Allen’s alleged confession to the 2017 murders of the two teens, the unsealed documents refer to the victims’ cause of death, Law & Crime reported.
Both girls appear to have been stabbed to death. “Autopsies of the girls ruled their deaths as homicides and their wounds were caused by (a) sharp object,” one of the documents filed by prosecutors states.
The girls' disappearance gained increased media attention after authorities released cell phone video taken from Libby's phone that showed an unknown man walking in their direction and uttering the phrase "Guys, down the hill." That encounter took place less than half an hour after the girls began their hike, according to previous Oxygen.com reporting.
“The video recovered from Victim 2’s phone shows Victim 1 walking southeast on the Monon High Bridge while a male subject wearing a dark jacket and jeans walks behind her,” a probable cause affidavit, released in November, stated. “As the male subject approaches Victim 1 and Victim 2, one of the victims mentions, ‘gun.’”
According to investigators, several witnesses reported seeing a man matching Allen's description walking toward Monon High Bridge at around the time the girls disappeared. One witness described the suspect as "kind of creepy."
“[Witness] advised she said ‘Hi’ to the male, but he just glared at them,” the affidavit stated.
Allen’s trial is set to begin in January of 2024.
