A Delphi pharmacy technician was convicted in 2024 of murdering Abigail Williams and Liberty German, two eighth graders killed near the Monon High Bridge in 2017. His appeal, which argues that his confessions came during psychosis in solitary confinement, awaits a decision.
On Sept. 21, 2026, a three-judge panel of the Indiana Court of Appeals (Judges Nancy H. Vaidik, Robert R. Altice Jr. and Elaine B. Brown) heard about 90 minutes of argument on whether Allen received a fair trial.3 His lawyer, Mark Leeman, argued that his confessions came while he was psychotic after months in solitary confinement, that the search of his home was unconstitutional and that the jury never heard evidence pointing to other people; the state, through Deputy Attorney General Ellen Meilaender, argued that he confessed at times when he was not psychotic and that other evidence supported the verdict.34 Questioning the state about his confinement, Judge Vaidik said, "You protected him into psychosis," WPTA reported.4 The panel took the case under advisement.4 As of Oct. 28, 2026, the sources reviewed report no ruling.
Abigail “Abby” Williams, 13, and Liberty “Libby” German, 14, were eighth graders in Delphi, Indiana, a town of about 3,000 people.12 On Feb. 13, 2017, a relative dropped them off at a hiking trail; they did not arrive at the pickup point and were reported missing that evening, the Associated Press reported.12 Data from Libby’s phone, as described at trial by investigator Sgt. Christopher Cecil, showed the girls were dropped off about 1:40 p.m., were near the Monon High Bridge at 2:05 p.m., and recorded a video there at 2:14 p.m.; the phone moved at 2:31 p.m. and stopped moving at 2:32 p.m.15
That video shows a man following the girls on the bridge.12 According to the probable-cause affidavit, as reported when it was unsealed, one of the girls says “gun,” and a man tells them, “Guys, down the hill,” after which they go down the hill.27 Their bodies were found the next day, Feb. 14, in a wooded area near the bridge.912 Their throats had been cut, the Associated Press reported.13 The lead investigator testified that he believed branches on the bodies had been placed to conceal them.24
An unspent .40-caliber round was found on the ground between the two bodies, according to trial testimony.22 Police released a still image and the audio from the video days after the killings, and the case went unsolved for more than five years.11
Allen came forward himself in February 2017: according to trial testimony, he told a conservation officer then working with the investigation that he had been on the trail on Feb. 13, gave a time window, said he had walked toward the bridge and said he had seen three girls.23 The officer testified that the call lasted five to ten minutes and was not recorded.23 The lead sheet, misfiled under a wrong name and marked “cleared,” was found in September 2022 by a volunteer clerk digitizing tips, she testified.2313 Carroll County Sheriff Tony Liggett testified that the tip “stuck out” because no one else had reported seeing three girls on the trail that day.23
Police searched Allen’s home on Oct. 13, 2022, and found knives and guns, including a Sig Sauer Model P226 .40-caliber pistol, according to the probable-cause affidavit.27 Interviewed that day, he said he had walked onto the bridge to look for fish and probably wore jeans and a Carhartt jacket that “probably would have been black,” according to recordings shown at trial; he also said, “I’m not going to be somebody’s fall guy.”21 An Indiana State Police lab then concluded that the round found at the scene “had been cycled through” his pistol, the affidavit states.27 In an Oct. 26 interview he denied any involvement “dozens of times,” said, “It’s not my round,” and told the investigator to arrest him, according to trial coverage.21 He said he never let anyone borrow the gun and had no explanation for the round, the affidavit states.27 The Indiana State Police announced his arrest on Oct. 31, 2022; he was charged with two counts of murder and pleaded not guilty.28
The original judge moved Allen to the Department of Correction for his safety and then recused; Judge Frances C. Gull of Allen County became special judge.1 The court appointed public defenders Andrew Baldwin and Bradley Rozzi.1 In August 2023, a friend and former employee of Baldwin allegedly copied discovery materials, including crime-scene photographs, from Baldwin’s office and distributed them, according to the Indiana Supreme Court.1 Judge Gull told the lawyers in chambers that they had shown “gross negligence and incompetence”; they offered to withdraw, then reconsidered, and on Oct. 31, 2023, she disqualified them over their objections and moved the trial date.1
On Allen’s petition, the Indiana Supreme Court heard argument on Jan. 18, 2024, and ordered the two lawyers reinstated, but declined to remove Judge Gull.1 In its Feb. 8, 2024, opinion, the court held that a trial court may disqualify appointed counsel over the objection of the defendant and counsel only as a last resort, and found that the record did not show disqualification was a last resort or that the judge had weighed the prejudice to Allen.1 On removing the judge, it wrote, “Prejudice is not inferred from adverse judicial rulings.”1 Justice Geoffrey Slaughter dissented from the reinstatement.1
The same day as the argument, the prosecutor filed amended charges: two counts of murder while committing or attempting to commit kidnapping, two counts of knowing or intentional murder, and two counts of kidnapping while armed with a handgun, alleging that Allen removed each girl “from the Monon High Bridge to a wooded area.”2 Judge Gull dismissed the kidnapping counts on March 18, 2024, and approved the murder counts.26
Before trial, the defense argued that the girls were killed in a ritual by a group of Odinists, followers of a Norse pagan religion; the defense pointed to the positioning of the bodies, the branches, the outdoor setting and the wounds.525 On Sept. 4, 2024, after a three-day hearing, Judge Gull ruled that the evidence was “greatly outweighed by confusion of the issues and its potential to mislead the jury” and that the court would not permit the defense’s evidence that the murders were committed by a third party, while saying she could revisit the issue if the defense produced proof at trial.25 At sentencing she said the defense had “failed to produce admissible evidence” of such a connection, the Associated Press reported.12 Prosecutors argued that the theory rested on limited examples and would turn the trial into a sideshow.5
The trial opened Oct. 18, 2024, in Delphi before a jury of seven women and five men from Allen County, who were sequestered throughout.12 Allen did not testify.16
The video and the eyewitnesses. Prosecutor Nicholas McLeland told jurors that the man in the video was Allen and that his voice could be heard saying “Down the hill.”12 Two people who had been on or near the trail that day testified about a man they saw, one saying the man in the image from Libby’s phone was the man she saw.24 The defense argued that no witness explicitly identified Allen.12 McLeland also told jurors that a 2016 black Ford Focus seen near the trail was the only one of its kind registered in the county and belonged to Allen.15
The round. Melissa Oberg, a former Indiana State Police firearms examiner, testified that she compared markings on the scene cartridge with rounds from Allen’s pistol and concluded, “I was able to identify [Allen’s gun] as having cycled the on-the-scene cartridge.”22 On cross-examination, she acknowledged that the studies she cited did not involve the identical model or extractor, and that marks on manually ejected test rounds were not prominent enough for her to reach a conclusion.22 A defense expert, Dr. Eric Warren, called the comparison of a cycled round with fired rounds “apples to oranges”; the prosecution noted that he worked only from photographs and the lab report.17 Detectives testified that Allen’s jacket, car, knives and 23 seized devices were tested and not linked to the scene, and that a single .40-caliber round found in a box at his home matched the round at the scene.2315 The lead investigator testified that he knew of no DNA from the scene swabs linking Allen to it.24
The confessions. Prosecutors told jurors Allen confessed repeatedly, in person, on the phone and in writing; in one recording played for the jury he told his wife, “I did it. I killed Abby and Libby.”12 Dr. Monica Wala, then the lead psychologist at Westville Correctional Facility, testified that in May 2023 he told her he had seen the girls on the trail, followed them across the bridge, ordered them down the hill and across a creek, cut their necks and covered the bodies with branches, and that he mentioned his gun, which she said could explain the cartridge.20 She testified that he said his intent had been sexual but that he had not assaulted them.20 Prosecutors argued that he planned to rape the girls before a passing van changed his plans.12 Wala testified that Allen said he saw “either a person or a van” and was startled; McLeland called the van detail “something only the killer would know.”15 His appellate lawyers put the number of his prison confessions at more than 60.10
The defense: psychosis in solitary. The defense argued the confessions were unreliable because Allen was in a severe mental-health crisis in isolation, watched constantly and taunted by other inmates.12 On cross-examination, Wala acknowledged she had followed the case online, including in Facebook groups and podcasts, and had accessed non-public case documents on a Department of Correction system.20 Her mental-health findings and those of the other experts are described under “Personal backstory” below. Jurors were shown video of Allen in his cell, positioned so that only they could see it, showing him nude, eating feces and banging his head against the wall.18 Prison officers called by the state testified they believed he was sane, and none said they believed the confessions.21 The defense also told jurors that Allen had stayed in Delphi for years and had come forward on his own in 2017, and that the state lab could not exclude the gun of another man the defense pointed to.15
On Nov. 11, 2024, the jury found Allen guilty on all four counts: two of murder and two of murder while committing or attempting to commit kidnapping.1412 On Dec. 20, 2024, Judge Gull sentenced him on two of the four counts to the maximum 65 years each, to run consecutively, for 130 years; he had faced 45 to 130 years.12 Six relatives of the girls gave victim-impact statements.12 After the hearing, Libby’s grandfather said, “Justice has been served for the girls,” and Sheriff Liggett said, “There is zero doubt that justice has been served.”13 Defense lawyer Jennifer Auger said, “Thoughts and prayers to the families of the victims. What they went through was unimaginable.”12
Allen’s lawyers filed a notice of appeal in March 2025, after an earlier motion asking the trial judge to overturn the conviction.11 Appellate lawyers Mark K. Leeman and Stacy R. Uliana filed a 113-page brief in December 2025.108 It argues that the detective who applied for the search warrant “misrepresented witness descriptions” to label Allen the man on the bridge; that his confessions, made during what the defense calls “unconstitutional pre-trial punishment” in solitary confinement, were inadmissible; and that excluding the Odinism evidence, a witness’s sketch, expert testimony and evidence about other people denied him a complete defense.108 The defense calls the voluntariness question “an issue of first impression”: whether statements made in psychosis that it ties to solitary confinement can be voluntary.7
In a brief filed March 25, 2026, the attorney general’s office argued that the warrant affidavit contained no false statements or material omissions and showed probable cause either way; that no one coerced Allen, who confessed to family, jail staff and his psychologist “before and after” his psychosis; and that the excluded evidence was hearsay or speculative.98 At oral argument on Sept. 21, 2026, Deputy Attorney General Ellen Meilaender pointed to a call in which Allen told his mother he would not admit to the crime if he had not done it, and, asked what remained besides the confessions, cited his statements placing himself on the trail, the timeline and eyewitness testimony.3 Judge Elaine Brown asked about the conditions of a pretrial detainee presumed innocent, and Judge Vaidik told the state, “You protected him into psychosis.”4 Judge Vaidik also reminded the lawyers not to argue as though the appeals court were a jury.5 No decision had been reported as of Oct. 28, 2026.
Allen graduated in 1991 from North Miami Senior High School in Miami County, Indiana, the district’s superintendent confirmed to WRTV.29 He was a licensed pharmacy technician and worked at the CVS pharmacy in Delphi, a few blocks from the Carroll County courthouse.2912 He was 50 when he was arrested and had lived in the Delphi community for at least 16 years, WRTV reported from public records.29 WRTV reported that he had no criminal history, only traffic cases.29 He told investigators in 2022 that he liked fishing and trading stocks.21
Allen is married; after the verdict he asked his wife, “Are you OK?” before he was taken away, WNDU reported.14 On appeal, the state cited a May 17 call in which he told his mother he would not admit to the crime if he had not done it.3
These findings come from trial testimony by witnesses on both sides; the jury heard all of it, and the appeals court is now weighing what it means for the confessions.
Dr. Deanna Dwenger, a Department of Correction official called by the defense, testified that Allen had no serious mental illness diagnosis when he arrived at Westville Correctional Facility in late 2022, that he was found to have a serious mental illness in April 2023, and that the first finding of “grave disability” was dated April 13, 2023.19 She testified that he was involuntarily given an antipsychotic drug, was held in solitary confinement for 13 months although department policy says a person with a serious mental illness should not be held there more than 30 days, was always on camera, and was regularly threatened by other inmates.19
Dr. Monica Wala, the prison psychologist called by the state, testified that her diagnoses included major depressive disorder, anxiety disorder and signs of a dependent personality disorder, and that she believed some of his bizarre behavior was faked.2018 Dr. Polly Westcott, a forensic psychologist called by the defense, testified that he “was not faking or exaggerating his psychotic behavior,” that he had depression, anxiety and dependent personality disorder, and that his psychosis stemmed from isolation and lack of contact with his wife.18 Dr. Stuart Grassian, a psychiatrist who studies solitary confinement, testified for the defense that Allen showed “classic” signs of delirium.17 Dr. John Martin, the psychiatrist who treated him at Westville, testified for the state that Allen showed signs of psychosis but improved on antipsychotic medication and showed none by May 18, 2023.1615
Allen was held at Westville Correctional Facility before trial; the state argued on appeal that his restrictive housing was for his own safety because of the case’s profile, and that he received privileges others did not, including in-person visits with his wife.4 He is serving the 130-year sentence.9
No statement from the girls’ families about the appeal appears in the sources reviewed.
At trial, prosecutors argued that Allen was the man in the video on Libby German's phone ("Richard Allen is Bridge Guy," Prosecutor Nicholas McLeland told jurors), that an unspent round found between the bodies had been cycled through his pistol, and that he confessed repeatedly, in person, on the phone and in writing.12 McLeland called the confessions "unprovoked, unpressured [and] of his own free will."15 On appeal, the attorney general's office argues that the search was lawful, that the confessions were voluntary and made "before and after" his psychosis, that the theories of other killers were "too speculative," and that even if the trial judge erred, "the evidence of guilt is overwhelming."98
Allen has maintained his innocence and did not testify at trial.1316 His trial lawyers argued that no witness explicitly identified him on the trail or bridge, that no fingerprint, DNA or other forensic evidence tied him to the scene, and that his confessions were unreliable because he was in a severe mental-health crisis in isolation.12 On appeal, his lawyers argue that the warrant for his home rested on misstated witness descriptions, that his confessions in solitary confinement were involuntary, and that he was barred from presenting a complete defense, including the Odinism theory and evidence about other people.610 "We wanna know that you got the right guy," Leeman told the appeals court.3
Abby Williams and Libby German are dropped off at the trail about 1:40 p.m.; Libby's phone records the video on the Monon High Bridge at 2:14 p.m.; they are reported missing that evening.1512
Allen tells a conservation officer he was on the trail that afternoon; the tip is later misfiled.23
Police search Allen's home, seize a .40-caliber Sig Sauer pistol and interview him.2721
Allen is arrested and charged with two counts of murder; police announce the arrest Oct. 31.28
Judge Gull unseals the probable-cause affidavit.27
After a leak of evidence, Judge Gull disqualifies Allen's public defenders over their objection.1
The Indiana Supreme Court orders the lawyers reinstated; the prosecutor files amended charges.12
Judge Gull dismisses the two kidnapping counts.26
Judge Gull bars the defense's Odinism and third-party evidence.25
Trial opens in Delphi before a jury from Allen County.12
Judge Gull sentences him to 130 years.12
His lawyers file a 113-page appellate brief.10
The attorney general's office files the state's brief defending the convictions.9
The Court of Appeals hears oral argument.3
The panel will issue a written opinion deciding whether to uphold the convictions or order a new trial; the court has no deadline, and the decision could take months.53