Mom of Delphi murder victim breaks down in court as she hears daughter’s voice in video of her final moment
The mother of one of two teens killed after crossing a bridge in Indiana broke down in court after hearing her daughter’s voice in a video of her final moments.
Prosecutors played the 41-second footage that 14-year-old Liberty “Libby” German captured on Feb. 13, 2017, showing her and Abigail “Abby” Williams, 13, crossing the Monon High Bridge in court Tuesday as they walked the 52 year-old accused -old Richard Allen of killing the girls.
The footage shows a man a few feet behind Abby, wearing a blue jacket, jeans and a hat. His hands were in his pockets with his chin down so that his face was not visible under his hat.
The figure – who authorities say is Allen, who lived near the bridge – was deliberately moved behind the girls a day before their bodies were found.
As he gets closer, Libby turns her camera around to show the steep slope to their left and the trail disappearing before them.
Prosecutors played video that 14-year-old Liberty “Libby” German recorded on Feb. 13, 2017, as they accused 52-year-old Richard Allen of killing her and 13-year-old Abigail “Abby” Williams in court Tuesday
Her mother (pictured) was seen crying and became very emotional when she heard her daughter’s voice
At that point, Libby was heard saying to her friend, “Uh, there’s no path, so we have to go here.” See the path ends here.’
The sound of her voice caused her still grieving mother to cry and become very emotional. according to WTV.
Moments later, you hear a male voice utter the now infamous words, “Boys down the hill,” and one of the girls lets out a yelp as if startled.
Investigators have since said they were able to track the gun used in the girls’ deaths to Allen’s home, less than two miles from the bridge, and three separate eyewitnessesconfidently stated that they had seen ‘Bridge Guy’ and identified him from a screenshot of the video.
One even remembered seeing the man in the footage walking back along the same path.
The witness said it was “a bit creepy” and looked “muddy and bloody” at the time.
The video showed a man wearing a blue jacket, jeans and a hat walking behind the girls
German shot the video of her and Abby walking across the Monon High Bridge in Delphi
Allen later admitted to police that he was in the area that day, but has denied involvement in the girls’ murders.
He said he decided to walk past the new Freedom Bridge, where he saw three females — one of which he said was larger and had brown or black hair.
He also admitted in 2022 to wearing a blue or black Carhartt jacket, blue jeans, a skullcap and military boots or tennis shoes.
But Allen has pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder — which involves killing during the act of another crime, in this case kidnapping — and two separate counts of murder.
His lawyers have instead advanced the idea that the girls were killed by multiple people as part of an Odinist ritual.
Prosecutors allege the man in the images is Allen, who has pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder and two counts of capital murder.
They argue that the evidence from Crime Scene Investigator Ryan Olehy, who testified Monday and Tuesday, is cause for Judge Frances Gull to reconsider her previous decision to deny it at an August hearing.
The attorneys wrote in a new court filing that during Olehy’s testimony, jurors heard and saw crime scene photos showing sticks, and in Libby’s case, a large branch, arranged over the girls’ bodies.
Defense attorney Bradley Rozzi urged Olehy to admit there was “deliberateness” in the way the sticks were arranged. But the CSI agent resisted the attorney’s attempts to portray the crime scene as “strange” or to find anything other than an attempt to conceal the bodies by the placement of the sticks.
Yet the attorneys argue, “The State of Indiana has provided an explanation as to what the sticks represent (concealing the bodies), and Richard Allen has the Sixth Amendment right to offer the jury his alternative theory as to why the sticks are so are. aligned and arranged the way they are arranged.”
At their hearing in August, the defense presented the testimony of Dr. Dawn Perlmutter, who specializes in identifying ritual crime scenes, but the judge ruled that this evidence could not be presented to the jury.
Rozzi had also tried to get a concession from Olehy that the blood found on a tree near the bodies was not just splatter, but a more deliberate marking. He called the tree ‘the F-tree’, suggesting that the letter was written in blood on the bark.
Once again Olehy resisted his efforts, stating that to him it simply looked like a bloodstain on the tree about four feet above the ground.
But the defense had previously presented the testimony of Dr. Dawn Perlmutter, who trained with the FBI and has worked with several local, state and federal law enforcement agencies and specializes in identifying ritual crime scenes.
Now they have reaffirmed: ‘After reviewing the crime scene photographs and other reports and documentation, Dr. Perlmutter included her assessment that the sticks on the bodies, the F-tree and other aspects of the crime scene were textbook examples of a ritual murder. related to Odinism/Norse paganism, including the use of sticks and blood on the tree to form runes and bind runes.’
The new motion states that law enforcement officials investigated the possibility of Odinist involvement as early as the second day after the girls were found, until 2021, when law enforcement officer Greg Ferency was killed in an ambush at an FBI office in 2021.
According to Allen’s attorneys, not allowing them to present their theory would be unfairly prejudicial, leaving “the jury with ONLY one explanation: the explanation given by the State of Indiana.”
Judge Gull has yet to rule on the motion.
If convicted, Allen, a married father of one, faces a maximum sentence of 130 years in prison.