PICTURED: Man, 50, who was arrested in connection with Indiana’s Delphi murders

A man arrested under suspicion of carrying out the Delphi murders that saw two teen girls slain in 2017 has at long last been pictured – roughly a day after he was arrested in connection with the gruesome killings.

The suspect, 50-year-old Richard Allen, was booked in Indiana around midnight Friday – though it remains unclear what exactly he has been charged with. 

Local outlet FOX59 has since obtained a state-issued photo of the potential perpetrator, who has evaded law enforcement for the better part of six years. 

The image shows a bearded, pale-face Allen peering straight ahead with a blank gaze and a shaved head – bearing some likeness to a 2017 sketch of the supposed killer released by police, which also showed a bearded, seemingly middle-aged man.

Initially booked into Carroll County Jail, the suspect within hours was moved to a state facility out of fears for his safety. 

Cops said the arrest revolves around the murders of Abigail Williams, 13, and Libby German, 14, who went missing while going for a walk along on an abandoned train line in Delphi, Indiana, on February 13, 2017.

The girls’ savaged bodies were found the next day along a railroad bridge near Dear Creek, with police later saying the pair had been arranging to meet a man on the abandoned tracks.

Now, nearly six years later, the search has generated significant online speculation, thanks to puzzling pieces of evidence including a recording found on Libby German’s phone from just before her disappearance of a man seemingly ordering the girls to go ‘down the hill.’

The pair’s murders have since remained unsolved – with Allen’s arrest serving the first time his name has been publicly associated with the case. 

Additional information about Allen’s arrest, as well as his potential role in the long-unsolved case, is expected during a news conference Monday. 

At that point, Indiana State Police are sure to shed more light on the case – but until then, lawmen have said that they won’t provide any additional details about the investigation.

It comes as Delphi Police have been increasingly tight-lipped on crucial components of the investigation – including exactly how the girls died, and what kind of condition their bodies were in when they were discovered.

Since the start of their investigation nearly six years ago, the department held back that information –  in an apparent effort to protect their investigation as they looked for the killer. 

They have never revealed how the girls died, nor have they revealed the full contents of a video filmed by the girls on their phone in the moments before they were killed – footage that depicts a mysterious figure partially obscured by a hat and coat as he approaches the girls on the abandoned tracks. 

The only, vital piece of detail that has emerged from police’s investigation stems from the video recorded off of German’s phone in which the approaching figure whispers ‘down the hill’ to the pair as he lurches toward them. 

Despite countless tips over the years and a number of suspects and persons of interest, police have so far been unable to solve the case.

They have not yet revealed what kind of evidence they have against Allen – with the Indiana resident’s arrest potentially marking a major turning point in the investigation.

The families of the two girls have yet to react to news of Allen’s arrest, which comes a little over a month after Indiana State Police officers, including a dive team, were seen searching the Wabash River 40 miles from where the two teens were last seen. 

Officials did not reveal what exactly officers had been looking for – or if their search helped lead to Allen’s arrest. 

 In May, it was reported that the man who owned the land where the teenage victims of the Delphi Bridge murders were found may have been the voice recorded by the girls in their final moments.

The FBI search warrant disclosed that Ron Logan couldn’t be definitively ruled out as the man heard saying ‘Down the hill,’ to Abby Williams and Libby German shortly before they died, due to his voice not being a match

Logan died in 2020, and was never formally named as a suspect in the February 2017 murders.

It also emerged that Williams and German were found covered in blood – and their killer took a twisted souvenir, a search warrant has revealed. 

Williams and German were found to have lost a large amount of blood when discovered dead close to an Indiana hiking trail in February 2017.

‘A large amount of blood was lost by the victims at the crime scene,’ an FBI search warrant read. It did not note how the girls had been wounded, but noted that there were no signs of a ‘struggle or fight.’

The warrant, obtained by the Murder Sheet podcast and released to Indianapolis FOX59, offered no further information on a murder weapon or cause of death.

Police have never disclosed how the two friends died after being stalked by their killer on a hiking trail, with information on the bloody crime scene offering a gruesome new detail.

Their killer likely got his victims’ blood on his clothes, the warrant also revealed, although no-one has ever been charged with the double-homicide.

Indiana State Police said in February they know who killed the girls, but say they have insufficient evidence to make an arrest.

Chillingly, FBI investigators believe the young friends’ killer took a souvenir from their corpses to provide a warped memento of his appalling crimes.

The warrant offered no further detail on what the souvenir was, although it did say that ‘the rest of (the girls’) clothing was recovered,’ implying that the killer had taken something they’d been wearing.

And sickeningly, the murderer ‘staged’ the girls’ bodies in a particular way after killing them, although it remains unclear exactly how he did this.

Investigators believe photographs or videos were likely shot of the grotesque set-up to ‘memorialize’ the crime scene.

The warrant further revealed that the FBI had probable cause to search the home and property of Logan. The girls were discovered about 1,400 feet from Logan’s house.

Logan was arrested shortly after the killings, but was never charged, and died in 2020. He was a habitual traffic offender who served time behind bars for his crimes, but is not considered a suspect in the murders of Williams and German.

Lawmen are expected to shed more light on the investigation on Monday.