On day three of his double murder trial, suspect Richard Allen displayed agitation as dozens of graphic crime scene photos were shown at the Carroll County Courthouse in Indiana

Allen rocked slightly and appeared to self-soothe with the repetitive act viewing the horrific images of photographs of Liberty German and Abigail Williams in death may have proven stressful

Defendant hugged his arms tightly across his chest, kneading them with his fingers as the court was shown harrowing crime scene images

Richard Allen, 52, is accused of killing Liberty German, 14, and Abigail Williams, 13, on Feb 13, 2017

In June 2023, prosecutors announced that Allen had confessed to the 2017 killings, ‘multiple times’ in prison, but his defense lawyers have debunked the said confession, arguing their client was under stress

On Monday family members and jurors sat through an avalanche of photographs of the brutalized bodies of the teens

The bodies were found on Feb. 14, amid brush and woodland near the Monon High Bridge trail where they took their last fateful hike

Richard Allen on trial for the murders of Libby German, 14, and Abby Williams, 13, whose bodies were found near the Monon High Bridge Trail in Delphi on Feb. 14, 2017, was visibly agitated in court as prosecutors tendered photo evidence from the crime scene

Richard Allen, 52, hugged his arms tightly across his chest, kneading them with his fingers as the court in Delphi, Indiana was shown harrowing images of the double murders of which he stands accused.
Gaunt and pale eyed, Allen rocked slightly and appeared to self-soothe with the repetitive act. It was the only hint that viewing the horrific photographs of Liberty German, 14, and Abigail Williams, 13, may have evoked some kind of stress or emotion in him.
In June 2023, prosecutors announced that Delphi double-homicide suspect Richard Allen had confessed to the 2017 killings, ‘multiple times’ in prison. Allen’s defense lawyers have debunked the said confession, arguing their client was under stress.

Richard Allen hugged his arms tightly across his chest, kneading them with his fingers as the court in Delphi was shown harrowing images of the double murders of which he stands accused. Liberty German [right], 14, and Abigail William [left], 13, were murdered in February 2017 after going for a walk 

On Monday, family members and jurors sat through an avalanche of photographs of the brutalized bodies of the teens, laying where they were found amid brush and woodland near the Monon High Bridge trail where they took their last fateful hike.
It was the first time the court was forced to come face to face with the reality of the violent acts at the heart of these highly anticipated proceedings and, for some, it seemed almost too much to bear.
Libby’s grandmother Becky Patty who testified on the first day of the trial looked away in anguish, her husband Mike holding tightly onto her hand. Behind them a member of Abby’s family wept.

Gaunt looking Allen was led shackled and cuffed into the Carroll County Courthouse on Monday for day three of his double-homicide trial

The evidence continues Wednesday with Ryan Olehy, the last of the three Crime Scene Investigators (CSI) who processed the scene is due to finish the testimony he began yesterday.
Week two of the trial began Monday morning. CSI Sergeant Jason Page gave a narration of the crime scene photographs he had taken under questioning from attorney for the state, James Luttrull Jr.
Page during his testimony was shown 42 crime scene pictures including more than 20 harrowing images of the girls when they were found.
They images were shown in a relentless succession on a large screen positioned in front of the jury.
The girls lay less than five feet apart, their feet angled towards each other. Libby, 14, was nude, her skin pale as porcelain, stained with blood on her hands, her thigh, her chest, throat and face.
She was covered with twigs which crisscrossed at her throat and one heavy bough that lay lengthwise across her left side.

CSI crime scene photographer Sgt. Jason Page gave a narration he took. The girls’ families were clearly anguished viewing the 42 gruesome crime scene photos, including over 20 images of their dead bodies. Both girls were found with their throats slit several times 

Friends, Libby and Abby, took photos of themselves on the Monon High Bridge trail in Delphi, where they took their last fateful hike on Feb 13, 2017, their day off from school. Their bodies were found near the bridge on Feb. 14, 2017

State attorney James Luttrull Jr. apologized but said there was no escaping the horror of the scene. In the image Libby’s eyes are blacked out, her head is turned to the left, leaves and twigs are stuck in her hair and the blood has dried where it ran heavily over her cheek, her nose, her eye. A brutal gash was clearly visible at her throat.
Abigail lay to her right, dressed in a mix of her own and her friend’s garments, wearing sneakers but no socks. Her jeans, Sgt Page noted, appeared damp.
One female juror teared up. Allen looked on intently, giving no physical indication of the emotions the images might be stirring. He occasionally took notes.
At one point the image on display jumped on without warning, casting a shocking close up of Libby’s bloodied face onto the screen and provoking audible gasps from the family in the public gallery.
Luttrull Jr. apologized saying he had intended to offer a lead into that picture but there was no escaping the horror of the scene.
In the image Libby’s eyes are blacked out, her head is turned to the left, leaves and twigs are stuck in her hair and the blood has dried where it ran heavily over her cheek, her nose, her eye. A brutal gash was clearly visible at her throat.
Both girls, the court has heard, had their throats slit several times.

The girls were killed Feb 13, 2017, on this trail in Delphi, Indiana. Allen’s defense argued the victims were abducted, taken elsewhere, then returned to the side of Deer Creek in the early hours of Tuesday February 14, 2017, where they were murdered

In another, Abby lies like a discarded doll, clearly lifeless her wounds are less visible as she is mostly clothed. But the awful truth is unmistakable in a close up of the younger of the two best friends which shows the livid red of the bloodstains at her throat.
Showing the desolate scene where the girls spent the last moments of their lives, came as a continuation of the state’s effort to present a thorough picture of the search for and discovery of their bodies.
It is part of their bid to close the door on the defense’s claim that, despite searches of the area, the bodies of the girls were not found until the day after they were reported missing because they were not there. Instead, it is the defense’s contention, they were abducted, taken elsewhere, then returned to the side of Deer Creek in the early hours of Tuesday February 14th where they were murdered.

The break in the case came 5 years into the investigations when Richard Allen, [photo], was arrested in connection with Delphi murders in October 2022. He lived five minutes from scene of the killings

In his opening statement for his client, defense attorney Andrew Baldwin also sought to dismiss the state’s claim that a bullet found on the scene had been ‘cycled through’ Allen’s Sig Sauer gun as junk science.
In fact, he suggested the 40-caliber bullet found on the ground on the scene was more likely dropped by one of the many law enforcement officers who, he stated, had compromised the scene.
Both prosecutor Nick McLeland who questioned the first witness of the day, Carroll County Detective Darren Giancola – one of the first officers on the scene – and Luttrull in his questioning of Sgt Page made a point of asking the officers what weapon they carried that day.

Days after Liberty and Abigail were killed, cops released the image of a man on the same bridge the girls were walking when they filmed him approaching them – presumed to be their killer. Defense attorney Andrew Baldwin suggested the 40-caliber bullet found at the scene most likely was dropped by the law enforcement officers who, he alleged, had compromised the scene

Giancola answered that he carried a Glock 17 which took 9mm bullets. For his part Page carried a Glock 19 which also takes 9mm bullets. The only other weapon Page said he ever carried was a 45 caliber Sig Sauer, but he told the court he only carries that when in uniform.
Later still jurors heard that officer Olehy carried neither a gun nor ammunition to the scene that day as he felt no threat and knew he would be repeatedly going up and down a hill to the scene.
CSI Duane Datzman recounted spotting the unfired round ‘glinting’ under the glare of the Alternative Light Source (ALS) used by investigators to uncover phosphorescent trace evidence such as semen or saliva.
The bullet is key to the prosecution’s case as it may prove the only physical evidence that places Allen at the scene of the crime.
While Sgt. Page admitted under cross examination the absence of DNA evidence linking Allen to either the dead girls or the crime scene, he balked at defense attorney Bradley Rozzi suggesting that there was a level of ‘intentionality’ in the way the twigs and branches covering their bodies were arranged.

In June 2023, prosecutors announced that Allen had confessed to the killings, ‘multiple times’ in prison. His lawyers have debunked the said confession, arguing their client was under stress

The defense having contended that the girls were killed by multiple people as part of an Odinist ritual tried to establish the fact at cross examination with an insistent line of questioning designed to get Sgt. Page to concede that the scene was ‘odd’ and unlike any he had seen in his lengthy career. However, Page rejected the suggestion outright.
Two more CSI officers, Datzman and Olehy, during their testimonies tendered the crime scene images with, each successive photograph more grisly than the last – showing the full extent of the bloody carnage and victims with slashed throats.
Abby, the court heard, was found with her hands bunched up in fists high on her chest ‘as if in a fighter’s stance.’
She was dressed in Libby’s clothes which were damp and ill-fitting. Most of Abby’s own clothes – her jeans inside out and tangled with her underwear, a camisole and footy socks – were found sodden and caught up in roots in the creek.
Her best friend Libby’s cell phone lay beneath Abby’s body. Its purple Harry Potter case which bore a Gryffindor shield proved a poignant flash of childish innocence amidst so much dirt and leaves.
Time of death has not been given but the jury was told that the girls were cool to the touch when they were found. Rigor mortis was pronounced and set.