Delphi murders - update: Richard Allen charged as victim’s family says killer was ‘hiding in plain sight’
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Police in Indiana have charged a 50-year-old local man with the 2017 Delphi murders – more than five years after the bodies of best friends Libby German and Abby Williams were found close to a wooded trail.
Richard Allen was charged with two counts of murder on Friday and has pleaded not guilty.
His mugshot bears a resemblance to the police sketch of the man long suspected of killing the teenagers.
Mr Allen – whose name has never before been publicly tied to the case – is a married father and trained pharmaceutical technician who works at the local CVS store in the heart of the tight-knit community.
Libby’s grandfather told reporters Monday the suspect had been “hiding in plain sight” this whole time.
Investigators are remaining tight-lipped about what led to Mr Allen’s arrest – a staggering 2,086 days on from the murders – and remain tightlipped about the cause of death of the victims.
Libby, 14, and Abby, 13, were murdered after setting off on a hike along the Monon High Bridge Trail in Delphi on 13 February 2017. Their bodies were found in a wooded area around half a mile off the trail the next day.
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Other names tied to the case
An Indiana man fell under the spotlight last year when the online account he used to groom underage girls online was tied to the teenage victims.
His home had been searched on suspicion of child porn charges just two weeks after the 2017 murders.
In December 2021, Indiana State Police announced that officials had “uncovered” a fake online profile called anthony_shots.
The profile was used from 2016 to 2017 on platforms including Snapchat and Instagram and used photos of a known male model, portraying him as being extremely wealthy and owning numerous sports cars.
Investigators said the person behind the account was Kegan Anthony Kline, 27-year-old man with addresses in Kokomo and Peru, close to Delphi.
Kline was not charged in connection to the slayings.
Libby’s grandmother Becky Patty told The Independent in December that the teenager had never mentioned speaking to anyone online prior to her death and that there had never been any indication that the two girls had arranged to meet anyone online the day they were killed.
Rachel Sharp has the full story:
Everything we know about the Delphi murders and arrest of Richard Allen
How did Libby German and Abby Williams die?
Who is suspect Richard Allen?
Married to his wife Kathy with whom he shares an adult daughter, Mr Allen is a trained pharmacy technician, receiving his most recent pharmaceutical licence in February 2018 – one year on from the murders. He most recently worked at the local CVS store – coming into contact with members of the community as part of his job.
Libby’s grandparents Mike and Becky Patty said that they recalled Mr Allen processing photos of the girls for their funerals.
They said Mr Allen did not charge them for the photos.
Local residents reacted with shock when news broke on Friday of his arrest, saying that he seemed “like a normal guy”.
“When I will go into CVS as a customer myself, he would say ‘do you need any help?’ I would be like ‘no’,” Chandler Underhill, the manager of the local Brick & Mortar Pub, where he said Mr Allen was a regular, told Fox59.
“Just like a normal guy that I’ve seen for the last couple years, not really thinking anything.”
The Independent’s Rachel Sharp has the story:
Who is Richard Allen – the man arrested over the 2017 Delphi murders?
Delphi Indiana double murder timeline