CrimeTimeSnacks: The Delphi Murder Case 2017
November 18, 2022 · Cory
On February 14, 2017, the bodies of Abigail Williams (June 23, 2003 – February 13, 2017) and Liberty German (December 27, 2002 – February 13, 2017) were discovered near the Monon High Bridge Trail. The case has had no prominent suspects until recently. On October 28th police announced they had made an arrest in the case. A 50 year old Delphi Resident was arrested and charged with two felony counts of murder. Listen while we dive into the case starting over 5 years ago in on a beautiful hiking trail.
Follow this case Court dates, rulings and arrests by email, each checked against the article that reports it.
Read the full transcript (13 sections · tap any line to jump the player there)
Transcribed from the recording by faster-whisper (medium.en), primed with the names in the case and checked for their spelling. Wording may contain minor errors.
0:15 What's up, guys? Welcome to CrimeTimeSnacks. This is a brand new true crime podcast I've been working on for a little while now and I'm super excited to finally get out here. CrimeTimeSnacks is a true crime podcast in which we dive deep into cases with as much detail as possible in just 10 minutes. Just enough time for true crime and a snack. So thank you for tuning in to CrimeTimeSnacks on our first podcast. First case we're going to dive into is a case I personally have been owing for a long time. This case is over five years old and there was just an arrest made October 28th, 2022. The police department arrested a 50 year old man and charged him with two counts of felony murder. But this case starts February 13th, 2017. On that day at about 1.45 p.m. a young woman by the name of Kelsi German drops off her little sister.
1:13 14 year old Liberty German and her friend Abigail Williams who was 13. She drops them off at a hiking trail. This is a known hiking trail in a big wooded area. It's a beautiful area in a very small town. This is something that a lot of people do and it's a relatively safe place. The girls were walking to a place called the Monon High Bridge, which is an abandoned railroad track that hasn't been used since the 80s and is now used as a walking trail. These girls made it to the bridge according to a Snapchat of the bridge that Liberty took around 2 p.m. Around 2.07 p.m. there was another Snapchat of Abigail Williams on the bridge. That was the last time anyone knew where they were. Around four o'clock the family came to pick up the girls and they couldn't find them.
2:05 At 5.30 that evening both Abby and Libby were reported missing. Police officers went out to search the wooded area but it was already after 5.30. It was hard searching in the dark. They went out again the next day with about 100 people and a canine. Around noon on February 14th Valentine's Day two bodies were found and three days later on February 17th the bodies were confirmed to be those of Liberty and Abigail. In the very beginning of the investigation the police officers had a video taken on Abigail's phone of a man walking towards them across the bridge. Now I think if she took this video she was obviously concerned and it was very smart of her.
2:46 At the beginning the police released audio from the video and you can't really hear it. I will play the audio here in a second but you can't really hear anything clear other than guys down the hill. Here's the audio from the video. Other than the audio you just heard the police hadn't really released anything else. They had the video but the video was pretty blurry. You couldn't really make out a face so eventually the police department released a sketch. They released a sketch of an older man who kinda resembled their first suspect. They later released a sketch of a man who was younger with curly hair. They kinda threw some people off.
3:37 At the very beginning of the investigation they did have a suspect named Ronald Logan and he lived about 1400 feet from where the girls bodies were found. He also owned the property that the girls bodies were found on. He was an older man so people had their suspicion but the police and FBI agents said he had the physical build to be able to commit the crime and carry the bodies to where they were found. Delphi Police Department served Ronald Logan with a search warrant. They search his house, his car, his laptop, his cell phone. They don't really find anything.
4:10 It is said that he told a friend to lie to the cops about what time he was home so that is kinda weird. It is also said that his cell phone put him in the proximity of the murder scene. Ronald Logan passed away in 2019 and was never named a main suspect in the case. Fast forward all the way to October 26, 2022. This year, less than a month ago, there has been an arrest made in this case. An arrest was made of Richard Allen, a 50-year-old resident of Delphi, Indiana. The police have always said that they thought whoever committed this crime was probably somebody close by. Somebody who was living in the community and they were right. This man has lived there for 16 years. He is a state certified pharmacist who was working at a local CVS in that town. His house was only miles away from the crime scene and his wife has interacted with the girls in this case before. The victims in this case.
5:12 Richard Allen walked down to the police station five years prior and told them what he thought may have happened to the young girls. At that time, they just brushed it off because they were probably getting numerous people with theories of what happened to these young girls. In my opinion, he was probably just fishing for information because police hadn't and still haven't given many public details about the case. After Richard Allen was arrested and charged with two counts of felony murder, the judge sealed the complaint, which means you can't see why he was arrested or what evidence they had to arrest him.
5:49 And a lot of people are upset because of this because they're wondering what evidence just came to light that Richard Allen after five years is just now being arrested when he's lived in the community for 16 years. A couple valid reasons why the judge could have sealed the complaint is because, one, this still is an active investigation. So my theory is they will arrest another person, if not more people, in this case. They could also be protecting someone who brought evidence to light that led to the arrest of Richard Allen.
6:24 Mr. Allen did plead not guilty, and he's currently sitting in estate penitentiary on $20 million bail. When he was first arrested, he informed the courts that he would be retaining his own lawyer. Now, he sent a letter begging for the mercy of the court to find him a public defender because he didn't realize how much an attorney would be. He's losing his house. His wife had to leave his house because she's getting threats. They're getting threats. I mean, boo-hoo, if he really did it, but innocent until proven guilty.
6:56 Now, he has to be given a qualified public defender for this case, and some counties don't have a dedicated public defender's office like this county, so they use outside attorneys or private attorneys. The court did grant him a public defender. In fact, he has two public defenders, very prominent attorneys, actually. One man is from a law firm called Rozzi Hills Hills and Rozzi law firm from Logan Sport, Indiana, and another man goes by the name Andrew Baldwin, and he's a very prominent lawyer in India.
7:34 There are over 15,000 practicing attorneys in the state of Indiana, and out of that, only six of them are board-certified criminal trial specialists, which is just passing rigorous tests, and it takes a long time. You have to do a lot of criminal trials to get that title, and five of the six of them work in Andrew Baldwin's law firm, and he is one of them. So it does make sense. That means if there is a conviction, an appeal based on ineffective counsel or something like that would be very unlikely.
8:09 As of November 17th, 2022, Richard Allen has pled not guilty and is sitting with the $20 million bail. There is a scheduled hearing November 22nd to determine if any records regarding this case should be released to the public. That is all the information I have on this case for you guys. Now, if you guys have other information or if you guys have anything you would like to comment, go to CrimeTimeSnacks YouTube channel and let me know what you think. Do you think Richard Allen is guilty? Do you think that they are waiting to arrest more people?
8:45 Do you really think that his wife saw this video floating around of this man and didn't know that it was her husband? I don't know. Whatever you guys think, let me know. And thank you for tuning in to this podcast. Check out CrimeTimeSnacks.com or CrimeTimeSnacks on all platforms. Thank you for tuning in. See you next time.
