Richard Allen was not on Delphi investigators’ radar. Then a volunteer discovered a field of suggestions.

DELPHI, Ind. ― For 5 years after Abigail “Abby” Williams and Liberty “Libby” German had been discovered useless within the woods off the Monon Excessive Bridge path, Richard Allen was not on investigators’ radar.

That modified on Sept. 21, 2022.

Kathy Shank, a retired authorities worker who had began volunteering as a clerk to assist with the investigation, got here throughout a “lead sheet” about Allen.

The doc appeared to catch Shank’s consideration. She’d beforehand learn {that a} lady had reported seeing a person on the path on the afternoon of Feb. 13, 2017, when Abby and Libby went on a hike and had been by no means heard from once more. Allen, in response to the doc, advised police three days after the women disappeared that he was additionally on the path that afternoon.

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“I assumed there may very well be a correlation,” Shank testified Thursday.

Shank and some different witnesses took the stand Thursday, the sixth day of testimony within the double homicide trial, telling jurors of the collection of occasions that led to Allen’s arrest on Oct. 26, 2022, just a bit over a month after the volunteer clerk discovered the outdated tip sheet about Allen and alerted investigators about it.

Allen, who appeared in courtroom in khaki pants and teal shirt, is charged with two counts of homicide and two counts of homicide whereas kidnapping the women. His long-awaited trial comes greater than seven years after the women’ deaths and two years since his arrest.

The route that led to Richard Allen

On Feb. 16, 2017, Allen self-reported to investigators that he was on the path the identical afternoon Abby and Libby disappeared. He was later contacted by Dan Dulin, an Indiana Division of Pure Sources captain who was serving to with the investigation at the moment, and the 2 met at a grocery retailer.

Allen mentioned he was on the path between 1 and three:30 p.m. on Feb. 13 and noticed three ladies close to the Freedom Bridge as he headed towards the path, Dulin testified.

Allen, although, was finally cleared, and the paper path of his interplay with investigators was put away in a field.

On Sept. 21, 2022 ― a date Shank nonetheless remembers as a result of it is her husband’s loss of life anniversary ― she got here throughout a field of tip sheets in a desk drawer, she advised jurors. She opened it and commenced going by way of the information, pondering she needed to log them right into a database. Then, she advised jurors, she noticed the Allen tip sheet.

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Shank, who has lived in Delphi for 4 a long time, started volunteering to assist with the investigation in 2017. She began as a receptionist and, through the years, was given extra obligations, together with processing suggestions and logging them right into a database, Shank testified. She additionally organized investigative stories, compiling narratives from interviews investigators performed and submitting them in a number of cupboards.

The Allen file was labeled with a inexperienced dot, Shank mentioned, which means it had been cleared. The doc additionally appeared to have been mislabeled as “Richard Allen Whiteman.” Allen lived on Whiteman Drive in Delphi.

Shank took the doc to Tony Liggett, who was the chief deputy on the Carroll County Sheriff’s Workplace and the case’s lead investigator. He alerted Steve Mullin, who was chief of the Delphi Police Division when the women had been killed and later grew to become an investigator on the prosecutor’s workplace.

At that time, the investigation targeted on Allen.

Investigators discovered that Allen owned a 2006 Ford 500 and a 2016 black Ford Focus. Surveillance footage from the close by Hoosier Harvestore confirmed a black Ford Focus passing by the shop towards the path simply earlier than 1:30 p.m. on Feb. 13.

Below cross-examination by protection lawyer Andrew Baldwin, Mullin insisted he believes the automotive belonged to Allen.

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Mullin and Liggett went to Allen’s residence to interview him on Oct. 13, 2022, the primary time he talked to investigators since his assembly with Dulin 5 years earlier.

Based mostly on Mullin’s testimony, here is what Allen mentioned in his second interview: He spent the morning of Feb. 13 in Miami County, the place he visited his mom. He went residence to get a jacket and headed to the path. He noticed three ladies close to the Freedom Bridge as he was strolling towards the path. When he bought to the excessive bridge, he appeared down Deer Creek and watched the fish.

Mullin additionally advised jurors that Allen mentioned he was carrying a blue or black Carhartt jacket, denims and a beanie.

Sooner or later through the interview, Allen grew to become agitated and walked out of the room, Mullin advised jurors.

Mullin additionally mentioned he requested Allen if he was “Bridge Guy,” the person seen within the notorious photograph and video following Abby and Libby on the excessive bridge.

“His response was, ‘If the image was taken with the women’ digicam, there was no approach it was him,'” Mullin testified.

There have been some inconsistencies in Allen’s statements.

In 2017, he mentioned he arrived on the path round 1:30 p.m. and left round 3:30 p.m. In 2022, he mentioned he arrived there round midday and was not on the path later than 2 p.m.

Investigators searched Allen’s residence shortly after that interview with Mullin and Liggett. They arrested Allen lower than two weeks later.

Allen lead shouldn’t have been cleared, Liggett says

Liggett acknowledged that Allen was not thought of a suspect within the teenagers’ deaths for 5 years, though he’d self-reported that he was on the path Feb. 13, 2017.

Allen “bought misplaced within the cracks,” Liggett advised jurors, and somebody who he believes was a dispatcher cleared the Allen lead in 2017. However he mentioned it “should not have been” cleared.

Throughout his cross-examination, protection lawyer Bradley Rozzi appeared to recommend that Liggett wished an arrest as a result of it will profit his profession. Liggett was elected sheriff of Carroll County in November 2022, weeks after Allen was arrested.

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“It was by no means about me,” Liggett testified. “It was in regards to the murders of two ladies.”

Liggett additionally acknowledged that not one of the physical descriptions eyewitnesses gave of “Bridge Guy” matched Allen.

Knives, a photograph album and a gun: What police say they present in Allen’s residence

The state capped Thursday’s proceedings with testimony from two Indiana State Police investigators who assisted within the search of Allen’s residence.

Prosecutors flipped by way of over a dozen pictures taken through the search, exhibiting jurors pictures of his home, his 2016 Ford Focus and a number of knives.

Jurors had been proven a photograph of Allen’s kitchen with a basket that Det. David Vido mentioned was carrying “on a regular basis belongings,” comparable to keys. Vido mentioned that contained in the basket, or subsequent to it, was a field cutter.

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Lt. Jerry Holeman testified that whereas the search was underway, Allen was suggested he might file a grievance if the home sustained injury throughout their investigation.

“It doesn’t matter, it’s over,” Allen mentioned, in response to Holeman.

Jurors additionally had been proven a photograph album with a number of pictures of Allen’s household alongside the paths close to the bridge.

Throughout cross-examination, protection attorneys Baldwin and Jennifer Auger countered that Allen has a fishing license, and implied that fishermen typically use knives to chop their strains. Auger additionally mentioned many households in Tippecanoe and Carroll counties traverse the paths.

Police additionally discovered the Sig Sauer, Mannequin P226, .40-caliber handgun that they allege is tied to an unspent spherical discovered between the women’ our bodies.

Testimony will resume Friday.

Contact IndyStar reporter Kristine Phillips at (317) 444-3026 or at kphillips@indystar.com.

This text initially appeared on Indianapolis Star: Delphi murders trial testimony reveals how Richard Allen became a suspect