Recently released footage from 2022 shows Richard Allen, the Indiana man found guilty of murdering two girls on a hiking trail in 2017, denying any involvement in the crime during interrogations by Indiana officials and his wife.
An Indiana judge sentenced Allen in December 2024 to a maximum of 130 years in prison for the murders of 13-year-old Abigail “Abby” Williams and 14-year-old Liberty “Libby” German, events also referred to as the Delphi murders.
A jury convicted Allen for killing the two girls, who vanished while walking along the High Monon Trail on February 13, 2017. Investigators discovered their bodies the next day, both brutally murdered with multiple throat cuts and sticks placed over them in a wooded area near the trail.
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“It sounds like you’re trying to make me a scapegoat,” Allen told investigators during an October 13, 2022, interview video shared by YouTuber Tom Webster with Fox News Digital.
“It’s been so long since it happened, and I haven’t thought about it much. I don’t want to be anyone’s scapegoat. It feels like you’re trying to fit pieces of a puzzle that don’t belong just to close this case… and I’m not questioning your integrity.”
Indiana State Police Superintendent Doug Carter speaks at a news conference regarding the Delphi murders investigation on April 22, 2019, at the Canal Center in Delphi. (© Nikos Frazier/Journal & Courier/USA Today Network)
The interview began light-heartedly, with Allen laughing with the investigators when he first entered the room.
Allen was initially interrogated in 2017 after the murders since he had been on the High Monon Trail that day, but his name was removed from the case due to a clerical mistake, according to journalist Áine Cain and Indiana attorney Kevin Greenlee, co-host of the “Murder Sheet” podcast.
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Richard Allen was arrested in October 2022 for the murders of 14-year-old Liberty German and 13-year-old Abigail Williams in 2017. (Indiana State Police)
Allen’s arrest in 2022 surprised the Delphi community since he had been a long-time employee at a local CVS. Evidence had led police to his residence, where they found a gun linked to an unspent bullet discovered at the crime scene, and a blue jacket resembling the one worn by a man seen in a video Libby filmed shortly before her disappearance.
“I’m beginning to feel like I’m the primary suspect here, and I’m not going to accept that,” Allen told authorities during the questioning.
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On February 14, 2017, Libby German, 14, and Abby Williams, 13, were killed while biking on trails near Delphi, located about 60 miles northwest of Indianapolis. (Indiana State Police)
He expressed frustration regarding police requests to search his phones and personal belongings.
Allen mentioned that he and his wife watch “TV shows and stuff” and he didn’t want to be more involved in this case than necessary.
“Am I an angel of a person? No.”
“I’m not perfect,” he said. “I’m just like anyone else… I prefer that you don’t investigate my internet history.”
Throughout the interrogation, Allen fidgeted with a water bottle, which he emptied about 40 to 50 minutes into the questioning.
Snow covers Deer Creek while the Monon High Bridge stands above on February 9, 2022, in Delphi. (Nikos Frazier/Journal & Courier/USA Today Network)
He acknowledged that law enforcement aims for “closure” for the victims’ families.
“We’re here because the perpetrator hasn’t been found, and I refuse to be that person… My wife and I watch ‘Dateline’ every week. We’re well aware of the situation, and there’s nothing linking me to it. I am concerned about the idea of people searching my home… my wife isn’t even aware I’m talking to you,” Allen stated. “I want to keep this communication private.”
DELPHI MURDERS SUSPECT ALLEGEDLY CONFESSED TO KILLING TWO ON THE HIKING TRAIL, DOCUMENTS SHOW
Grainy footage from a cell phone and a sketch of a primary suspect in the murders of local Delphi girls Abigail Williams and Liberty German are displayed in the office of sheriff Tobe Leazenby, Carroll County. (Robert Scheer/IndyStar/USA Today Network)
In another video obtained by Tom Webster and shared with Fox News Digital from October 26, 2022, Allen denies the allegations to his wife.
“They’re suggesting you actually think I did it, and I can’t grasp that,” Allen tells her. His wife remarked on the link between his gun and a bullet found at the crime scene.
“You know I didn’t do this,” he insisted. “I’m not going to provide false statements, and I can’t explain what I don’t comprehend… There’s no way a bullet from my gun found its way to a murder scene. I haven’t harmed anyone. I didn’t assist anyone in committing murder.”
Allen added that he hadn’t seen Abby and Libby on the High Monon Trail that day and did not carry his gun with him.
“No one will get away with this,” Allen asserted.
“They want you to believe I did it.”
He repeatedly assured his wife that they know each other well and he couldn’t understand how a bullet from his gun turned up at the murder scene.
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Allen then debated with an officer who informed him that evidence suggested the bullet found at the scene originated from his firearm. A crucial piece of evidence shared during Allen’s trial last year was a video that Libby recorded on her phone shortly before she and Abby met their fate.
were killed.
Police escort murder suspect Richard Allen during a hearing regarding sealed documents on Nov. 22, 2022, at the Carroll County Courthouse in Delphi, Indiana. (Alex Martin/Journal and Courier/USA Today Network)
Jurors viewed a 43-second video showing Libby and Abby walking alongside an unidentified man wearing a hat and a blue utility jacket in court on October 22. This man has become known as “Bridge Guy” over the last five years. Libby recorded this video at 2:13 PM, just under 25 minutes after dropping the girls off at the trail along with their family members.
“Guys, down the hill,” the man instructed the girls in the footage.
Prosecutors asserted that Allen is the “Bridge Guy” since several witnesses stated they saw him on the trail around the time the girls went missing. Furthermore, law enforcement found a similar blue utility jacket at Allen’s residence in 2022.
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Richard Allen, the suspect in the Delphi murders, is currently confined to a 6-foot by 10-foot cell “no larger than that of a dog kennel,” sleeping on a pad on a concrete floor, awaiting a hearing in June. (FOX 59 Indianapolis)
Allen has reportedly confessed several times while incarcerated, stating that he directed the girls “down the hill.” He allegedly confessed to murdering them, indicating that he initially intended to assault them but changed his mind when he noticed a nearby van, leading him to decide to kill them.
His defense team claims that his deteriorating mental condition caused him to make inaccurate statements while in jail.
More than five years after their tragic deaths, investigators executed a search warrant at Allen’s home in Delphi on October 13, 2022. They found a blue Carhartt jacket, a SIG Sauer P226 .40-caliber semi-automatic handgun, and a .40-caliber S&W cartridge located in a “wooden keepsake box” within a dresser between two closets in his bedroom, as reported by authorities.
According to police, the handgun recovered from Allen’s house matched a .40-caliber unspent bullet discovered at the murder scene in 2017.
Fox News’ Patrick McGovern contributed to this report.
