(NewsNation) — Newly unsealed court records detail how a cellphone video and unspent bullet led officers to arrest a man they interviewed five years earlier in connection with the deaths of two Indiana teens.
A judge on Tuesday released a redacted version of an affidavit that outlines why police suspected 50-year-old Delphi man Richard Allen in connection with the deaths of Abby Williams and Libby German. NewsNation reviewed a copy of the affidavit that was obtained by its Indianapolis affiliate WXIN and posted to the local station’s website.
Officers arrested Allen last month — more than five years after police began their investigation. Allen faces two counts of murder stemming from the deaths of Williams, 13, and German, 14.
Investigators tied Allen to the case, in part, after identifying an unspent .40 caliber bullet less than two feet from one of the girls’ bodies. Lab analysis later confirmed the same bullet had been cycled through a pistol that Allen purchased in 2001 and which police recovered from his home early last month, according to the affidavit.
NewsNation left a message for Allen’s lead attorney Bradley Rozzi, who could not immediately be reached for comment Tuesday afternoon.
German and Williams went for a walk together Feb. 13, 2017, on the Monon High Bridge and never returned. Their bodies were found on a community hiking trail the next day.
A video discovered on German’s phone showed that she and Williams came across a man on the bridge at 2:13 p.m. As he approached, one of the girls could be heard on the video mentioning the word “gun.” The man then said “Guys, down the hill,” police have said.
The video ends as the girls walked down the hill, according to the affidavit.
Police now say they believe that man was Allen and that no witnesses recalled seeing him on the trail after 2:13 p.m. “because he was in the woods” with the girls.
Allen was among the trail visitors that day whom police interviewed early on. During his 2017 interview, Allen allegedly told investigators he was on the trail between 1:30 and 3:30 p.m. and claimed to have been on another bridge when he saw three females, according to the affidavit.
Those girls told police they remembered passing by a man whom they described as “kind of creepy.” One of the girls tried to say “Hi,” but the man didn’t respond and instead “glared at them,” according to the affidavit.
Another woman told police she saw a “muddy and bloody” man walking west on a county road just before 4 p.m. The man appeared to have “gotten into a fight,” she said, according to the affidavit.
During a second interview with police on Oct. 13, 2022, Allen disclosed to police that he had firearms at his Delphi home, including a .40 caliber Sig Sauer pistol.
Officers used a warrant to search Allen’s home over the course of the next week and confirmed the bullet found at the scene had been cycled through Allen’s pistol, according to the affidavit.
Allen, who told police that he never let anyone borrow his gun, said he had no explanation for how a bullet linked to his weapon might have ended up at the scene.
He denied knowing either girl and said he was not involved in their deaths.
Allen’s next court appearance is scheduled for Feb. 17 in Carroll County, Indiana, online court records show.