What we know about the notorious Delphi murders as man charged with killings

For five years, no suspects had been named in the murder case of Libby German and Abby Williams, two best friends who were murdered while hiking in their hometown of Delphi, Indiana. Until now.

The case of German, 14, and Williams, 13, made headlines in February 2017 because audio and video recordings of the alleged suspect in the girls' murders were found on German's phone.

Law enforcement released part of an audio recording of a person speaking to the girls and a video recording of a person following the girls on the day of their murders.

The case received national attention.

Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter

And now a suspect has been arrested and charged with their murder.

On Monday, Indiana State Police announced they charged 50-year-old Richard Allen with the murders of German and Williams.

Here's what we know so far.

What happened

German and Williams went missing on 13 February 2017 after they set off on a hike along the Monon High Bridge Trail in their hometown of Delphi, Indiana.

After the girls did not return home a search went underway until their bodies were discovered approximately half a mile off the trail.

The girls' cause of death remained a mystery, however, shocking new details about the murders came to light in a search warrant application obtained by the podcast The Murder Sheet and shared with The Independent back in May.

The warrant revealed the young girls lost “a lot” of blood and their killer is believed to have moved and staged their bodies, before taking some sort of souvenir from the scene.

Although redacted, the warrant also revealed the girls' were murdered by some type of weapon.

The footage

While the two young teenagers were on their hike, German posted photos to her Snapchat and recorded video/audio of the hike.

In one audio clip obtained from German's phone, a man can be heard telling the girls "down the hill".

In a video clip, a man wearing jeans, and a jacket can be seen walking behind the girls on the trail. Investigators suspected the man in the video to be German and Williams' murderer.

A composite sketch of the unknown man was made with the description of being 5' 6" to 5' 10", weighing 180 to 220 pounds, and having reddish brown hair.

The suspect

It's unclear what information led to the arrest of Allen as his name has never been publicly tied to the case.

Allen would have been 44 at the time of the murders, he is a resident of Delphi.

According to The Independent, Allen is a trained pharmacy technician working at a local CVS. German's grandparents, Mike and Becky Patty said that they remembered Allen processing photos for them in the store.

CVS offered condolences to the victims' families saying, “as members of the Carroll County community, we remain devastated by these murders and our hearts go out to the German and Williams families."

“We are shocked and saddened to learn that one of our store employees was arrested as a suspect in these crimes. We stand ready to cooperate with the police investigation in any way we can," they added.

Allen is married to his wife, Kathy, together they share one daughter.

Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.