Unspent bullet found at Delphi murder scene key to charges, unsealed court doc says

Judge orders documents unsealed in murder charges against Richard Allen, accused in connection with the 2017 deaths of Libby German and Abby Williams

Richard Allen is led to a prison van after a Nov. 22 hearing at the Carroll County Courthouse. (Photo: Dave Bangert)

An unspent .40 caliber bullet found at the crime scene in February and a second-chance interview with Richard Allen more than five years after Abby Williams and Libby German were killed led to two counts of murder against the 50-year-old Delphi man, according to charging documents unsealed Tuesday.

Judge Fran Gull, an Allen Superior Court judge appointed to the case, on Tuesday ordered the release of a probable cause affidavit connected to murder charges filed in October against Allen. Gull ruled that Carroll County Prosecutor Nick McLeland hadn’t made a sufficient case for keeping the reason for Allen’s arrest under wraps to, as the prosecutor argued in court Nov. 22, protect the integrity of an ongoing investigation.

In the eight-page document, redacted to hide the names of witnesses and investigators, the prosecutor puts Allen on the Monon High Bridge, wearing clothes similar to those of a man captured on Libby German’s phone, on Feb. 13, 2017, the day the pair of Delphi eighth-graders were killed – something Allen apparently told an investigator was the case in 2017.