3 days of Delphi murder hearings open with accusations, move to dismiss

Day 1 featured accusations of missing evidence and misplaced investigations. Hearings continue in Carroll County Wednesday and Thursday

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3 DAYS OF DELPHI MURDER HEARINGS OPEN WITH ACCUSATIONS, MOVE TO DISMISS

Calling the move “an extreme remedy,” attorneys for Richard Allen – accused in the 2017 murders of Delphi eighth-graders Libby German and Abby Williams – argued Tuesday that missing or destroyed evidence that could have pointed to another suspect is enough to dismiss charges.

Allen’s defense team, who have spent more than a year building a case around the possibility that other suspects were connected to a pagan Norse ritualistic sacrifice killing of the girls, argued that interview tapes lost, phone records not collected, sketches that turned up on Facebook that resembled the crime scene and investigators’ reluctance to follow up on leads too quickly cleared a Logansport man who was an early suspect in the crimes.

Attorney Andrew Baldwin told Judge Fran Gull that the situation made “a tall task” to get Allen a fair trial, when it starts in mid-October.

Libby German and Abby Williams (Photos provided)

Prosecutors and one of the lead Indiana State Police investigators on the case after the Feb. 13, 2017, murders pushed back on those arguments, made during the first of three days of pre-trial hearings in a packed Carroll County Circuit Court courtroom.