Extended ‘Bridge Guy’ video evidence released as Delphi murder case heads for appeal
Shown in court, video was key in the case against Richard Allen, convicted in the 2017 murders of Abby Williams and Libby German
A video Libby German shot on her iPhone from the end of the Monon High Bridge the afternoon of Feb. 13, 2017 – one showing “Bridge Guy,” a man prosecutors said was Richard Allen – was released this week through Allen’s attorneys.
The 43-second clip shows Abby Williams, 13, walking the final ties of the Monon High Bridge, with a man following the girls the afternoon the girls went missing. Abby and Libby were found dead a day later in woods near the Monon High Bridge Trail.
Shown during the opening days of Allen’s murder trial in October, it’s an extended version of footage that produced an image of the man who came to be known as “Bridge Guy” and an audio clip of a man saying, “Guys … down the hill.”
The video – recorded at 2:13 p.m. Feb. 13, 2017, and, according to testimony was the last thing shot on Libby German’s phone – is one of several versions of the clip referenced during a trial the ended with conviction of Allen for the murders of Abby and Libby.
According to a page called “Justice for Rick Allen,” which touts itself as the future repository for exhibits from the four-week trial, the clip “is the full, raw, 43-second video obtained directly via the extraction performed on Liberty German's iPhone 6s by (Indiana State Police) Sgt. Brian Bunner on Feb. 15, 2017.”
Other versions of the video introduced during the trial included methods to enhance audio and stabilize other aspects of the scene.
The prosecution’s case against Allen, a 52-year-old former clerk at a CVS pharmacy in Delphi, hinged in large part on proving that he was the man seen following Abby as she walked across the retired railroad trestle over Deer Creek.
Allen’s defense team continues to maintain his innocence. A notice of appeal was filed this week with the Indiana Court of Appeals.
The site that released the bridge video Wednesday posted this explanation:
“The attorneys representing Mr. Allen continue to receive a considerable number of inquiries and requests for access to public records and exhibits related to State of Indiana v. Richard Allen.
“In response to similar requests, the Court has stated that ‘the exhibits are needed for the production of a transcript if one is requested by the parties’ and that fulfilling such requests ‘will interrupt the process and guarantee the Reporter will be forced to ask the Indiana Court of Appeals for an extension of time [to] file the transcript.’
“Recognizing the significant public interest and in the spirit of transparency, this site will serve as a central resource for accessing public records, exhibits, frequently asked questions, and updates on Mr. Allen's post-conviction legal proceedings.”
Exhibits from the trial, including the Bridge Guy video, have not been released by the court.
The extended cut of the Bridge Guy video was played during Day 4 of Allen’s trial. It hadn’t been played outside the courtroom, except for the pieces of it used to spur tips from the public during the early days of the investigation.
In the video, the girls are heard talking quietly as Abby hustles past Libby once she’s off the bridge. It then shows gravel, railroad ties and brush, as if Libby had the phone in her hand and continued to shoot without focusing on a subject. At one point, one of the girls talks about how “there’s no path going there, so we have to go down here.” Then a man says what sounds to be, “Guys … down the hill.” The video clip ends there.
During testimony in court, Carroll County Sheriff Tony Liggett, a detective during much of the murder investigation, testified that after listening to the video hundreds of times, he deciphered Abby telling Libby not to leave her there and that one of the girls was heard saying, “that be a gun.” The initial court filings with charges against Allen also say there was a mention of a gun in the encounter on the Monon High Bridge and that investigators “believe they hear the sound of a gun being cycled.”
The case against Allen also hinged on an unspent round found near the girls at the murder scene, which prosecutors say traced back to a gun found at Allen’s house shortly before he was arrested in October 2022.
Witnesses who said they saw a man on the Monon High Bridge Trail or on the bridge offered widely differing descriptions of him during testimony during the trial.
In related news
Judge Fran Gull on Thursday denied a motion filed by Andrew Baldwin, one of three attorneys who defended Allen, asking the court to hold a hearing to force Prosecutor Nick McLeland to preserve and produce potentially exculpatory letters received before and during a trial that started in October 2024. McLeland had asked the court to reject Baldwin’s demands for letters sent by Ricci Davis, an inmate serving a 50-year sentence at New Castle Correctional Facility for dealing methamphetamine. Baldwin argued that Ron Logan, who owned the land where the girls were found and who died in 2022, confessed to the murders while talking with Davis when they were serving time in the same Indiana prison in May 2017. Baldwin argued that letters Davis said he wrote to the Carroll County prosecutor, containing information only the killer could have known, were never flagged or given to Allen’s defense. McLeland accused Baldwin of trying to throw around unverified allegations and that Davis had failed polygraph tests and that physical evidence found at the crime scene on Logan’s land did not support Davis’ account. Baldwin argued that it wasn’t up to the prosecutor to decide what was and what wasn’t exculpatory evidence and accused McLeland of a pattern of holding things back. Baldwin contended that information in the letters could have changed the defense strategy and, even now, could affect the approach to an appeal.
Gull also declined to rule on a motion filed this week asking her to reconsider timestamp evidence in security video footage of a neighbor’s white van pulling into a lane near the Monon High Bridge that the defense team argues throws off a timeline the state used to corroborate a confession investigators say Allen made to a prison psychologist. In February, Gull rejected a motion to correct errors filed by Allen’s defense team. His trial attorneys had asked Gull to vacate the conviction, raising questions about new evidence that pointed to holes in the prosecution’s timeline of the murders; an alleged confession by another man; and the process that landed the former clerk at the Delphi CVS in a state prison under a “safekeeping” order after he was arrested and charged in October 2022 – a situation they called pivotal in the case and that led to a state of psychosis and ensuing confessions between his arrest and his trial.
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