Jury selected in Indiana double murder trial; prosecutors don’t want jury to see suspect sketches
A jury and alternates have been selected in the double murder trial of the Indiana man charged with killing two teen girls on a hiking trail in 2017 in a case that stumped investigators for years and garnered national intrigue.
Richard Allen is charged with murder in the deaths of Abby Williams, 13, and Libby German, 14. The teen girls were found dead near the Monon High Bridge in Carroll County, Indiana, after going missing while out for a walk on the hiking trail in February 2017. Allen has pleaded not guilty.
Due to the level of media coverage, the jurors were selected in Allen County in the Fort Wayne area -- about 100 miles east of Delphi, Indiana. The jurors will be sworn in Thursday morning in Allen County before they are sequestered and transported to Carroll County where the trial will be held.
During the proceedings Tuesday, Andrew Baldwin, one of Allen's defense attorneys, revealed -- for the first time -- new evidence that could come into the trial. He said a hair was found in one of the girl's hands "but it wasn't Richard Allen's."
Baldwin also described the evidence surrounding a bullet found at the scene as "open to interpretation."
Police have said an unspent .40-caliber round discovered near the two girls' bodies had been cycled through a Sig Sauer Model P226 that belonged to Allen.
Authorities have never released information on how the teens were killed. In addition to the gun and bullet evidence, court documents have also mentioned the involvement of a knife in the killings.
Separately on Tuesday, prosecutors filed a motion to prevent defense attorneys from referencing composite sketches of a person of interest in the killings – released early in the investigation – during the trial.
Carroll County Prosecutor Nick McLeland said the sketches were not related to identifying Allen as the leading suspect. The motion asks the court to order the defense to not mention, comment or reference the sketches during the trial.
During the course of the investigation, police released two different sketches of a person of interest in the killings. The first depicted an older man, who authorities later said, was not, in fact, a person of interest.
Special Judge Frances Gull will hold a hearing to rule on the prosecutor's motion on Thursday.
Williams' grandparents and two of German's family members were in the courtroom on Tuesday.
Opening statements are set to start on Friday.
The girls' killings, which shocked the small close-knit town of nearly 3,000 residents, remained a high-profile murder mystery for five years as police pleaded with the public to come forward with information.
Some of the key evidence early on came from the girls themselves. The older of the two girls managed to take a brief video clip of a man walking on the bridge near where the girls were last seen, police said.
Authorities later released a grainy image of the suspect wearing jeans and a dark jacket.
One of the girls also recorded a man's voice saying "Guys, down the hill."
Allen, a husband, father and Delphi resident, who worked at the local CVS, was arrested in October 2022.
Allen told police that he was on the trail that day, but he denied any involvement in the murders, according to court documents.
Authorities said Allen confessed to the killings several times in a jail phone call with his wife in April 2023, according to court documents.
