A (0:00)

What causes someone to be sentenced to 130 years in prison? I'm about to tell you exactly what guys. Today's case. I felt like I was thrown for such a loop just because it felt like there was information coming in left and right and I was thinking so many different things. There was evidence and then there wasn't evidence and then we didn't know if the evidence was certain or not or if it was going to be thrown out in court. There were so many things that made this feel not only devastating because of the crime that took place, but also devastating because it felt like it dragged on for years. So let's get into it. Welcome to this episode of I Wish youh Were Here. We are talking about the Delphi murders today in Indiana. That being said, I do have to give my usual warning. We are talking about two children today. So if you think that listening to this is going to harm your mental health in any way, shape or form, please skip this video. Take care of yourselves. I love you. I mean it. February 13th of 2017 was a Monday. The night prior, 13 year old Abigail Williams had spent the night over at her best friend's house. 14 year old Liberty German. They didn't have school the next day. It was a day off. So they spent Sunday night doing fun things. Watching movies, doing face masks, recording videos, having a fun little sleepover, doing what girls like to do the day after. It was a nice day out. The weather was nice, the girls felt like being outside. They decided they wanted to go on a hike so. So Libby's older sister dropped them off right by the Monon High Bridge. That is in a wooded area over a creek. She dropped them off around 1pm At 2:07 Libby posted a picture on Snapchat of Abby walking on the bridge. That was the last picture that would ever be taken of her. And at some point in the following hour both of their lives would be brutally taken. The plan was that Libby's dad was going to pick up the girls from the trail and he was going to call them when he was getting close so they would know to walk over to the pickup spot spot. So he calls Libby at 3:11pm he gets no answer. He calls her again at 3:14pm but again gets no answer. 15 minutes pass. Libby's dad has arrived at the destination. He is at this point gotten out of his car to walk the trails to go and try to find the girls. On his walk he notices a man wearing a flannel. He stops and asks him if he has seen Two girls. The man says that he hasn't, but he did see a couple up there higher on the trail, walking around. Libby's dad continues to walk around looking for the girls, yelling out their names. He's walking around for 30 more minutes and he just cannot find them. He's getting more and more concerned by the second. I mean this is a small town, the kind of small town where everyone knows everyone. So his mind doesn't immediately think of the worst. However, each minute that passes he starts considering what could have happened and could they actually be in real danger. He decides to call his mom, so Libby's grandma, for help in looking for the girls. So she shows up eventually to help him in walking around searching for them. Then they call Abby's mom to let her know that they can't find the girls and she comes over immediately to meet up with them. And slowly but surely more and more family members are gathering in the area, all walking through different parts of the trail, all the places that the girls would have walked, yelling out their names, calling their phones to see if they could at least hear the phones ring, spreading out to look in different areas. But they have no luck. By 5:30pm after realizing that they were not going to find them and they needed more immediate assistance, they they call the police to officially report 13 year old Abby and 14 year old Libby missing. Authorities meet the families in the area and they immediately start searching with other members slowly but surely gathering in the same place, also joining in to help. They're all now walking around with flashlights because it's getting dark outside. They had drones, firefighters, other law enforcement members out at the scene. Alert notifications were being sent out to residents of the area and the surrounding areas and, and by that point they were also in communication with the girls cell phone providers to try and get their locations that way. However, they would soon figure out that that really wasn't going to prove to be any help because one, cell phone providers are so nitpicky about releasing information like it seems like it's a really long process to get them to release the location of a phone but they would later come to find out that their cell phones were dead by this point. So that would really be no help. Their disappearance was reported on the news, in the media by 6pm that same night. I mean authorities in unfortunately isn't the case in every single missing person's case but in this case they really did work fast in hopes of finding Libby and Abby and bringing them home safely. By midnight that night when they were Getting ready to call off the search for the night because it was getting late. They still had absolutely nothing to go off. They called it off for the night. They were going to resume the next morning. Although that did not stop family members, volunteers and even some firefighters to stay there and continue searching throughout the night and into the next day. Just after 12pm, footsteps led authorities towards the location of where they would be found. A volunteer first saw Libby Shue and when he looked up, he looked closer. He saw their two bodies on the ground in between some trees. They were found around 0.5 miles away from the Monon High Bridge on the edge of the water in Deer Creek. And they were right by the trails. But technically the exact spot they were found in was on private property belonging to a man in his 70s. The FBI has gotten involved at this point. The area has been taped off as a crime scene. And the day after the results come back officially confirming that the victims were in fact 13 year old Abigail Williams and 14 year old Liberty German. The girls were found on February 14th. February 22nd, local and state authorities along with the FBI hold a big press conference where they state that they have evidence of a potential suspect. And when they hold that press conference, shockingly, they announced that they have a video of said suspect that was taken on Libby's own cell phone. In the middle of whatever terrifying ordeal was happening to the girls, Libby was quick enough on her feet and brave enough to secretly pull out her phone to record their encounter with this man. They released a small clip to the public with only the audio recording during in which you can hear a man's voice. A screenshot of this video of this man eventually also reaches the public. In the audio you can hear what sounds like a man directing the girls because you can hear him saying, quote, he down the hill, end quote. Almost as if he was ordering them on where to go. And this man became known as the bridge man. In that press conference it was stated by authorities that they did find more evidence on Libby's phone. However, they did not want to release that information yet to avoid compromising the investigation. But they share this audio with the public in hopes that someone would recognize this man's voice. And thousands of leads start coming in from phones are ringing at the station left and right. I can only imagine that keeping track of those tip lines was pure and utter chaos. But one of the names that caught the eye of investigators was the name of the man who owned the private property the bodies were found on. 77 year old Ron Logan. A woman came Forward, the ex girlfriend of Ron Logan saying that she strongly believed that Ron would be the kind of person to do this. And she believed that it was his voice on that recording saying down the hill. This ex girlfriend, a woman named Connie, told investigators along with the FBI, that Ron had a history of being violent towards women. And she strongly suggested that they look into him, even claiming that he once threatened to kill her during their six year relationship. When they did look into him, they found that his initial statements about his whereabouts on the day of the murders were inconsistent, leading investigators to then question his alibi. It was a very specific honesty and very interesting, I guess, alibi. Ron was claiming that when the murders would have taken place, he was with his cousin, making the hour drive to Lafayette, Indiana to buy tropical fish. So he was saying that he wasn't even in the area, he was an hour away. He could not be the person responsible. However, when authorities went to go and question his cousin, his cousin says, no, I'm not really sure what he's talking about. I never even saw Ron the day of the murders. Which is very, very suspicious. And it was then that Ron Logan was officially a suspect in this investigation. One month after the murders, on March 17 of 2017, a search warrant was conducted on Ron's property, but nothing was found. On April 3, around one and a half months after the murders, Ron pleads guilty to violating his probation because at the time he was on probation for a DUI conviction. So completely unrelated, but meaning that he was not supposed to be driving. Yet the story that he gave investigators in regards to his alibi would say that he was driving. So he ends up going to court for this and he gets sentenced to four years. When I was researching this, based on what I read and hearing different interviews and things like that, what I gathered was that the general feeling at that time was that law enforcement had zeroed in and focused all of their attention on Ron. And. But the more and more the time passed, the less likely it felt because no matter how hard they tried, even though he was serving time in jail for something completely unrelated, they just could not find any physical evidence directly linking him to the murders. Of course, Ron Logan did end up lawyering up to have someone to defend his name, but he was never even officially charged in connection to Libby and Abby's death. And he passed away, I believe, from COVID in 2022. Five months after the murders, in July, the first sketch is released. And that sketch, to be super honest with you, looks like the most generic guy if you haven't seen it, look it up. If you put the sketch side by side with any middle aged man, you would be able to argue that it looks like him, whoever it was, but at least it was something to go off, I guess. Meanwhile, the air in Delphi felt so tense. The more this investigation progressed. Everyone in the area felt uneasy, which you can understand. This place that was once a super close, tight knit community now became or at least felt like it was a community that was on edge 24 7. Suspicious of anyone and everyone, and frankly kind of scared to go outside. People began looking around, wondering, could it be this guy? Could it be this guy? Could it be him? Could it be the other guy? Could it be our neighborhood? Nobody knew. And the idea that this person that had committed such a horrible crime was hiding out in plain sight, walking amongst them, was a terrifying one. And you could feel that in Delphi, Indiana, it was quite literally turning some people paranoid. An entire year passes with no arrest and no official suspect. And it was terrible because now people were so involved in this investigation into finding out whoever did this, that they began to forget what mattered most. Abigail Williams and Liberty German and throughout it all, their families, their loved ones, they were not only filled with frustration on how and why nobody had been arrested, yet at the same time, they were also mourning the deaths of their children and trying to navigate their new life of grief and loss. Two years passed, and then authorities held another press conference. This time they released video footage along with the audio and a new initial part of the audio of this bridge guy. It's a two second video clip of the guy walking on the bridge saying, quote, guys down the hill, unquote. Now they're asking the media to look at the way that he moves, to look at the way that he walks, the way that he stands, and to please come forward with any additional information. They also then release a second sketch. Now, this sketch to me, and I think to a lot of people, to be honest, does not look like the first sketch at all. It. It looks to be a much younger guy. So the public sees this and they immediately think, what? This isn't a replacement of the first sketch. This is a completely different guy. Do investigators even know what they're doing? People began to question where this case was headed because it felt, I. I would use the word messy almost is how people were taking it, how and why these two sketches could be completely different and so far off it made no sense to anyone. On top of that, authorities did say that it looks like the crime scene could have been compromised. Could have been tampered with, but that's all that they said. So still now, years out from the murders, they were still holding their cards so close to their chest, and the public was not happy about it. In December of 2021, four years and nine months after the murders, authorities announced that they are now looking for information in regards to a social media profile under the name Anthony Shots. This profile was allegedly a person catfishing young girls online. Fake profile pictures, fake names, the whole thing. And it was found that this Anthony Shots person had been in communication directly with Libby, pretending that he was a young boy their age in the days following up to the murders. This connection obviously was huge. And it made this person, whoever was responsible for this social media account for this social media profile, and it made them immediately a person of interest because it begged the question, was he the killer and could he have lured the girls to the bridge that day? The person behind the account was 26 year old Keegan Klein, an Indiana resident. And from evidence gathered from his devices, investigators were able to determine that he had been in contact via Snapchat with Libby the night before the murders, prior to him being linked to the girl's death. Keegan was already awaiting trial in 2022 for 30 different charges connected to having child material on his devices. In May of 2022, he was questioned in connection to Libby and Abby. And he did admit that he did have that profile of Anthony Shots and that he had been in communication with Libby. But as far as the murders, he held on to the fact that he had nothing to do with them. And yet again, there was not enough to charge him with anything. So eventually, investigators just had to move on. And yet again, the case felt like it was at a standstill. That was until an arrest was made in late 2022. Richard Matthew Allen, A name that nobody had heard before. A name that almost felt random to the public, because up until then, there had been nothing released about this guy at all. Richard Matthew Allen was born in 1972 in Indiana. He grew up in a town around 30 minutes away from Delphi. He grew up in a quiet working class family, and by all accounts, he seemed to have a pretty decent childhood. Nothing stood out as unusual. There were no obvious signs of abuse, major trouble, or any extreme circumstances that would later raise red flags. Growing up, friends and neighbors described Richard as, quote, unquote, normal. He attended public schools in Indiana, where he has been described to have been a very average student. He mostly just kept to himself and stayed out of trouble. He, teachers and classmates later said that he was quiet, polite, maybe a little bit odd because he didn't have that many friends, but again, just a pretty average guy, a kid that overall did not draw much attention. After high school, Richard pursued a career as a pharmacy technician. He met his wife, Kathy. They dated, they got married, and they had a daughter together. The family eventually settled down in Delphi, Indiana, and in 2006, they moved into a one story house in a neighborhood that was just a few minutes away from the Monon High bridge where the murders took place. In 2017, Richard was working at a local CVS pharmacy in Delphi, meaning that he was often seen by people and customers who described him to be friendly, helpful and approachable. And in hearing all of that, it makes sense that to the outside world, Richard seemed like nothing more than a family man. He was a husband, he was a father, he had a job, he minded his own business. His neighbors actually even used the word boring to describe him because he just really seems to be as plain as it can be. Which I think is why his arrest shocked the entire Delphi community. When the press conference was helped to properly announce the arrest, the superintendent stated, quote, I am proud to report to you the arrest of Richard M. Allen of Delphi on two counts of murder. Yet he still made sure to ask the public to continue to come forward with any information, not only in regards to Richard, but also in regards to anything or anyone else that could be connected to the case. And it sounds like there were a lot of strong mixed feelings within the community when this first came out. First of all, there were a lot of people that were kind of thrown off because they were still focused on Keegan Klein. And the arrest of Richard kind of felt like it came out of nowhere. Some people were confused because this entire time they thought, kind of assumed that it would be someone with a criminal past or a violent past. Yet it seemed that Richard didn't have any of those. It also kind of sounded like people on the Internet and podcasters that were reporting on this and covering this case almost disagreed because when they were looking at Richard's past, he only had traffic violations from 2003, 2005 and 2011. So it really wasn't matching up with the kind of criminal that we often see in cases like this that has a troubling, violent past. And that wasn't sitting right with many people. Obviously not to say that this doesn't happen, because we also see this happen all the time when it's the guy next door that you would have never suspected But I digress. Other people of the public felt somewhat uneasy and uncertain because even though an arrest had been made, the investigation continued to feel very much still open, with authorities continuing to ask the public for information and tips, as well as the fact that the details of the investigation and details in regards to how exactly the girls were murdered were still not being released. But of course, at the same time, there was also a big sensation of relief because finally, after five years, there was a slight glimmer of hope that this case would be closed and that the families of Libby and Abby would get the justice that they had been fighting for for years. At Richard's first hearing, he pled not guilty, and he was being held in custody without bond, awaiting trial. About a month or so after his arrest, the arrest affidavit was unsealed, and it was then that it came out for the very first time that five years ago, in 2017, shortly after the murders, Richard Allen himself had gone to the police before the audio of the bridge guy was released, before the screenshot of the bridge guy was published, and before any of the sketches came came out. After learning of the murders, Richard went to officers in 2017, basically saying, hey, just to let you know, I was on the Monon High Bridge the very same afternoon that those girls disappeared. He said he had gone out to the trail sometime between 1:30 to 3:00pm to, quote, watch the fish, end quote, which that would fit the time frame into which the girls were murdered. He also told them that he didn't see the girls at all when he was there, but he just wanted to inform them that he was there so they were aware, just as an FYI. But that wasn't the only thing that Richard told authorities, because he also told them that that day he was wearing blue jeans and a black or blue jacket. That outfit is extremely similar to what the man in Libby's video, AKA bridge guy, was seen wearing. And for whatever reason at the time, five years ago, his statement somehow, some way, didn't raise enough suspicion for him to become a suspect at all, which is quite kind of shocking because. What do you mean? But I guess investigators thought that there was little evidence tying him directly to the crime. So back then, all those years ago, they didn't really do anything about it. And as we know, it felt like the case went cold for years. But then when the case was revisited in 2022, investigators revisited Richard's statement and realized that the details that he gave, especially detailing his clothing and being on the bridge at the same time, the same Time as the girls aligned perfectly, almost perfectly, I should say, with the evidence and the infamous bridge guy video. Not to mention a lot of people also did agree that he looked like he had the same frame of the guy seen on video. Bridge guy. On top of that, there were multiple witnesses who said that they saw a man who looked a lot like Richard on the trail on or around the time when the girls would have been murdered. One person specifically reported seeing a man wearing muddy or bloody clothing on the bridge that day. At the crime scene in 2017, police had also found a bullet that had not been fired lying in between the girl's bodies on the ground. Fast forward five years. When authorities finally did search Richard Allen's house, they took a gun that he had inside. As evidence. Tests were later done, conducted and the results of that showed that the bullet from the crime scene had been loaded into and removed from Richard Allen's gun at some point. In other words, even though the bullet was not shot, markings on it seemed to prove that at some point it had passed through his weapon, putting his gun directly at the scene of the crime. And when questioned, Richard Allen specifically made sure to tell investigators that he never ever let anyone touch his gun. Nobody ever had hands on it apart from himself. And later on, when the video of this bridge guy is later dissected and looked at more closely, more is released. And it sounds like you can hear one of the girls whisper the word gun, which would make sense as to why one, they didn't try to run away. And two, it just further checks out with the theory officers had when determining what happened. But could there have been more than one weapon in the search warrant of his house? When it was released for the first time, it was revealed and confirmed to the public that Libby and Abby's deaths were ruled as a homicide. That part we knew, but what we did not know and what was stated in the search warrant affidavit is that their injuries were caused by what was described to be a sharp object. In the search of Richard's house, knives were discovered, taken in his evidence, and that also yet again, further cooperates potentially that investigators did in fact have the right guy. A month passes and then it's announced to the public that Richard Allen had officially confessed to killing 14 year old Libby and 13 year old Abby. In fact, it was reported that he had confessed on five, at least five separate times on recorded phone calls from prison to his wife and his mom. And then we get to November 22nd of 2022, Richard's first hearing in Court. But first, real quick, actually, let's talk about the case that they're building against him. Because most of it is circumstantial evidence, which proves to be tricky. The only physical piece of evidence tying him directly to the scene of the crime is the bullet. The bullet that was found at the crime scene that they believed had markings on it showing that at one point it had been loaded into Richard's gun. That was their strongest piece of evidence. And truthfully, it was not as solid as they would have wanted. They did have his confessions, but at that point, apart from authorities, no one else had heard them. So. So people start to speculate if they really do have the right guy or not. People on social media are wondering, what did he say in the confessions? Is there a chance that his confessions could be false confessions? Because those confessions had not been released because there had been a gag order placed, the prosecution was the side who ordered the gag order. And again, people began speculating, why would the prosecution not want us to hear the confession? And is it maybe because this guy didn't do it? Is it maybe because he only confessed because he was pressured into it? Because officers were pressured into making an arrest? Or on the other hand, was this guy really just a cold blooded killer who lived a double life and fooled everyone around him? Who knows? But all the defense had to do to find him not guilty is plant one seed, one little tiny, small seed of reasonable doubt in the minds of the jury. And if they managed to do so, there would be a possibility of Richard being found not guilty. But the prosecution sticks with it. They're standing by the claim that they do have more than enough evidence to find this guy guilty. And of course, you do have the people, by the way, that do think that he's guilty 100%. But it just overall felt like a really unsettling time to the public, to say the least. In September of 2023, the defense makes it public that they believe with 100% certainty that Richard Allen, their client, was innocent. And they for the very first time bring up the idea that behind the murders, the real people behind this crime, the real people who killed Libby and Abby, were a group of a ritualistic cult. They stated that there is this group of people who performed human rituals, human sacrifices, and they say that this is likely what happened when Libby and Abby were killed. This is crazy. I mean, it's crazy. It's been crazy and horrible and sad, and I feel so, so bad for the girl's family who had to deal with this. Now for Years. But somehow, some way just keeps getting messier. And it feels like there was a point in which no one knew what to believe. The evidence is getting confusing. Both sides are trying to throw evidence in and out from being able to be used in court. The stress and the agony overall was at such a high level. And even the people who were at one point sure that Richard was the killer were now questioning if he was guilty or not. After what seemed like an eternity, Richard Allen's trial began on October 18th of 2024 in Delphi, Indiana. From the start, the prosecution painted a chilling picture, revealing for the first time that both girls had had their throats cut. Learning that detail alone shocked everyone in that courtroom. Abby Williams was found fully clothed, wearing Liberty Germans clothing, while Liberty was found wearing nothing. And as we know, in between their bodies was the bullet connected to Richard Allen. Prosecutors told the jury that Richard had confessed to the murders over 60 times while he was in prison. Admissions made not only to his wife and his mother, but also to other family members, to prison staff, and even to other inmates through phone calls, in person conversations and written messages. The prosecution also showed the video of bridge guy telling the jury without a doubt that the man captured on that video camera was Richard Allen. Allen, a state police master trooper who had reviewed over 700 of Richard's prison phone calls, confirmed to the court and the jury, quote, the voice of the bridge guy is the voice of Richard Allen, unquote. And on November 11th of 2024, Richard Allen was found guilty and convicted on all counts. The following month he was sentenced to 65 years for the murder of Libby German and 65 years for the murder of Abby Williams was with the terms to be served consecutively resulting in a total of 130 years in prison. Referring to Richard, Libby's mom Carrie stated, quote, I was blind that such evil existed, end quote. Abby's grandmother Diane has said, quote, this is a great day of sadness for our family. We will not be going home to celebrate with champagne, end quote. And I also want to read this quote from a sheriff that reads, quote, there will never be any closure in this case and a form of justice was served, but it does not bring Abby or Libby back. These families will live every day with the two most important people in their lives. They're missing milestones because of a low life coward decided to take their innocent lives, end quote. 13 year old Abigail and 14 year old Libby were so loved and they will forever be remembered and missed by every single person who loved them. This case felt so so heavy because the families were putting through so much and it felt like it dragged on for way longer than it should have and I could only hope that their families do feel some sort of closure. But that is all I have for today's case. I know this one was one that was really heavily talked about on social media so let me know what your thoughts are on this case. But thank you so much for spending time with me today and for listening to Libby and Abby's story. I hope that you guys are having the best day. If not go do something to make it the best day. Make sense somebody happy and I will see you in my next video. Massive kiss on the forehead to every single one of you. Thank you guys so much for tuning into this episode of I wish you were here. As a reminder, you can listen to this episode anywhere you get. Your podcast video version is also available on YouTube. Love you.