What Happened This Week in the Delphi Murder Trial: ‘Bridge Guy’ Video Shown, Timeline

In Richard Allen’s murder trial, jurors heard a week of testimony and viewed new evidence presented in the case. Allen is charged with the 2017 murders of 13-year-old Abigail Williams and 14-year-old Liberty German in Delphi, Indiana.

The teenagers, known as Abby and Libby, were found dead on February 14, 2017. The girls went missing a day earlier while hiking the trail on a mild school-free winter day.

RELATED: Delphi Murders: Unused Bullet and Video Prove Man’s Guilt, Prosecutors Say

All are charged with two counts of murder and two additional counts of murder during the commission or attempt of kidnapping. The 52-year-old pharmacy technician was arrested in October 2022, more than five years after the deaths of Williams and German.

Authorities searched Allen’s home in 2022 and seized a blue Carhartt jacket, a SIG Sauer P226 .40-caliber semi-automatic handgun and a .40-caliber S&W cartridge in a “wooden keepsake box” from a dresser between two closets in his bedroom.

RELATED: The trial of Richard Allen, the Delphi murder suspect, begins Monday: What you should know

FOX News reported this The weapon was consistent Officers were at the scene of the 2017 murders with an unused .40-caliber bullet, police said at the time.

According to the Associated Press, prosecutors revealed in court documents released several weeks after Allen’s arrest that tests showed an unspent bullet found between Williams and German “passed through Allen’s gun.”

What are the key moments in the Delphi murder trial so far?

Victim’s family speaks

Abby and Libby’s family members testified before the public on October 18, 2024, the first day of the trial. FOX News reported that a judge issued a gag order in the case in 2022.

Becky Patty, Libby’s grandmother, was the first to speak in court and described her granddaughter as adventurous, intelligent and quiet. Patty recalled the moment on February 14, 2017, when searchers found Libby and Abby’s bodies in the woods after they had been missing for a day.

Other family members who testified on October 18 included Libby’s sister, Kelsi German Siebert; Libby’s father, Derrick German; and Abby’s mother, Anna Williams.

Crime scene described

Jurors heard grisly details about the crime scene during opening statements on Oct. 18 and in testimony on Oct. 21.

Prosecutor Nick McLeland said in his opening statement that Libby was naked and covered in blood when searchers found the two girls dead in a wooded area near the Monon High Bridge. Both girls had their throats cut multiple times FOX 59 in Indianapolis reported.

McLeland noted to the jury that the clothes were mismatched or thrown into a stream. Abby was wearing her own undershirt but Libby’s sweatshirt. She was also wearing jeans and shoes, but her socks were missing. One of Libby’s shoes and Libby’s cell phone were found under Abby’s body.

FOX 59 reported that a person placed branches and leaves over the girls’ bodies, which were a few feet apart, but not enough to completely cover them, and the teens’ limbs were slightly bent. On the third day of the trial on October 21, the jury looked at around 40 photos of the crime scene.

Citing court documents, FOX News pointed out that McLeland claimed that Allen, who is said to have confessed to the murder several times in prison, revealed details that only the killer knew.

“Bridge Guy” video released

A key piece of evidence in the Delphi murder case is a video that Libby filmed on her cell phone before she and Abby were murdered.

The jury viewed 43 seconds of the video in court on October 22, 2024. The footage shows Libby and Abby walking with an unidentified man wearing a hat and blue utility jacket who has become known as “Bridge Guy” over the past five years. FOX News reported.

“Guys, down the hill,” the man can be heard saying to the girls in the video. One of the girls, who experts believe to be Libby, can be heard replying: “There is no way down here. We have to get down here.”

According to FOX 59, the video continues, showing the girls walking down towards Deer Creek. The next morning, searchers found the victims’ bodies on the other side of the same stream. Indiana State Police Digital Forensics Expert Brian Bunner said he extracted the same video from Libby’s phone for analysis four times between 2017 and 2019.

“Bridge Guy” witness

On October 23, 2024, Sarah Carbaugh, a witness, testified during the trial and placed Allen near the crime scene on the afternoon of February 13, 2017.

Carbaugh said she saw the same man seen in Libby’s video, known as “Bridge Guy,” walking down a street around 4 p.m. on the day the girls disappeared. The man had his hands in his pockets and his head bowed. Carbaugh testified that she and the man did not make eye contact.

According to FOX 59, Carbaugh also told jurors that Allen’s clothing was stained with mud and blood, which looked like he had fallen into a muddy stream.

Carbaugh did not report her tip to police for three weeks, explaining that she delayed reporting the information because she was “thinking too much” about a traumatic situation.

The woman also testified that her videotaped interview was lost due to a technical error. The state previously admitted that some interviews were lost due to errors in its system, FOX 59 noted.

According to FOX News, Richard Allen’s defense attorney Andrew Baldwin argued that Carbaugh’s testimony was described as muddy and not bloody in her testimony to investigators in 2017.

Richard Allen’s interview with police in 2017

Richard Allen contacted police with information on February 17, 2017, a few days after the girls were murdered.

FOX 59 reported that Allen agreed to meet with Indiana Department of Natural Resources Capt. Dan Dulin in a store parking lot after Allen refused to invite Dulin to his home or meet him at a local police station.

The news outlet noted that Allen appeared to be “self-reporting” that he was on the Monon High Bridge the day the girls went missing and saw three young girls as he walked along the path, Dulin said.

Allen said at the time that he wasn’t paying much attention to his surroundings because he was checking the stock ticker on his phone.

Dulin also testified that Allen changed the time period of when he was on the trail, initially saying he was there from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m., but later changing his time period to 1:30 p.m Changed at 3:30 p.m

According to FOX59, the sergeant said he didn’t think much of the interview, which only lasted about 10 minutes until Allen was arrested in 2022.

Dulin placed his notes from the 2017 interview in a Microsoft Word document that was stored in his agency’s computer system.

However, due to a clerical error, the interview was submitted under the false name Richard Allen Whiteman – “Whiteman” was the name of the street where Allen lived – and marked “released”: Kathy Shank, a retired DCS employee volunteering had help with administrative duties for Carroll County, FOX 59 said. Allen was not officially named as a suspect in the 2017 murders until October 2022.