Indiana man sentenced to 130 years for killing two teenage girls

An Indiana judge has sentenced a man to 130 years in prison for the killings of two teenage girls in 2017 that became known among true-crime followers as the Delphi Murders. It was the maximum sentence for the charges he faced.

On Friday, Judge Frances C. Gull of Allen Superior Court in Fort Wayne, Indiana, sentenced Richard Allen, 52, to 65 years in prison for the murder of Liberty German and 65 years for the murder of Abigail Williams. The judge said the terms were to be served consecutively.

At the sentencing, Gull said to Allen, “I’ve spent 27 years as a judge, and you rank right up there with the most heinous crimes in the state of Indiana.”

The girls’ families, who had not been allowed to comment publicly about the case during and after Allen’s trial, also spoke at the sentencing, according to media outlets.

Liberty’s mother, Carrie Timmons, said of Allen, “I was blind that such evil existed,” ABC reported.

Abigail’s grandmother, Diane Erskin, said, “This is a day of great sadness for our family. We won’t be going home to celebrate with Champagne.”

The bodies of Liberty, 14, and Abigail, 13, were found Feb. 14, 2017, a day after the two set out on a hike in Delphi, Indiana, a small town about 80 miles northwest of Indianapolis.

Five years later, in October 2022, the police arrested and charged Allen.

Last month, jurors found Allen guilty of two counts of murder and two counts of murder while committing or attempting to commit kidnapping. Prosecutors said he had followed the girls before killing them.

Allen’s attorneys have said they plan to appeal, noting in a memo filed this week that their client maintained his innocence and hoped to be able to “present a full defense at a second trial.”

According to court records and prosecutors, on Feb. 13, 2017, at 1:49 p.m., the two girls – who have come to be known nationally by their nicknames, Abby and Libby – were dropped off at the entrance to a hiking trail near Monon High Bridge in Delphi on the last day of a break from middle school.

During their hike, video captured on one of the girls’ phones showed a man in a dark jacket and jeans following them. One girl could be heard mentioning a “gun,” and a man’s voice was heard ordering them to go “down the hill,” according to an affidavit filed by a detective with the Carroll County Sheriff’s Office.

An unspent round from a .40-caliber gun was later found near the girls’ bodies, the affidavit said.

During their investigation, detectives interviewed hikers and witnesses who described seeing a man whose clothes and stature matched that of the man seen in the victims’ video, the affidavit said. One witness said the man’s clothes appeared to be bloody and covered in mud.

Investigators interviewed Allen in 2017. Allen, a CVS worker, admitted to being on the trail at the same time as the girls. He said he had seen three young women but did not remember what they looked like, according to the affidavit.

Allen was interviewed again in October 2022, and investigators who were searching his home found a gun that they linked to the unspent round discovered near the victims’ bodies, the affidavit said.

When asked, Allen said he did not know why the bullet was found at the scene and denied being involved in the deaths.

At the sentencing Friday, the families spoke of their sorrow on the girls’ birthdays and watching their peers reach milestones, like graduating from college.

At a news conference after the hearing, Sheriff Tony Liggett apologized to the families for how long it had taken to bring the case to a close. For five years after Allen told investigators he had been on the trail that day, his name had sat among files of tips and information on the case, ABC reported.

During the trial, prosecutors told the jury that Allen had planned to rape the girls. They also said Allen had admitted to killing them, including in a statement in which he said he used a box cutter in the murders.

Allen’s lawyers argued that these admissions had been made while Allen was in a psychotic state linked to being held in solitary confinement while in jail.

Bradley Rozzi, one of Allen’s lawyers, said that no forensic evidence had linked Allen to the murder scene. Rozzi also cast doubt on the bullet that was found at the scene and linked to Allen.

Over the years, the Delphi Murders became a topic of feverish debate among followers of true-crime content online, who analyzed the cellphone video and weighed in on the evidence.

“It’s just this small town in the middle of nowhere,” the trailer of “Down The Hill: The Delphi Murders,” a podcast covering the case, announces over an ominous soundtrack.

As jurors deliberated last month before convicting Allen, people gathered outside the courthouse, holding signs with the girls’ names and with phrases such as “never forgotten.” Others held signs proclaiming Allen’s innocence.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.