The mother of one of the two teenagers killed after crossing a bridge in Indiana collapsed in court when she heard her daughter’s voice in a video of her final moments.
Prosecutors played the 41-second footage that 14-year-old Liberty ‘Libby’ German took on Feb. 13, 2017, showing her and 13-year-old Abigail ‘Abby’ Williams crossing the Monon High Bridge in court on Tuesday while charging 52-year-old. -Old Richard Allen of murdering the girls.
In the images, several meters behind Abby, a man is seen wearing a blue jacket, jeans and a hat. He had his hands in his pockets and his chin was lowered so that his face was not visible under the hat.
The figure, who authorities say is Allen, who lived near the bridge, was seen moving purposefully behind the girls a day before their bodies were found.
As they get closer, Libby turns her camera to show the steep slope to their left and the track disappearing before them.
Prosecutors played the video that 14-year-old Liberty ‘Libby’ German took on Feb. 13, 2017, when they accused Richard Allen, 52, of murdering her and 13-year-old Abigail ‘Abby’ Williams in the court on Tuesday.
Her mother (in the photo) was seen crying and getting very emotional when she heard her daughter’s voice.
At that point, Libby could be heard telling her friend, “Um, there’s no road, so we have to go down here.” Look, the trail ends here.
The sound of his voice made his still grieving mother cry and become very emotional. according to WRTV.
Moments later a male voice can be heard uttering the now infamous words: “Boys coming down the hill,” and one of the girls lets out a scream as if she was scared.
Investigators have since said they were able to trace the gun used in the girls’ deaths to Allen’s home, less than two miles from the bridge, and three separate witnesses cThey confidently stated that they saw ‘Bridge Guy’ and identified him in a screenshot of the video.
One even recalled seeing the man in the footage walking back down the same path.
The witness said it was “a little creepy” and looked “muddy and bloody” at the time.
The video showed a man, wearing a blue jacket, jeans and a hat, walking behind the girls.
German took the video of her and Abby walking across the Monon High Bridge in Delphi.
Allen later allegedly admitted to police that he was in the area that day, but denied being involved in the girls’ murders.
He said he decided to walk across the new Liberty Bridge, where he saw three women, and he said one of them was taller and had brown or black hair.
He also admitted in 2022 that he was wearing a blue or black Carhartt jacket, blue jeans, a cap, and combat boots or sneakers.
But Allen has pleaded not guilty to two counts of felony murder (which involves murder during the act of another crime, in this case kidnapping) and two separate counts of murder.
Instead, their lawyers have raised the idea that the girls were murdered by several people as part of an Odinist ritual.
Prosecutors say the man in the images is Allen, who has pleaded not guilty to two counts of felony murder and two counts of misdemeanor murder.
They say evidence from crime scene investigator Ryan Olehy, who testified Monday and Tuesday, is cause for Judge Frances Gull to review her previous decision to deny it at a hearing in August.
Attorneys wrote in a new court filing that during Olehy’s testimony, jurors heard and saw crime scene photos that showed sticks, and in Libby’s case, a large branch, arranged over the girls’ bodies. .
Attorney Bradley Rozzi pressed Olehy to admit there was “intentionality” in the way the sticks were arranged. But the CSI officer resisted the lawyer’s efforts to paint the crime scene as “bizarre” or to find anything other than an attempt to hide the bodies at the location of the sticks.
Still, defense attorneys argue: “The State of Indiana has given its explanation of what the sticks represent (concealment of the bodies), and Richard Allen has the Sixth Amendment right to offer the jury his alternative theory of why.” by which the sticks are aligned and arranged in the way they are arranged.’
At their August hearing, the defense presented testimony from Dr. Dawn Perlmutter, who specializes in identifying ritual crime scenes, but the judge ruled that this evidence could not be presented to the jury.
Rozzi had also tried to get Olehy to concede that the blood found on a tree near the bodies was not simply a splatter, but a more deliberate mark. He referred to the tree as “the F tree”, suggesting that the letter had been written on the bark in blood.
Once again, Olehy resisted their attempts, stating that to him, it simply looked like a bloodstain on the tree, about four feet off the ground.
But the defense had previously presented testimony from Dr. Dawn Perlmutter, who trained with the FBI and worked with various local, state and federal authorities and specializes in identifying ritual crime scenes.
Now, they have reaffirmed: “After reviewing crime scene photographs and other reports and documentation, Dr. Perlmutter’s testimony, including her assessment that the sticks on the bodies, the F-tree, and other aspects of the scene of the crime were textbook signs of a ritual murder. related to Norse Odinism/Paganism, including the use of sticks and blood on the tree to form runes and bind them together.’
In fact, the new motion states that law enforcement investigated the possibility of Odinist involvement from the second day after the girls were found, until 2021, when police officer Greg Ferency was killed in an ambush at a police office. FBI in 2021.
According to Allen’s attorneys, not allowing them to state their theory would be unfairly prejudicial, leaving “the jury with ONLY one explanation: the explanation provided by the State of Indiana.”
Judge Gull has not yet ruled on the motion.
If convicted, Allen, married with one child, faces a maximum sentence of 130 years in prison.
