Indiana resident Richard Allen, serving a 130-year sentence for the murders of 13-year-old Abigail Williams and 14-year-old Liberty Herman, is seeking a new trial, reports the Associated Press (AP). His lawyers argue that the crime could have been part of a pagan ritual – and the trial court unreasonably rejected this version.
The bodies of two girls were found in February 2017 on a hiking trail near Delphi, Indiana. The teenagers had their throats cut and then pelted with branches. One victim was found naked, the other was wearing the clothes of the first girl, and forensic scientists did not reveal any signs of sexualized violence. In the case file, as specified, there is a video recording: next to the girls there is a man who mentions the direction and says: “Down the slope.”
Allen himself told police after the girls disappeared that he had been on the trail that day. However, the investigation remained unsolved for more than five years, and the man was only detained in October 2022 after investigators revisited his initial testimony. Allen made the confessions to the murders, which were later cited by the prosecution, after his arrest.
Since 2006, Allen had lived with his wife Kathy and daughter two and a half kilometers from the Monon High Bridge, where the girls disappeared.
Delphi murders: what to know about the 2017 killings of Libby German and Abby Williams https://t.co/16VT8mibMB
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Allen worked as a pharmacist at a local CVS pharmacy and had no criminal record. He had a pair of speeding tickets in 2005 and 2011 and a seat belt violation in 2003, all of which were paid on time. In 2015, the police went to his home because of a domestic dispute: Allen was drunk, his wife took him to the hospital for an examination. There were no arrests or charges then.
After the arrest and arraignment, Allen's lawyers offered to call an expert who had to confirm that the murder was in the nature of a ritual sacrifice of followers of Odinism, a neo-pagan cult based on Scandinavian mythology.
According to the defense, several details indicate this: Herman was lying at the roots of a tree, four branches of different sizes were placed on her naked body, forming a specific pattern. Her left hand was extended above her head and touched the tree trunk, her right hand along her body.
Also, the stab wounds and the method of murder, according to lawyers, fit into a pattern of ritual practices, and Williams was fully dressed in a Herman sweatshirt and jeans, and there was no blood on her clothing. The defense argued that she was killed naked and then dressed after death.
However, the court refused to call the defense expert and consider the ritual version. The prosecutor's office argued that there were too few examples to support the theory, and the defense did not provide direct evidence linking the murder to a pagan cult. The jury ultimately found the man guilty of murder in 2024.
In addition to the ritual theory, Allen's lawyers now point to other procedural limitations. In their opinion, the court did not allow traces on the unexploded bullet found between the victims' bodies to be examined to determine whether it was actually fired from Allen's gun.
Prosecutors said the man was armed and forced the girls off the hiking trail. Allen admitted that he planned to rape them, but a passing van made him change his mind and killed the teenagers instead.
The man was kept in solitary confinement while awaiting trial. He denied for months that he killed the girls. According to his lawyers, he confessed because the psychological stress of isolation caused his condition to deteriorate so sharply that Allen convinced himself that he had killed the girls and confessed to it.
Defense attorneys said at trial that no witnesses directly identified Allen as the person seen near the trail the day the girls disappeared. They also said that neither fingerprints, DNA nor other evidence linked their client to the murder scene. They wanted to call an expert to challenge the claim that the weapon could leave unique marks on bullets, but they were not allowed, the AP noted.
“We live in a world where one or two things happen here. A pharmacist with no criminal record goes out for a walk to look at the fish and decides to brutally kill two girls. Or we live in a world where the police, due to bias, failed to find the right person,” said lawyer Mark Lyman.
The appellate judges demanded to know why the trial judge did not allow the defense to call an expert who could confirm that the girls were killed by unknown participants in a pagan ritual. They were also trying to figure out why a sketch of the man seen near the trail was not presented during the trial, noting that the man looked nothing like Allen.
The use of prison records also raised questions among appellate judges. Jurors were shown video of Allen's unusual behavior but were not allowed to hear the audio. In the recording, the man, in particular, called himself a king and claimed that he started the Third World War. The defense considers these statements evidence of his difficult psychological state during the period when he began to confess to the murders.
