Richard Allen receives maximum sentence for Delphi murders of Abigail Williams and Liberty German
An Indiana man convicted in the 2017 killings of two teenage girls has been sentenced to 130 years in prison, the maximum penalty allowed by the court.
Richard Allen, 52, was found guilty last month of murdering best friends Abigail Williams, 13, and Liberty German, 14, in Delphi. Nearly eight years had passed since their bodies were discovered near a hiking trail in the small town.
The case, which initially went unsolved for years, drew nationwide attention. Indiana State Police arrested Allen in October 2022 after what they described as a “long-term and complex investigation.” Authorities concluded that Allen encountered the girls on a trail, forced them down a hill at gunpoint, and killed them by slitting their throats.
Judge Frances Gull, who handed down the maximum sentence, condemned the crimes as some of the most horrific she had ever encountered. “These families will deal with your carnage forever,” she said during the sentencing.
Allen, a local CVS pharmacy worker, pleaded not guilty and claimed through his attorneys that the killings were part of a ritual sacrifice. His defense cited a long history of mental illness in their arguments.
For years, Allen wasn’t a suspect. It wasn’t until 2022 that a filing clerk reviewing thousands of tips uncovered a “lead sheet.” The document revealed Allen had told investigators shortly after the murders that he’d been at the hiking trail on the day the girls were killed but was mistakenly cleared.
Despite this, prosecutors had ample evidence pointing to Allen. One of the victims had recorded a man on her cellphone, who prosecutors identified as Allen. At the crime scene, investigators found an unspent .40-caliber round linked to Allen’s firearm. A black 2016 Ford Focus, the only one of its kind registered in the county at the time, was also seen on security footage near the area, and it was registered to Allen.
During the trial, prosecutors presented a recorded phone call where Allen appeared to confess to his wife, saying, “I did it, I killed Abby. I killed Abby and Libby.” His wife dismissed the confession, attributing it to possible side effects of his medication. Additionally, a prison psychologist testified that Allen admitted to her that he had killed the two girls.