Jury selection for the Delphi Murder Trial is set to begin Monday in Allen County and is expected to last three days.
Twelve jurors will decide the fate of Richard Allen, 52, who is charged with multiple counts of murder in the 2017 deaths of Abby Williams and Libby German, teen girls who were found near the Monon High Bridge in Carroll County.
Allen was arrested in October 2022, more than 5 years after the girls' killings. He lived in the Delphi community for at least 16 years and worked as a pharmacy technician.
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He became the leading suspect after he admitted to being on the bridge the day of the murders and Indiana State Police claimed that a bullet found at the crime scene matched a gun found during a search of his home.
Other evidence included a video taken on Libby's cell phone, showing the suspected killer, and a voice recording telling the girls to walk down the hill to the riverbank where their bodies were located.
Witnesses also told police they saw a man who resembled Allen near the bridge that day.
The murders became an international obsession. Libby and Abby's story has been told across the country on television and podcasts and debated by people around the world in chat rooms and social media groups online.
Due to this level of publicity, Special Judge Fran Gull ordered that jurors be selected from Allen County, which is the Fort Wayne area.
Jurors will be transported roughly 100 miles to Delphi for the duration of the trial, where they will be monitored and banned from using cell phones or watching news broadcasts.
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Cameras are banned from the courtroom during Allen’s trial, and reporters are barred from taking electronic devices inside the courthouse.
If jury selection is completed Wednesday, the trial could begin Friday morning at Carroll County Courthouse. The trial is expected to last a month.
