DELPHI, Ind. (NETWORK INDIANA) — Nearly eight years ago, two teenage girls in small town Delphi, Indiana were murdered just a short distance away from the historic Monon High Bridge. For years, the families of Abigail Williams and Liberty German received next to no information until the October 2022 arrest of Richard Allen. This Friday, October 18th, Allen will stand before a jury of his peers, who will decide his fate in a court of law. Williams and German were killed sometime on February 13th, 2017, and found the next day, say police. The official timeline of the murders has since been challenged. Over the course of the next five years, the investigation would progress but not to anyone’s liking. Indiana State Police would hold press conferences and say next to nothing. Despite strikingly different suspect sketches, Snapchat pictures and audio from an apparent suspect, and a 24/7 hotline, police couldn’t find their man. Superintendent Doug Carter would clarify years later that holding press conferences, despite next to no new information, was an effort to constantly keep the case top of mind for the public, which it already was. The public was frustrated by the lack of arrests, despite some strong names revealed as potential suspects over the years. When Richard Allen was arrested in October 2022, the frustrations only grew. Police and Carroll County Prosecutor Nick McLeland felt it necessary, despite no explanation, to keep facts and information sealed within court documents away from public eyes. Superintendent Carter would somewhat publicly oppose the unexplained secrecy on WIBC’s Hammer and Nigel show in November 2022, stating the release of the court documents would not jeopardize the case against Allen. That was the claim from Prosecutor McLeland. McLeland and Carter would continue to state Richard Allen may not be the only person involved in the murders, but that aspect of the narrative would seem to disappear as time went on. The original judge in the case, Benjamin Diener, quickly left the case and criticized the public for having a “bloodlust” for information, despite years of police using press conferences in public and asking for public help to further their efforts in solving the case. Special Judge Fran Gull of Allen County would take his place. A gag order was put in place shortly after. The fact is that sealed court information should have, and eventually did, become available to you. An unspent shell casing, supposedly traced to Richard Allen’s gun is, at the time of this writing, the strongest piece of evidence against Allen. Although, several firearm and ballistics experts have called into question the science behind that piece of evidence. Allen also went to Indiana State Police a few weeks after the murders and claimed to be on the trails the day the girls went missing. That admission from Allen, plus supposed eyewitnesses describing someone similar to Allen on the trails that day, and Allen’s apparent “over 60 confessions” since being locked up, are enough for Prosecutor McLeland to say this is the man. However, Allen’s legal team of attorneys Andrew Baldwin and Brad Rozzi feel they have their own mountain of evidence to prove Allen’s innocence. But displaying that evidence in a court of law led to more questions than it did answers, and perhaps created one of the most chaotic courtrooms in Indiana’s legal history.