DELPHI, Ind. (NETWORK INDIANA) — The forensic pathologist who performed the autopsy for Delphi eighth-graders Abby Williams and Libby German the day after they were found dead in the woods near the Monon High Bridge Trail in February 2017 backtracked on the stand Wednesday, testifying that he’s rethought whether marks on one of the cut wounds was made by a serrated blade, as he initially thought. This recap was written and produced by Network Indiana News partner Dave Bangert, publisher of Based in Lafayette. The revelation – one that had Richard Allen’s defense team reeling, a bit – came during the morning session of Day 5 of the trial for the 52-year-old Delphi man accused in the murders of the two teens. Here were some of the highlights about the trial, played out in and outside the courtroom: PHOTOS AND RESULTS FROM THE AUTOPSY: As Dr. Roland Kohr, a former Vigo County coroner who led the autopsies on Feb. 15, 2017, detailed graphic photos of the fatal wounds on the girls’ necks on large-screen TV set up in Carroll Circuit Court, he pointed to a series of patterned markings left in one of Libby’s wounds. Kohr said that the more he looked at it, as the trial against 52-year-old Delphi man Richard Allen approach, the less he was convinced a weapon with a serrated edge was used, “but something related to the blade or handle.” Kohr said it wasn’t a classic serrated but serrated-like. Kohr said his evolving thoughts were inspired in his own garage workshop, saying one candidate might be a box cutter designed with parallel lines to make a gripping surface for the thumb. That was a surprise to Allen’s defense team. During opening arguments last week, Andrew Baldwin had told jurors that the killer used two blades in the murder – one serrated, the other not – while the state would contend Allen used a box cutter. Brad Rozzi, another of Allen’s attorneys, asked Kohr whether he had given a deposition to the defense team in February 2024 agreeing with an initial report about wounds coming from serrated and non-serrated blades. Kohr said he had. Rozzi asked him whether he planned to update his report. “Do you think it would have been good to contact the defense … that you were going to come in here and change your mind?” Rozzi asked. During his testimony, Kohr said Abby’s carotid arteries were partially cut on the left side of her neck. He said she died of that single wound. Kohr testified that Libby’s jugular veins were completely cut. Cuts also sliced carotid arteries on her left side. Kohr showed that Libby had three gaping wounds. But he said she might have been cut four five times, as if the killer made second passes on two of the three spots on her neck. While pictures of the wounds were show on a large screen TV in the courtroom, families wiped eyes and sat stoically. A few jurors looked flushed and had to look down occasionally. Allen sat at the defense table looking at the pictures along with everyone else. Kohr said he didn’t determine a time of death, other than between the time the girls were dropped off at a trailhead the afternoon of Feb. 13, 2017, and when they were found the following afternoon, east of the Monon High Bridge Trail. Kohr said given the wounds, the girls would have died in five to 10 minutes after being cut. Kohr said that from the autopsies, he wasn’t able to tell from the wounds whether the killer was left-handed or right-handed. Kohr testified that rape kits were administered for Abby and Libby. Those did not show signs of sexual assault. Kohr also said he did not see signs of trauma that would have come from sexual assault. Kohr testified there were no signs of defensive wounds. James Luttrell, part of the prosecution team, asked Kohr that, given his examination of the wounds, what was the minimum number of blades possible in the murders. “The minimum number is one,” Kohr said. ANOTHER WITNESS TO THE ‘BRIDGE GUY’ TESTIFIES: Sarah Carbaugh, a lifelong Delphi resident, testified Wednesday that she’d driven on County Road 300 North, past the Mears entrance to the Monon High Bridge Trail, several times on Feb. 13, 2017. She said she walked her dogs on the trail almost daily but liked to go when the small parking lot at the trailhead was empty. Carbaugh said it was full that afternoon, including a group of people gathered who “looked stressed out.” (On Tuesday, Steve Mullin, former Delphi police chief, testified that security cameras at the nearby Hoosier Harvestore showed Carbaugh’s car driving east on County Road 300 North at 3:56 p.m. Feb. 13, 2017.) Carbaugh testified Wednesday that as she continued on, she saw a man walking west on County Road 300 North. She testified that he had his hands in his pockets, looking down and shoulders hunched. She said he was wearing layers of clothes on an unseasonably warm day that didn’t seem to require them. His posture, she said, curled into itself. Carbaugh testified that the man was covered in mud and blood – as if he’d just fallen down a cliff along the trails. “I looked at him,” Carbaugh said, “but he didn’t make eye contact with me.” Carbaugh said she later saw images of a potential suspect, captured in video on Libby German’s phone, and recognized him as the man she’d seen on Feb. 13, 2017. She said it took her three weeks to report what she saw because she was anxious about it. She eventually met several times with investigators in 2017 and in the years that followed to tell about what she saw. (It didn’t come up Wednesday, but during a pretrial hearing last week in Allen County, her name came up in connection with witness statements the helped with police composite sketches used to drum up tips during the investigation.) Baldwin, Allen’s attorney, challenged her certainty about her description of what she saw on Feb. 13, 2017. Baldwin pointed to transcripts of her initial interviews with police, she mentioned “mud” 11 and 13 times and “blood” no times. Carbaugh said she believed she might have mumbled the word “blood” the first time. The second one, she said, about an hour of her interview is missing. (Missing or erased investigation interviews have been a bone of contention for Allen’s team through pretrial hearings and motions.) “We have to take your word for that?” Baldwin asked. “That video is missing, and that’s not on me,” she said of her June 2017 interview with police. “I understand you’re doing your job. You’re doing a good job … My description is always going to be the same. It’s mud and blood.” Baldwin noted that a later interview had Carbaugh mentioning “blood” but no longer talking about “mud.” He also pressed her on other bits of descriptions she gave about the man she said she saw. At one point, as Baldwin drilled deeper into differences in her descriptions, Carbaugh asked him: “Are we doing this, again?” Baldwin paused and lowered his glasses: “Yes. We are.” He said she’d initial described the man wearing a tan coat, when the Bridge Guy was in a dark blue coat. He said transcripts show that Carbaugh told police the man had “effeminate eyes.” “Are you romanticizing this?” Carbaugh said. “I can’t tell you how many freckles he had or if he had effeminate eyes or any of that.” Carbaugh was the fourth witness over two days called to testify about seeing a man they say matched the image of the Bridge Guy. Each time, Allen’s defense team tried to poke holes in descriptions of a muscular, tall, youthful man. Allen, who would have been in his mid-40s in 2017, stands 5-foot-4 with a slight build. The post Pathologist rethinks cut wounds, new timeline in Delphi trial appeared first on WOWO News/Talk 92.3 FM and 1190 AM.