Previously redacted court documents ordered to be released on Tuesday revealed new details behind the ties suspect Richard Allen had with the two teen girls he allegedly killed in Delphi, Indiana in 2017.
Among the findings in the newly-released documents was evidence that a bullet found between the bodies of 14-year-old Liberty German and 13-year-old Abigail Williams "had been cycled through" a pistol owned by Allen.
The .40 caliber pistol had been seized by investigators in a search of Allen's home on Oct. 13, with testing determining the bullet had gone thorough the weapon.
Investigators also determined that Allen purchased the gun in 2001, with the affidavit revealing that Allen had told police he had never allowed anyone else to borrow the firearm.
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“When asked about the unspent bullet, he did not have an explanation of why the bullet was found between the bodies of Victim 1 and Victim 2. He again admitted that he was on the trail but denied knowing Victim 1 or Victim 2 and denied any involvement in their murders,” the affidavit states.
The documents released Tuesday can be read in full below:
Local
State police have revealed incremental details since investigations began after the February 2017 killings. Calls from the public and the media for additional information were granted Tuesday by Allen County Judge Fran Gull’s order, which released the redacted affidavit in Allen’s arrest.
In her ruling, Gull wrote that “the public interest is not served by prohibiting access” to the documents and that witnesses' safety and Allen’s personal information could be protected by redacting some parts of the records.
Several news organizations, including The Associated Press, had filed a brief with the court Nov. 21 urging Gull to unseal the affidavit and charging information that would document what evidence authorities have linking Allen to the killings.
The deaths of the teens, known as Libby and Abby, were ruled homicides, but police have never disclosed how they died or described what evidence they gathered.
The killings have haunted the northwestern Indiana city of about 3,000 — where Allen lived and worked at a local CVS store.
Earlier Tuesday, Allen’s attorneys filed a motion to relocate the case out of Carroll County, arguing it will be difficult to form an impartial jury in the current location because of the county’s small size and intense public scrutiny surrounding the case.
