The sister of one of the Delphi victims has welcomed the news that a suspect has finally been charged with the murders – more than five years after her sister and her best friend were found dead after going on a hike.
Libby German’s sister Kelsi German wrote “we got him” on Twitter on Monday, after police delivered a press conference announing charges had been filed against local man Richard Allen.
“We got him. October 28th was the day,” she tweeted.
Ms German shared Mr Allen’s mugshot and the police press release about the development, adding in a follow-up tweet: “*innocent until proven guilty.*”
Back on 13 February 2017, Libby, 14, and her best friend Abby Williams, 13, set off on a hike along the Monon High Bridge Trail in their hometown of Delphi, Indiana.
During the walk, Libby posted a photo on Snapchat of her best friend walking along the Monon High Bridge. It was the last known photo of Abby before she was killed.
Later that day, the teenagers were reported missing when they failed to meet a family member who had arranged to pick them up.
The following day – Valentine’s Day 2017 – their bodies were discovered in a wooded area around half a mile off the trail.
The cause of death has never been released.
A 2017 search warrant application, which surfaced earlier this year, did reveal that the victims were killed with some sort of weapon and lost “a lot” of blood – meaning the assailant would have been covered in their blood following the attack.
Libby and Abby were believed to have been killed in another location before the murderer moved their bodies and “staged” them at the crime scene. The killer was also believed to have taken some sort of souvenir.
On Monday – a staggering 2,086 days on from the murders – Indiana State Police announced at a press conference that Mr Allen, a 50-year-old local man, had been charged with two counts of murder.
“I am proud to say that today – actually last Friday – that today is the day. An arrest has been made,” said Doug Carter, superintendernt of Indiana State Police.
Officials refused to provide details about what led to Mr Allen’s arrest and continued to remain tightlipped about the cause of death of the victims.
The probable cause affidavit for Mr Allen has been sealed citing concerns about jeopardising the ongoing investigation.
Officials also refused to confirm whether or not Mr Allen was cooperating with the investigation. A source previously told News8 that the 50-year-old has been refusing to cooperate since his arrest.
Mr Allen was taken into custody on Wednesday and booked into Carroll County Jail.
On Friday, he was formally charged with Libby and Abby’s murders and was moved to the White County Jail, reportedly for his own safety.
Mr Allen, a local Delphi man and married father to an adult daughter, appears to have no prior criminal record though jail records list him as also going by the alias of Craigh Ross Rentfrow.
As a married pharmaceutical technician who worked at the local CVS store, local residents expressed their shock over his arrest, saying that he always seemed “just like a normal guy”.
CVS offered its condolences to the families of Libby and Abby and vowed to cooperate with the investigation in any way they can, after confirming that the suspected killer was a company employee.
Before his sudden arrest, Mr Allen’s name had never before been publicly linked to the case which has rocked the close-knit Delphi community and gone unsolved for more than half a decade.
Officials are not ruling out the possibility that other individuals were also involved in the teenagers’ brutal murders and, if so, vowed that they will also face charges.
“If any other person had any involvement in the murders in any way, that person will be held accountable,” said Supt Carter.
Members of the public were urged to continue to submit tips – not only about Mr Allen but about any other information regarding the case.
Investigators have long tried to identify a man that Libby managed to capture on her cellphone before she died.
In the grainy video, the broad-set man is seen dressed in blue jeans, a blue jacket and a cap walking along the abandoned railroad bridge.
Investigators released a still image from the video and a chilling audio of the man telling the two girls: “Go down the hill.”
The teenage victims were praised by law enforcement for capturing the crucial evidence before their slayings and the video was used to create and circulate police sketches of the murder suspect – one in 2017 and one in 2019.
Mr Allen appears to bear some resemblance to the sketches.
It has now emerged that the man accused of murdering the two teenagers brazenly posed for a smiling selfie in front of one of the police sketches.
In a chilling photo, posted by Mr Allen’s wife Kathy on Facebook in December 2021, Mr Allen is seen smiling alongside his wife in a local bar in Delphi. On the wall behind him is the 2019 police sketch.
The disturbing December 2017 selfie of Mr Allen had been posted the same month that investigators issued a fresh appeal urging members of the public to come forward with information about an online catfishing account thought to be tied to the murders.
In what was one of the biggest updates in the case to date, Indiana State Police announced that officials had “uncovered” a fake online profile called @anthony_shots which had been used to communicate with at least one of the victims around the time of their deaths.
The profile was used from 2016 to 2017 on platforms including Snapchat and Instagram and used photos of a known young male model – who has no ties to the account or the case.
Investigators said the person behind the account was Kegan Anthony Kline, 27-year-old man with addresses in Kokomo and Peru, close to Delphi.
Kline admitted to authorities that he used the account to groom underage girls online and get them to send nude photos and their addresses and try to get them to meet him. He allegedly admitted to receiving about 100 sexual photos and about 20 sexually explicit videos from around 15 underage girls.
Kline was arrested on 30 felony charges including child sexual abuse images and child exploitation in 2020.
According to an affidavit, Indiana State Police and the FBI had executed a search warrant at his home in Peru on 25 February 2017 - less than two weeks after Abby and Libby were murdered.
This grainy image was taken on Libby’s phone on the trail the day the girls went missing. Investigators believe the man is the killer
Kline denied any knowledge or involvement in the two teenagers’ deaths and he has not been charged in the case.
However, the account remained of interest to investigators who urged anyone who had communicated with, met, or attempted to meet the individual posing as @anthony_shots to come forward with information.
Prior to this, police had zeroed in on local man Ronald Logan, according to a search warrant application filed in 2017 before being obtained by podcast The Murder Sheet and shared with The Independent this May.
The partly redacted document reveals law enforcement wanted to search Mr Logan’s home which was just 1,400 feet from where the girls’ bodies were found.
Mr Logan had allegedly lied about where he was at the time that the teenagers disappeared, claiming he was out of the area with a friend when cellphone location data actually placed him in the area around the trail.
Mr Logan was never charged and he died in 2020.
