The defense rests on day 17 of the double murder trial in Delphi, Indiana

After 17 days, the defense rested its case in the double murder trial of Richard Allen in Delphi, Indiana.

He is accused of the 2017 deaths of Abby Williams and Libby German.

Closing arguments begin on Thursday morning. Both the prosecution and the defense receive two and a half hours each.

What happened to Abigail Williams and Liberty German?

Abigail, 13, and Liberty, 14, better known as Abby and Libby, were close friends who were dropped off at a hiking trail by a relative on February 13, 2017. When they failed to meet the relative later that day, they were reported missing.

Their bodies were found the next day in a wooded area near the Delphi Historic Trail, about a mile from where they were last seen. Authorities determined their deaths were homicides. Prosecutors said Friday that their throats were slit.

The police searched for a suspect for years and investigated Thousands of leads and the release of several composite sketches of the suspect based on eyewitness accounts. Audio evidence Libby's cell phone revealed that an unknown man had told the girls to go “down the hill.” Libby too I recorded a short video of a man the police believed was the murderer.

Who is Richard Allen?

Richard Allen, a drugstore pharmacy technician in Delphi who lived just a few minutes from the crime scene arrested on Oct. 26, 2022more than five years after the murders. He was first interviewed by police in 2017 and said he was walking in the area and saw three “women” near a bridge but did not speak to them.

He was questioned again on October 13, 2022 after police searched former suspects. He said he saw three “teenage girls” during his walk. Investigators searched his home and confiscated a .40 caliber handgun. Prosecutors said tests determined that an unspent bullet discovered between the teen's bodies “passed through the gun.” Allen told prosecutors that he had never been where the bullet was found and did not know how a shot from his gun could have gotten there.

Allen pleaded not guilty to the charge.

Prosecutors previously said Allen admitted to the murders within a year Jail call to his wife in April 2022. During the call, Allen admitted to the murders seven times before his wife quickly ended the call, court documents say. Special Judge Fran Gull decided in August 2024 that these statements, along with dozens of other confessions Allen made in prison, could be used as evidence at trial.

The defense explained that Allen did not make the confessions voluntarily and was suffering from mental illness at the time.

officer said previously They have “good reason to believe” that more than one person was involved in the murders, but no further arrests have been made.

Allen's lawyers previously suspected it was the girls killed as part of a pagan sacrificial ritualand accused police of ignoring evidence from the crime scene. In a search request in March 2017, an FBI agent claimed the girls' bodies appeared to have been “moved and placed” at the crime scene. The judge ruled Friday that that theory will not be heard by the jury.