Delphi murders suspect confessed to killing 2 girls on hiking trail in small town, prison doc says
Delphi murders suspect Richard Allen's alleged prison confessions were discussed during his trial on Wednesday, when prison psychologist Dr. Monica Wala took the stand.
An Indiana prison psychologist shared testimony on Wednesday about Delphi murders suspect Richard Allen's alleged confessions behind bars.
Allen, 52, is charged with murdering 14-year-old Liberty German and 13-year-old Abigail Williams while they were walking on a hiking trail in Delphi on Feb. 13, 2017. Their bodies were found the next day, but Allen was not arrested until October 2022.
"I killed Abby and Libby. I’m sorry," Allen allegedly told Dr. Monica Wala in prison, according to her testimony on Wednesday during Allen's double murder trial, as FOX 59 Indianapolis reported.
Wala is the lead psychologist for the Indiana Department of Correction and spoke with Allen on multiple occasions.
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The prison psychologist testified that Allen's intentions in targeting Abby and Libby were "sexual" in nature, and he admitted to being a sex addict. Allen also told Wala that he was an alcoholic, as well as both a victim and perpetrator of sexual assault, according to FOX 59.
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Wala told the court on Wednesday that Allen had followed Abby and Libby on the High Monon Trail on Feb. 13, 2017 and ordered them "down the hill," where he intended to rape them.
The phrase "down the hill" comes from a video of a man taken on Libby's phone just before they disappeared that day. Investigators would later discover the girls' bodies the next day and Libby's phone underneath Abby's body.
Allen allegedly told Wala he was spooked by something — either a man or a van — at which point he decided to brutally murder the two girls, slashing their necks and covering their bodies with tree branches in a wooded area just a short distance from the popular hiking trail, the psychologist said in court.
The then-44-year-old would go on to live his life normally after the killings, according to Wala's account of Allen's confessions.
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Allen also apparently expressed interest in apologizing to the victims' families.
On April 13, Wala described Allen's behavior as increasingly strange after he laid in and consumed his own feces. She believed he was having an "emotional breakdown from guilt."
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In a May phone call with his wife, Allen apparently told her, "I didn’t do everything I said I did, but I killed Abby and Libby," at which point his wife hung up on him, according to Wala's testimony.
It was around that time that Allen began experiencing suicidal ideation and talking about his last meal, Wala said.
DELPHI MURDERS SUSPECT RICHARD ALLEN CONFESSED TO KILLING 2 GIRLS IN JAIL CALLS: COURT DOCS
"I need to let my wife go," he apparently told her at one point, according to FOX 59.
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On cross-examination, Wala admitted to being a fan of true crime content, including podcasts and online discussions about the Delphi case, which she said she followed closely prior to working at the prison where Allen was being held. Wala even traveled to the scene of the crime near the High Monon Bridge at one point, she testified.
Wala also said Allen's behavior in prison was consistent with someone who had a serious mental illness, describing Allen as having "fatalistic delusions," "hopelessness," "insomnia" and "suicidal ideations."
Journalist Áine Cain, who co-hosts "The Murder Sheet" podcast with Indiana-based attorney Kevin Greenlee, explained that aside from Allen's alleged confessions, plenty of other evidence that has been presented so far in court seems to put Allen at the scene of the crime at the time it occurred, in a statement to Fox News Digital.
"In some ways, Richard Allen has become the star witness for the prosecution," Cain said. "The state has built a compelling case against him so far by simply using his own words. Numerous women and girls saw Bridge Guy on or near the Delphi trails that day. Surveillance footage picked up a car that looked like Allen's Ford Focus driving toward the trails at 1:27 p.m. Allen told police he was at the trails around 1:30 p.m. A group of teenagers saw the man captured on Libby's phone near the Freedom Bridge. Allen told police he saw a group of girls around the same time at the same place.
"A woman walking for exercise said she encountered Bridge Guy as he stood on the first platform of the Monon High Bridge. Allen told police he stood on that same platform watching fish swim by around the same time," Cain continued. "Allen claims he was on his phone watching a stock ticker. But his phone apparently does not appear in any tower data. That same phone — the one he owned in 2017, when the murders occurred — is now missing, despite the fact that Allen kept over 20 other old phones in his house. Meanwhile, the forensic pathologist who autopsied the girls now is saying that a box cutter would explain some of the injuries. The pieces seem to be stacking up."
Cain added that "Allen's defense team will need to knock some of this down once they present their case."
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