A guy arrested on suspicion of committing the 2017 deaths of two teenage girls in Delphi has been pictured, about one day after his detention in connection with the horrible incidents.
The suspect, 50-year-old Richard Allen, was arrested in Indiana after midnight on Friday; however, it is unknown what he has been charged with.
Since then, FOX59 has obtained a state-issued photo of the possible perpetrator, who has evaded law enforcement for over six years.
The photograph depicts a bearded, pale-faced Allen staring straight ahead with a blank expression and a shaved head, resembling a 2017 police drawing of the alleged killer, which also depicted a bearded, middle-aged guy.
In response to safety concerns, the suspect was transferred from the Carroll County Jail to a state facility within hours of his arrest.
On February 13, 2017, Abigail Williams, 13, and Libby German, 14, went missing while walking along an abandoned train line in Delphi, Indiana. According to police, the arrest is related to their killings.
The next day, the girls’ mutilated remains were discovered along a railroad bridge near Dear Creek. Police ultimately determined that the girls had arranged to meet a man on the abandoned tracks.
Now, nearly six years later, the search has generated significant online speculation due to baffling pieces of evidence, such as a recording found on Libby German’s phone shortly before her disappearance, in which a man appears to order the girls to go ‘down the hill.’
Since since, the killings of the duo have remained unsolved, with Allen’s arrest marking the first time his identity has been publicly linked to the case.
On Monday, a news conference is planned to provide additional details about Allen’s arrest and his possible role in the decades-old unresolved crime.
At that time, Indiana State Police will likely shed more light on the case; however, law enforcement officials have stated that they will withhold any new information regarding the investigation until then.
It comes at a time when Delphi Police have been more tight-lipped about important aspects of the inquiry, such as how the girls died and in what condition their bodies were located.
Since the beginning of their inquiry over six years ago, the agency had withheld this information, ostensibly to safeguard their investigation as they searched for the perpetrator.
They have never stated how the girls died, nor have they disclosed the complete contents of a video shot by the girls on their phone minutes before they were slain, which portrays a strange figure approaching the girls on the abandoned lines while partially hidden by a hat and coat.
The only vital piece of information to emerge from the police’s investigation is the video captured on German’s phone of the approaching figure whispering “down the hill” to the two as he lurches toward them.
Despite numerous leads and suspects and persons of interest over the years, authorities have been unable to solve the case.
They have not yet disclosed the nature of the evidence against Allen, whose arrest could represent a significant turning point in the case.
Allen’s arrest comes almost a month after Indiana State Police officials, including a dive team, were observed searching the Wabash River 40 miles from where the two teens were last seen.
Officials did not disclose what exactly officers had been searching for, nor did they disclose whether their search contributed to Allen’s arrest.
In May, it was revealed that the owner of the land where the teenage victims of the Delphi Bridge murders were discovered may have been the guy whose voice was captured by the girls in their dying moments.
The FBI search warrant revealed that Ron Logan could not be ruled out as the individual heard shouting “Down the hill” to Abby Williams and Libby German just before their deaths since his voice did not fit the description.
Logan passed away in 2020 and was never formally implicated in the February 2017 murders.
A search warrant also showed that Williams and German were found covered in blood and that their attacker took a macabre souvenir.
When their bodies were discovered near a hiking route in Indiana in February 2017, Williams and German had lost a substantial amount of blood.
The victims lost a significant amount of blood at the crime scene, according to an FBI search order. The report did not specify how the girls were injured, but stated that there were no indications of a “struggle or brawl.”
The warrant received by the Murder Sheet podcast and released to Indianapolis FOX59 provided no additional details regarding the murder weapon or the cause of death.
Police have never disclosed how the two friends died after their killer stalked them on a hiking trail, but new information from the bloody crime scene reveals a grisly new detail.
The warrant also indicated that their murderer likely had the victims’ blood on his clothing, however no one has ever been charged with the double killing.
In February, Indiana State Police stated that they knew who killed the girls, but lack sufficient evidence to make an arrest.
FBI investigators believe the murderer of the young friends took a souvenir from their bodies as a twisted memento of his heinous crimes.
The warrant did not specify what the memento was, but it did state that ‘the remainder of (the girls’) clothing was discovered,’ meaning that the killer took something from the girls’ clothing.
And sickeningly, the murderer “staged” the girls’ bodies in a particular manner after killing them, although it is unclear how he did so.
Investigators believe that photographs or videos were taken to “memorialize” the horrific crime scene.
The warrant revealed that the FBI had probable cause to search Logan’s residence and property. The girls were found approximately 1,400 feet from Logan’s residence.
Logan was arrested shortly after the murders, but he was never charged; he passed away in 2020. He was a repeat traffic offender who served prison time, but he is not considered a suspect in the deaths of Williams and German.
On Monday, law enforcement officials are anticipated to offer more light on the inquiry.
MEN LINKED TO NOTORIOUS UNSOLVED MURDER
Kegan Kline
Kegan Kline, age 28 and from Peru, Indiana, was identified as a possible suspect in the killings of the girls. According to reports, he admitted communicating with Libby German through a false Instagram account named Anthony shots.
The pedophile suspect, who is overweight and pasty-faced, used an image of a ripped and strong young guy to convince teenage girls to speak to him.
Kline allegedly scheduled a meeting with Libby on the Delphi High Bridge the day before she was murdered on the bridge.
However, he is also believed to have shared his Anthony shots password with others, including his father, and to have suggested that his father was a prime suspect in the murders.
Kline is incarcerated after being caught in 2020 on separate child pornography accusations. Neither he nor his father have been detained in connection with the murders on the Delphi Bridge, which are still under investigation.
II James Chadwell
James Chadwell, 43, was added as a suspect in 2021 after his arrest and conviction for sexually assaulting and strangling a nine-year-old girl in his basement, 20 miles from where Abby and Libby were murdered.
Chadwell is currently serving a 90-year sentence for the crime, which resulted in the girl’s survival.
In a 2021 interview with DailyMail.com, Chadwell’s brother described him as “pure evil” and more than capable of committing the Delphi murders.
Authorities have disclosed no links between Chadwell and the murders in Delphi.
William Bruce
In November 2018, former pastor Thomas Bruce was charged with murdering one woman and sexually assaulting two others at a Catholic Supply store in St. Louis, Missouri.
Bruce had a similar build to the man in the Delphi video and wore comparable clothing during his St. Louis crime as the man in the video captured by Libby and Abby.
Bruce was investigated by Indiana police in relation to the Delphi murders, but no charges have been filed. He is currently serving a life sentence for his crime in St. Louis.
Christopher Eldridge
In 2019, Charles Eldridge was arrested in Union City, Indiana, after arranging a sexual encounter with a person he believed to be a teenage girl.
He was charged with child molestation and linked to the Delphi murders due to his striking likeness to the man in the Delphi video and a preliminary police sketch of the suspect that investigators had distributed.
Eldridge was ruled out as a suspect and did not fit a new sketch of the suspect, according to the police.
John Miller
John Miller, age 63, was arrested in 2018 for the 1988 rape and murder of April Tinsley, age eight. When he was arrested, Miller resided two hours away from Delphi.
In the years preceding his arrest, Miller had left numerous notes predicting that Tinsley’s murderer would attack again.
“I kill April Marie Tinsley, age 8.” I will kill again,’ stated one message discovered in 1990.
Miller has not been charged in connection with the Delphi incident.
Daniel Nations
In September of 2017, Daniel Nations, a registered sexual offender from Indiana, was arrested in Colorado after threatening hikers with a hatchet. A cyclist was reportedly murdered on the same trail about the same time when Nations threatened the hikers.
Nations was implicated in the murder of Delphi due to the parallels between the crimes and his striking resemblance to the preliminary sketch of the perpetrator. Authorities ruled out nations as a suspect.