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INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Documents related to the arrest of a man in the 2017 murder of two teenage girls were unsealed by an Indiana judge on Tuesday, allowing for the first public disclosure of evidence authorities have used against the suspect since of his arrest last month.
Court documents were sealed last month at the request of the local prosecutor after Richard Matthew Allen, 50, of Delphi, Indiana, was arrested Oct. 28 and charged with the double murder of Liberty German, 14, and Abigail Williams, 13.
State police have been gradually revealing details since investigating the killings in February 2017. Requests from the public and media for additional information were granted by Allen County Judge Fran Gull on Tuesday, who released a redacted version of the affidavit on the probable cause of Allen’s arrest.
Several news organizations, including The Associated Press, filed a brief with the court on November 21, urging Gull to unseal the probable cause affidavit and charge information that would document the evidence authorities have that Allen was involved with connect the murders.
The deaths of the teenagers, known as Libby and Abby, were ruled a homicide, but police have never disclosed how they died or described what evidence they gathered.
The murders have ravaged the northwestern Indiana town of about 3,000 — where Allen lived and worked at a local CVS store.
Earlier Tuesday, Allen’s attorneys filed a motion to move the case out of Carroll County, arguing that the county’s small size and intense public scrutiny of the case will make it difficult to form an impartial jury at its current location.
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Arleigh Rodgers is a corps member of the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that brings journalists into local newsrooms to cover undercover topics. Follow Arleigh Rodgers on Twitter at https://twitter.com/arleighrodgers
