Yasmeen Hamadeh
Warning: This article contains graphic descriptions which some readers may find distressing.
A jury in Indiana has found Richard Allen guilty of murdering two teenage girls in 2017.
On November 11, a 12-member jury in Delphi found Allen guilty of all four charges in the deaths of Abigail Williams, 13, and Liberty German, 14.
The 52-year-old Delphi local was convicted of two counts of murder while committing or attempting to commit kidnapping.
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Prosecutors allege that on Feb. 13, 2017, Allen tailed Abigail and Liberty while they were on a hike on the Monon High Bridge trail.
He reportedly forced them down a hill and to nearby woods, where he killed them by slashing their throats, according to prosecutors.
Allen could now face up to 130 years in prison.
On the day that Abigail and Liberty went on the hike, Liberty recorded a man on her phone - who widely became known as the 'bridge guy'. Prosecutors said the man pulled out a gun on the teenagers and ordered them to go 'down the hill'.
Their autopsies revealed that they both died from deep lacerations to their necks and a pathologist said there were no signs of sexual assault injury.
Allen was arrested in October 2022. He became a suspect after a retired state government worker who had volunteered to help police with the case found paperwork that indicated that Allen had contacted authorities two days after Abigail and Liberty's bodies were found.
The paperwork reportedly showed that Allen had told an officer that he was at the same hiking trail the same afternoon the girls went missing, per KBTX.
Moreover, Allen's voice was matched to the 'bridge guy' in Liberty's recording by Indiana State Police trooper Brian Harshman who, ABC News reports, listened to 700 of Allen's calls to ascertain whether or not it was him.
During Allen's trial, which began on October 18, the jury were also played recordings of phone conversations between Allen and his wife, Kathy, where he allegedly confessed to the girls' murders.
The former pharmacy technician also allegedly confessed to a psychologist he saw during his time in Westville Correctional Facility that he had ordered the girls to go 'down the hill'.
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