DELPHI, Ind. (Court TV) — The trial date for Delphi murders suspect Richard Allen has been moved, according to court documents obtained by Court TV.
The new trial date was announced in an order granting Allen’s previous motion for a speedy trial, which started a 70-day clock in which the trial must start.
This image provided by Indiana State Police shows Richard Matthew Allen. (Indiana State Police)
Originally set for October 2024, the trial will now take place from May 13-31.
Allen is charged with two counts of murder in the 2017 deaths of Abby Williams and Libby German in Delphi, Indiana.
Abby and Libby disappeared Feb. 13, 2017, while walking the Delphi Historic Trails. Their bodies were found the following day, a quarter mile from where they were last seen on the Monon High Bridge.
Allen, a married father who worked at the local CVS, was never named a suspect until his arrest more than five years later. He told officials he’d been on the trails the day the girls went missing but was not looked into until 2022. Prosecutors say an unfired .40 caliber round found at the crime scene was “cycled through” a pistol owned by Allen.
His public defenders, who had been kicked off the case for 79 days before being reinstated by the Indiana Supreme Court, allege a white nationalist group of Odinists more likely killed the girls and claim early recorded police interviews with those men were destroyed.
Allen has two hearings scheduled for March 18. Those proceedings are expected to cover several motions, including the prosecution’s motion to amend charges and a defense motion to dismiss the case.
