Delphi’s former police chief and two people who searched for Abby Williams and Libby German in 2017 testified Saturday in the Delphi murders trial .
While Friday’s testimony primarily included insights from the girls’ families, Saturday’s session centered around the initial reports of the missing girls and the efforts to find them.
Abby and Libby were dropped off at the Delphi trail on Monday, Feb. 13, 2017. When they didn’t meet for a planned pickup in the afternoon and several calls to Libby’s phone went unanswered, family members reported them missing. That touched off a large search that ended in tragedy on Feb. 14, when the best friends were found dead.
Delphi killings: Victim’s grandma makes statement at Allen trial Carroll County Prosecutor Nick McLeland revealed someone cut both girls’ throats. Libby was found nude while Abby was wearing her friends’ clothes.
The case went unsolved for years. In October 2022, Indiana State Police announced the arrest of Richard Allen , now charged with four counts of murder in connection with the girls’ deaths. Allen’s trial is currently underway in Carroll County.
Steve Mullin took the stand for the prosecution. He’s the former police chief for the Delphi Police Department and was on duty on Feb. 13. He went on to work as an investigator for the Carroll County Prosecutor’s Office.
Mullin was not physically involved in the Feb. 13 and Feb. 14 search for the girls. He told the court he remained at headquarters to coordinate the search effort.
Two members of the search party spoke in court Saturday.
Delphi killings: Timeline of events in Richard Allen case Jake Johns recalled that another searcher saw footprints and disturbed rocks sliding down the hillside to the riverbank on the south side of Deer Creek.
The description fits the prosecution theory that the person responsible for killing the girls–referred to as “Bridge Guy” throughout the proceedings–forced Abby and Libby to walk down the hill to the south side of the creek, crossed and then killed them on the creek’s north side.
Johns said the water was slightly deep and not fast-moving. Still, he decided not to cross. He saw a piece of clothing floating in the creek–it was Libby German’s tie dye shirt–and called out to a nearby firefighter to investigate
Pat Brown set out to search for the girls after hearing they were missing. When learning something had been found in the creek, he walked from County Road 300 North through the cemetery onto Ron Logan’s property south toward the north side of Deer Creek.
He came across the girls’ bodies on Feb. 14 and called out to the other searchers, “We found ’em.”
He told the court, “I thought they were mannequins.” His voiced cracked during the recollection.
Judge rules Delphi composite sketches aren’t admissible Brown then called the Delphi Police Department to report the discovery. Disturbed by what he found, he turned his back on the grisly scene.
During Saturday’s proceedings, jurors saw an aerial map of Deer Creek, the bridge and the nearby property of Ron Logan. The jury watched a drone video tour of the area near the trail across the bridge to the south side of the creek and viewed a photo of the area.
Judge Fran Gull dismissed jurors at 11:35 a.m. She indicated that testimony from the next witness on Monday would be “quite lengthy,” meaning it’s likely jurors will hear from the first law enforcement to arrive at the scene and secure it at the start of the investigation.
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