Delphi killer challenges 130-year sentence over confessions and Odin murder theory
Por Jeffrey Collins — – World RSS Feed
Delphi killer challenges 130-year sentence over confessions and Odin murder theory
A man serving 130 years in prison for killing two teen girls in Indiana is asking an appeals court to overturn his convictions
Jeffrey Collins Monday 21 September 2026 04:21 EDT
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Richard Allen, the man serving 130 years in prison for killing two teenage girls in Delphi, Indiana, is seeking to have his convictions overturned, arguing that he confessed while suffering a psychological crisis and was wrongly prevented from presenting an alternative theory about the killings.
Allen was convicted in 2024 of murdering Abigail “Abby” Williams, 13, and Liberty “Libby” German, 14. The girls’ deaths became one of Indiana’s most closely followed unsolved cases before Allen was arrested more than five years later.
The Indiana Court of Appeals is set to hear an hour of arguments in Allen’s case on Monday.
open image in galleryHis attorneys argue that his confessions were made while his mental health was deteriorating and that the trial judge unfairly prevented the defense from arguing that unknown people killed Abby and Libby as part of a pagan ritual.
Prosecutors dispute those claims, saying some of Allen’s incriminating statements were made before he showed signs of mental illness and that he continued making them after his condition improved.
They also argue there was enough evidence to convict Allen without the confessions.
Allen acknowledged being on the trail near where the girls were killed at around the time one of them recorded a short video showing a suspicious man nearby. A male voice on the recording can be heard saying, “Down the hill.”
Prosecutors have also defended the judge’s decision to restrict testimony about the defense’s pagan ritual theory, arguing that allowing an expert to present it would have turned the murder trial into a sideshow.
The evidence that convicted Richard Allen
The girls’ bodies were found on Feb. 14, 2017, down a steep hill from an abandoned railroad bridge along a hiking trail outside Delphi. The eighth graders had been dropped off the previous afternoon but never arrived at their planned pickup point.
open image in galleryBoth girls had their throats cut and branches had been placed over their bodies. One was found nude, while the other was wearing the first girl’s clothing. Authorities found no evidence of sexual assault.
Prosecutors said Allen was carrying a gun when he forced Abby and Libby off the trail. They said he later confessed that he intended to rape the girls but abandoned the plan after a passing van startled him, prompting him to kill them.
An expert testified that an unspent bullet discovered between the girls’ bodies had been cycled through Allen’s handgun.
Allen’s defense attorneys challenged the evidence connecting him to the killings. They argued that no witness specifically identified Allen as the man seen near the trail on the afternoon the girls disappeared.
open image in galleryThey also emphasized that investigators found no fingerprints, DNA or other forensic evidence directly linking Allen to the murder scene.
Why Allen says his confessions can’t be trusted
Allen was held in solitary confinement while awaiting trial and denied killing the girls for months. His attorneys argue that prolonged isolation caused his mental health to deteriorate so severely that he eventually convinced himself he was responsible and repeatedly confessed.
His lawyers, Stacy Uliana and Mark Leeman, said Allen lost 40 pounds, became unable to care for himself and was tased while in custody. They also said his face was at times bruised and bleeding and that he was exposed to fecal matter and toilet water.
open image in galleryProsecutors offered a different explanation for Allen’s changing behavior, arguing that his incriminating statements coincided with him being shown evidence from the investigation, including details about the condition of Abby and Libby’s bodies.
Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita argued in a court filing that seeing the evidence forced Allen to confront what he had done after years in which his involvement had gone undiscovered.
Prosecutors maintain that Allen’s confessions were genuine rather than the result of his deteriorating mental health.
The controversial Odin ritual theory
Allen’s trial attorneys also sought to present testimony from an expert who believed the killings showed signs of a ritual sacrifice carried out by followers of Odin, the chief god in Norse mythology.
The expert was expected to testify that the positioning of the girls’ bodies, branches placed over their remains, the outdoor setting and their knife wounds could be consistent with pagan ritual practices.
Prosecutors opposed the testimony, arguing that the expert had few examples to support the theory and that the defense should not be permitted to present an alternative explanation for the murders without sufficient evidence.
Allen’s attorneys are also expected to raise other issues before the appeals court, including inconsistencies in witness descriptions of the suspicious man seen near the trail around the time Abby and Libby disappeared.
The defense has pointed to a police sketch of a potential suspect that attorneys say did not resemble Allen.
They are also challenging the trial judge’s decision to restrict a defense expert from questioning whether markings on the unspent bullet recovered between the girls’ bodies could reliably be traced to a specific gun.
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