Was the Delphi murders probe botched? ‘Clerical error’ reportedly delayed Richard Allen’s arrest for years
DELPHI, INDIANA: The arrest of Richard Allen, criminally charged for the murder of teens Libby German and Abigail Williams in 2017 was not carried out until October 2022. The inspection providing shreds of evidence included a few sketches, a grainy low-quality image of the suspect known as "Bridge Guy," and an audio recording, which however did not lead to fastening up the investigation.
The suspect was not under custody for five years after the Delphi killings took place. The reportedly delayed arrest of Allen for years is due to a "clerical error," says the inside sources of the investigation according to The Sun.
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As part of the investigation, Allen was interviewed in 2017 and he told the investigators that on the day of the murders, between 1.30 pm and 3.30 pm, he had been on Monon High Bridge and the Freedom Bridge. The timing he specified to the investigators matches the timing of the murders taking place, reports The Sun.
The idea of a clerical error delaying the arrest was also put forth by The Murder Sheet Podcast calling it to be a reason behind the lost information. According to Fox 59, the FBI states that this loss of information could have been either a mislabeling or misfiling of information, which caused it to not appear during key searches as it did not lead them to locate it correctly on the database.
However, the claims of overlooking Allen with a clerical error were referred to as "misleading" and the FBI said, "As stated in the past, this is a complex multi-agency investigation. The implication that an alleged clerical error by an FBI employee caused years of delay in identifying this defendant is misleading," reports Fox 59 when the FBI was asked about whether the delay was caused by a mistake.
When the investigation was far from complete as no arrest of the murderer took place for five years, the 50-year-old was put under suspicion only when the investigators took a look into his interview taken during the initial phase of the investigation. Until November 29, 2022, when a judge released a probable cause affidavit's redacted version, no details pertaining to the case were revealed.
The announcement of Allen's arrest was made on October 31, 2022, by the Indiana State Police three days after the court appearance. A few feets away from the teenage girls' bodies, a bullet was discovered by the investigators to which Allen's unspent round from a gun he owned was confirmed by a lab test to be the one from the crime scene, according to the court documents. The test was conducted after he reportedly told the police that his SIG Sauer P226 weapon was not used by anybody else as he "never allowed anyone to use or borrow" but he failed to explain how the bullets were at the scene, reports The Sun.
As per the court documents, Allen who now remains in custody was arrested based on the information on the gun, eyewitness accounts, and authorities believing Allen to be the man in a video taken by Libby German. In February 2023, Allen will be taken to court for a bail hearing.