An Indiana man is sentenced to 130 years in prison for murdering 2 teenage girls

In a case that has long plagued the teens’ small hometown of Delphi, an Indiana man found guilty of the 2017 murders of two teenage girls who disappeared during a winter hike was sentenced to a maximum of 130 years in prison on Friday.

At a hearing that started at nine in the morning, a special judge sentenced Richard Allen. On November 11th, Allen, 52, was found guilty of the murders of Abigail Williams, 13, and Liberty German, 14, also referred to as Abby and Libby. Two counts of murder and two counts of murder while committing or attempting to commit kidnapping were found guilty by a jury.

Allen was sentenced on two of the four murder counts by Allen County Superior Court Judge Fran Gull, who imposed the maximum of 65 years for each count, to be served consecutively. The sentencing hearing, which included victim impact statements from six relatives of the teens, lasted less than two hours and after it concluded one of Allen’s defense attorneys said they plan to appeal and seek a new trial.

“The victims’ families are in our prayers and thoughts. Their ordeal was unthinkable,” defense lawyer Jennifer Auger stated. The defense intends to make a more thorough statement later, she continued, “but today is not the day for that.”

Allen could have been imprisoned for 45 to 130 years for the murders of the Delphi teenagers.

Allen also resided in Delphi, and he worked as a pharmacy technician at a pharmacy just a few blocks from the county courthouse, where he was later put on trial, when he was arrested in October 2022, over five years after the murders. Following several delays, an evidence leak, the withdrawal of his public defenders, and their reinstatement by the Indiana Supreme Court, his trial lasted for weeks.

The case, which included tantalizing evidence, has long drawn outsized attention from true-crime enthusiasts. The teens were found dead in February 2017, their throats cut, one day after they vanished while hiking during a day off school.