Dateline Nbc 2025 S02 E21

Mega NoVeLas 2025

Transcript

00:00:00Tonight on Dateline.

00:00:04It took my breath away.

00:00:06Here is this young girl with her friend out on this bridge on a beautiful sunny day.

00:00:11They have no idea what's coming.

00:00:16Got a call and said that they had found the girls.

00:00:18What did they tell you?

00:00:19That they're gone.

00:00:20Their lives were stolen from them.

00:00:21Those girls mattered.

00:00:22Were they out there to meet someone?

00:00:25Somebody was in contact with Libby, the fake persona.

00:00:29People wondered if there was some sort of a catfishing element.

00:00:33There was a theory that the girls were killed in a pagan ritual in the woods.

00:00:39We found Libby's phone.

00:00:40She secretly was able to videotape this person approaching them.

00:00:44You also hear him say something.

00:00:47Down the hill.

00:00:48Down the hill.

00:00:49Down the hill.

00:00:50The voice of the killer.

00:00:51The voice of the killer.

00:00:52They knew something was not right.

00:00:53They had to be scared out of their minds.

00:00:55We've got a picture.

00:00:56We've got his voice.

00:00:57Where is this guy?

00:00:59Two girls who had so much to offer.

00:01:01We weren't going to let up until we found this guy.

00:01:04A grainy picture on a phone.

00:01:06A gravelly voice recorded in secret.

00:01:10Could these girls help solve their own mystery?

00:01:13I'm Lester Holt, and this is Dateline.

00:01:16Here's Andrea Canning with A Walk Through the Woods.

00:01:33Winter was masquerading as spring, teasing those tired of the cold to step outside.

00:01:42Two girls set out for a walk through the woods.

00:01:45It's very peaceful here.

00:01:46It is.

00:01:47I can see why they would want to come here on a day off.

00:01:49We just saw the bald eagle.

00:01:50Yeah, it's a beautiful place.

00:01:52And then this is the trail.

00:01:54A trail that ends here at an old railroad bridge.

00:02:00This is kind of scary.

00:02:02Yes.

00:02:03There's rotted out ties.

00:02:04We're so high up.

00:02:06Yeah.

00:02:07You have water underneath us for part of it.

00:02:12I walked across that bridge, and I swore I'd never do it again.

00:02:15You wouldn't catch me crossing that bridge for anything.

00:02:17I walked as far as I could, then I was on my hands and knees.

00:02:22One of the girls took a photo of the other, inching her way across the bridge, a final

00:02:27moment of innocence.

00:02:30Because the real danger wasn't beneath them.

00:02:33It was behind, a silhouette taking shape, growing as it picked up speed on the bridge,

00:02:40coming toward them.

00:02:42It makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up.

00:02:45Absolutely.

00:02:46When you think about these two girls, they knew something wasn't right.

00:02:50Yep.

00:02:51And they were scared.

00:02:53All they had left in that moment, a cell phone, each other, and a split second to act.

00:03:05Delphi, Indiana, population 3,000 more or less.

00:03:09A rural community about an hour and a half's drive north of Indianapolis.

00:03:13Carroll County, Delphi, is a great place to raise your family.

00:03:18Tony Liggett is the sheriff.

00:03:20I grew up here, choose to be here, I want to be here myself.

00:03:24It's beautiful, people felt safe.

00:03:27Still do, he says, though maybe a little less since that Monday, February 13th, 2017.

00:03:34The morning had started off promising, blue skies, warm weather.

00:03:38Better yet, classes were canceled to make up for an unused snow day.

00:03:43What's the plan for the girls that day, with this day off?

00:03:47Well, there wasn't a plan.

00:03:50Becky Patti is talking about her granddaughter, 14-year-old Liberty German, and her best friend,

00:03:5513-year-old Abigail Williams, Libby and Abby.

00:03:59They'd had a sleepover at Becky's the night before.

00:04:02Libby came out, and she was sitting on the floor in my office.

00:04:06Just then, Libby's older sister announced she'd be taking the car out.

00:04:10Kelsey popped her head in and said, hey, I'm going to go to my boyfriend's house.

00:04:15And Libby jumped right up and said, hey, can you take us to the trails?

00:04:21The public trails on the outskirts of town.

00:04:24Kelsey dropped them off just before two.

00:04:27They planned to stay for an hour, then call for a ride home.

00:04:30The hour came and went.

00:04:32Becky called Libby.

00:04:34Was it ringing, or was it going straight to voicemail?

00:04:37It would ring and then go to voicemail.

00:04:40You're not really thinking anything bad, you know?

00:04:43She alerted Abby's family that they couldn't find the girls.

00:04:47Then she reached out to her husband, Mike, Libby's grandfather.

00:04:51And said, hey, Libby went to the trails.

00:04:55It's been about an hour.

00:04:57She's not answering her phone.

00:04:58Of course, it's getting cold.

00:04:59It is February.

00:05:00It was warm out during the day.

00:05:02So we're all thinking, all right, eventually we're going to find them here, right?

00:05:07But daylight was waning.

00:05:09And it was going to start getting dark, yeah, because it's February.

00:05:13And I said, we're going to have to call the police.

00:05:16And Libby's afraid of the dark.

00:05:17I think we initially got the call somewhere between 5 and 5.30.

00:05:23Liggett was a detective back in 2017.

00:05:25He figured the teens would show up soon enough.

00:05:28Were we actively looking for them?

00:05:31Absolutely.

00:05:32There was not a real sense of urgency.

00:05:34I'm sure no evil thoughts were entering your mind at that point.

00:05:39Correct.

00:05:40Though when he heard they'd been at the trail, he did wonder about the bridge.

00:05:44What we're standing on now, this wasn't the way it was back then.

00:05:49This was what it all looked like, these rotting railroad ties, no railings.

00:05:54The Monan High Bridge is a relic from a past century.

00:05:58Teens once used it to cross Deer Creek, more than 60 feet below.

00:06:02It's the thrill.

00:06:03What teenagers don't like, thrill.

00:06:06Libby's cousin, Sadie Mowdy, says the abandoned bridge was where young daredevils chose to

00:06:11hang out.

00:06:13I wouldn't even go out to the first platform.

00:06:15Nope.

00:06:16But the kids do it.

00:06:17Yeah.

00:06:18My best friend in high school got her senior pictures taken on that bridge.

00:06:21Did you know if they were planning to venture out onto the bridge?

00:06:24No, we didn't.

00:06:27At some point, Libby's sister checked social media.

00:06:30We saw a Snapchat photo of Abby that Libby had taken, so we knew that they had been on

00:06:39the bridge.

00:06:40Is that reinforcing the thought that maybe this is connected to the bridge?

00:06:44You know, that maybe something happened, they got hurt, or?

00:06:46Well, that's what was going through my mind was, okay, now either they fell off the bridge

00:06:51or they got down one of the ravines out there.

00:06:54Is panic setting in?

00:06:56I just knew that something wasn't right.

00:06:59When the sun went down, Liggett started to worry.

00:07:02Soon, word was out, and Delphi sprang into action.

00:07:06Its residents joined the search.

00:07:09Even though not a lot of time has passed, you have a lot of people looking for these

00:07:14two girls.

00:07:15Oh, absolutely.

00:07:16That's just the way things work around here, yeah.

00:07:18Neighbors and police armed with flashlights searched for hours in the dark, around trees

00:07:23and brush, along unsteady paths.

00:07:26But yet, no one saw anything around the bridge area.

00:07:29Correct.

00:07:30So they just vanished.

00:07:31Correct.

00:07:32Now that the sun is up, the search here has resumed outside Delphi in Carroll County.

00:07:37Liggett was at the station the next day when the call came in.

00:07:40It was a little past noon.

00:07:42It was the worst possible news.

00:07:45Got a call and said that they had found the girls' bodies.

00:07:48Delphi and Libby lay in a hidden depression of the forest floor, about a quarter mile

00:07:52beyond the bridge.

00:07:54It was clear the girls had been murdered.

00:07:57We are investigating this as a crime scene.

00:08:01A shaken town would want answers and an arrest.

00:08:06Neither would happen quickly.

00:08:08This was a long journey with a lot of suspects along the way.

00:08:13That's correct.

00:08:14I think a lot of people looking at this case always wondered if there was some sort of

00:08:19a catfishing element.

00:08:21Why did the girls go out there that day?

00:08:24She had the wherewithal to pull that phone out and take a video.

00:08:27This man has placed himself by the bridge at the time the girls were there.

00:08:33Absolutely.

00:08:34A police report that talked about Odinism and all of a sudden a whole new world opened

00:08:41up about what might have happened.

00:08:42A twisted world.

00:08:44It's a very twisted world.

00:09:00Sheriff Liggett, back at the station, could hardly believe what he was hearing.

00:09:04Two local girls found murdered near the Monan High Bridge in Delphi, Indiana.

00:09:09He raced to the area a short drive away.

00:09:12What information have you been given before you arrive at the scene about how these girls

00:09:18died?

00:09:19No, no, nothing.

00:09:20No information.

00:09:22He was directed down a hill near the bridge and onto a patch of privately owned land.

00:09:27Where were they ultimately found?

00:09:29So further around, you see how the creek bends upstream up that way.

00:09:39It was grim.

00:09:41Abby and Libby lay dead a few feet apart.

00:09:44Libby at the foot of a tree.

00:09:46Their throats had been cut.

00:09:48Abby was wearing clothes.

00:09:51Libby was not.

00:09:53Libby's wounds were just devastating.

00:09:56It was obvious that Libby had been moved a very, very short distance.

00:10:02Kind of appeared they were trying to conceal her behind a tree.

00:10:07There was a large tree next to her, and they both had some sticks on top of them.

00:10:11I don't know how a human being can do what they did to anybody, let alone two little

00:10:18girls.

00:10:20Becky and Mike were searching in a different area when they heard the girls had been found.

00:10:24They raced back to the trail, assuming they were okay.

00:10:28Becky didn't realize her sister was one of the searchers who'd come upon the girls' bodies.

00:10:33She just kept saying, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, and she was crying.

00:10:37She just kept saying, I couldn't go back to them.

00:10:38I said, well, tell me where they are so I can go.

00:10:41Even then, it didn't sink in, until...

00:10:45And I'm waiting, and the coroner's van come driving by.

00:10:53That's when I realized, this isn't good.

00:10:58From that point on, a lot of things are really glazed over or a daze, because you're like,

00:11:04this isn't really happening, you know, type thing, but they'd made an announcement that

00:11:09they'd found two girls, but they couldn't confirm the identity.

00:11:11Yeah, but you knew.

00:11:13Well, yeah, small community, two girls missing, two girls found.

00:11:18Investigators brought the families back to the station, where they had set up a command

00:11:21center for the search.

00:11:23And I thought at that time that they were there to help us, that they were asking questions

00:11:31and I was answering and, you know, trying to, let's figure out what's going on.

00:11:36I didn't even realize until years later, oh my God, they were interrogating us.

00:11:43It fell to Mike to formally identify both girls.

00:11:46He remembered how surreal it felt.

00:11:49Just hours earlier, his granddaughter and Abby had been brimming with life, giggling

00:11:53during their sleepover.

00:11:54They were upstairs watching movies.

00:11:57They were painting and silly little videos and stuff, just having a good time.

00:12:03It was a normal night.

00:12:05They were being kids, you know.

00:12:08Now the Pattys and Abby's family had been thrust into a new, terrible kind of normal,

00:12:14one in which their girls existed only in photos and memories.

00:12:17I mean, there's so many beautiful photos of Libby and Abby, just two happy-go-lucky girls.

00:12:24Abby had been the only child of a single mom.

00:12:28Libby and her sister Kelsey came to live with their grandparents after their mother and

00:12:31father split up.

00:12:32I want to say through a course of life events, right, it presented an opportunity and we

00:12:38had spare bedrooms and they came to us and gladly welcomed it and took it on and made

00:12:46the best of it.

00:12:47Was there any hesitation to take her into your home?

00:12:50That is a, that's a lot, right, to bring a child in.

00:12:54No, not at all.

00:12:56We'd do it again.

00:12:58Both Abby and Libby were good students.

00:13:01Abby loved crafts and music, Libby, music and sports.

00:13:05It was softball, then volleyball, swimming, what am I, soccer.

00:13:12She had soccer in the fall.

00:13:14There was about three weeks out of the year she was not in a sport.

00:13:19So you must have been doing a lot of driving.

00:13:21Lots.

00:13:23Abby was the shyer of the two.

00:13:26She was quiet and reserved.

00:13:27I think her and Libby complimented each other because Libby was a little more loud and boisterous

00:13:33and she was quiet.

00:13:35In fact, Libby was an all-around jokester at home.

00:13:38When you decide to be fancy after shaving.

00:13:41Here she is giving a tutorial on shaving for the first time.

00:13:45It burns, it burns, it's red, it burns, it burns, it burns.

00:13:51She loved challenging anyone, especially her uncle, into ridiculous stunts.

00:13:56We were gone and she was daring him to jump and do a handstand on the handrail and end

00:14:02up in the pool.

00:14:03And she kept, and you could hear her saying, you won't do it, you're scared.

00:14:08And he'd say, why are you pushing me?

00:14:10She said, because grandma's going to be home, so you've got to do it.

00:14:13Did he do it?

00:14:14Yeah, he did do it.

00:14:15Was he okay?

00:14:16Yeah.

00:14:18Two girls, funny and sweet, their families and the community were in mourning, and on

00:14:24edge.

00:14:25Then, just hours into the case, investigators caught a break.

00:14:31We found Libby's phone.

00:14:33I mean, this phone could be everything, depending on what you find on it.

00:14:37Correct.

00:14:47Mike and Becky Patty knew nothing would ever be the same.

00:14:57Their granddaughter Libby and her friend Abby had been taken from them, and so violently.

00:15:03Their lives were stolen from them.

00:15:05I'm a mother of five girls.

00:15:07I have a 14-year-old and one that's about to turn 13, exactly the ages of Libby and

00:15:15Abby.

00:15:16It truly is a parent's worst nightmare.

00:15:21The rest of the family gathered at the house to help any way they could.

00:15:25Some of us were standing around the kitchen island.

00:15:27Some of us were at the kitchen table.

00:15:30Sadie Moudy remembers her Aunt Becky looking for Libby's older sister, Kelsey.

00:15:34And I remember her yelling up the stairs, Libby, Libby!

00:15:40But she meant to say Kelsey, but she was saying Libby.

00:15:45And we all just kind of stood there with eyes wide open, like none of us said a word.

00:15:51At that point, police were still not releasing the girls' names.

00:15:54But everyone in Delphi knew.

00:15:56This is a small town, so word travels fast.

00:16:00This is a community that is hurting.

00:16:02Reporter Emily Longnecker covered the story for NBC's Indianapolis affiliate, WTHR.

00:16:08You could see it on people's faces.

00:16:10Delphi, nothing happens here.

00:16:12It's like, how, how could this be happening here?

00:16:17You didn't need a positive identification from the police.

00:16:21You knew, and you knew it in your gut, and you saw it on the faces of everyone you encountered

00:16:26in that town.

00:16:27People expect things instantaneously, and I started to feel that.

00:16:31The investigation team included Indiana State Police.

00:16:35Doug Carter was the agency's superintendent.

00:16:38He was already fielding questions from the public, like, is this the work of a drifter,

00:16:43a serial killer, or someone already known to police?

00:16:47And I started to think to myself, oh my gosh, we are never going to be able to meet the

00:16:53expectation that people have.

00:16:57And we weren't.

00:16:59Investigators were at that moment collecting evidence.

00:17:02You found some clues at the crime scene.

00:17:05Correct.

00:17:07A crime scene investigator noticed a bullet peeking through leaves between the girls.

00:17:13So very odd that, number one, it's unspent, hasn't been fired through a gun, and also

00:17:20that the girls were not shot.

00:17:22Correct.

00:17:23In my head at that point in time was that there may have been a gun used to control.

00:17:30How does a person control two girls?

00:17:32Well, you can do it with a gun.

00:17:36Liggett believed the killer racked his gun to scare the girls into submission, not realizing

00:17:40the evidence he was leaving.

00:17:42So when you rack a gun, it ejects the bullet out the side and lands on the ground.

00:17:48There was more.

00:17:49As crime scene investigators moved Abby's body, they discovered a shoe.

00:17:54And beneath that...

00:17:55We found Libby's phone.

00:17:57They immediately sent the phone to a forensics analyst for testing.

00:18:01Meanwhile, officers continued collecting evidence hoping for DNA.

00:18:05Searched for surveillance cameras on nearby businesses and spoke to property owners.

00:18:10It's just so mind-boggling.

00:18:12I haven't really caught up.

00:18:14It hasn't caught up with me yet.

00:18:16Like Ron Logan, he spoke to WTHR shortly after the girls were discovered on his property.

00:18:22My son grew up here.

00:18:23He's been down here when he was 13 years old.

00:18:26Never in your wildest dreams do you think if he comes down here to play, he won't come

00:18:30back home.

00:18:31I mean, that's just something that doesn't enter your mind, ever.

00:18:35Investigators also talked to anyone who'd been in the area that day.

00:18:38Indiana State Police Lieutenant Jerry Holman.

00:18:41We were able to identify everybody, interview them.

00:18:46Three girls described a man on the trail around 1.30, about 20 minutes before Abby and Libby

00:18:51arrived.

00:18:52We knew they saw a white male, but the descriptions were slightly different.

00:18:58So they agreed he was overdressed for the warm day and avoided eye contact.

00:19:03A woman walking close to the bridge thought she saw the same man.

00:19:07Looking like he was waiting for somebody.

00:19:09As she's walking back towards the trailhead where she parked, she sees two girls, later

00:19:14identified as Abby and Libby, walking towards the bridge.

00:19:18Others came forward but had nothing really to offer.

00:19:21One woman saw the story on the news and urged her husband to report he'd been out there

00:19:25that day.

00:19:27Did he see anything unusual?

00:19:28No.

00:19:29He did not see anybody or notify us of anything unusual.

00:19:36So you had to work with what you had to work with.

00:19:39Yeah.

00:19:40But one woman did report something disturbing.

00:19:44She saw a man near the trails while she was driving.

00:19:47He was walking along the road covered in mud and blood.

00:19:51Are you thinking, wow, she witnessed the killer?

00:19:54Right.

00:19:55Who else would have blood and mud on them like that?

00:19:59Exactly.

00:20:00The girls' autopsies revealed they had been killed with a sharp object.

00:20:03There were no signs of sexual assault.

00:20:06Police kept those and many other details of the investigation from the public.

00:20:11Then, a major announcement.

00:20:14Police had obtained a photo of a man on the bridge that day.

00:20:18We've been able to identify almost everybody else that's been on that trail and this gentleman

00:20:23has not been identified and we want to know what he saw, what he might have seen on the

00:20:27trail.

00:20:28The officer didn't say who took the photo.

00:20:30We were definitely able to tell a pretty good description of the person, white male, you

00:20:38know, blue coat, sweatshirt, head covering, blue jeans.

00:20:43Police described him as a possible witness.

00:20:46Viewers responded, flooding the tip line.

00:20:49Several identified the same man.

00:20:52Ron Logan, that property owner.

00:20:54And some women had a lot to say about him.

00:20:58They had experiences where they woke up in the middle of the night and he was standing

00:21:02at the foot of their bed, watching them sleep.

00:21:05Oh my gosh.

00:21:06Well, we know the family really well, so it's been overwhelming, the whole thing.

00:21:26In the days after the murders, people in Delphi came out to support the families.

00:21:31They released lanterns in remembrance.

00:21:38They gathered for prayer vigils and hung ribbons with the girls' favorite colors.

00:21:43Libby's family says a CVS worker even made free copies of the girls' photos for their

00:21:47visitation.

00:21:48The line for it stretched the length of the building.

00:21:51It was overwhelming how many people showed up to show their support.

00:21:56I'm sure, yeah.

00:21:58It was supposed to end, and there still wasn't an end to the line.

00:22:03And I remember somebody asking us, what do you want to do?

00:22:06And we said, these people came.

00:22:09We can't stop now.

00:22:10So we stood there a long time.

00:22:17But the small Delphi community was changing.

00:22:20People were fearful.

00:22:21The sound used to not lock their doors when they went to bed.

00:22:25It was like everyone was scared, like nobody went on the trails.

00:22:32There's a boogeyman out there.

00:22:33I mean, unknown.

00:22:35Could be one of your neighbors.

00:22:37Yeah.

00:22:38Didn't know if they were walking amongst us or not.

00:22:40The whole community was scared.

00:22:43And what about that man in the photo?

00:22:46Investigators described him as a possible witness.

00:22:49Was he something more?

00:22:50Were you trying not to scare the killer, maybe try to draw him in?

00:22:55Yeah, a little bit of both.

00:22:56That's one of the strategies.

00:22:57You make them start thinking, oh my, are they closing in on me?

00:23:01When he doesn't come forward, he becomes your prime suspect that you have named Bridge Guy.

00:23:07Correct.

00:23:08Bridge Guy.

00:23:09They now believed he had to be the killer.

00:23:12Officers and agents from almost every corner of law enforcement were scrambling to figure

00:23:16out who he was.

00:23:18A week after the murders, they had an important update about that photo.

00:23:22This young lady's a hero.

00:23:23There's no doubt.

00:23:24For the first time, they revealed where the image had come from.

00:23:29It wasn't taken by some random eyewitness or even a security camera.

00:23:33Incredibly, Libby herself captured the killer on her phone.

00:23:38Libby recorded from just off the end of the bridge, way down there.

00:23:42You believe then that based on the video that he followed them across these railroad tracks?

00:23:46Yeah, that's what the video shows, that he was behind Abby in the video.

00:23:51So yeah, I believe he followed them across, yes.

00:23:54Libby had the presence of mind to know something wasn't right about this person, and she secretly,

00:24:00I assume, was able to videotape this person approaching them.

00:24:05It makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up when you think about these two girls.

00:24:12The phone's data revealed Libby hit record at 2.13 p.m.

00:24:16Roughly six minutes after she posted that photo of Abby to Snapchat.

00:24:20I hate to even ask this, but the final moments of the girls and the fear that

00:24:26they would have experienced at the hands of that person.

00:24:30They had to be scared out of their minds.

00:24:32Play the clip, please.

00:24:34Police did not release the video, only a snippet of sound from it.

00:24:38A man's garbled voice playing on a loop.

00:24:40Down the hill.

00:24:45Down the hill?

00:24:45Down the hill.

00:24:46The voice of the killer.

00:24:47Voice of the killer.

00:24:49To investigators, it sounded as though the man was ordering the girls down the hill to their deaths.

00:24:55And they thought they heard something else in that video, though they didn't reveal it at the time.

00:24:59We believe that we hear a gun racking in that video, and that kind of made sense with the

00:25:05bullet being down between the two girls when we found it.

00:25:10A young victim recording her killer was more than enough to turn a small town's grief into

00:25:15a national news story.

00:25:17Police in Indiana are pleading for help to solve a double murder mystery.

00:25:22Tips were pouring in, thousands to sort through.

00:25:26When Connie Dillman learned where the girls were found, she believed she knew the killer.

00:25:31I just told him that I felt that it was Ron Logan that had done this because he's abusive.

00:25:37Ron Logan was Connie's ex-boyfriend, the man who owned the property where the girls were found.

00:25:42And I said, oh my God, Ron Logan killed him.

00:25:45I really thought he killed him.

00:25:47He just finally killed somebody.

00:25:51Connie said Ron once barricaded her inside his house.

00:25:55Another time, she said, he attacked her in his yard.

00:25:58I was helping him outside do some things, and he just hit me over the head with a Crescent wrench.

00:26:04Then, when she saw the picture of Bridge Guy, she was even more convinced.

00:26:09Just the build, the stance, it looked like Ron.

00:26:12Ron dressed that way.

00:26:16This is Ron Logan's house.

00:26:17This is a guy with a sketchy past and some big accusations from women against him.

00:26:23Absolutely, and a lot of reasons for police to look at him.

00:26:27Barbara McDonald covered the Delphi murders for Court TV.

00:26:30She spoke to some of those women.

00:26:32Two of the women that he had dated told me that after they had broken up,

00:26:36they had experiences where they woke up in the middle of the night,

00:26:40and he was standing at the foot of their bed watching them sleep.

00:26:44Oh, my gosh. He had broken into their house?

00:26:46Had broken into their homes.

00:26:48They had no idea how he got in.

00:26:50That's terrifying.

00:26:52But Logan was never charged with any crimes related to the women's allegations.

00:26:56And, you know, we interviewed Ron.

00:26:58He would deny all that.

00:26:59He would deny any of that, those accusations.

00:27:03Logan was a 77-year-old retiree living alone at the time of the murders.

00:27:08He told police he wasn't home the afternoon the girls were killed.

00:27:11He was out with his cousin running an errand.

00:27:14So we followed up.

00:27:15He said he had the cousin drive him to the fish store.

00:27:18So we located the cousin.

00:27:21The cousin backed up Logan's alibi.

00:27:23But then, two days later, he changed his story.

00:27:26Initially, the cousin was covering for him,

00:27:28but then during a separate interview, he said no.

00:27:32As in, he had not driven Logan to the store.

00:27:35Why would he lie about that?

00:27:37Why lie?

00:27:38Yeah, exactly.

00:27:39That's what we thought.

00:27:41Not only that, the cousin said Logan asked him to lie

00:27:44before the girls' bodies had even been found.

00:27:48It was time for investigators to take a closer look at Ron Logan.

00:27:52All that has kind of led us back to this location.

00:27:55Police were moving in.

00:27:57An arrest was imminent.

00:27:59A lot of people, when that happened, thought, OK, well,

00:28:02this is the beginning, right?

00:28:03You're thinking back to interviewing him and thinking,

00:28:07my God, did I interview the killer?

00:28:24The hunt for a killer was still on,

00:28:26but some in town thought they already knew who it was.

00:28:30Ron Logan.

00:28:32His ex-girlfriend, Connie, wasn't the only person

00:28:34to report him.

00:28:36As many as 15 tips came in suggesting he was involved

00:28:39in the girls' murders.

00:28:41The investigation was nearly a month old

00:28:43when police arrested him, but not for the murders.

00:28:47He's picked up on a probation violation.

00:28:50He's not supposed to be driving.

00:28:51He's not supposed to be driving.

00:28:52He's on a suspended license.

00:28:54And I think a lot of people, when that happened, thought,

00:28:56OK, well, this is the beginning, right?

00:28:58This is what they're getting him on now.

00:29:01And then there's going to be these other charges.

00:29:03Investigators pressed Logan about the murders

00:29:06to see if he'd confess, but he denied any involvement.

00:29:09They also searched his house.

00:29:11With the information we received,

00:29:13with interviews that we've done, tips that have come in,

00:29:18all that has kind of led us back to this location.

00:29:22Everyone is descending on Ron Logan's house.

00:29:24You see them hauling away his truck.

00:29:26You see them carrying out stuff.

00:29:29They're there five and six hours.

00:29:31Then we don't hear anything.

00:29:33Emily Longnecker had talked to Logan right

00:29:35after the girls were found.

00:29:36You're thinking back to interviewing him

00:29:39and thinking, my god, did I interview the killer?

00:29:42Logan pleaded guilty to an unrelated charge

00:29:45and violating his probation.

00:29:47He was sentenced to four years in prison.

00:29:51Police continued to investigate him,

00:29:53but Detective Holman had doubts Logan

00:29:55was involved in the murders.

00:29:57Did he look like Bridge Guy at all?

00:30:00His build, his age, his weight?

00:30:03No, not to my opinion.

00:30:04He's very tall, older than the photo.

00:30:09They didn't find any direct evidence

00:30:10tying Logan to the case, and investigators

00:30:13eventually cleared him.

00:30:15But if not Logan, then who?

00:30:18What's going on?

00:30:19We've got a picture of the man.

00:30:22We've got his voice.

00:30:25Where is this guy?

00:30:26Residents worried he would strike again.

00:30:29This was potentially a ticking time bomb with this killer.

00:30:32Big time.

00:30:34Five months after the murders, investigators released a sketch.

00:30:38It was based on information from that woman who'd reported

00:30:41seeing a muddy and bloody man.

00:30:43It's basically just a clear picture of his face

00:30:45compared to what you saw down below.

00:30:46If the photo of Bridge Guy had been fuzzy,

00:30:49the sketch of him was detailed.

00:30:52Today was the first day that I've really

00:30:54been excited through this whole process.

00:30:58It was the most optimistic we've been.

00:31:02We got a face to the person.

00:31:05We're going to get him.

00:31:06Instead, it kicked up a hornet's nest.

00:31:09People were accusing each other on social media

00:31:11with little or no proof.

00:31:13That was really the time that people were convinced

00:31:15it was their ex-husband.

00:31:17They were convinced it was their neighbor.

00:31:19They were convinced it was their son.

00:31:21Some people on social media actually

00:31:23thought you could be the killer.

00:31:25Oh, yeah.

00:31:26Somebody called in a tip that one of my male colleagues

00:31:29looked like Bridge Guy.

00:31:30As I understand it, my boss had to sign an affidavit that

00:31:34said this male colleague was at work the day

00:31:38that Abby and Libby disappeared.

00:31:40Nobody was off the table.

00:31:42Nobody.

00:31:44More months ticked by.

00:31:48Libby's grandparents and Abby's mother, Anna Williams,

00:31:51tried to keep the case in the public eye.

00:31:53I'm hoping that there's going to be people that haven't

00:31:56heard about the girls see this.

00:31:58We just ask that you do the right thing.

00:32:00Do the right thing for our girls and keep this

00:32:04from happening to the next family.

00:32:08Along the way, the two families supported one another.

00:32:12Both families were equally committed

00:32:15to doing whatever they could to catch this killer.

00:32:18We always had hope that we were going to get to the end of this.

00:32:23The first anniversary of the girls' murders came and went.

00:32:26As the second anniversary approached,

00:32:28the families were frustrated there was still no arrest.

00:32:31It is sad.

00:32:33Nobody even here thought that we would still

00:32:35be looking for somebody in two years in a town this size,

00:32:38but we are.

00:32:40We got a voice recording.

00:32:41We got a picture, albeit as grainy,

00:32:43we got a sketch from eyewitnesses that saw the guy.

00:32:46How do we not have him in today's world?

00:32:48Still, Libby's family remained hopeful.

00:32:51Through strength of the Lord, prayer, and this faith

00:32:56that the good Lord's going to see this thing through.

00:33:01A few months after the second anniversary,

00:33:03Superintendent Carter held a press conference.

00:33:07His hope, smoke out the killer.

00:33:09Directly to the killer, who may be in this room,

00:33:13we believe you are hiding in plain sight.

00:33:16I was convinced that he was watching.

00:33:19It's an unsettling feeling.

00:33:20It was, and I've never experienced

00:33:22anything like that.

00:33:23It's like you're talking to a ghost out there.

00:33:26Yeah.

00:33:27Investigators believe their killer was someone

00:33:30living among them, someone from Delphi.

00:33:32My gut the entire time was, people

00:33:35don't know about these trails.

00:33:36People didn't know about Highbridge.

00:33:39The random person from the next town over,

00:33:43you would find very few people that even there

00:33:45knew what it was.

00:33:46So I always kind of figured that it was someone here

00:33:50or from here that was familiar with the area.

00:33:53We are also releasing video recovered from Libby's phone.

00:33:58One more thing to come out of that press conference.

00:34:01For the first time, investigators

00:34:02showed a short clip of Bridge Guy played on a loop.

00:34:05Watch the person's mannerisms as they walk.

00:34:09I can imagine someone studying that walk over

00:34:12and over and over again and saying, yeah,

00:34:16that looks like somebody I know.

00:34:19The video generated more tips.

00:34:21None panned out.

00:34:23Then suddenly, there was a new name in the news.

00:34:27State police are now looking for information

00:34:29about a social media profile with the name Anthony Shotz.

00:34:33Anthony Shotz.

00:34:35This male model type with his shirt off and smiling

00:34:40and nice pecs and good abs.

00:34:43Who was this mystery man?

00:34:46And what did he have to do with the murders?

00:34:48You learned that Liberty had been

00:34:50in communication with Shotz?

00:34:53Yes.

00:35:10In early 2020, Delphi investigators

00:35:12were trying to figure out if the murders of Abby and Libby

00:35:15were linked to other crimes in the area.

00:35:18They reached out to Libby's sister, Kelsey.

00:35:21Kelsey gets called in by law enforcement.

00:35:23And they give her a list of names.

00:35:25And among those names is this Anthony Shotz.

00:35:29And she says, oh, that sounds familiar to me.

00:35:33Kelsey told police in the days before the murders,

00:35:35Libby had been chatting with Shotz.

00:35:38Evidence would seem to be that she was saying, oh, I'm

00:35:41talking to this really cute guy.

00:35:44The profile showed a floppy haired heartthrob

00:35:46with abs and tats who was rich and drove fancy sports cars.

00:35:51Police learned after the girls went missing,

00:35:53Kelsey looked for clues in Libby's social media.

00:35:56Kelsey had the passwords.

00:35:58And she was going through and looking

00:35:59to see if there were messages.

00:36:01And she saw this Anthony Shotz account.

00:36:04On Libby's computer?

00:36:05On Libby's social media.

00:36:07Social media.

00:36:08And that it had at least liked or commented

00:36:12on one of Libby's images.

00:36:15Kelsey even asked Shotz for help.

00:36:17So she reaches out and says, my sister's missing.

00:36:21Do you know anything about this?

00:36:23And the response is, no.

00:36:26I talked to her earlier.

00:36:27I'm sure she'll turn up.

00:36:29I'm sure it's fine.

00:36:31And then it didn't go anywhere.

00:36:34At the time, Kelsey didn't tell investigators about Shotz.

00:36:37But three years later, they knew a lot about him,

00:36:40including a disturbing connection he had with Libby.

00:36:43He had asked for explicit photos.

00:36:46This Anthony Shotz was soliciting young girls

00:36:49for nude photos and videos.

00:36:51And some of the girls were friends of Libby,

00:36:54and one was Libby as well.

00:36:56Which is a very bad sign.

00:36:57It's bad, yep.

00:37:00Any idea what Libby was sending to him?

00:37:02Was she sending him nude photos?

00:37:04No, no.

00:37:05And the problem with social media,

00:37:08we could tell that they're communicating together,

00:37:09but we don't always get the content of it.

00:37:12But we do know that he was asking for those

00:37:15because she had told people that he was asking,

00:37:17and she wasn't sending them.

00:37:20To investigators, Shotz checked a lot of boxes.

00:37:24He was one of the last people to communicate

00:37:27with her before she died.

00:37:29People are starting to think, OK, he's

00:37:32communicating with Libby in the days before her death.

00:37:37Could be something here.

00:37:38I was in shock, first off, that she was even doing that,

00:37:42because I kept thinking she would never do that.

00:37:45So it was hard to accept that she had.

00:37:48Did you think this person might have had something

00:37:50to do with their deaths?

00:37:52Yeah.

00:37:52You know, I mean, you start to ride up that roller coaster

00:37:54because of the connections made, right?

00:37:57We talked to Libby the day of, or day before.

00:38:01Hours before their deaths.

00:38:03Yes.

00:38:04And they were really investigating

00:38:06this Anthony Shotz.

00:38:07They were investigating him hard.

00:38:11Becky wondered if he was part of a pedophile operation.

00:38:14At that point in time, I'm thinking, oh my gosh,

00:38:16this guy was talking to him.

00:38:17Oh my gosh, they were going to kidnap and traffic them.

00:38:21And there was something else alarming.

00:38:23Police discovered the guy Libby had been talking to didn't

00:38:26exist.

00:38:28It turned out Anthony Shotz was not Anthony Shotz.

00:38:32Correct.

00:38:33Anthony Shotz was just a screen name?

00:38:36Yes.

00:38:36While investigating the murders of Abigail Williams

00:38:39and Liberty German.

00:38:40More than a year later in 2021, investigators

00:38:43asked the public for help.

00:38:44Investigators would like any individual who communicated,

00:38:47met, or attempted to meet the Anthony Shotz profile

00:38:51to contact law enforcement.

00:38:53I think a lot of people looking at this case

00:38:55always wondered if there was some sort

00:38:58of a catfishing element.

00:39:00Why did the girls go out there that day?

00:39:02Were they out there to meet someone?

00:39:05And so I think that fit in with that theory of the case

00:39:09is that, oh yes, they're catfished.

00:39:10That's how they got out there.

00:39:12As we're covering this, we're thinking, OK,

00:39:14maybe this is the guy.

00:39:16An update now.

00:39:17That fake social media profile shared by detectives

00:39:20investigating the murder of two young girls in Delphi.

00:39:25As journalists and true crime bloggers

00:39:27race to identify the person who created the fake profile,

00:39:31local NBC station WTHR tracked down the man in those photos.

00:39:36Well, now for the very first time,

00:39:37we're hearing from the man whose pictures were stolen and used

00:39:41by that Anthony Shotz profile.

00:39:43His real name is Vincent Kowalski.

00:39:46Once a model, he changed careers and joined law enforcement.

00:39:49Our Jenny Runovich talked with the former model

00:39:52and now current police officer in Alaska,

00:39:54who frankly was pretty shocked to see

00:39:56his face connected to this investigation in Indiana.

00:40:00Kowalski had nothing to do with sordid images of young girls

00:40:04or the murders of Abby and Libby.

00:40:05Just seeing your face blasted all over the news was crazy.

00:40:10Even though he looked casual interviewing as he worked out,

00:40:14this father of two girls was outraged

00:40:16when he learned someone had used his photos as bait.

00:40:19Soliciting videos from young girls, like, that's disgusting.

00:40:23And it makes me sick.

00:40:24But to know that two young girls possibly lost their life

00:40:28because of my picture, it's the worst of the worst.

00:40:34Police had a catfisher on their hands.

00:40:37But who was it?

00:40:38Are you thinking that this guy could be the killer,

00:40:41given the fact that he was talking

00:40:43to Libby over Snapchat not too long before the murders?

00:40:48Yeah, absolutely.

00:40:50To uncover the truth, the investigation

00:40:53would go into dark places.

00:40:55He's definitely a bad person, was doing bad things.

00:40:58And there would be allegations of something

00:41:00even more sinister.

00:41:02I believe that would have been the first ritualistic killing

00:41:06of two young girls.

00:41:07It was a complete shocker and was absolutely

00:41:11not the direction I thought they were going to go.

00:41:19When investigators went public with the Anthony Schatz profile,

00:41:22they actually knew much more about the person behind it

00:41:25than they were letting on.

00:41:27He's definitely a bad person, was doing bad things.

00:41:30So you just knew that he had been misrepresenting himself

00:41:33to young girls?

00:41:34Yes.

00:41:35Turned out he'd been the target of an investigation

00:41:37that was going to be held by the FBI.

00:41:40And that's when the investigation

00:41:41began to take a more serious turn.

00:41:44It was an investigation that was going to be held

00:41:46Turned out he'd been the target of an entirely

00:41:48different investigation two counties away from Delphi.

00:41:52Back in 2017, a few days after Abby and Libby were murdered,

00:41:56the man posing as Anthony Schatz got an underage girl

00:41:59to send him her address.

00:42:01A day later, she saw a figure in a ski mask

00:42:04peeping through her bedroom window

00:42:06and reported the scary encounter.

00:42:08Police investigated and traced the account

00:42:10to a 22-year-old man named Kegan Klein.

00:42:14Who is Kegan Klein?

00:42:16Kegan Klein is the person that was

00:42:18using the Anthony Schatz profile to solicit girls

00:42:21to send him pornographic photos.

00:42:23And Kegan Klein was a big, overweight,

00:42:28not somebody that these girls would talk to kind of person.

00:42:31So he changed who he was.

00:42:34Not long after that peeping Tom incident,

00:42:36law enforcement raided Klein's home.

00:42:39They turned up more than 100 sexually explicit photos

00:42:42and videos of underage girls on his electronic devices.

00:42:47It took three years, but he was arrested

00:42:49on child pornography charges.

00:42:51And that's when Delphi investigators spoke with him.

00:42:55He's a bad guy.

00:42:56He's a pathological liar.

00:42:58He would tell us something we would look into

00:42:59and it'd be a lie.

00:43:00He lied a lot.

00:43:03Klein seemed to have a strong alibi,

00:43:05that he was in Vegas at the time of the murders.

00:43:08But after a deep dive into the data on his phones,

00:43:11the Delphi investigators found out that wasn't true.

00:43:14It's determined, though, that he was not in Las Vegas.

00:43:17He's in Peru, Indiana, which is not far from here.

00:43:20That is true.

00:43:21They checked it and they thought he was in Vegas,

00:43:23but we knew shortly after that he wasn't in Vegas.

00:43:26Are you thinking that this guy could be the killer,

00:43:29given the fact that he was talking

00:43:32to Libby over Snapchat not too long before the murders?

00:43:38Yeah, absolutely.

00:43:39He was definitely someone who we believed that could

00:43:43have been capable of doing that.

00:43:46Kagan Klein was on the radar of police early on,

00:43:51but he came back on the radar because someone looked at him

00:43:55again and said, wait a second, he was not in Las Vegas.

00:43:58He was in Peru, Indiana.

00:44:01Yeah, seems like a suspect.

00:44:03This seemed like it had the most potential up to that point.

00:44:07So you're just waiting for that call?

00:44:09Maybe they'll arrest him for the murders?

00:44:12That's how we said we were going to operate,

00:44:14and we stuck to that.

00:44:17When Court TV's Barbara McDonald learned

00:44:19Klein was in jail on child pornography charges,

00:44:21she contacted him.

00:44:23What happened?

00:44:24He talked to me.

00:44:24He gave me an interview from jail.

00:44:27Hi, Kagan.

00:44:27How are you?

00:44:28Did Kagan have any history of violence that you could see?

00:44:32No history of violence.

00:44:34He seemed to be the type of guy who sat behind a computer

00:44:39and did his crimes that way.

00:44:42So are you aware that there's a bunch of news stories

00:44:45out there linking you to the Delphi murders?

00:44:48Yeah, I saw that on the news.

00:44:50OK.

00:44:51And you have admitted that you created this fake profile

00:44:57Anthony Shotz.

00:44:58Is that correct?

00:45:00Yeah.

00:45:01Why did you create that profile?

00:45:03I was just lonely, you know what I mean?

00:45:07Just talking to people.

00:45:08I don't know why I did it, really.

00:45:09He did admit, though, to being involved in child pornography?

00:45:13Absolutely.

00:45:14You were committing crimes against children.

00:45:18You were asking children to send you inappropriate images,

00:45:22correct?

00:45:24He said, yes, the things that I'm accused of so far,

00:45:26the charges I have, I did that.

00:45:30But when it came to contact with Libby,

00:45:32Klein seemed evasive.

00:45:34So Anthony Shotz was communicating with Libby.

00:45:38Was that you?

00:45:39That's what they said.

00:45:40Was that you?

00:45:42No, not that I remember, but that's what they're saying.

00:45:45Are you aware whether you may have

00:45:47talked to Libby on the 13th?

00:45:50That's what the police told me.

00:45:52And do you have any recollection of that?

00:45:54No, not at all.

00:45:56He said he had no plans to meet Libby or Abby or anyone

00:45:59else that day.

00:46:01Where were you on February 13, 2017?

00:46:05I was at my house.

00:46:06In Peru, Indiana?

00:46:08Yeah.

00:46:09He says he'd never been to Delphi,

00:46:11except for a high school football game,

00:46:14and that he didn't know about the bridge or where it was.

00:46:17But with Kegan, it was always really hard to determine

00:46:20what was true and what wasn't.

00:46:23Did you have anything to do with the murders of Abby or Libby?

00:46:27Not at all.

00:46:28I gave up my DNA, a hair follicle test.

00:46:30I've done everything they wanted me to.

00:46:32Immediately, I was like, well, give me a polygraph test,

00:46:34a DNA, whatever you want.

00:46:35I'll do anything.

00:46:36I'm innocent of this, and I would

00:46:38love to find out who did it.

00:46:40Klein's phone activity showed he was at his grandmother's house

00:46:4340 minutes from Delphi.

00:46:45We could never put his phone or any technology

00:46:48of him being in Delphi.

00:46:50During the time of the murders, he

00:46:53was actually at his grandmother's house.

00:46:56And in the end, investigators couldn't

00:46:58prove he killed Abby and Libby.

00:47:00We conducted a thorough investigation

00:47:02and ruled him out.

00:47:03Another dead end.

00:47:04Another dead end.

00:47:07Klein would eventually plead guilty to 25 charges,

00:47:10including child porn and child exploitation.

00:47:14He was sentenced to 40 years in prison.

00:47:17Then, after years of dead ends, investigators

00:47:20would finally get a break.

00:47:21A conscientious volunteer happened to find a box

00:47:24and stumbled upon a new name on a tip sheet.

00:47:28I mean, could you believe it?

00:47:30A new name.

00:47:31This is potentially huge.

00:47:34And not just a new name, a name and a timeline

00:47:37in this tip that fits what we've been looking for for,

00:47:41at that time, five and a half years.

00:47:55The double murder case that law enforcement once thought

00:47:58would be solved quickly had haunted

00:48:00them for over five long years.

00:48:04I knew it wasn't from lack of effort.

00:48:05We had a great team.

00:48:06We were working extremely hard, 10, 12, 15 hours a day.

00:48:12A lot of sleepless nights.

00:48:13We were really focused on finding the killer.

00:48:16And we weren't going to give up.

00:48:18By then, they'd received tens of thousands of tips,

00:48:21some from the earliest stages of the case.

00:48:23Some from the earliest stages of the investigation

00:48:26hadn't been filed away properly.

00:48:28There was so much coming in that we just couldn't handle it.

00:48:32We just couldn't.

00:48:33I'm here to help in any way I can.

00:48:34Over the years, a local volunteer named Cathy Shank

00:48:38dedicated countless hours organizing

00:48:40and digitizing those files.

00:48:43Felt like that I need to be here and I need to help.

00:48:45Excuse me, that's what I do.

00:48:47She was a former investigator with Child Protective Services

00:48:50and had an eye for detail.

00:48:52If she would come across things throughout the years

00:48:54that she wasn't aware of, she would

00:48:56bring it to an investigator.

00:48:57And most of the time, that was me.

00:49:02In September 2022, as the team prepared

00:49:05to move to a new location, Cathy was packing up files

00:49:08and stumbled on a box in the bottom of a drawer.

00:49:11Inside was a tip from early in the investigation

00:49:14before Cathy joined.

00:49:16It involved that man whose wife had seen the story on the news

00:49:19and urged him to report he'd been at the trail that day.

00:49:22And so now this is a new name.

00:49:24Correct, yeah.

00:49:26To Cathy Shank, this could be their man.

00:49:29This could be Bridge Guy.

00:49:31This is potentially huge.

00:49:34A name and a timeline in this tip

00:49:36that fits what we've been looking for for, at that time,

00:49:39five and a half years.

00:49:42Back then, a conservation officer

00:49:44met and spoke to the man who explained

00:49:46he'd been out of the trails around 1.30 to 3.30.

00:49:50The officer's report somehow got overlooked, until now.

00:49:54So it was misfiled as cleared, so no one followed up on it.

00:49:59So something fell through the cracks where this tip did not.

00:50:02Whoever wrote cleared on it, everybody ignored it.

00:50:04This man has placed himself by the bridge

00:50:09at the time the girls were there.

00:50:11Absolutely.

00:50:12What did you think when you saw that?

00:50:15I thought that, you know, that's Bridge Guy.

00:50:18So I'm like, we need to talk to that guy.

00:50:20That's the guy that we were missing.

00:50:21Oh my gosh, are you just dying when you hear this?

00:50:24Like, is this what we've been waiting for?

00:50:26Yes.

00:50:28The man who'd come forward all those years ago

00:50:30was Richard Allen, a 50-year-old Delphi

00:50:32man who worked at the local CVS.

00:50:35He was married with a grown daughter.

00:50:38So this is an average Joe, it seems like.

00:50:42It's what it appeared.

00:50:42Squeaky clean, as far as law enforcement goes.

00:50:46Investigators went back over the evidence,

00:50:48including surveillance video from a business near the trail.

00:50:52In it was a black car.

00:50:54They couldn't confirm the license plate or who was driving,

00:50:57but they knew Allen owned something similar.

00:51:00Was his vehicle on that video?

00:51:01It was.

00:51:02It lined up with the time that Richard Allen said

00:51:04he was there.

00:51:06A few weeks later, they paid Allen a visit.

00:51:09Went to his house and knocked on the door

00:51:11and asked him to come talk to us.

00:51:12He willingly went with you?

00:51:14He did, yep.

00:51:16Back to the investigation center,

00:51:18where Sheriff Liggett and another detective

00:51:20began their interview.

00:51:21Allen chose not to have an attorney present.

00:51:24In the beginning, his demeanor was fine.

00:51:28I believe he drank a lot of water,

00:51:29but in the beginning, he was fine.

00:51:33When detectives showed Allen the picture of Bridge Guy,

00:51:36he bristled.

00:51:39He said it wasn't him, that he never

00:51:41saw Abby or Libby at the trail.

00:51:43And he changed his timeline.

00:51:45Now he said he was there earlier in the day.

00:51:49But what about that video of the black car?

00:51:52Did you confront him with that?

00:51:53Yes, he was abrasive about it and said,

00:51:55you don't know that that's my car and things like that.

00:51:58Did he look nervous?

00:51:59And he got to that point, yes.

00:52:03The interview ended.

00:52:04He was free to go.

00:52:07But the investigation into Allen was just beginning.

00:52:10They got a search warrant and went back

00:52:12to his Delphi home.

00:52:14What do you find from the search warrants?

00:52:17He had a lot of knives, a lot of clothing

00:52:19that matched the description that matched Bridge Guy.

00:52:22Yes.

00:52:24And they found something else, a SIG Sauer pistol, like this one.

00:52:28They sent the pistol to the crime lab,

00:52:30where a state firearms expert tested

00:52:32it using .40 caliber bullets.

00:52:35She then compared markings on the bullets made by the gun

00:52:38with markings on the bullet found at the crime scene.

00:52:42Soon after, Sheriff Liggett got a call.

00:52:45Was it a match?

00:52:46It was a match.

00:52:47This news is everything.

00:52:50It's huge.

00:52:52Investigators thought they heard someone

00:52:54racking their gun on that video from Libby's phone.

00:52:57Now, with the bullet match, they were convinced it was Allen.

00:53:01Once we got the result back that the round matched his gun,

00:53:05we decided to call him back in for another interview.

00:53:08Allen agreed to come in, again without an attorney.

00:53:12Lieutenant Holman did the interview this time

00:53:14and told Allen how the crime scene bullet matched to his gun.

00:53:18Why is your round from your gun at the crime scene?

00:53:22And he just denied it and could never give us an explanation.

00:53:28The tone in the interrogation room quickly became heated,

00:53:31and the lieutenant says Allen eventually threatened him.

00:53:34He just made the comment that I was going to pay for this,

00:53:37and I told him, no, you're going to pay for this.

00:53:41The detective had heard enough, and soon after that interview,

00:53:44police arrested Richard Allen for the murders

00:53:47of Abby and Libby.

00:53:49After so many false leads, Libby's grandparents

00:53:52were cautious when they heard the news.

00:53:55And we asked him, do you have enough evidence to convict?

00:53:57Are you sure?

00:53:58Are you positive?

00:53:59Are you, you know?

00:54:00They were sure, and on Halloween 2022,

00:54:05police unmasked the alleged killer.

00:54:07But the arrest of Richard M. Allen of Delphi

00:54:11on two counts of murder is sure a major step

00:54:14in leading to the conclusion of this long-term and complex

00:54:19investigation.

00:54:20You waited five days to announce the arrest.

00:54:24Why not rush out and tell the public

00:54:25that we got the man we believe is the killer?

00:54:28We didn't rush out and do anything

00:54:29throughout the course of this.

00:54:30What was the reason, though?

00:54:31Global attention.

00:54:33The case had become an international story,

00:54:36even more so after a stunning allegation surfaced.

00:54:40Could others have been behind the murders?

00:54:43These men who practice odinism were perhaps

00:54:47performing some sort of a ritualistic sacrifice

00:54:51in the woods.

00:54:53What did you make of that odinism theory?

00:54:55It needed to be investigated.

00:55:07For the people of Delphi, the news was still settling in

00:55:10that there'd been an arrest.

00:55:11We're going to keep pushing all the way.

00:55:14Libby's grandparents were, of course, relieved.

00:55:17And as for the identity of the suspect,

00:55:20do you know Richard Allen?

00:55:22No.

00:55:23If law enforcement is correct, the suspect

00:55:25has been hiding in plain sight this whole time.

00:55:29And if he's not, then we're going to have to find him.

00:55:32Many in Delphi did know Richard Allen,

00:55:36or at least had seen him working at that neighborhood

00:55:38CVS.

00:55:39A disturbing detail is that this man

00:55:42is the man who prepared the photos for the girls' funerals.

00:55:48Yes.

00:55:48That was the first thing my daughter thought of when

00:55:51they showed his picture and said he worked at CVS.

00:55:54She said, oh, my god, he's the man who prepared the photos.

00:55:58They showed his picture and said he worked at CVS.

00:56:01She said, oh, mom, mom, he's the one

00:56:04that developed those pictures.

00:56:07For the victim's families, the arrest

00:56:09marked the first of many more startling revelations.

00:56:12The defense was about to drop an alternate theory of who

00:56:17did this and why, and it was a shocker.

00:56:20It was a complete shocker and was absolutely not

00:56:25the direction I thought they were going to go.

00:56:2711 months after his arrest, Allen's attorneys

00:56:31surprised many with a pretrial filing,

00:56:34claiming the girls might have been killed in those woods

00:56:36by members of a pagan religion called Odinism.

00:56:40This theory that these men who practice

00:56:44Odinism, which is this Norse pagan religion,

00:56:48were perhaps performing some sort

00:56:50of a ritualistic sacrifice in the woods

00:56:55and decided to target these two girls.

00:56:58Are there any known groups like that in the area?

00:57:02There are these sort of different groups in the area.

00:57:07There are these people who practice

00:57:09this Norse pagan religion.

00:57:14To explain that theory, Allen's attorneys

00:57:16met us in an area similar to the crime scene.

00:57:19We should say these are not the woods

00:57:21where Abby and Libby were found.

00:57:23Jennifer Ogier, Brad Rosie, and Andy Baldwin

00:57:26represented Allen.

00:57:28They say those sticks that were partially

00:57:30covering the girls' bodies were meant to send a message

00:57:33and demonstrated for us how some of them were placed.

00:57:36We had sticks that were arranged in a certain pattern.

00:57:40I mean, to me, it's just plain silly to say

00:57:42that these were thrown on there to hide the body.

00:57:45And they certainly didn't hide the bodies.

00:57:47Did not.

00:57:48They believe the sticks formed letters

00:57:51from an ancient alphabet known as runes, a way

00:57:54Odinism followers can communicate.

00:57:57It sends a message to the person that

00:57:59made them and created them.

00:58:01So what could it have meant in this case?

00:58:03That it's only known to the person that created the rune.

00:58:08Their bodies were forming a V as well.

00:58:10And we think that that is likely symbolic to the person

00:58:14or people that did this.

00:58:16And they point out that Libby's blood was found on a nearby

00:58:19tree and say it appears someone used it

00:58:21to create another Odinistic symbol that

00:58:24looked like this, an F.

00:58:27There's just no natural way that that shape

00:58:30gets on the tree accidentally.

00:58:33While some thought the ritualistic killing theory

00:58:36was far-fetched, Allen's attorney

00:58:38said they weren't the first to bring it up.

00:58:40If we're going to come up with a defense,

00:58:42we're not going to pull Odinism out of the air.

00:58:44That's fantastical, right?

00:58:46I mean, this was driven by the evidence

00:58:48that was given to us.

00:58:50Soon after the murders, it was the police

00:58:52who had looked into the possibility

00:58:54of a ritualistic killing.

00:58:55It was definitely investigated very

00:58:57thoroughly by multiple people.

00:58:59No stone unturned.

00:59:00We did not have tunnel vision.

00:59:01Multiple officers spent multiple hours, multiple months

00:59:05looking into that connection.

00:59:07What did you make of that theory, Odinism theory?

00:59:11It needed to be investigated.

00:59:12They investigated that Odinism.

00:59:15Sheriff Liggett says law enforcement concluded

00:59:17there was no connection between Odinism and the murders.

00:59:20I believe that that would have been

00:59:22the first ritualistic killing of two young girls.

00:59:26That's not what Odinism, it's a religion.

00:59:29I wasn't aware of it, but it's evidently not uncommon.

00:59:33Then, Allen's attorneys found themselves in hot water

00:59:36after some crime scene photos were leaked

00:59:38to several media outlets.

00:59:40Turned out, they came from their camp.

00:59:43You've been accused of trying to put your narrative out there.

00:59:47Of this Odinism by leaking these photos.

00:59:51True or false?

00:59:51100% false and offensive.

00:59:54Allen's attorneys say a former associate

00:59:56who had access to their office copied the photos

00:59:59and unbeknownst to them, sent the images around.

01:00:03It is very upsetting to me that anybody would say

01:00:06that we intentionally made any of that happen.

01:00:08So this was unintentional?

01:00:10It's, yeah.

01:00:12Absolutely.

01:00:13There was nothing to gain by leaking those documents.

01:00:17I mean, there's just, there's no plausible gain.

01:00:19The judge was so angry, she took you off the case.

01:00:24Yeah, fired us.

01:00:25What was your reaction to that?

01:00:26Deep despair, getting in a fetal position in my bed

01:00:30for days, you know, thinking my life is over,

01:00:32my career is over.

01:00:34The attorneys appealed the judge's decision

01:00:36and the state Supreme Court reinstated them.

01:00:40But the fallout from those leaked photos continued.

01:00:43Somebody said, I've got some pictures I want you to see,

01:00:46you need to see.

01:00:48A podcaster texted them to Becky.

01:00:51It was the first time she and Mike

01:00:53had seen the gruesome images of the girls.

01:00:56The photos, the things that we learned,

01:01:00only confirmed our most horrible imaginations.

01:01:06Those photos should have been protected.

01:01:09Should have never got to that point.

01:01:11I'm sorry, I'll call it out.

01:01:12The defense team has culpability in that.

01:01:14Would you be open to saying sorry to them

01:01:17for what happened?

01:01:18I would love to do it in person.

01:01:20I would love to sit down and talk with them

01:01:21if they would want to do that, absolutely.

01:01:24The defense now had to focus on the trial,

01:01:26which was just weeks away.

01:01:28Did you feel it was an uphill battle going to trial?

01:01:32Well, it felt, from a defense perspective,

01:01:34it felt like a stacked deck.

01:01:36The prosecution, on the other hand,

01:01:38had a possible ace up its sleeve.

01:01:40Prison calls that would reveal

01:01:42some stunning conversations.

01:01:44When you heard that, did you think, game over?

01:01:47And just confirm that we had the right guy.

01:02:06In the summer of 2024, Richard Allen's lawyers

01:02:09were revving up for trial.

01:02:12At a pre-trial hearing,

01:02:13they presented that key part of their defense,

01:02:16that followers of a pagan cult killed Abby and Libby.

01:02:20Richard Allen has the right

01:02:22to present these alternative theories

01:02:23if they have some basis.

01:02:25And then the judge says,

01:02:26you can't bring them up in trial as alternate suspects.

01:02:30That's a blow to your defense.

01:02:32Huge.

01:02:33Carroll County Prosecutor, Nicholas McCleeland,

01:02:36acknowledged that as strong as some of the evidence

01:02:38appeared to be, his case had holes too.

01:02:42Male DNA had been recovered at the crime scene,

01:02:45but the sample was too small to match to anyone.

01:02:48There was no DNA, no fingerprints,

01:02:51no text messages tying Richard Allen to the girls.

01:02:54The image from the phone was grainy.

01:02:57The voice isn't perfect.

01:02:59So many things that would be cons, you know,

01:03:03to a prosecution.

01:03:05Correct.

01:03:06I think you have bad facts in almost every case.

01:03:09And so those are just hurdles that we had to overcome

01:03:11by other circumstantial evidence that we had.

01:03:13Was there anything you learned about Richard Allen's past

01:03:16that would explain why he could be capable

01:03:19of something like this?

01:03:20How do you explain this behavior,

01:03:22that it suddenly just happens?

01:03:25I am not the person to ask to explain

01:03:27the criminal psychology of one's mind

01:03:29that convinces them that they need to kill two little girls.

01:03:33I don't think anything in his past

01:03:34would justify or explain why he did this.

01:03:39Nearly eight years after the murders,

01:03:40Richard Allen's trial got underway.

01:03:44People lined up, news crews from all over,

01:03:47tons of security.

01:03:49This little, quiet, sleepy town

01:03:52suddenly is ground zero for this trial.

01:03:57People from Australia, Finland, I mean, just everywhere.

01:04:00It's been a fascination for so many people,

01:04:03I think because of how unusual it is.

01:04:07Libby's and Abby's families

01:04:08did their best to drown out the noise.

01:04:11They sat on the same side of the courtroom

01:04:12in a show of solidarity.

01:04:15There would have never been another option.

01:04:17We walked through this thing from the beginning together.

01:04:21We have to finish it together.

01:04:23This is everything.

01:04:24And all eyes are on you when you walk in the courthouse.

01:04:28I didn't care about any of that.

01:04:30I cared about the 12 jurors in there

01:04:34and what they thought and how the information and facts

01:04:37are gonna be presented to them.

01:04:40No cameras were allowed in court.

01:04:42Prosecutor McLeelan set out to convince the jury

01:04:45there was only one man responsible for these murders,

01:04:48Richard Allen, aka Bridge Guy.

01:04:51He opened with this.

01:04:53This is about Bridge Guy, this is about a bullet,

01:04:56and this is about two young girls who were murdered.

01:04:59He made it very straightforward.

01:05:01My openings are always very, very short

01:05:03and very, very to the point.

01:05:05I would rather just keep the jury kind of on the hook.

01:05:08He began his case by calling officers

01:05:10who described the crime scene

01:05:11and evidence gathered in vivid detail.

01:05:14The prosecutor went with a little more of the emotion

01:05:17in the beginning to get the jury to really sense

01:05:21how horrific this thing was

01:05:24that happened to these two girls.

01:05:29He drove home the full horror of the murders

01:05:32by showing photographs of what had been done

01:05:34to Abby and Libby.

01:05:35To watch the jury during that was,

01:05:39they were visibly shaken and emotional.

01:05:41I wish that I had never seen those.

01:05:44It was awful.

01:05:45There were some members of Abby's family

01:05:48who chose not to be in the room.

01:05:50There were a few members of Libby's family

01:05:52that left as well.

01:05:53I remember that one juror, he could not,

01:05:56he would lean forward and put his head in his hands.

01:05:59He couldn't look.

01:06:01Becky testified for the prosecution.

01:06:04My goal was to tell the jury about Libby.

01:06:08I wanted them to know that those girls mattered

01:06:11and they need to think of that throughout this whole trial.

01:06:17McCleeland laid out for the jurors

01:06:18his theory of how Allen carried out the murders.

01:06:21He went out to the trails that day.

01:06:24He laid in wait.

01:06:26He then saw the two girls,

01:06:27forced them down the hill with a firearm.

01:06:31We believe there's a sexual assault

01:06:33that was going to occur.

01:06:34And then we believe he got spooked

01:06:36and he decided to kill them.

01:06:38He left the crime scene and continued on with his life.

01:06:42The prosecutor put the state's firearms expert

01:06:44on the stand.

01:06:46Her opinion was the bullet found

01:06:48between Abby's and Libby's bodies

01:06:50had to have come from Richard Allen's gun

01:06:52based on marks matching the gun's mechanism.

01:06:55The bullet to me was huge

01:06:57because it tied Richard Allen to the crime scene

01:07:00where the girls were found.

01:07:01Racking the gun in that situation

01:07:03will be such a powerful statement

01:07:05that if you don't do what I say,

01:07:06I am gonna shoot you or I am gonna hurt you.

01:07:09And so we just believe that was how he was able

01:07:13to control the girls with this firearm.

01:07:16McCleeland argued the moment Allen racked the gun

01:07:19could be heard on the 43 seconds of video

01:07:21captured by Libby.

01:07:23You're hearing Abby and Libby talk.

01:07:25You're hearing one of them say, is he behind me?

01:07:29The fact that Libby had the wherewithal

01:07:32to hit record on her phone

01:07:35and capture these images and keep rolling,

01:07:38she was in death almost your star witness.

01:07:42I agree.

01:07:43In her dying moment,

01:07:44she had the wherewithal to pull that phone out

01:07:46and take a video and help solve her own crime.

01:07:50The prosecution said the phone provided a key timeline

01:07:53for the murders and a link to the killer.

01:07:55A number of witnesses testified the man in the video

01:07:58was the one they saw that day,

01:08:00including the woman who reported a man

01:08:02covered in mud and blood.

01:08:04All agreed he was Bridge Guy.

01:08:07You didn't have them in court

01:08:09actually look at Richard Allen and say,

01:08:12is that the man you saw?

01:08:13Which is what we're all used to on TV, right?

01:08:16That's the big powerful moment.

01:08:18Is that the man?

01:08:19And you didn't do that.

01:08:20Why not?

01:08:20Just a strategic move.

01:08:22Was there fear that if you did say,

01:08:24is that the man that they would say,

01:08:26honestly, I can't be sure.

01:08:27There's always that fear they're going to say that,

01:08:28but we had in our minds,

01:08:30what we want to identify as Bridge Guy

01:08:32and then tie in that Richard Allen is Bridge Guy.

01:08:34That was our strategy from day one.

01:08:37As the trial progressed,

01:08:38the prosecutor used Richard Allen's own words against him.

01:08:42He argued Allen told law enforcement

01:08:44before later changing his story

01:08:46that he was on the trails during the window of the murders.

01:08:50We believe he was on the trails from 1.30 to 3.30,

01:08:52like he had originally said in 2017.

01:08:54In 2022, he changed that from 12.30 to 1.30.

01:08:59McClelland also played Richard Allen's voice in court.

01:09:03It turned out that while he had been in jail,

01:09:05officers recorded some 700 phone calls

01:09:08between Allen and his wife and mother.

01:09:10In some of those calls, he confessed.

01:09:13He told his wife, I wanted to apologize to you.

01:09:16I did it.

01:09:17No, I did it.

01:09:17I killed Abby and Libby.

01:09:19When you heard that, did you think game over?

01:09:21And it just confirmed that we had the right guy.

01:09:24Libby's family listened intently to the recordings.

01:09:28Did they seem believable?

01:09:30Yeah, 100%.

01:09:31And it's like, oh yeah, yeah, by the way,

01:09:33I did kill those Delphi girls, you know?

01:09:35And she said, no, you didn't.

01:09:37They're messing with your mind.

01:09:38And he said, why would I tell you I did it if I didn't?

01:09:43And Allen didn't just make confessions to his family.

01:09:46Over the course of 21 months in jail,

01:09:48he made more than 60 apparent confessions

01:09:52to corrections officers, inmates,

01:09:55and also to the jail psychologist, Dr. Monica Walla.

01:09:59She said he told her he marched the girls across the creek

01:10:02and killed them with a box cutter,

01:10:04that he had planned to rape them,

01:10:06but got spooked by a passing van on a nearby drive.

01:10:10What can we confirm in that confession?

01:10:12He said he saw a van.

01:10:14Let's start looking around.

01:10:15Were there any vans in the area?

01:10:17A local man named Brad Weber took the stand.

01:10:20Brad Weber was coming home from work that day,

01:10:22and sure enough, he was driving a van.

01:10:25As the prosecution rested,

01:10:26it appeared it could be game over for Richard Allen.

01:10:29But Allen's attorneys argued nothing was what it seemed.

01:10:33They would counter that those weren't real confessions,

01:10:36that it wasn't Allen's bullet,

01:10:39and there was no proof he was Bridge Guy.

01:10:42None of the people on the trail gave a description

01:10:45that matched Richard Allen.

01:10:50As Richard Allen's defense team saw it,

01:10:52even though they had some setbacks before trial,

01:10:54the case against their client was thin.

01:10:57There's just not much there.

01:10:59One of the things that really jumps out at you

01:11:01is that this is a man

01:11:01who had never been in trouble with the law.

01:11:03He works at CBS, and then suddenly,

01:11:05he's responsible for this very grave crime.

01:11:08He's a criminal.

01:11:09He's a criminal.

01:11:10He's a criminal.

01:11:11He's a criminal.

01:11:12He's a criminal.

01:11:13He's a criminal.

01:11:14He's a criminal.

01:11:15He's a criminal.

01:11:16He's a criminal.

01:11:17He's a criminal.

01:11:18He's a criminal.

01:11:19He's responsible for this very gruesome crime

01:11:21with these young girls.

01:11:22And no forensic evidence.

01:11:24No forensic evidence.

01:11:26But the defense had some major obstacles to overcome.

01:11:29What does look really bad for Richard Allen

01:11:32is that he places himself in that area that day.

01:11:35He didn't have to do that.

01:11:37I don't know how somebody's supposed to react

01:11:39when the law enforcement gets on the TV

01:11:41saying, we need help.

01:11:42The easiest thing for him to do

01:11:44would have been to say nothing

01:11:46and leave Delphi.

01:11:47He did the exact opposite, which was he cooperated.

01:11:51One of the things that prosecution pounced on was they say that Richard Allen changed his story

01:11:56as far as the time that he was out there.

01:11:59Five and a half years passed.

01:12:01Who, anyone here, anyone listening, who can tell you what they were doing

01:12:06to his specificity five and a half years ago?

01:12:09He wasn't the one that changed his story.

01:12:11It was the police who lost recordings of the initial conversation with Richard Allen.

01:12:17Richard says, I was on those trails between noon and 1.30.

01:12:23What's more, they argued, none of the witnesses could say for sure that Richard Allen was Bridge Guy.

01:12:29None of the people on the trail gave a description that matched Richard Allen.

01:12:34Even the witnesses on the trail couldn't agree on what Bridge Guy was wearing.

01:12:38And, you know, it was jeans and a Carhartt type coat.

01:12:42You're in a rural county in Indiana, probably half the men in that county have those clothes.

01:12:48And while Allen stands about 5'6", some witnesses described Bridge Guy as medium height or even tall.

01:12:55So many different opinions about how old this person was, how tall they were, how heavy.

01:13:00One of the key witnesses for the state, she described to the police a guy that was in his early 20s

01:13:07that had brown poofy hair.

01:13:10That's the guy that she said was Bridge Guy.

01:13:12And that doesn't match the guy that's on the bridge.

01:13:17The defense attorneys also poured cold water on the 43 seconds of audio and video captured by Libby.

01:13:24They argued the audio was muddy, the video grainy.

01:13:28With everything in this case, on the surface you hear, okay, there's a video of the suspect.

01:13:33And then you find out, okay, well, it's grainy and it's from far away and it's not real clear.

01:13:39But what about the unfired bullet found at the scene?

01:13:42The defense pushed back hard on the state's expert who said it was a match to Allen's gun.

01:13:47I was fairly well versed in the ballistics arena.

01:13:51It's not what we would call or what a layperson would call science.

01:13:54You didn't trust the science behind this so-called match?

01:13:58It's not a science, no.

01:14:00He argued there's a difference between fired bullets and unfired bullets ejected from a gun after it's been racked.

01:14:07There's no dispute that the round, the magic bullet that was found allegedly at the scene, was cycled and not fired.

01:14:18But when they conducted the examination,

01:14:21the test-fired rounds that they actually compared to our client's firearm were fired rounds.

01:14:27They were not test-cycled rounds.

01:14:29And so the simple way of describing that is they were comparing apples and oranges.

01:14:34I will say about this jury, they listened and took notes and leaned into every detail.

01:14:44But perhaps the most insurmountable evidence would be those 60-plus jail confessions.

01:14:49Richard Allen at one point says to his wife, I wanted to apologize to you.

01:14:53I did it. No, I did it. I killed Abby and Libby.

01:14:56Those conversations he would later go on to say, I think I killed them. Maybe I killed them.

01:15:03Yeah, in the same conversation.

01:15:04Yeah, in the same conversation.

01:15:06The defense argued they were false confessions made under duress.

01:15:10Following his arrest, Richard Allen was jailed for months in a maximum security segregation unit.

01:15:16The state said it was for his own safety. His lawyers disagreed.

01:15:20The three of us here have been in this business a long time.

01:15:23We've all represented some of the worst humans on this planet.

01:15:27And none of us have ever seen somebody detained on a pretrial basis in the most secure unit in the state of Indiana.

01:15:36That made him lose touch with reality, they said.

01:15:39When you're stuck in those circumstances, when you have no outside stimuli,

01:15:44you're stuck in a gray steel box day in, day out, lights on day in, day out.

01:15:52And you're trying to figure out why you might be held in this condition.

01:15:56It's not unrealistic that that's where you go. That's where your brain goes.

01:15:59It's medieval, the way he was detained.

01:16:02He started losing his mind in there. Is that through your eyes?

01:16:05Yeah, it's psychological warfare on a man who's a pretrial detainee.

01:16:12They argued those conditions also played into Allen's confessions to the psychologist.

01:16:18It's textbook for an environment where somebody would spew some kind of false confession,

01:16:24where basically a man says, I give, I've had enough.

01:16:28At the time that these statements are being made,

01:16:31it's hard to believe that you could give a lot of credibility to anything he was saying.

01:16:36To bolster their argument, defense attorneys pointed to Allen's police interviews.

01:16:41Time after time, he insisted he was innocent.

01:16:44In the police interviews, he's saying, I didn't do it. I didn't do it.

01:16:49This isn't me. And then when his wife comes in, he's saying, I didn't do it.

01:16:54You know, I couldn't do this.

01:16:56He's not admitting to anything.

01:16:58No, he's insisting that that he was out there on the trails to go for a walk,

01:17:03that he was looking at fish from the bridge, that he was looking at the stock ticker on his phone,

01:17:09said he never saw Abby or Libby.

01:17:13And with that, the defense rested.

01:17:16I think a lot of people who were watching the trial thought,

01:17:20there's a possibility this is going to be a hung jury, that this could go either way.

01:17:27For nearly three weeks, jurors in the Delphi community were consumed by a trial

01:17:32that was as grueling as it was heartbreaking.

01:17:36Enduring it all and sitting together were Abby's and Libby's families.

01:17:41We were brought together by an enormous group of people.

01:17:45We were brought together by a group of people who were in the same situation.

01:17:50Enduring it all and sitting together were Abby's and Libby's families.

01:17:54We were brought together by an event.

01:17:57Even though we are totally two different types of families,

01:18:01we are basically family, and we are bonded forever.

01:18:08In closing arguments, the defense told jurors not to trust much of the state's case,

01:18:13especially the testimony about the crime scene bullet matching Allen's gun.

01:18:18The ballistics and the magic bullet, that it's just, this stuff is totally unreliable.

01:18:23The prosecution hammered home that confession Allen gave to his prison psychologist

01:18:28about seeing the van on the day of the murders.

01:18:32That's a big aha moment, if you will, something that only the killer would know.

01:18:38Yeah, it was, we felt that way.

01:18:40We felt that only person that would know a van went down that private drive on that day

01:18:45would be the two girls and the killer.

01:18:49The case was now in the hands of the jury. The defense felt confident.

01:18:54I felt like we tried a great case on reasonable doubt.

01:18:58That's what the case was about. There's reasonable doubt here.

01:19:01A verdict wouldn't come quickly. Hours soon turned into days.

01:19:06The jury goes out, and they're out for days.

01:19:10That's a long time for a jury. It's a long time.

01:19:14There's a possibility this is going to be a hung jury.

01:19:19We've got breaking news coming out of Carroll County this afternoon.

01:19:22We have learned there is a verdict in the Delphi murders case.

01:19:27This is probably the biggest moment of our lives.

01:19:30Something we've been working so hard to get to this day, now this hour, this moment, this minute.

01:19:39The judge read the decision.

01:19:41I mean, there was a couple of gasps we could hear.

01:19:43Guilty on all charges.

01:19:46Outside the courthouse where the press and spectators had gathered, cheers erupted.

01:19:55We got our verdict, but that didn't bring the girls back.

01:20:01You know, it doesn't give us closure.

01:20:05It gives us a little bit of peace to know that he can never hurt another person again,

01:20:13and that he's where he should be.

01:20:16Libby's cousin Sadie was overwhelmed.

01:20:19I instantly started crying, and I called my mom, and my mom started crying.

01:20:26So it was like, I don't know if it was tears of happiness,

01:20:31or tears of nightmares coming to a close.

01:20:36Good morning.

01:20:37A few weeks later at a press conference, the prosecutor recognized an unsung hero of the case, Kathy Shank.

01:20:44She was the woman who five years after the murders found that file that led to Richard Allen.

01:20:49Without her, we would not be here.

01:20:53Without her, we would not have an arrest, a conviction, and a sentence.

01:20:58That sentence was 130 years, 65 years for Libby and 65 for Abby.

01:21:04Allen is appealing.

01:21:08Yet out of all the pain and sorrow came a ray of light.

01:21:12People in the beginning didn't know what to do, so they started sending us money,

01:21:16and we didn't want that money, so we decided we would do something in honor of Libby.

01:21:24They checked with Abby's family and together came up with a plan.

01:21:28We decided we were going to buy bleachers for the girls' softball field because their bleachers are horrible.

01:21:33But the money kept coming in and coming in.

01:21:38So they went bigger, much bigger.

01:21:44It started out as bleachers and ended up a 22-acre complex.

01:21:53We have three ball fields on it, and we host tournaments.

01:21:57We have an amphitheater where you can hold concerts, musicals, and car shows.

01:22:02Amazing, all in their honor.

01:22:04Yeah.

01:22:07It's called Abby and Libby Memorial Park, a place where Delphi's heartbreak is slowly rewritten in every cheer,

01:22:14every moment of joy, a tribute to two best friends, forever together.

01:22:21What would you say to people watching?

01:22:23Keep your faith in your deepest, darkest times.

01:22:26Sometimes a good prayer or somebody saying they're saying a prayer for you, it does help.

01:22:33Don't ever take for granted what you have today.

01:22:37Hug those kids.

01:22:40Tell them all you love them.

01:22:45That's all for this edition of Dateline.

01:22:48And check out our Talking Dateline podcast.

01:22:51Andrea Canning and Blayne Alexander will go behind the scenes of tonight's episode,

01:22:56available Wednesday in the Dateline feed wherever you get your podcasts.

01:23:01We'll see you again next Friday at 9, 8 central.

01:23:05I'm Lester Holt.

01:23:06For all of us at NBC News, good night.

01:23:09♪♪♪

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