Delphi Murders Day 6: The tip about Richard Allen

 

CARROL COUNTY, Ind. -- It took five years for someone to find a handwritten tip about Allen being on the Monon High Bridge Trail on February 13th, 2017, a tip that led to his arrest for the murder of Abigail Williams and Liberty German.

The state’s first witness of the day, Kathy Shank, a former Department of Child Services worker who volunteered to help with the case in 2017. Shank was responsible for organizing tips during the investigation.

She began digitizing her database of more than 14,000 tips in 2020, which took her about two years, she testified. But on September 21st, 2022, while moving her office materials, she found a box in her desk she hadn’t gone through, finding an old lead sheet from February 16th, 2017, later admitted into evidence, specifying a “Rick Allen Whiteman” had come forward and said he was at the trail between 1:30 and 3:30 PM two days prior.

He ran into three girls on the trail, one of whom would later testify to seeing “Bridge Guy.” That lead sheet was created before Shank’s involvement in the case. On the stand, Shank said, “I don’t know how that tip ended up in that box.” She found a narrative summary about a Richard Allen, who lived on Whiteman Road, who was “cleared.”

The state’s next witness Thursday morning, Daniel Dulin, a conservation officer who became involved with the case three days after the girls were killed.

His job was to follow up on leads, and he created the lead sheet on Richard Allen. Dulin reached out to Allen, who denied requests to come to his home but agreed to meet Dulin in a grocery store parking lot. Their five to ten-minute interview was not recorded.

The defense tried to emphasize how Richard Allen came forward himself to tell police he was on the trails that day. Notably, Dulin also went out to the crime scene, saw sticks with blood on them, and suggested they be collected into evidence.

Steve Mullen was called back to the stand to talk about his September 21st, 2022, call about the resurfaced Richard Allen tip.