DELPHI, Ind. ― Abigail “Abby” Williams and Liberty “Libby” German went to the Monon High Bridge trail shortly before 2 p.m. on Feb. 13, 2017, an unseasonably warm and school-free winter day, and were never heard from again.
Wednesday’s testimony in the trial of Richard Allen provided jurors with the clearest picture yet of the minutes leading up to the teens’ disappearance. That testimony came from Indiana State Police Sgt. Christopher Cecil, a digital forensics expert who presented a detailed timeline of the girls’ activities based on his analysis of contents he’d extracted from Libby’s iPhone.
At 1:38 p.m., she called her father ― “Daddy-o” in her contacts list. The call lasted 35 seconds. Derrick German testified last week that Libby, who had asked her older sister to drive them to the trail, called to ask him to pick them up in a few hours.
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Between 1:41 and 1:44 p.m., while on the way to the trail, the 14-year-old posted two selfies on Snapchat, one of her sticking her tongue out and another of her smiling. Her best friend, 13-year-old Abby, was sitting in the back seat with a blank expression on her face.
At 2:05 p.m., the girls reached the bridge, and Libby posted a photo of the popular Carroll County landmark just before they began crossing. Libby made it to the other end first, and at 2:13 p.m., she began recording the video that would later become a key piece of evidence in the case against Allen.
The 43-second video, which jurors saw Tuesday, showed Abby crossing the bridge and a man ― the one who would later become widely known as “Bridge Guy” and a primary suspect in the girls’ deaths ― following her.
At 2:32 p.m., the phone’s Apple health app, which can count steps and walking distances, recorded movement. It was the last movement the app detected. Libby would not answer the many frantic calls and text messages that came later.
The other witnesses on Wednesday, the fifth day of testimonies in Allen’s trial, included an eyewitness who grew defensive and sarcastic during a lengthy cross-examination by the defense and a forensic pathologist who conducted the teens’ autopsies.
Allen, who appeared in court in khaki pants and light-colored plaid shirt with his glasses perched on his head, is facing two counts of murder and two counts of murder while kidnapping the girls. His long-awaited trial comes more than seven years after the girls’ deaths and almost exactly two years since his arrest.
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Libby’s phone received grandmother’s message: ‘You need to call me now’
At 4:06 p.m., as the girls’ family members began their frantic search, Libby’s grandmother sent her a text message that was followed by multiple exclamation points.
“You need to call me now,” Becky Patty texted.
Cecil testified that a deluge of 15 text messages came at once about 12 hours later, at 4:33 a.m. on Feb. 14, 2017, indicating the phone connected then to local cell towers. Cecil said there’s no indication that Libby’s phone had been turned off, and he had no explanation for why the phone connected to a cell tower at that time.
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During his opening statement last week, defense attorney Andrew Baldwin offered an explanation contradicting prosecutors’ theory that the girls’ bodies were left in the woods off the trail on the afternoon of Feb. 13 and were untouched until first responders found them the next day.
Baldwin told jurors that the girls were likely taken somewhere in a vehicle. Sometime after 4 p.m. on Feb. 13, “human hands” not belonging to Allen, who was home by then, “handled” Libby’s phone, Baldwin said. Sometime after 4:33 a.m., the girls were taken to where they were found, Baldwin told jurors, and Libby’s phone was tucked under Abby’s leg.
Cecil testified that officials initially believed the last signal the phone received was about 10 p.m. on Feb. 13. But a second analysis conducted earlier this year using more advanced programs found that the last signal was actually received at 4:33 a.m. on Feb. 14.
One photo Cecil said he was unable to find from Libby’s phone was the now-infamous picture of Abby crossing the bridge that’s believed to have been taken at 2:07 p.m. on Feb. 13.
Cecil also extracted and analyzed data from Allen’s phone and from nearly two dozen other devices taken from him after his October 2022 arrest. Cecil said he found nothing tying Allen to the deaths, but he also implied that Allen was using different phones in 2017 and in 2022.
Carroll County Prosecutor Nicholas McLeland pointed out that Allen’s 2017 and 2022 phones had different unique IDs.
At this remark, Allen sat and shook his head in frustration, a bitter smile crossing his face. He then leaned over to Baldwin to say something quietly.
Witness: ‘I saw a man covered in mud and blood’
Earlier on Wednesday, the prosecution called another eyewitness who reported seeing “Bridge Guy” near the trail the day the girls disappeared.
Sarah Carbaugh said she decided to drive on County Road 300 North, by the trail entrance, that afternoon. It was a beautiful day and she was off work, she said, so she decided to scope out how many people were using the trail.
About 4 p.m., Carbaugh said she saw a group of people at the trail entrance looking stressed out.
Later, as she was heading east on the county road, she drove past a man who was walking hunched over, with both hands in his pocket.
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“I saw a man covered in mud and blood,” she testified.
Carbaugh described the man’s demeanor as “sketchy.” She said she looked at the man, whom she estimated was 3 feet away from her car, but he did not make eye contact with her.
Carbaugh didn’t tell police about the man for three weeks because she was scared, she testified. She later believed that the man she saw was the same man who came to be known as “Bridge Guy.”
Defense sought to pick apart eyewitness testimony during intense questioning
Baldwin, one of Allen’s defense attorneys, sought to discredit Carbaugh by picking apart what he alleged were inconsistent statements she gave police during three interviews.
He pointed out that Carbaugh mentioned the word “mud” 11 times during the first interview. She said the word 13 times during the second interview in June 2017. The word “blood” was not in the transcript of either interview, Baldwin noted, but Carbaugh insisted she remembers talking to investigators about it.
During the third interview two years later, in 2019, she mentioned the word “blood” 16 times but not the word “mud” or “muddy.” Carbaugh said she talked about blood more because that’s what investigators focused on during the interview.
The cross-examination was intense, with Carbaugh addressing the jury instead of Baldwin as she answered questions and later growing defensive and sarcastic. When Baldwin pointed out that her statements were not consistent, she said, “I guess not.”
At one point, Baldwin questioned why Carbaugh didn’t stop to help the man. Carbaugh said she didn’t feel safe stopping to help a random man on the side of a county road.
Baldwin also pointed out that Carbaugh had initially told police the man she saw wore a tan coat, but she later changed her mind after she saw the now-infamous video of the “Bridge Guy,” who was seen wearing a blue jacket. Carbaugh said she might have thought the coat was tan because he was covered in mud.
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Forensic pathologist: Abby was cut once on the neck. Libby was cut at least four times.
Dr. Roland Kohr, a semi-retired forensic pathologist who conducted the autopsies on the teens on Feb. 15, 2017, said Abby had a 2-inch laceration across her neck that damaged the left jugular vein. Kohr said the cut appeared to have been made from right to left.
Libby had at least four, maybe five, overlapping wounds on her neck, Kohr testified. Two of the cuts, one on each side, were lethal and hit arteries ― meaning blood would have spread several feet. Both of her hands were also bloody, Kohr said, suggesting she might have grabbed her neck.
Kohr, who said that he had performed between 7,700 and 7,800 autopsies in his career, estimated that the teens lived four to 10 minutes after their throats were slashed, although they likely lost consciousness before dying.
Kohr also said there were no signs that the girls were sexually assaulted. But he testified this does not mean there was no sexual contact, just that “no trauma was left.”
Testimony will resume Thursday.
Contact IndyStar reporter Kristine Phillips at (317) 444-3026 or at kphillips@indystar.com.