Sheriff testifies in Delphi Murders trial about audio from girl’s phone
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — On Thursday, jurors in the Delphi Murders trail again watched and listened to video from the phone of one of the two girls murdered.
This time, the sheriff shared with jurors what he had heard.
Suspect Richard Allen’s trial continued Thursday. Prosecutors on Thursday afternoon called Carroll County Sheriff Tony Liggett to the stand. Liggett was a detective in the sheriff’s office in February 2017.
Allen, 52, is charged with two counts of murder and two counts of murder while committing or attempting to commit kidnapping in the deaths of 13-year-old Abigail “Abby” Williams and 14-year-old Liberty “Libby” German. The girls’ bodies were found near the Monon High Bridge near Delphi on Feb. 14, 2017, a day after they went missing.
In the later half of February 2017, state police first shared a portion of the audio from the video, a short clip of the man walking on the Monon High Bridge near Delphi. Police had said the voice saying “Down the hill” was a suspect. Authorities had not released any other portions of the cellphone recording before Tuesday.
In 2017, police had called Libby a “hero” for getting the recording, which has subsequently been referred to as the “bridge guy” video.
An audio expert testified Tuesday as the full video was shared publicly for the first time.
In the video, the girls are walking along the bridge, and Libby says, “See, this is the path. There’s no path there, so we have to go down there.”
Twelve seconds later, “bridge guy” said, “Guys.”
Abby says, “Hi,” very timidly.
The “bridge guy” says, “Down the hill.”
Then the video is sort of thrown around and cuts off.
Fast-forward to Thursday.
The Republican sheriff testified about the process of enhancing the video on Libby’s phone. For example, Liggett said, the video was “altered to be upright all the time.”
The prosecution showed the video to the jury again. Liggett described what he heard in the video:
Abby: “Is he right here? Don’t leave me up here.”
Libby: “This is the path, that be a gun, there’s no path here.”
“Bridge guy”: “Guys.”
Girls: “Hi.”
“Bridge guy”: “Down the hill.”
News 8’s Kyla Russell and Jason Ronimous contributed to this report.