Libby took out her phone and hit record. It helped police find her and Abby's killer.

In 2017, the murders of two teenage girls, Liberty German and Abigail Williams in Delphi, Indiana, gripped the world.

The two girls, aged just 13 and 14 years old, disappeared on a walk and were found murdered near a hiking path.

It took five years for police to track down their man, and another three before he was finally sentenced to 130 years in jail.

Now, a new documentary is putting the tragic story back in the spotlight.

Here's everything we know about the case.

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It was February 13, 2017, and it started out as an ordinary day like any other for best friends Libby and Abby.

At around 1:45pm, the girls set off for a walk along the popular Monon High Bridge Trail, near their hometown of Delphi, Indiana. Smartphones in hand, the pair were ready to document their innocent day out.

Libby, 14, and Abby, 13, were supposed to be picked up by family a short time later, but they never met their deadline. Less than 24 hours later, their bodies were found almost two kilometres off the trail.

The story sent shockwaves around the globe the world and internet sleuths got to work trying to solve the crime, but there seemed to be very little to go on. One thing they did have, however, was a chilling video clip and audio of the suspected killer, recorded and posted by Libby before her death.

Moments before their murders, prosecutors said, Libby posted a photo of Abby on Snapchat showing her on the Monon High Bridge.

After crossing the bridge, the girls spotted a man behind them and Libby hit record and uploaded a clip of a man wearing a blue jacket directing them to "go down the hill".

The clip subsequently went viral, and the unidentified man in the video became known online as the "bridge guy".

Police pursued several suspects over the years, including a man who was arrested for participating in the US Capitol Riots on January 6, 2021. But no arrests were made for five years.

Then, in October 2022, they took 50-year-old Richard Allen into custody.

He pleaded not guilty to two charges of murder.

At the time of his arrest, relatively few details had been made public about the case, which journalist Áine Cain and attorney Kevin Greenlee had been following closely on their podcast, The Murder Sheet. Allen's was not a name they'd heard in their own investigations and reporting before that point.

In fact, it seemed there was much information about the case that wasn't a matter of public record.

"Any time anything was filed in the case, whether it was routine or not, it was always sealed. It was always kept from the public," Greenlee told Fox News Digital.

"Other reporters would tell us, 'This is so strange. This has not happened in any other case. Why isn't someone doing something about this?'"

So Greenlee and Cain decided they would do just that.

Image: Indiana State Police.

The pair learned that anything filed about the case since 2017 had been mistakenly sealed, potentially due to confusion over the meaning of a 'gag order'.

And so, working with an attorney, Cain and Greenlee set about to have the documents unsealed and, in June 2023, filed a motion into the case asking for the release of documents that had been kept from the public "in violation of customary procedure".

The motion passed and on June 29, and more than 100 documents were released.

What the documents revealed.

With the unsealing of case filings, two major revelations were made, both around how the girls died and Allen's involvement.

The documents said that Libby and Abby were murdered with a "sharp object", like a knife, and that there was a pair of underpants and a sock missing from the scene.

The documents also stated that a "large amount of blood was lost by the victims at the crime scene" and that "because of the nature of the victim's wounds, it is nearly certain the perpetrator of the crime would have gotten blood on his person/clothing".

They also found that the killer had moved and staged their bodies.

And then there's the admission Allen made to his wife during a recorded phone call during his time in prison.

"Investigators had the phone call transcribed and the transcription confirmed that Richard M. Allen admits that he committed the murders of Abigail Williams and Liberty German," read the documents.

In the phone call, Allen admitted "several times" that he carried out the brutal murders.

The trial was set to take place in January 2024.

How Richard Allen was linked to the murders.

Prosecutors initially tied Allen to a bullet found at the scene of the murder — an unspent .40 calibre round that had come from a Sig Sauer Model P226 belonging to the suspect.

The gun was recovered from the home Allen shared with his wife Kathy during a police search of the property in October 2022. Allen has said he can't explain why his bullet was found alongside the girls' bodies.

A witness mentioned a vehicle seen around the area, investigators later saying the witness' description of the vehicle matched one Allen owned in 2017.

Allen also spoke to investigators twice over the years about the girls’ deaths. The Independent UK said Allen confirmed during a 2017 interview with police that he was on the nearby Monon High Bridge Trail the day Libby and Abby were killed.

Allen also told authorities he had worn "jeans and a black or blue jacket" that day and had gone to the bridge to "watch fish".

Image: Indiana State Police.

A guilty verdict.

In November 2024, a packed crowd waited outside the Delphi courthouse for a jury to deliver its verdict.

It took less than 20 hours to make their decision.

Allen was found guilty of two counts of murder and two additional counts of murder while committing or attempting to commit kidnapping.

The court was told Allen repeatedly confessed to the killing — in person, on the phone and in writing.

In one of the recordings replayed for the jury, Allen could be heard telling his wife, "I did it. I killed Abby and Libby", per AP.

"Richard Allen is Bridge Guy," Carroll County Prosecutor Nicholas McLeland told jurors. "He kidnapped them and later murdered them."

His psychologist at Westville Correctional Facility Dr Monica Wala told the court Allen shared grisly details of the crime not otherwise publicised.

Richard Allen has been found guilty of the murders of Libby German and Abby Williams. Image: Indiana State Police via AP.

Allen's defence argued his confessions were unreliable as he was in severe mental distress while locked up in isolation for 13 months.

They called witnesses, including a psychiatrist, who testified that extended periods in solitary confinement could drive a person to psychosis.

His lawyer Bradley Rozzi argued he was innocent and "had every chance to run, but he did not because he didn't do it".

Ultimately, the jurors were not convinced.

The 52-year-old reportedly showed no reaction as the verdict was delivered, only looking back at his family once.

A different picture was painted outside of the court room, as people cheered once the verdict was delivered.

Libby's grandmother Becky Patty hugged family members and cried as they left the courthouse, while her sister Kelsi posted on Instagram, saying: "Nearly eight years, today was the day."

Speaking outside court, Allen's wife Kathy told WTHR, "this isn't over at all".

'There will never be any closure.'

In December, Allen was sentenced to 130 years in prison — the maximum sentence possible, ABC News reports.

At the sentencing, Judge Fran Gull said, "I've spent 27 years as a judge, and you rank right up there with the most heinous crimes in the state of Indiana."

"You rank right up there in the extraordinary impact on family, including the generational impact," she continued. "These families will deal with your carnage forever."

A gag order prevented Abby and Libby's families from speaking out during or after Allen's trial.

They were finally able to say their piece after sentencing.

Libby's grandmother told ABC News, "I can never change my choice to let Libby and Abby go to the trails that day."

"I hope he lives with the same fear he caused Abby and Libby in the last hour of their lives," she said.

Abby's grandmother Diane Erskin said sentencing marked a great day of sadness for the family.

"We won't be going home to celebrate with champagne," she said.

Speaking after the sentencing, Carroll County Sheriff Tony Liggett told reporters, "There will never be any closure in this case."

"A form of justice was served, but it does not bring Abby or Libby back. These families will live every day without two of the most important people in their lives. They're missing milestones because a low-life coward decided to take their innocent lives."

Allen's wife speaks out.

A new ABC News Studios three-part series, Capturing Their Killer: The Girls on the High Bridge, released this month unpacks Libby and Abby's story.

The docuseries features interviews from the girls' friends and relatives, exclusive behind-the-scenes footage of defence attorneys as the verdict came in and an interview with Allen's wife Kathy Allen, who opens up for the first time.

In a police interrogation interview, Allen told Kathy, "You know I'm not capable of something like this."

She still believes it.

Kathy described her husband as a "family man" who was a "wonderful, caring, compassionate father".

"He has good morals," she told ABC.

"My husband's not a monster. He's not the monster that people think he is."

Feature Image: Instagram/libertyg_sister