Police confirmed the victims’ clothes were found in a creek.
According to the police affidavit, Libby and Abby were “forced down the hill and lead to the location where they were murdered.” Search volunteers found the girls’ bodies in a densely wooded area at about 12:15 p.m. on Feb. 14, 2017. They were on the north side of Deer Creek, a stream that snakes underneath the Monon High Bridge.
The probable cause affidavit says their clothes were found in the creek, south of their bodies. (A local photographer previously said he’d seen girls’ clothing in the creek near the bridge.)
What we still don’t know
The girls’ cause of death remains unreleased, though an FBI agent noted in a March 2017 search warrant that the victims had lost a “large amount of blood” and because of the “nature of [their] wounds, it is nearly certain the perpetrator of the crime would have gotten blood on his person/clothing”; they had “had no visible signs of a struggle or fight”; and their wounds were “caused by a [redacted] weapon.” (The document has not been publicly released, but the Murder Sheet podcast obtained a copy and published it in May.)
The search warrant’s mention of a “[redacted] weapon” has led to speculation that the girls may have been stabbed. Police descriptions of stabbings sometimes use language such as “bladed” or “edged” weapons — both words that would seem to fit the length of the redaction. And if the victims had been shot, wouldn’t the newly unsealed police affidavit mention evidence related to fired bullets in addition to the single unspent round located near Libby’s body?
That investigators found their clothes in the creek also raises questions that are not addressed in the affidavit. Were they sexually assaulted?
The biggest question, of course, is why it took police five years to “encounter” Allen’s 2017 police statement, which proved key to his arrest. Who found the statement, and under what circumstances? In a Dec. 1 statement to Fox 59, the FBI disputed reports that the years’ delay was the result of a “clerical error” by an FBI civilian employee. “As stated in the past this is a complex multi-agency investigation. The implication that an alleged clerical error by an FBI employee caused years of delay in identifying this defendant is misleading. Our review of the matter shows FBI employees correctly followed established procedures.” So who is to blame?
Why did Allen volunteer the information that he was in the same location as the apparent killer around the same time? According to a press release issued by his defense attorneys on Dec. 1, “Rick volunteered to meet with a Conservation Officer outside of the local grocery store to offer up details of his trip to the trail on the day in question.”
Why would a “conservation officer” — commonly known as a game warden and usually tasked with enforcing laws related to the conservation of natural resources — take Allen’s statement? Why would they meet outside a grocery store? And if true, why didn’t police disclose these details in their probable cause affidavit or news conference announcing his arrest?
Allen’s defense team also asked a question posed by many since the probable cause affidavit was released: Why did the prosecutor say in a Nov. 22 hearing that authorities “have a good reason to believe” that Allen is not the only person involved in the killings — when no one else was mentioned in the probable cause affidavit or the news conference announcing Allen’s arrest?
Why did police wait more than two years to release Libby’s video of the suspect? Why did they originally release truncated audio, without including the word “guys,” which provided valuable context that the man was ordering the girls to go to the location they were killed? Why haven’t police said publicly that one of the girls said “gun” in the video, and that the footage ends with the girls going down the hill? Why did they release two completely different composite sketches of a suspect, whom they said were two different men? Was Allen identified as a suspect because of one or both of the sketches?
Why did the original judge, Benjamin A. Diener, recuse himself from the case on Nov. 3? (In an extraordinary court order he decried the public fascination with the case, saying, “The public’s blood lust for information, before it exists, is extremely dangerous. ALL PUBLIC SERVANTS administering this action do not feel safe and are not protected.”)
How reliable is the police analysis allegedly tying the bullet found at the crime scene to Allen’s gun? His attorneys are already disputing the science behind it. “We anticipate a vigorous legal and factual challenge to any claims by the prosecution as to the reliability of its conclusions concerning the single magic bullet,” they said.
Source: https://www.buzzfeed.com/drumoorhouse/delphi-murders-new-details