When pressure picks a suspect: can truth survive timelines, memory, and politics

A double murder, a misfiled tip, and a county on edge—our new true crime show opens by pulling apart the Delphi case with one goal: follow the facts, not the pressure. We set aside sensational retellings to focus on what actually moved this case forward after six silent years: a rediscovered lead, an unspent bullet that loomed large, conflicting timelines, and a community that needed closure as a sheriff’s race heated up.

We walk through the day the girls disappeared, the initial interviews, and why a volunteer’s discovery of a clerical error in 2022 reignited attention on Richard Allen. From there, we test the state’s timeline against the defense’s, asking how much weight to give to sightings of “a man in blue” and a car that “resembled” his, and whether memory stretched across five years can reliably fix someone at the scene. We take a hard look at the forensics: what the bullet evidence could prove, what it couldn’t, and why admissibility matters as much as the science. And we unpack interrogation dynamics and reported confessions—how demeanor, fatigue, and suggestion can shape statements that juries find persuasive even when the facts remain thin.

Throughout, we keep the conversation grounded in primary sources and courtroom reporting, crediting deep, diligent coverage from Defense Diaries and True Crime Garage. The theme is consistent: if politics and public impatience intersect with an unsolved case, the only safeguard is process that stands up under cool scrutiny. If you value clear reasoning over hot takes, you’ll feel at home here.

Subscribe, share with someone who follows the Delphi case, and tell us what you see in the evidence. Leave a review and email your thoughts to RGKAPALKA@gmail.com so we can feature your questions in the next breakdown.

Go to studio411 facebook page for photos and a more in-depth conversation.

Transcript

Shifting Format: From Story to Scrutiny

Case Chosen: The Delphi Murders

Sources, Standards, And No-Nonsense Rules

Six Years, Rising Pressure, And Politics

The Tip Sheet And The Election Clock

How A Misfile Became Probable Cause

Timelines Collide: Prosecution vs Defense

Memory, Credibility, And Reasonable Doubt

Open Questions And Call For Listener Input

SPEAKER_00 0:37

Some people go missing. Some crimes go on for years without being solved. Some are solved quickly. There are times when these cases can be solved with the help of the public, with the help of shows like mine. There are plenty of them out there, that's for sure. I'm going to try and find the missing link to these crimes. I'm going to scrutinize everything that needs to be scrutinized to get to the truth. Possibly help loved ones and find closure and get justice for the victims based on solely on the evidence and facts that are presented. Let's remember that everyone is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. I'm Rich Kapalka. This is a brand new podcast I'm doing. I've done a few, I've done one other podcast, True Crime Podcast, that uh was pretty good. I'd done it with my wife. But uh we had to put it on a back burner for the simple reason uh time. Just the the amount of time that goes into these things is uh it's crazy. It's craziness, especially the route that I'm going now. Um the the last podcast I did, I just told the story of of the uh incident, the crime. And I don't want to do that. Uh I felt like I wasn't being helpful. I wasn't doing anything that uh might have helped solve these crimes. Um and I didn't want to go that route. Uh the route I wanted to go was to try to help. Try to help possibly solve a crime, uh solve uh uh find somebody who's missing, uh something you know, along them lines. That's what I want to do, and that's what I'm going to do. Uh my shows and the my analogies, my theories are going to be based nothing on the facts that are presented in trials, in evidence that is brought forth, uh witness statements, and anything, whatever I could dig up, but it it will be factual. Uh no bullshit going on here at all, uh, with the hopes that uh, you know, we could help somebody. Uh today we're gonna discuss the Delphi murders. Uh when this when this first happened, um I was listening to podcasts, and uh I found out about this listening to uh True Crime Garage Podcast. Uh True Crime. Them guys are awesome. You like true crime and you you want facts and timelines and you want to try to figure it out with them guys, listen to that show. It's awesome. Uh the other one that I found that I also love is the defense diaries with uh Bob Mata and his wife. Awesome, awesome show. Uh Bob is a he was. He's uh retired from uh he was a defense attorney for 23 years, I believe. His wife is still practicing law, but Bob decided to go with the um the podcast route. And uh he's doing quite well. Uh a lot of the information that I'm gonna present here today is going to be from Bob's podcast. Bob spent every single day in that courtroom taking notes, diligent notes, very accurate and precise notes. Uh he's kind of on uh their podcast that they do, him and his wife, they are on the same track that I am on. I want to help. I want to try to find the truth, the answers to these crimes. And when we get into this Delphi case, this I've listened to a lot of um trials over, I'd say the past year and a half, two years, I really started listening to them. And this one here is probably the most messed up case I have ever, ever heard in my life. That I've been listening to them anyway for the past year and a half or two years. I've listened to quite a few. But this one is is just uh as we get into it I I I don't know how this guy got even even went to, I don't know how this even went to trial. I I I just don't I don't know. Um, but let's get into it a little bit here. And um this is what we got here. I'm sure most of you heard about uh the this uh this case, uh this gruesome, gruesome case down here in Delphi, Indiana. Two young girls uh they're found murdered in Delphi, Indiana, uh Deer Creek Township, uh after not returning uh from a hike that they went on. Abigail Williams, uh 13 years old, Liberty German, 14 years old. They went missing uh on 223-17, February 23rd, 2017. Arrested and charged and sentenced to 130 years was Richard Allen. I have looked into this case step by step, piece by piece, uh, witness by witness, and to be honest, there really wasn't really any hard evidence, no dart direct evidence linking Richard Allen to this murder. There was none other than an unspent bullet that um got him to trial, probably, and come to find out later on, it shouldn't have been admissible anyway. I've followed this case off and on over the years, nothing major at all. You know, I listened to a few podcasts here and there about the case and getting some updates over the years, but I never dove into it. I don't know, I didn't know through the years what was actually going on with it. I wanted to stay away from it because it wasn't solved yet, and I wanted to look into this on my own. Uh when it was put out that they got someone in custody, that is when I really started paying attention to the case. I did not want to come to any conclusions or theories as to what or who had committed these horrible crimes uh until an arrest was made and uh a trial has begun. And um that is when I really started looking into it. I didn't look at any of this until then. It was all said and done, until this was all said and done. I wanted all the evidence statements and witness testimony out when everything was all said and done. I didn't my research, I look at uh at the most accurate and credible podcast. Like I said, uh the defense diaries uh was is the best one. Uh the without a doubt, hands down. Uh even, you know, the people that he talks to on his show, uh I I don't I don't know. I can't remember who they were. He had a couple people on uh towards the end of this case, but also great, great, great podcast. Um I I I looked at every document I possibly can, uh, what was obtainable, uh news reports, court transcripts, crime scene photos, everything imaginable. I will say the best and most, like I said, is true crime garage and defense diaries. And that's where I'm gonna leave that. I looked at this case from every direction. Uh from a lawyer's uh point of view. I'm not a lawyer. I don't claim to be one. I'm not part of law enforcement at all, period. Um, this is all just me. That's it. I have no professional training here whatsoever. But I looked at it from both angles. I also looked at it from the defense and the prosecution side, from the investigators' point of view, all of it. I I spent hours upon hours upon hours looking at this, and I'm sure a lot of podcasters did. Uh we have to remember this case went unsolved for six years. Keep it keep you have to keep that in mind through this whole entire thing. Six years. This has been unsolved, okay? Uh we have to remember that there was an election for sheriff going on at the time of Richard Allen's arrest. Very, very important. Extremely important. That's the one of the first things we're going to talk about here today. The pressure from the community was heating up really, really bad to catch the killer of these two young girls. People were getting antsy. They wanted answers, they wanted an arrest. Remember that. They wanted answers and they wanted an arrest. What led to Alan's arrest is a little crazy. Uh, after all that time, uh, that this was noticed, this mistake, but yet during trial, the testimony of witnesses is still credible. After all these years, you they could remember everything. Uh during the trial, they always had to go back, the uh the uh defense and the prosecutors, and uh you know, help them jar their memory, recollect their memory, uh, and uh read statements that they made from years ago. Their memory is as accurate as it would have been nine years ago. Uh I doubt it. I I don't think so. Uh a lot of this doesn't make sense to me, but we're gonna we're gonna dig into this a little bit and uh we're gonna we're gonna go on from here. So this case is the most messed up case I've ever heard. Not that I heard a lot. Like I said, this is actually only the third trial I've really sat down and uh I picked a part. Uh I'm not a lawyer, far from an expert, or have any knowledge of trial procedures. I mean, none at all. Uh I have questions. I have lawyer friends I could go to and ask. So for all of you lawyers out there that may be listening, correct me if I if I misspeak or I just play I'm just playing wrong. Please be nice. Be nice, please. Don't forget, I'm not a lawyer. So all right. Rick Allen. He was interrogated, accused, tried, and found guilty for the murder of Abigail and Liberty. Okay, these are two young girls. Two young girls decided to go for a hike. Okay, when the bodies of these girls were discovered, the police asked anyone who has been in the area at that time where they where they were where the bodies were found to come forward with any information that may be helpful to find the killer. Rick Allen was one of those people to come forward voluntarily, voluntarily. Rick was 52 years old at the time of the crime. He has a wife, Kathy, a daughter, Brittany. Rick's mother and father are still alive at the time of the crime. Whether they are right now, I don't know. I'm sure they are. Hope they are anyway. All right, Liberty German, 14 years old, Abigail Williams, 13 years old. They had a day off from school in February of 2017. This time of year in Indiana, in the Northeast, it's cold, very cold. But on this particular day, it was it was warm. It was unseasonably warm. So they decided to go for a hike, just like most people did that day, over the Moon and High Bridge, which is in Delphi, Indiana, Deer Creek Township. Uh the kids were dropped off by Liberty's sister on County Route 300, and supposed to be picked up later that afternoon by Liberty German's father, Derek German. They never showed up. They were reported missing at 5:30 p.m. Liberty's father was to meet them at five at 3 15 p.m. to pick them up, but they never showed up. The bodies of Liberty and Abigail were found the next day at approximately 12 p.m., about a half a mile east of the abandoned Moon and High Bridge. They were discovered on the north bank of Deer Creek. So the north bank of Deer Creek, they would have to cross the creek to get to that bank. Okay, keep that in mind as we go on. I'll mention that when we get to that point of this uh investigation here. For me, uh what we're gonna talk about here now, it this is very important for me. And it should have been important for the investigators, which obviously is the main focus right now. It should have been important for the district attorney, it should have been important for the judge, it should have been important for everyone who was investigating this case, even the federal the federal government, with the FBI was called in on this case. They really, really should have looked at this allegation. Is this very important? I I didn't see anything that indicated that it was looked at at all. So, allegations of a politically charged case. This this is what we're talking about here. During a campaign for Carroll County Sheriff in 2022, allegations surfaced regarding the Delphi murderers case. One former law enforcement officer claimed he was demoted and replaced by the eventual election winner, Tony Leggett, who then focused on an older lead that implicated Rick Allen. So what was what was this older lead? The lead was uh a misfiling of Allen's statement that he gave investigators three days after the murder. Apparently it was filed under a wrong name. Now we gave this statement voluntarily, voluntarily. Okay, so my question is if there was anything in this statement at that time that would have made Rick a suspect, wouldn't have been put in a pile of potential suspects, primary suspects, no matter what name it was filed under, right? It it doesn't matter where it was filed, doesn't matter. It should have stuck out. Arrest, arrest and election date, okay? Richard Allen was arrested around October 28th, 2022. This was just before, this was just before the November 2022 general election, and political tensions were high, and not only political tensions were high, people wanted this case solved. They wanted an arrest. Wouldn't this raise an eyebrow to anybody? Remember, it has been years since this crime has been committed with no arrest. The pressure was building in that community to make an arrest. According to the self-reporter, Shank. This is the the woman who uh discovered this. Listen seeing three girls. Shank testified that she wrote a lead sheet and changed the name to Richard Allen. Alan lived on Whitman Drive. So she said she believed the names were transposed and it was misfiled. She said she notified the sheriff after finding Allen's tip sheet in October of 2024. Here's how the whole tip sheet scenario played out. This is according to Google AI. Okay, this is where I found it. All the reports I have seen on this didn't get into much detail as expected because of the situation. All right, so Richard Allen's initial tip sheet was generated on February 16th, 2017, two days after the bodies of Abby and Liberty were discovered. Okay, a volunteer with Carroll County Sheriff's Office, Shank, received a call from Allen, who self-reported being on the Delphi Historic Trails around the time of the murders. Not just the bridge, but the trails. The trails, okay. However, the tip sheet was misfiled and overlooked by investigators for over five years until it was rediscovered in September of 2022. After this this discovery, law enforcement revisited Allen's statement leading to his arrest in October of 22. The key events surrounding the tip sheet include, we'll get there. So you're telling me just because he said he was on the high bridge, okay, led them to search his house, his car, and look at him in more detail. You know, there were other people on the in this area on that bridge at that time. So they just focused on Alan. This is a hard pill to swallow. And Allen even reported that he saw other people there at the time. Other people said they saw there's other people there. This is craziness. So this is what played out here. Richard Allen calls to report he was on the trails a couple days earlier than when he called. Okay. This is February 16, 2017. Richard Allen calls to report he was on the trails a couple days earlier than when he's making this call. The tip is entered into the system through, uh let's see here, though, with a clerical error error listing his name as Richard Allen Whitman. Okay. On February 18th, 2017, an investigator follows up on the tip and speaks with Allen. So how did the investigator know how to find Allen for questioning? Okay, if the name on the tip sheet was wrong. Okay? Richard Allen Whitman. So what led him to go to Richard Allen? Also, why wasn't Allen arrested back then? They were questioning him. Didn't they ask him the right questions when originally questioning him? Why did they let him go? They didn't have anything else to go on. That's why they didn't arrest him. He was there, just like everybody else was there. So what led them to uh to his arrest? What led them to search his house? To search his car? The tipsy is misplaced and the lead falls through the cracks 2017 to 2022. Between 2017 and 2022. September 21st of 2022, a volunteer helping to organize the investigation files finds the old tip sheet. This prompts renewed focus on Richard Allen as a suspect. So for one, what what made her focus on this tip sheet? What made this person focus on this tip sheet? Richard Allen Whitman. Why did her eyes gravitate to this sheet to this paperwork? So this person organized the tip sheets automatically out of nowhere, pulls this sheet, and assumes the name on the sheet is wrong. How did she know that? How did this person know it was wrong? What what this person's eyes gravitate to this paperwork? What made her eyes focus on that paperwork? This is extremely hard to believe. I think everyone can see where I'm going with this. If Richard Allen was a suspect then and the proper questioning was done at that time in 2017, you should have been arrested then and there, regardless of the name on any tip sheet, on whether it's a male, female, whatever. He should have been arrested if the interrogation was done properly. First major screw up by the investigators. You can't tell me the investigators after questioning Alan, it wasn't stunk stuck in their head that he was a primary suspect in this case. They went to look for his file, couldn't find it because it was filed under the wrong name. Well, maybe go get the guy. You know where he is, you know what he looks like, you know where he lives, where he works, you already talked to him. Go pick him up. So a seasoned investigator is going to forget about a primary suspect for a double homicide that he had already talked to. No, they're not. No one would. Why didn't they follow up? Because they didn't have any probable cause to investigate further. That's why. Yes, I'm making ins I'm I'm in in I can't say I can't I'm in insinuating foul play here. That's what I'm doing. It is what it is. During the trial for the 2017 Delphi murders, Richard Allen's timeline on the day of the murder was a point of connection, contention between the prosecution and the defense, with Allen himself giving inconsistent statements. Nobody's perfect. Nobody's perfect. Around two 127 p.m. A car resembling Alan's was reported seen passing a nearby store resembling Alan's. As we get into this, there's no way in hell that they can say that that that car was Alan's car. No way in hell. At 1 30 p.m., three teenage girls reportedly saw a man in a blue jacket and blue jeans near the Freedom Bridge with court documents alleging Alan admitted to being in the same area at the time and seeing three girls. Okay, so what's wrong with that? Nothing wrong with that. They saw him, he saw her, he saw them. Between 1.30 and 3.30 p.m., a probable cause affidavit David stated that Alan was on the Moon and High Bridge Trail during this time. Okay. This is going back. Okay. Well, I I can't say that because they they're no that I that's that's not right. Let's just forget that. Okay. This is the time that uh at 2 13 p.m. This is the time that Libby German took the infamous photo video of a man known as Bridge Guy on the Moon and High Bridge at 2.13 p.m. This is the prosecution's timeline. Shortly before 4 p.m., a witness reportedly saw a man with muddy and bloodstained clothes walking on County Road 300 North, which prosecutors allege was Alan returning to his car. Okay, so for one, if I was to murder somebody in the woods, I'm not gonna go on a public road all bloodied up. That's not gonna happen. Anyone with with some kind of brain in their head is gonna say, let's not go on the road. Let's not go on the road. Somebody might see me. Somebody might see me. Makes no sense. I I don't believe that at all. I I just don't I don't believe it. That's a big no-no right there for me. That that's a red flag. Big red flag right there. Okay, this is the defense's timeline. You got to put all this together. Okay. They're saying that Allen left the trail by 1.30 p.m. The defense contended that Allen left the trail before the girls were believed to have been kidnapped, disputing the state's timeline. They're saying the car left the parking lot by 2 15 p.m. Allen's car had allegedly left a nearby parking lot by this time, according to his defense. Now, why are why is that conflicting to what the prosecutor's timeline says? Why? Because they can't identify the car. They can't definitively say that that is actually Richard Allen's car. That's one. And they're saying that at home later that day, the defense maintained that Allen was at home and never came back to the high bridge area after leaving the trail. First statement. Allen's inconsistent statements. In an inter interview with a Department of Natural Resources Officer, why is the Department of Natural Resources Officer interviewing a suspect on a double homicide is beyond me. I don't know what kind of qualifications this guy has. Alan claimed he was on the trail between 1.30 p.m. and 3.30 p.m. He mentioned seeing three girls but said he was distracted by his phone and didn't see anyone else. Okay, the second statement. Now that statement was made in 2017. The second statement he made in 2022, when interviewed again by investigators before his arrest, Alan changed his timeline saying he was on the trail around noon. It was not there later than 2 p.m. He saw three girls near the Freedom Bridge and watched fish from the high bridge. Okay, I understand, I get it. You know, you get your time screwed up. Look at how long how far back these crimes were committed. How far back this took place? 2017 to 2022. How many years is that? Five years. Five years! Do you remember what you did last week? I don't. I sure as shit don't. Not at all. I know I went to work, went to Boston, Massachusetts just about every day. What I did specifically when I came home, I I couldn't tell you. Couldn't tell you. This this case is it it's so messed up. This here right alone is screwed up. But that's that they're the timelines right there. And we're gonna keep going back to them timelines as we go. My biggest question here is is why didn't why didn't the officers do their due diligence and and uh interview this guy uh properly in 2017? Apparently they didn't do their job. They didn't do what they were supposed to do, or did they? Did they? And they ruled Richard Allen out because they didn't have no evidence. Is that what's going on here? And it was an election year now in 2022, and we gotta look at who got demoted and why. Nobody knows why he got demoted, but I have a funny feeling why he got demoted. Probably got demoted because he wasn't falling into their the the trap of whoever wanted this light to take over a sheriff. They wanted Liggett to to make the arrest. He made the arrest, the community's happy with him. Oh, let's vote him in. He f he found the killer. Found the killer. But is Richard Allen really the killer? Is he really the killer? That's for you to decide. I'm your host, Rich. This is the scrutiny, and I'm gonna leave it at that. You ponder this until the next show, which will be any day. Who knows? It might be uh every day, it might be once a week. I don't know. As I get into it and I find stuff out more and more and more, we will uh we'll post as often as I can. And it will be definitely at least once a week. All right. Hey, thanks for listening. Let me know what you think. Let me know what you think about what we have just discussed. Send me an email at R G R G K A P A L K A Gmail.com. R G K A P A L K A at Gmail.com. You know what? Let me see if I can put it on the screen here, if I could do it while this is uh recording. I don't know. Let's see if I could do it. Let's see. Let's see if this is this works. Yeah, baby. All right. You gotta bear with me with some of this technical stuff because uh I'm not really that savvy when it comes to this stuff. Let's put it right down here. There. There's my email right there. R-G-K-A-P-A-L-K-A at gmail.com. Let me know what you think of what about what we just discussed here. Uh, this is a short podcast here. I I wanted to get uh something going here. Um uh but the other ones are they're gonna might be a little bit lengthy, an hour, hour and a half, possibly two hours. I'm gonna try to have somebody on here to uh get their two cents in and uh you know help me out with uh going through all of this stuff. This this this could go on forever and a day, this case here, but I'm gonna try to keep it to three episodes and pick out all the important stuff that I think is important because uh, you know, it uh I'm gonna tell you straight out, man. I listen to hours and hours and hours and hours of of uh of podcasts, of uh the the uh the trial, uh articles, newsreels. Uh this guy just did not do it, man. In my opinion, uh he he just did it. There's just nothing there, nothing there to to put this guy away. Uh uh there's just not. And as we get into it, you're gonna see when he got arrested, what his demeanor was like when he first got arrested and the interviews. If you could just go on YouTube and watch the interviews, you know, what his demeanor is like. He gives no signs of deception, he's not nervous at all. That's what we're gonna talk about uh on the next show. We're gonna go over his interviews with uh his interrogations. It's amazing how how this played out, man. It really is. I'm shocked that that uh he got convicted of this. Um we all know he confessed. We all know he confessed, but why did he confess? And were they true confessions? Were they coerced? That's the question. And in my opinion, that is the only reason he got convicted of this crime. Once again, I'm your host, Rich Capalka. Thanks for listening, and we'll see you on the next show. I'm out of here.