DELPHI, Ind. — It has been one week since news broke about an arrest in the Delphi murder investigation.
Richard Allen, 50, is facing two counts of murder in the 2017 deaths of Abby Williams and Libby German.
The town of just about 3,000 people has been in the spotlight much more than they want to be.
“We are a small town,” Laura Greene said. “This just this doesn’t happen in small town, and it doesn’t happen to us.”
Television crews descended on the small town at the beginning of the week as Indiana State Police announced the arrest of Richard Allen. Court documents in the case have been sealed, igniting a debate and speculation.
“I think they had to keep it under wraps for a while,” Judie Carte said.
Since that time, Allen’s life has been laid out for everyone to see.
On Thursday, he was moved into the custody of the state for safety reasons. Even more news came when Judge Benjamin Diener recused himself from the case after expressing concerns for his own safety.
“I think we all know this person, and he’s in our community. I think it does need to be sent someplace else,” Greene said.
Allen County Judge Fran Gull was appointed as the special judge in the case.
Paul McKowen said everyone is dealing with the collective shock as best they can.
“I think they are relieved to finally someone has been caught,” McKowen said. “Now whether he did it or not, we’ll find out when the documents are released and when the court makes its decision.”
While they have so few answers, Virginia and Ronald Tull said the speculation has gotten out of hand.
“I [think] we need to sit back and listen and see what’s going to happen instead of jumping to any conclusions,” Tull said.
At Greene’s boutique, she said all anyone talks about is the case. However, no matter how much they want to move past this case, she doesn’t think they ever will.
“I don’t think we’ll ever get over it, honestly,” Greene said. “I don’t.”
A lot of people told me they know that the drama around this case is only going to get worse. However, at this point, they’ve learned to take things day by day.
