The grieving mother of one of the Indiana girls whose brutal killings are at the center of the Delphi murder trial broke down in tears when a video of the final moments of the girls’ lives was played for the first time in court.
The mother of Liberty “Libby” German cried when she heard a girl’s voice on the 43-second clip that was played for the jury during Tuesday’s proceedings, WRTV reported.
The video taken around 2:15 p.m. Feb. 13, 2017, showed German filming herself and her friend Abigail “Abby” Williams walking on the Monon High Bridge in Delphi, Indiana, the outlet said.
Eventually, the camera panned up and showed a man walking behind them.
A very brief grab of the man was one of the few pieces of evidence released to the public during the years-long investigation. Tuesday’s testimony marked the first time the entire clip was shown outside law enforcement.
An unenhanced version was played for the jury during the morning session. The judge allowed an enhanced version to be played a few hours later, when audio-video technician Jeremy Chapman took the stand, WTV explained.
After Libby captured the man on camera, a girl’s voice could be heard saying, “There’s no path. The trail ends here so we have to go down here?,” the outlet said.
A few seconds later, a man’s voice said, “Guys, down the hill,” according to Chapman.
The chilling footage marked the last known record of Libby, 14, and Abby, 13, before they vanished near the bridge later that day.
The girls’ bodies were found on the trail on Feb. 14.
The investigation immediately zeroed in on the man in Libby’s last video — who became known to Delphi locals and the media as “Bridge Man.”
Despite the evidence, the Delphi case went cold until the October 2022 arrest of suspect Richard Allen, who was subsequently charged with two counts of murder as well as two additional counts of murder while committing or attempting to commit kidnapping.
During opening statements in the trial last week, prosecutors claimed that Allen, 52, forced Libby and Abby off the trail before slitting their throats.
The video that supposedly captured the moment Allen walked up behind the teens was retrieved from Libby’s phone, which was found under Abby’s body, WRTV said.
The defense initially moved to suppress the video evidence, the outlet added.
The expert testimony about the “Bridge Guy” video was followed by several eyewitnesses who claimed to have seen a potential suspect on the trail the same afternoon the girls were killed, per WRTV.
One of the witnesses, Railly Voorhies, told the court that she was just 16 years old when she walked past a tall, white man who “did not seem to be a happy person” on a trail across from the Monon High Bridge.
Voorhies, who was friends with the victims on Snapchat, claimed she waved to the man but he did not wave back to her.
When she was shown a picture of “Bridge Man” again in court, she reiterated that he “was the man I waved at on the trail.”
A second witness, Breann Wilber, testified that a man she identified as “Bridge Guy” crept up on her while she was also on the trail that day.
Both women noted that the suspect was overdressed for the unseasonably warm weather, WRTV reported.
If convicted of the Delphi murders, Richard Allen faces up to 130 years behind bars.