Indiana
Richard Allen confessed to killing Indiana girls as investigators say
An Indiana man charged with killing two teenage girls confessed multiple times to the murders in a phone call to his wife while in prison, according to court documents released Wednesday. The documents also revealed for the first time publicly that investigators believed a “sharp object” was used to kill the girls.
Richard Matthew Allen allegedly told his wife, Kathy Allen, in an April 3 phone call that he killed Abigail Williams, 13, and Liberty German, 14. The two teenagers’ bodies were found Feb. 14, 2017, just outside of their hometown of Delphi, Indiana – about 60 miles northwest of Indianapolis, in Carroll County.
“Investigators had the phone call transcribed and the transcription confirms that Richard Allen admits that he committed the murders of Abigail Williams and Liberty German,” reads a motion filed April 20 by Carroll County prosecutor Nicholas McLeland. “He admits several times within the phone call that he committed the offenses as charged. His wife, Kathy Allen, ends the phone call abruptly.”
Prosecutors also said that Allen also confessed to his mother during a phone call from jail, CBS affiliate WTTV reported.
Allen “has admitted that he committed the offenses that he is charged with no less than 5 times while talking to his wife and his mother on the public jail phones available at the Indiana Department of Corrections,” according to a state filing regarding Allen’s mental health records.
Allen County Judge Fran Gull, assigned to the case after the original judge recused himself, allowed public access to more than 100 filings in the case for the first time on Wednesday.
The documents were under seal from a gag order Gull issued in December 2022, prohibiting attorneys, law enforcement officials, court personnel, the coroner and family members from commenting on the case.
Gull’s order stated she withheld releasing the unredacted probable cause affidavit filed by prosecutors outlining the allegations against Allen because it includes the names of juvenile witnesses.
The redacted probable cause affidavit released in November 2022 states an unspent bullet, which had been “cycled through” a pistol Allen owned, was discovered between the girls’ bodies. Allen’s defense attorneys are contesting that evidence, WTTV reports.
In an October 2022 search of Allen’s home, investigators seized his .40-caliber pistol that he purchased in 2001.
The girls’ injuries were “caused by a sharp object,” according to another unsealed document released Wednesday. Also included in the list of items police seized from Allen’s home in the October 2022 search were about a dozen knives, some described as double-edged or folding knives.
Investigators also determined that “articles of clothing from the girls were missing from the scene, including a pair of underwear and a sock,” WTTV reported.
Allen was arrested in October 2022 on two counts of murder. A relative had dropped the girls off at a hiking trail near the Monon High Bridge on Feb. 13, 2017, and their bodies were found the next day in a rugged, heavily wooded area near the trail. Their deaths were ruled a homicide.
McLeland alluded to Allen’s confession in a June 15 hearing in Delphi, but Allen’s defense attorneys, alleging abuse at the correctional facility he has been housed at since November 2022, attributed the admissions to his declining mental state.
Allen’s attorney Brad Rozzi said at the hearing that since Allen’s incarceration in the Westville Correctional Facility in Westville, Indiana, Allen has been treated more stringently than other inmates. Allen’s lawyers filed an emergency motion in April requesting he be relocated, citing in court filings a “dramatic change in Mr. Allen’s condition, including his change in demeanor, change in appearance and change in his overall mental status.”
They said his “incriminating” statements were the result of this stressful environment.
McLeland questioned whether changing facilities would benefit Allen, as he said it may not be “any different” than his treatment at the Westville Correctional Facility.
Law enforcement officers and the warden of the facility testified that the constant surveillance and physical restraints they use are for Allen’s safety. They said they believe he could be a target of other inmates because the case involves children.
“The allegations in the Defendant’s motion, while colorful and dramatic, are not entirely correct,” states a court filing from McLeland on April 14, unsealed on Wednesday.
ST. JOHN, Ind. (WLS) — A man who was killed in a police-involved shooting on Wednesday has been identified.
The shooting happened around 11:30 a.m. in the 14000 block of West 93rd Place in St. John, Indiana, the Lake County, Indiana Sheriff’s Department said.
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A St. John police officer had responded to a home at the location for a call of a domestic disturbance, the sheriff said.
After a physical altercation, shots were fired and a 40-year-old man was wounded, the sheriff said. The man, who neighbors say was barefoot and wearing pajamas, was taken to a hospital.
The Lake County coroner’s officer later identified the man as Brandon Perkins.
“Just intense. I mean, caught everybody off guard,” St. John resident George Jaksich said. “The neighbors were all freaked out.”
Residents in the Bramblewood subdivision who heard the gunfire said they watched as officers performed CPR on the man after the shooting.
“I looked out, and I see a guy falling backwards,” Jaksich said. “I see some cops on the west side of him… and yeah, then right away they kicked something away. It turns out those were dumbbells when I walked over there, but they were giving him CPR.”
Video from the scene showed a couple of hand weights sitting in the street, but it’s unclear if the man who was shot had those in his possession.
No further information about the shooting was immediately available.
The Lake County Sheriff’s Department Detective Bureau continues to investigate.
SEE ALSO | Man, 23, shot, killed by Gary police amid domestic dispute
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‘Probably one of the ugliest games I’ve ever covered at Assembly Hall’
IndyStar IU Insider Zach Osterman tries to make sense of the Hoosiers’ blowout loss to Illinois at home.
Indiana basketball visits Ohio State on Friday, Jan. 17, 2025. This matchup offers the question: Is it better to keep losing by 2 points, or by 25?
The Hoosiers (13-5, 4-3 Big Ten) have been blown out two games in a row, prompting a rebellion among fans. Coach Mike Woodson and players are preaching patience, but IU is decidedly on the outside looking in for an NCAA Tournament bid. The Hoosiers could desperately use Malik Reneau (14.1 points, 5.9 rebounds, 1.3 steals), who has missed almost all of the last five games with a knee injury.
The Buckeyes (10-7, 2-4) have come painfully close to winning their last two games, falling by a basket to Oregon and Wisconsin. They beat Minnesota in double overtime before that. Bruce Thronton has been OSU’s driving force, averaging 16.7 points in conference play. Meechie Johnson, who started the first 10 games, has been on personal leave.
Want more Hoosiers coverage? Zach Osterman and Michael Niziolek keep up with IU all season. Sign up for IndyStar’s Hoosiers newsletter.
Indiana basketball prediction, pick
Zach Osterman, IndyStar: Ohio State 79-69
Things have taken an ugly turn in the last week for the Hoosiers, who now need a good road result to rebound from consecutive thumpings at Iowa and against Illinois. Ohio State is a strange team, talented and well-rated by metrics but losers of a lot of close games. So much of this game feels like it will be defined by how Indiana manages Buckeyes point guard Bruce Thornton.
When does Indiana basketball play today?
8 p.m. ET Friday, Jan. 17, 2025, at the Schottenstein Center in Columbus, Ohio.
What channel is the IU basketball game on?
Watch with a Fubo free trial
Is Indiana basketball favored vs. Ohio State
ESPN’s matchup predictor gives Ohio State a 77.9% chance of winning.
Indiana basketball rankings vs. Illinois
Through Jan. 14
Indiana projected starting lineup
(with 2024-25 season averages)
Illinois projected starting lineup
- Bruce Thornton (17.4 points, 43.3% 3-pointers, 4.4 assists)
- Devin Royal (13.8 points, 7.4 rebounds)
- John Mobley Jr. (11.9 points, 43.0% 3-pointers)
- Micah Parrish (10.0 points, 4.5 rebounds)
- Sean Stewart (6.2 points, 6.3 rebounds)
Indiana basketball schedule
Jan. 11: Iowa 85, Indiana 60
Jan. 14: Illinois 94, Indiana 69
Fri., Jan. 17: at Ohio State, 8 p.m., Fox
Wed., Jan 22: at Northwestern, 7 p.m., BTN
Sun., Jan. 26: vs. Maryland, noon, CBS
Ohio State basketball schedule
Jan. 9: Oregon 73, Ohio State 71
Jan. 14: Wisconsin 70, Ohio State 68
Fri., Jan. 17: vs. Indiana, 8 p.m., Fox
Tues., Jan. 21: at Purdue, 7:30 p.m., Peacock
Mon., Jan. 27: vs. Iowa, 8 p.m, FS1
Indiana
Former Indiana basketball players say team doctor sexually abused them with unnecessary prostate exams
Three former members of the Indiana men’s basketball team have accused former team doctor Bradford Bomba Sr., 88, of sexually abusing them during their playing days.
Haris Mujezinovic and Charlie Miller originally filed a lawsuit against Bomba in October, and John Flowers joined the suit this week.
Flowers, who played for the Hoosiers in 1981 and 1982, said he was subject to at least two unnecessary prostate exams.
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A University of Indiana Hoosiers flag at Memorial Stadium. (Kirby Lee/Image of Sport/USA Today Sports)
Longtime trainer Tim Garl is now listed as a defendant, as Flowers said Garl was aware of Bomba’s “invasive, harassing, and demeaning digital rectal examinations.”
“After his first physical, Flowers’s teammates told him he had ‘passed’ Dr. Bomba, Sr.’s ‘test,’ and that he would not have to undergo a digital rectal examination again,” the lawsuit states, via CBS Sports. “Garl laughed at Flowers and his freshman teammates and made jokes at their expense regarding the digital rectal examinations they endured.”
The university officially declined comment but sent a statement from September that said the school was conducting its own independent review on the matter.
The players’ attorney, Kathleen Delaney, said Bomba may have sexually abused at least 100 male athletes during his time at the school. Neither Garl nor Bomba’s attorney responded to a request for comment.
Bomba pleaded the fifth during a deposition last month.
Mujezinovic and Miller, who played under coach Bobby Knight in the 1990s, also alleged that Bomba conducted prostate exams that were not necessary.
The IU logo on a basketball during a Hoosiers game against the Michigan State Spartans Jan. 22, 2023, at Assembly Hall in Bloomington, Ind. (Brian Spurlock/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
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“Dr. Bomba, Sr.’s routine sexual assaults were openly discussed by the Hoosier men’s basketball players in the locker room in the presence of IU employees, including assistant coaches, athletic trainers, and other Hoosier men’s basketball staff,” the lawsuit said, via NBC News.
“I’m standing up for all student-athletes who have suffered abuse,” Mujezinovic said in a statement. “I hope that more of our former teammates will speak out and share their stories publicly.”
“I will never understand why IU leadership did nothing to protect us from what I now understand was sexual abuse,” Miller said.
Added Flowers, “I am proud to stand up on behalf of my former teammates and other IU basketball players to seek justice for the sexual abuse we endured as members of the Hoosiers.”
The Indiana Hoosiers logo during the Empire Classic game Nov. 19, 2023, at Madison Square Garden in Manhattan. (Rich Graessle/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
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Bomba was employed by the university from 1962 to 1970, and again from 1979 until the late ’90s.
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