Liberty German’s mother broke down and wept as the court in Delphi heard that the blood that flowed down her daughter’s face bore the tracks of the teenager’s tears.
The heartbreaking testimony was delivered by Patrick Cicero, a Major with Porte County Sheriff’s Department and CSI blood spatter specialist who studied the pictures of the crime scene when he was called into consult on the case in April this year.
Speaking at the start of the third week of the high-profile trial in which Richard Allen stands charged on four counts in connection with the murders of best friends Libby and Abigail Williams, 13, Cicero was the second witness in a day that was heavy with expert testimony.
Libby, 14, and Abby, 13, were killed outside their hometown of Delphi, Indiana, in February 2017
Patrick Cicero, a CSI blood spatter specialist, studied the pictures of the crime scene when he was called in to consult on the case in April this year, gave his ‘best explanation’ in court for what may have taken place in the woods after the girls went missing
Richard Allen , 52, is charged on two counts for each girl – murder and felony murder, which is murder committed in the act of another crime, in this instance kidnap – and faces a maximum penalty of 130 years if convicted
Allen, 52, is charged on two counts for each girl – murder and felony murder, which is murder committed in the act of another crime, in this instance kidnap – and faces a maximum penalty of 130 years if convicted. He has pleaded not guilty.
As crime scene photos were displayed in court along with images of the girls’ brutalized bodies Cicero gave his ‘best explanation’ for what may have taken place in the woods after the girls went missing on February 13, 2017.
He explained that blood found on a small tree, which was stained roughly four-foot from the ground, was likely transferred and the result of coming in contact with a bloody object – in this instance possibly the body of Libby whom, he theorized, received at least one of her neck injuries here.
Cicero said after Libbys throat was slit she most likely grabbed at her neck and slumped against a tree where a big pool of blood was found
The blood would have been ‘instantaneous and voluminous’ he told the jurors as he postulated that she may have grabbed at her neck to stem the bleeding, accounting for the vast amount of blood on her hands, before coming to a seated position near where the largest pool of coagulating blood was found.
This, Cicero stated, was where Libby likely succumbed to her injuries. From there he said she was dragged to her final resting place. The streaks of blood that ran from her right eye to her ear were, he said, ‘textbook consistent with dilution.’
He pointed to how they got lighter and lighter describing it as ‘absent rain drop or water.’ He said the source of the thinning was, ‘a tear.’
It was at tis point that Libbys mother Carrie Timmons broke down.
Turning to Abby, Cicero noted that she had likely had her throat slit where she lay, and that she was ‘supine’ when the wound was inflicted.
Abby was found with her hands balled up in fists at her chest, and tucked into the sweatshirt she wore which was Libby’s.
Abby was found in a supine position with her fists balled near her chest in the pockets of a sweatshirt that belonged to Libby
Cicero couldnt rule out the defenses questioning that several people had held Abby down as she was murdered or washed her hands after she was killed near the abandoned Monon High Bridge
There was no blood on her hands and very little other than at her neck and shoulders. Cicero said in all the years he had studied crime scenes – more than 20 – and neck wounds in particular he had ‘never’ encountered a victim whose hands were clear of any blood.
Standing to cross examine him, defense attorney Jennifer Auger suggested scenarios that might explain the oddity – that Abby was held down by several people or that somebody washed her hands after she was killed.
Cicero had to admit he could not rule either out.
Rounding on him Auger asked, ‘Did you find anything in the crime scene, in the photographs in all the evidence you reviewed that linked Richard Allen to the murders of Liberty German and Abigail Williams?
‘No, I did not,’ he replied.
A similar absence was established after lengthy testimony from DNA expert Stacy Bozinovski who examined all the clothes, swabs and evidence retrieved from the scene, the girls bodies and the creek.
Despite extensive testing, the only unknown male DNA profile she was able to map turned out to be that of a law enforcement officer who may have worked at the lab.
Sexual assault kits performed on both girls showed the possibility of male seminal fluid on cervical swabs taken from both girls, but no confirmatory tests were performed out of fear theyd lose too much of the sample to perform DNA testing. Those tests proved not to have sufficient material to build a profile.
When asked under cross examination if she had found any DNA evidence linking Allen to the girls’ murders, in all the evidence removed from his home in November 2022, Bozinovski admitted she had not.
The trail in Delphi, Indiana, where Abby Williams, 13, and Libby German, 14, were killed on Feb. 13, 2017
The suspect known as Bridge Guy was caught on one of the girls cellphones before they were killed
Auger asked, ‘Fair to say you put a lot of time and effort into this case and nothing [forensic] connects Richard Allen?’
Bozinovski replied, ‘I did not develop a DNA profile of any unknown male individual.’
Last week ended with close to eight hours of expert testimony, during which Allen’s own stepfather struggled to keep his eyes open as the defense sought to debunk crucial state evidence as junk science concerning the cartridge found at the scene that, they assert, ‘cycled through’ Allen’s gun.
On Monday Judge Frances Gull reprimanded members of the audience for sleeping during Bozonovski’s testimony saying, ‘I don’t conduct court in your bedrooms I would appreciate you not sleeping in my courtroom.’