Liberty German’s mother broke down in tears as the court in Delphi heard that the blood running down her daughter’s face showed traces of the teenager’s tears.
The heartbreaking testimony was given by Patrick Cicero, a major with the Porte County Sheriff’s Department and CSI blood spatter specialist who studied crime scene photos when he was called to consult on the case in April of this year.
Early in the third week of the high-profile trial in which Richard Allen is charged on four counts in connection with the murders of best friends Libby and Abigail Williams, 13, Cicero was the second witness on a day heavy with expert testimony .
Libby, 14, and Abby, 13, were murdered outside their hometown of Delphi, Indiana, in February 2017
Patrick Cicero, a CSI blood spatter specialist, studied crime scene photos when he was called to consult on the case in April this year, and gave in court his ‘best explanation’ for what may have taken place in the woods after the murder. girls missing
Richard Allen, 52, is charged on two counts for each girl – murder and felony murder, that is, murder committed during another crime, in this case kidnapping – and faces a maximum sentence of 130 years if convicted
Allen, 52, is charged on two counts for each girl — murder and murder, that is, murder committed during another crime, in this case kidnapping — and faces a maximum sentence of 130 years if convicted. He has pleaded not guilty.
As photos of the crime scene were shown in court, along with images of the girls’ abused 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 about four feet above the ground, was likely transferred and resulted from coming into contact with a bloody object – in this case possibly Libby’s body which, it turns out, he theorized, at least one of her neck injuries received here.
Cicero said that after Libby’s throat was cut, she likely grabbed her neck and collapsed against a tree where a large pool of blood was found.
The blood would have been “immediate and voluminous,” he told jurors, postulating that she may have grabbed her neck to stop the bleeding, explaining the enormous amount of blood on her hands, before sitting down nearby from where the largest pool of clotting blood was found.
This, Cicero said, was where Libby likely succumbed to her injuries. From there she was towed to her final resting place, he said. The streaks of blood running from her right eye to her ear were, he said, “textbook consistent with dilution.”
He pointed out how they became lighter and lighter and described it as ‘absence of raindrops or water.’ He said the source of the thinning was “a tear.”
It was at this point that Libby’s mother Carrie Timmons broke down.
Cicero turned to Abby and noted that her throat had probably been cut where she lay, and that she was “on her back” when the wound was inflicted.
Abby was found with her hands fisted on her chest, and stuffed into the sweatshirt she was wearing that belonged to Libby.
Abby was found supine with her fists clenched near her chest in the pockets of a sweatshirt that belonged to Libby.
Cicero could not rule out that the defense questioned whether several people had held Abby when she was killed, or whether they had washed her hands after she was killed near the abandoned Monon High Bridge.
There was no blood on her hands and very little except on her neck and shoulders. Cicero said that in all the years he had studied crime scenes – more than 20 – and especially neck wounds, he had “never” come across a victim whose hands were free of blood.
Defense attorney Jennifer Auger stood up to question him and offered scenarios that could explain the oddity: that Abby was held down by different people or that someone washed her hands after she was killed.
Cicero had to admit that he could not rule out both.
Auger turned to him and asked, “Did you find anything at the crime scene, in the photos in all the evidence you looked at that linked Richard Allen to the murders of Liberty German and Abigail Williams?”
“No, I didn’t,” he replied.
A similar absence was noted after lengthy testimony from DNA expert Stacy Bozinovski, who examined all clothing, swabs and evidence recovered from the scene, the girl’s 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 being present on swabs from both girls, but no confirmatory testing was performed for fear that they would lose too much of the sample for DNA testing feed. Those tests showed there was not enough material to build a profile.
When asked during cross-examination if she had found any DNA evidence linking Allen to the girls’ murders, Bozinovski admitted that she had not in any of the evidence removed from his home in November 2022.
The path in Delphi, Indiana, where Abby Williams, 13, and Libby German, 14, were murdered on February 13, 2017
The suspect, known as Bridge Guy, was caught using one of the girls’ cellphones before they were killed
Auger asked, “It’s fair to say you put a lot of time and effort into this case and nothing [forensic] connects Richard Allen?’
Bozinovski replied: “I have not developed a DNA profile of an unknown male individual.”
Last week ended with nearly eight hours of expert testimony, with Allen’s own stepfather struggling to keep his eyes open as the defense tried to dismiss crucial state evidence as junk science regarding the cartridge found at the scene which, they claim , ‘cycled through it’. “Allen’s gun.
On Monday, Judge Frances Gull reprimanded those present for sleeping during Bozonovski’s testimony, saying: “I am not holding court in your bedrooms.” I would appreciate it if you did not sleep in my courtroom.”
