The defense attorneys for Richard Allen, the man charged with the killing Abigail Williams and Liberty German in Delphi, Indiana, in 2017, filed documents on Monday claiming members of a white nationalist group are to blame for the deaths of the girls.
Attorneys Andrew Baldwin and Brad Rozzi filed the 136-page document which claims Abby, 13, and Libby, 14, were killed by Odinists.
Odinism, according to the defense, is a pagan Norse religion and white nationalist group.
The filings claim two groups of Odinists, one from the Delphi area and one from the Rushville, Indiana, area, were investigated for their involvement in the crimes. However, according to the defense, they were never made aware of these investigations or the documents surrounding it.
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According to the defense's filing, investigators found multiple ritualistic symbols at the scene of the crime, including the way Libby's body was positioned.
The defense claims the group had motive to kill the girls because one of their parents was dating a person of another race.
Also in their filing, the defense outlines 92 different reasons the murders of Libby and Abby could not have been committed by a singular person.
Based on the facts presented in their filing, the defense claims that the search warrant served on Allen's property was "defective."
In response, they have requested a Franks hearing, claiming a detective in the investigation lied to obtain the search warrant at Allen's property. If a Franks hearing is held and reason to throw out the warrant is found, all items found from that search would no longer be admissible in the investigation.
The defense has also requested the immediate transfer of Allen from the Westville Correctional Facility, claiming that members of the Odinists work within the facility and are threatening his life. In one instance, the defense claims to have seen "In Odin We Trust" patches on prison workers' uniforms.
They also claim that Allen had mentioned threats from "Odinites" during one of their interviews and that they had never mentioned their research on Odinism with him before that instance.
This story was originally published by James Howell Jr. for Scripps News Indianapolis.
