Delphi double murder trial: Graphic crime scene photos revealed in court
(NEW YORK) — Gruesome crime scene photographs were revealed in court on Monday during the trial of Richard Allen, who is accused of killing two teenage girls in 2017 on a hiking trail in the small town of Delphi, Indiana.
Carroll County sheriff’s deputy Darren Giancola, who was the first law enforcement officer on the scene after the bodies of Libby German, 14, and Abby Williams, 13, were discovered, was emotional as he took the stand for the prosecution on the third day of testimony.
Giancola said one of the girls was nude and the other was clothed when their bodies were located on Feb. 14, 2017.
“Both had large lacerations on their throat,” Giancola said. “They both had a substantial amount of blood on their person and underneath.”
Giancola was asked if lifesaving measures were performed, and he responded, “No. It was apparent they were deceased.”
The second witness called Monday was Jason Page of the Indiana State Police crime scene investigation unit, who photographed the crime scene.
The jury was shown graphic photos, including a close-up of Libby’s slashed throat and bloody face.
The families of Libby and Abby cried in the gallery and there were audible gasps in the courtroom when the images were shown.
Investigators had been tight-lipped about how the girls were killed for the last seven years, until prosecutor Nick McLeland revealed in his opening statement in court that both girls’ throats were cut.
Allen is accused of killing the two eighth graders while they walked on a hiking trail in their rural town on Feb. 13, 2017. Their bodies were discovered the next day.
Allen, a Delphi resident, was arrested in October 2022 and has pleaded not guilty to murder.
(WEST PALM BEACH, Fla.) — The man arrested for allegedly trying to assassinate former President Donald Trump on a Florida golf course is expected to appear before a judge Monday.
Ryan Wesley Routh was ordered to appear in a West Palm Beach federal court for a pre-detention hearing. Routh, 58, has already been charged with possession of a firearm as a convicted felon and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number for the Sept. 15 incident that took place at Trump International Golf Club.
Trump was playing golf on the course when a Secret Service agent spotted a gun barrel poking out from the tree line near the sixth green, according to investigators.
The agent then fired in the direction of the rifle and saw Routh fleeing the area and entering his Nissan vehicle, according to the criminal complaint.
Routh was allegedly 300 to 500 yards away from the former president and did not fire any shot, according to investigators. Trump was not in Routh’s line of sight, according to the Secret Service.
Witnesses reported the license plate number to authorities, and the suspect was stopped and detained.
In the area of the tree line where the suspect was seen, agents found a digital camera, two bags, including a backpack, and a loaded SKS-style 7.62×39 caliber rifle with a scope, according to the complaint. The serial number on the rifle “was obliterated and unreadable to the naked eye,” the complaint states.
Routh did not enter a plea for his initial charges and his arraignment is scheduled for Sept. 30.
The investigation is ongoing and the FBI has been going through Routh’s social media and criminal history and speaking with family members to get more clues.
Routh suggested Iran should feel “free to assassinate Trump” and himself in a self-published book from February 2023.
In the book, which ABC News has unearthed following Sunday’s incident, Routh directed an apology toward Iran, apparently for his previous support for Trump, who withdrew the U.S. in 2018 from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) nuclear deal with Iran.
The suspect was also a booster of a number of causes, including the war in Ukraine, an ABC News analysis of his apparent social media profiles shows.
As authorities try to unravel the motive and details of the case, sources said investigators were looking at whether Routh was frustrated with Trump’s position on Ukraine.
(TALLAHASSEE, FL.) — Storm surge is a major threat from Hurricane Milton, which is set to make landfall on Florida’s west coast as a Category 4 hurricane Wednesday night.
A dangerous, record-breaking storm surge of up to 12 feet is expected for Tampa Bay and Fort Myers. Storm surge could reach a life-threatening 15 feet near Sarasota.
Here is how storm surge works and why it’s so dangerous:
When pressure falls in the center of the hurricane, water levels rise, and the water amasses while the storm is still over the open ocean.
As the hurricane nears the shore, strong winds push that amassed water toward the coast and onto land.
This can build walls of water — potentially as tall as 20 feet or more — which can quickly overpower walls and flood homes.
In 2005, during Hurricane Katrina, at least 1,500 people died “directly, or indirectly, as a result of storm surge,” according to the National Hurricane Center.
The risks can be even greater if storm surge combines with high tide, which could quickly create a catastrophic rise in water levels.
(LOS ANGELES) — Three rapidly growing Southern California wildfires have burned more than 100,000 acres in less than a week and continued to threaten homes in multiple communities as the state mobilized an all-hands-on-deck response to bolster front-line fire crews battling the raging flames.
Nearly 6,000 National Guard members, law enforcement officers and other first responders have been sent to the firelines. Additionally, a squadron of 51 firefighting helicopters, nine fixed-wing aircraft, including two National Guard C-130 airplanes, 520 fire engines, 75 bulldozers and 141 water tankers were being used in an attempt to tame the blazes, two of which were out of control Wednesday.
The biggest blaze is the Bridge Fire, which ignited Sunday in the Angeles National Forest about 31 miles east of downtown Los Angeles and exploded overnight from about 4,000 acres on Tuesday to nearly 48,000 acres by Wednesday morning, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
The fire remained out of control with 0% containment after spreading across Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties, destroying the Mountain High Ski Resort where images emerged of the chairlift going up in flames. The fire is also threatening the small mountain communities of Wrightwood and Mt. Baldy, officials said.
At least 33 homes in Wrightwood and Mt. Baldy have been destroyed and another 2,500 structures in the area are being threatened by the fire, according to Cal Fire.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
During a news conference Wednesday, Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said three people, including an off-duty sheriff sergeant, were trapped by the Bridge Fire about 5 miles west of Mt. Baldy in Los Angeles County. Luna said efforts are underway to rescue the people, who are unable to access roads and need to be airlifted out of the remote area. Luna said heavy smoke in the area was preventing a helicopter from reaching the trapped people and the Los Angeles County Fire Department was attempting to get to them by vehicle.
“It’s just a nightmare,” Candace Lace, a homeowner in Lake Elsinore, a town being threatened by the Bridge Fire, told ABC News. “My girlfriend lost her home and I had to call her and tell her she’s losing her home. I could see it on fire.”
By Wednesday morning, the Bridge Fire had consumed 47,904 acres and prompted numerous evacuation orders and warnings, according to Cal Fire.
Stephanie Beck, a resident of Wrightwood, told ABC News that she has never seen a blaze move as quickly as the Bridge Fire.
“We really didn’t even have time to think,” Beck said of evacuating the fire zone. “It was just throw everything in the car and go.”
The Line Fire
The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department arrested a man Tuesday in connection with the Line Fire ravaging areas east of Los Angeles since Sept. 5.
Justin Wayne Halstenberg, a 34-year-old man from Norco, California, was identified “as the suspect who started a fire in the area of Baseline Road and Alpin Street in the city of Highland, also known as the Line Fire,” the Sheriff’s Department said in a statement.
Halstenberg was being held on suspicion of arson with his bail set at $80,000, officials said.
As of Wednesday, the Line Fire had burned 34,659 and was at 14% contained, according to Cal Fire. The sprawling fire is threatening more than 65,600 structures, including homes and commercial property, according to the latest update.
Authorities issued evacuation orders for 13,300 structures with another 52,300 under evacuation warnings. Evacuation orders were issued for 9,200 structures in the area, with another 56,400 structures under evacuation warnings, Cal Fire said.
No structures are confirmed damaged or destroyed. Three firefighters have been injured in the effort to contain the blaze, fire officials said.
“Today elevated winds and continued dry conditions will allow the fire to grow,” Cal Fire said in a statement. “Smoke from fires across the region will help moderate fire activity unless the skies clear and the smoke thins. That would allow for more slope and vegetation aligned runs.
More than 3,100 firefighting personnel were battling the blaze.
Gov. Gavin Newsom requested Federal Emergency Management Agency aid Tuesday evening to “secure vital resources to suppress the Bridge and Airport fires.”
The Airport Fire
The Airport Fire — which broke out on Monday in an unincorporated area of Orange County and spread to Riverside County — had burned 22,376 acres as of Wednesday, growing by 3,348 acres overnight, according to Cal Fire. The blaze is 0% contained.
The blaze is threatening 10,500 structures, including homes and businesses, and has so far injured five firefighters and two civilians, Cal Fire said.
The Airport Fire began around 1 p.m. PT on Tuesday, sparked by county public works crews working on a fire prevention project by trying to move boulders to prevent public access — mostly by motorcyclists — to an area of the canyon with a lot of dry vegetation that could ignite easily, officials told ABC Los Angeles station KABC.
At a news conference Tuesday afternoon, officials said 1,400 homes in Robinson Ranch in Rancho Santa Margarita were under mandatory evacuation due to the fire moving south toward communities like Lake Elsinore and Dove Canyon.
A total of 16 active wildfires were scorching California on Wednesday and have burned 613,819 acres, according to a statement Gov. Newsom released Tuesday.
So far this fire season, 6,045 wildfires have erupted in California and consumed more than 900,000 acres, Newsom said.
ABC News’ Marilyn Heck contributed to this report.