Delphi murder trial: No DNA ties suspect or anyone else to crime scene, expert says
Alex Perez/ABC News
(Delphi, IND) — No DNA was found at the site of the Delphi, Indiana, double murders to tie the suspect, Richard Allen, or anyone else to the crime scene, a forensic scientist testified Monday during Allen’s trial.
Best friends Libby German, 14, and Abby Williams, 13, were walking along a hiking trail in rural Delphi when they were stabbed to death and left in the woods on Feb. 13, 2017. Allen was arrested in 2022 and has pleaded not guilty to murder.
Rape kits were performed on Abby and Libby; no semen was found and there was no DNA evidence the girls were sexually assaulted, Indiana State Police forensic scientist Stacy Bozinovski said on the stand Monday.
Some swabs showed a possible presence of male DNA, Bozinovski said, but the amount was insufficient, and she told the court she didn’t do a confirmatory test because she wanted to make the most of the sample.
Bozinovski noted that she did find male DNA in genital swabs and fingernails, but she said that is not entirely unusual because it could have come from shared clothing. She said it yielded very little DNA.
Bozinovski said hair found in Abby’s hand matched Libby’s sister.
According to police analysis, a .40-caliber unspent round discovered by the girls’ bodies came from Allen’s gun.
Bozinovski said she tested the unspent round found at the crime scene, but the DNA found on the cartridge was insufficient for further testing.
Allen has admitted to being on the trail the day the girls were killed but he denies any involvement in the murders.
(WASHINGTON) — The White House has condemned an incident over the weekend in which a group of masked individuals with Nazi flags marched through the streets of Columbus, Ohio.
White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said in a statement President Joe Biden “abhors the hateful poison of Nazism, Antisemitism, and racism,” which he called “hostile to everything the United States stands for, including protecting the dignity of all our citizens and the freedom to worship.”
“Hate directed against any of us is a threat to every single one of us,” Bates said. “This sickening display comes during a tragic rise in Antisemitic rhetoric and violence that is a crises the American people should all come together against. That is why President Biden launched and continues to act on the first ever national strategy to fight Antisemitism in American history.”
On Saturday afternoon, a group of unidentified individuals marched through Columbus wearing black and carrying flags with swastikas on them.
The individuals were also “armed with firearms,” according to the Columbus Police Department.
Members of the group were detained, but no arrests were ultimately made, police said. Police said officers had initially been advised of a possible “physical altercation,” but released the detained individuals after determining “an assault did not take place.”
Officials spoke out after photos and videos of the demonstrators circulated widely across social media.
In a statement from the city of Columbus, city officials said they “reject the cowardly display” and would work with police to monitor the situation.
“The Columbus community stands squarely against hatred and bigotry,” the statement said. “We will not allow any of our neighbors to be intimidated, threatened or harmed because of who they are, how they worship or whom they love. We embrace tolerance and acceptance, and derive great strength from our diversity. It is who we are as a people, and it is precisely what has enabled us to grow and thrive and reach new heights of excellence.”
“We will not tolerate hate in Ohio,” Ohio Republican Gov. Mike DeWine said in a statement on social media Saturday. “Neo-Nazis — their faces hidden behind red masks — roamed streets in Columbus today, carrying Nazi flags and spewing vile and racist speech against people of color and Jews. There were reports that they were also espousing white power sentiments.”
He added, “There is no place in this State for hate, bigotry, antisemitism, or violence, and we must denounce it wherever we see it.”
The incident came a week after another group of masked individuals were seen waving Nazi flags outside a production of “The Diary of Anne Frank” in Howell, Michigan.
(ATHENS, Ga.) — The last moments before Laken Riley was killed while out on a run on the University of Georgia’s campus were shown in court Tuesday on the third day of the trial involving the murder of the 22-year-old nursing student.
The Augusta University student was found dead in a wooded area on the Athens campus on Feb. 22.
Jose Ibarra, 26, is accused of murdering Riley after prosecutors said she “refused to be his rape victim.” Ibarra, an undocumented migrant, was charged with malice murder and felony murder in connection with her death, which became a rallying cry for immigration reform from many conservatives, including President-elect Donald Trump.
On the morning of the murder, at 8:55 a.m., Riley texted her mother, “Good morning, about to go for a run if you’re free to talk,” according to University of Georgia Police Sgt. Sophie Raboud, one of the lead investigators in the case, who testified on Tuesday about Riley’s cellphone activity.
Riley called her mother at 9:03 a.m., then started listening to music, Raboud said. She was captured on a trail camera at 9:05 a.m. running with her iPhone in her left hand toward the intramural fields, Raboud said. She runs out of view of the camera at 9:06 a.m.
At 9:11 a.m., she called 911, Raboud said. Witnesses previously testified that Riley initiated the call through the SOS application on her phone. The dispatcher was not able to speak with anyone before the call was hung up and called back twice with no answer, the witnesses said.
At 9:24 a.m., Riley received a call from her mother that went unanswered, Raboud said.
At 9:38 a.m., her mother texted, “Call me when you can,” Raboud said.
Raboud said Riley’s mother continued to try to reach Riley but the calls went unanswered, before texting at 9:58 a.m., “You’re making me nervous, not answering when you’re out running. Are you OK?”
Riley received subsequent calls from her mother and sister that went unanswered, Raboud said.
At 11:47 a.m., her mother texted, “Please call me, I’m worried sick about you,” Raboud said.
Subsequent calls, including from her stepfather, also went unanswered, Raboud said.
Trail camera footage from later that morning shown in court captured Laken’s roommates, Lilly Steiner and Sofia Magana, on the trail searching for her.
Riley’s roommates reported her missing, and a University of Georgia police officer found her body at 12:38 p.m., witnesses previously testified. Data from the Garmin watch she was wearing on her run showed her heart stopped at 9:28 a.m., witnesses previously testified.
Riley had sustained significant blunt force trauma to her head, including eight injuries to the left side of her skull and an injury just above her right temple, Dr. Michelle DiMarco, who conducted her autopsy, testified on Tuesday. One of the injuries was significant enough that it caused brain bleeding and could have been fatal, she said.
There was also evidence of asphyxiation, though DiMarco said she was unable to categorize how that occurred. Her cause of death was determined to be the “combined effects of blunt force head trauma and asphyxia,” DiMarco said.
Ibarra was interviewed on Feb. 23 in connection with her death and had multiple scratches observable on his arms, police testified. His DNA was found under Riley’s fingernails, prosecutors said. A man was captured on a trail camera the morning of the murder heading toward the intramural fields shortly before 8 a.m., Raboud said.
Prosecutors said the person was wearing clothes similar to what Ibarra had on in a Snapchat selfie posted earlier that morning, including a black Adidas cap.
Ibarra was also seen discarding a bloodied jacket and disposable gloves near his apartment on Feb. 22 at 9:44 a.m., prosecutors said.
Hairs removed from the jacket were determined to have originated from Riley or “someone with hair possessing the same distinct characteristics,” Anne Kisler-Rao, with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation’s crime lab, testified on Tuesday.
The gloves recovered from a bush near Ibarra’s apartment were determined to have matched ones recovered from a drawer in his apartment, GBI specialist Alexander Covin testified on Tuesday. Under cross by the defense, Covin admitted that the gloves may have matched but could also have come from different sources.
Ibarra has pleaded not guilty. He waived his right to a jury trial and the case is being presented in the Athens-Clarke County courtroom to Judge H. Patrick Haggard, who will render a verdict.
Police have said they believe Ibarra — a migrant from Venezuela who officials said illegally entered the U.S. in 2022 — did not know Riley and that this was a “crime of opportunity.”
ABC News’ Janice McDonald contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — A federal appeals court in New York on Tuesday upheld the sex crimes conviction of Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime associated of the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Ghislaine, in March, asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit to overturn her conviction and 20-year prison sentence for recruiting and grooming the underage girls who Epstein sexually abused, arguing she was immunized by an agreement federal prosecutors in Florida arranged with Epstein in 2007.
On Tuesday, the appeals court ruled that Maxwell was not covered by Epstein’s non-prosecution agreement and said the alleged crimes fell within the statute of limitations.
Maxwell’s attorneys had argued that she was made a “proxy” for Epstein, who died by suicide in prison while awaiting trial, to “satisfy public outrage” about his conduct.
Maxwell was convicted in 2021 after prosecutors said that, from 1994 to 2004, she worked together with Epstein to identify girls, groom them, and then transport them to Epstein’s properties in New York, Florida, New Mexico, and elsewhere. The girls — some of whom were as young as 14 years old — were then sexually abused, often under the guise of a “massage,” prosecutors said.
Maxwell is currently incarcerated in a low-security prison in Tallahassee and eligible for release in 2037.
