Elementary school student survives bathroom incident after allegedly found hanging from door hook. Sheriff’s office investigating

(Delphi, IND.) — Delphi, Indiana, murder suspect Richard Allen allegedly confessed to the crime in multiple jail phone calls to his wife, which were played for the jury on Thursday.

In one call, Allen told his wife, Kathy, “I did it. I killed Abby and Libby.”

“No, you didn’t,” she said. Allen replied, “Yes, I did.”

“Why would you say that?” Kathy said. “I know you didn’t. There’s something wrong.”

In another call, Allen told his wife, “I think maybe I’ve lost my mind. … I need you to know I did this.”

She replied, “No, you haven’t. You’re unwell.”

Allen is accused of killing Libby German, 14, and Abby Williams 13, on a hiking trail in February 2017. He’s pleaded not guilty to murder.

In a separate call, Allen said to his wife, “If I get the electric chair or the death penalty, will you be there for me? I killed Abby and Libby.”

In another call, Allen said, “I did it, Kathy. I did it. Do you still love me?”

She replied, “Yes, I do. But you didn’t do it.”

“I don’t want to upset you. I’m sorry,” Allen told his wife. “I don’t know what I’m doing. I don’t know if I’ve lost my mind.”

“I feel like I’m already in hell,” he told her later in the call. “I don’t understand what’s going on.”

Allen also allegedly confessed to corrections officers and a prison psychologist, according to their testimonies. But Allen’s mental state while in custody has come into question.

A psychologist testified this week that Allen could be classified as having serious mental illness. Allen was in solitary confinement for 13 months, which she said can be detrimental to a person’s mental health.

The psychologist said she believed Allen suffered from “situational psychosis” in jail. She said Allen would have episodes of psychosis and then it would go into remission.

Allen’s strange behavior in custody included hitting his head on the wall, washing his face in the toilet, refusing food, eating paper, smearing feces in his cell and putting feces on his face for two hours, according to testimony from corrections officers.

On the day of the murders, Libby and Abby saw a man behind them on the bridge, and Libby started recording on her phone, prosecutors said. The man — known as “bridge guy,” from the video of his voice released to the public — pulled out a gun and ordered the girls to go “down the hill,” prosecutors said.

Indiana State Police trooper Brian Harshman, who said he listened to 700 of Allen’s calls and monitored his texts and video chats, testified Thursday that after listening to the calls, he believes Allen is the voice on Libby’s “bridge guy” video.

The psychologist testified that Allen told her he ordered the girls “down the hill” and intended to rape them, but then he saw something — either a person or a van — and was startled.

Harshman told the jurors he believed Allen was startled by a van belonging to resident Brad Weber. Weber, who lives near the crime scene, owns a 2000 Ford Econoline van. Harshman said the time it would’ve taken Weber to drive home from work fits with the timing of the murders.

Defense attorney Brad Rozzi said police never investigated how many vans were registered in the county at the time of the murders. Rozzi also noted that numerous people were suspected of being the man in the “bridge guy” video, including Weber.

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(NEW YORK) — As Helene swept through North Carolina last week, John Norwood and his fiancé, Julie le Roux, sought shelter at a neighbor’s house.

As they attempted to wait out the worst of the storm, which made landfall in Florida as a Category 4 hurricane, a mudslide destroyed the home they had taken shelter in.

“We looked outside and there was a 30-foot-tall wall of water and rocks and tree debris just coming at us,” Norwood told ABC News.

The debris knocked the house “straight down,” flushing out those who had been huddled inside, he said, adding, “And we all got washed downriver.” Norwood was rescued, but le Roux is still unaccounted for, he said. She’s one of hundreds of people who are unaccounted for after the storm, according to officials.

The storm was “unprecedented” for western North Carolina, requiring an “unprecedented response,” Gov. Roy Cooper said Monday. At least 40 people were killed by the storm in Buncombe County, in the western part of the state, local officials said Monday.

Hundreds of people were missing or unaccounted for as of Monday throughout the southeastern United States, Homeland Security adviser Liz Sherwood Randall said as she gave a lengthy update on the federal response to Helene, including a warning that much is still unknown about the situation.

“When I said there could be up to 600 people lost my point was, there 600 people unaccounted for,” Sherwood Randall said. “That’s the number we’re tracking right now and that we can essentially validate from multiple sources.”

But, she added, there was still uncertainty in that number. It included many who hadn’t been heard from, but they may just be out of contact, she said.

“And as the president said this morning, we’re very hopeful that some of those people just don’t have cell phones working and actually are alive,” she said.

Elsewhere in North Carolina, there were gas lines stretching from stations, as survivors waited for fuel. Officials were busy supplying water and ready-to-eat meals, Will Ray, the director of the state’s Emergency Management agency, said.

In Marion, a city in the state’s hard-hit western area, rescuers used a pulley system to pull Norwood to safety, carrying him over rushing flood waters. A ceiling rafter had crushed his legs, he said, but at least he was rescued. He said he hasn’t seen le Roux since the mudslide hit.

“I crawled around screaming, looking for her,” he said as he fought back tears, “and I just couldn’t find her.”

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(OAKLAND, Calif.) — A suspect has been arrested and charged with murder in connection to a Michigan home invasion in which two men are believed to have gained entry by posing as utility workers.

The Oakland County Sheriff’s Office identified him as Carlos Jose Hernandez, 37, and said they are seeking his extradition from Louisiana.

The second suspect remains at large, and the sheriff’s office is urging anyone with information that could lead to an arrest to get in touch.

On Friday, a 72-year-old man was found dead in the basement of his Rochester Hills home, according to the sheriff’s office. His wife, who called 911, had been tied up with her hands duct-taped.

It is not yet clear how the man, identified as Hussein Murray, was killed.

“Because of the gruesome nature of the injuries, it was not immediately clear if he had been shot or bludgeoned to death,” the sheriff’s department said in a press release.

The woman told law enforcement officials that the night before the attack, the two suspects had also shown up to the home claiming to be responding to a gas leak, but they were not allowed inside.

When they showed up again on Friday, they were let into the home, and her husband went with them into the basement, “ostensibly to look for the leak,” according to the sheriff’s department.

When they came back upstairs without her husband, they tied her up and taped her hands, the woman said. She did not see him come out afterward and “assumed he had been kidnapped.”

In home security camera footage released by the sheriff’s department, the since-arrested suspect can be seen wearing a utility worker’s uniform and a mask while holding a clipboard.

“We’re DTE. We’re checking for gas leaks,” the man can be heard saying in the video, naming the Michigan-based energy company.

In a statement after the incident, DTE urged customers to “be alert for DTE Energy impersonators.”

“If anyone arrives at your home or business claiming they are from DTE, please ask to see a badge with a photo ID. If the person refuses to show their badge, do not allow them entry into your home. If the person becomes agitated or acts in a strange manner, call 911 immediately,” the company said.

In an interview with a Detroit ABC affiliate WXYZ, Sheriff Michael J. Bouchard described Murray as “a loving guy, owned a business, cared about his neighborhood and his community.”

“[He] shouldn’t have been a target of this — no one should ever be a target of this,” Bouchard said.

Murray owned a jewelry and pawn shop, according to WXYZ.

Bouchard said they believe Murray’s killing was “very targeted.”

“It wasn’t random,” Bouchard said. “They’re not just knocking on doors and doing this.”

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