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(DELPHI, Ind.) — Delphi, Indiana, double murder suspect Richard Allen self-reported being at the crime scene in the days after the killings, but the tip sheet “fell in the cracks,” leaving him “hiding in plain sight” in the small town for years, the sheriff told the jury at Allen’s trial.

Best friends Libby German, 14, and Abby Williams, 13, were walking along a Delphi hiking trail when they were killed on the afternoon of Feb. 13, 2017. Allen, a Delphi resident, was arrested in October 2022 and has pleaded not guilty to murder.

Kathy Shank, a volunteer file clerk who arranged boxes of information and tips in the case, testified Thursday that on Sept. 21, 2022 — weeks before Allen’s arrest — she came across a file folder that was not with the others she was managing.

The sheet said that on Feb. 16, 2017 — three days after the murders — a person listed as “Richard Allen Whiteman” self-reported being on the trails between 1:30 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. on the day of the crime. According to Shank, the self-reporter listed seeing three girls.

Shank testified that she wrote a lead sheet and changed the name to Richard Allen. Allen lived on Whiteman Drive, so she said she believed the names were transposed and it was misfiled.

She said she notified the sheriff after finding Allen’s tip sheet.

Allen’s defense attorney asked Shank, “There was no other tip, to your knowledge, that involved Richard Allen?” Shank replied, “To my knowledge, no.”

Carroll County Sheriff Tony Liggett acknowledged on the stand that Allen was never a suspect from 2017 to 2022 and said the tip sheet generated about him was marked “clear.” When pressed by Allen’s defense on how that could have happened, Liggett responded, Allen “got lost” and “fell in the cracks.”

The sheriff also conceded that Allen came forward on his own and never left town. “He was hiding in plain sight,” Liggett said to defense attorney Andrew Baldwin.

When Allen was arrested, Liggett was running for sheriff, which Allen’s attorneys argued was good timing for his campaign. Liggett denied the two were linked.

“This was about the murders of two little girls,” he said. Indiana State Police investigator Jerry Holeman testified about his conversation with Allen during the search of Allen’s home in the fall of 2022.

Holeman said, as the two sat in his police car, he told Allen that once the search was done he could file a claim for any damage to his house.

Holeman claimed that Allen replied, “It doesn’t matter. It’s over.”

Holeman said he didn’t record that conversation even though Allen was considered a suspect at the time. Defense attorneys pushed back on Holeman’s story, saying the jury could only take his word for it.

Indiana State Police trooper David Vido, who helped administer the search warrant at Allen’s home, testified there was no physical evidence in Allen’s car or on his jacket that linked him to the crime scene.

Prosecutors said police analysis of Allen’s gun determined that the .40-caliber unspent round discovered by the girls’ bodies was cycled through Allen’s gun.

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(BIG SKY, Mont.) — A Montana man has been charged in the killing of a fellow camper that was so brutal it was initially reported by a 911 caller as a possible bear attack.

Daren Christopher Abbey, 41, of Basin, Montana, has been charged with deliberate homicide in the killing of Dustin Kjersem, authorities announced at a news conference Thursday evening.

Gallatin County Sheriff Dan Springer said Abbey confessed to the killing after investigators zeroed in on him based on DNA collected from a beer can inside the slain man’s tent.

The sheriff said it does not appear the two men knew each other and that they met in a “chance encounter” as Abbey searched for a campsite.

“There does not appear to be any connection between our victim and our suspect,” Springer told reporters Thursday.

Kjersem’s body was found dead in a tent on Oct. 12 in a fairly remote camping area in the Moose Creek area.

The sheriff said Kjersem arrived in the Moose Creek area on Oct. 10 for a camping trip and had set up a wall tent, complete with a wood stove, beds and lamps.

That same night, Abbey was also in the area looking for a place to camp and noticed Kjersem had already taken the campsite, the sheriff said.

Abbey told investigators Kjersem “welcomed him to the campsite” and offered him a beer, the sheriff said.

Then at some point Abbey hit Kjersem with a piece of wood, stabbed him in the neck with a screwdriver and then hit him with an ax, the sheriff said.

The motive for the attack is still unknown, the sheriff said.

“We have a bit of his story, but … we don’t really know what the true story is,” Springer said.

The sheriff said Abbey later returned to the crime scene to remove items from the campsite that he believed might have evidence to tie him to the killing, including a cooler, firearms and the ax.

Kjersem was last heard from on Oct. 10 as he was leaving to go camping for the weekend. He had plans to pick up his girlfriend on the following day and take her out to the campsite, the sheriff said. When he didn’t show, she grew concerned and went with a friend to the campsite and found his body inside his tent.

The initial 911 call reported it as a possible bear attack.

When investigators responded to the scene of the crime, a Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks agent with expertise in bear attacks did not find any signs of bear activity at the scene, prompting investigators to treat the incident as a homicide, according to the sheriff’s office.

An autopsy determined multiple wounds led to his death. Kjersem’s injuries included “significant damage” to his skull, Springer previously said.

Abbey’s DNA was identified on the beer can by analysts with the Montana State Crime Lab on Oct. 25, authorities said. Abbey was located in the Butte area. He was initially arrested on Oct. 26 on a probation violation.

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(ASHEVILLE, NC) — More than three weeks ago, Hurricane Helene knocked out the power and running water at James Greene’s nursing home in Asheville, North Carolina.

Today, Greene, 84, and his fellow residents at Brooks-Howell Home still do not have regular access to safe, running water for their daily activities.

“For two weeks we’ve been unable to shower or wash hands,” Greene wrote in a letter to family and friends, which was shared with ABC News. “Maintaining hygiene with hand sanitizers is a constant must.”

“Another example is having to pour a bucket of water into the tank of the toilet in order to flush. And keep in mind that our residents are old and not used to such physical activity,” wrote Greene.

Greene’s nursing home is not the only one in North Carolina affected by the ongoing water crisis in Asheville. While bottled water is adequate for cooking and drinking, the lack of municipal running water places severe restrictions on activities like handwashing, showering and laundry.

In nursing homes particularly, infections can travel quickly, making access to clean running water an even more urgent necessity.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), floodwater from hurricanes can contaminate local water sources with “germs, dangerous chemicals, human and livestock waste” and other contaminants that can cause disease.

On Oct. 16, the City of Asheville Water Resource Department issued a Boil Water Notice for all water customers that is still in effect, meaning “there is contamination due to impacts from Hurricane Helene including the potential for untreated water in the distribution system,” according to the notice.

The elderly are particularly at risk of infection due to many factors, including reduced immunity, existing chronic illness, and exposure to pathogens in hospitals and nursing homes.

Kimberly Smith is the vice president of operations for Ascent Healthcare Management, a company that runs six retirement facilities in Western North Carolina. As of Oct. 18, three of the company’s Asheville locations still do not have running water, Smith told ABC News.

Even after running water returns, Smith said that she anticipates her facilities will be under the Boil Water Notice for quite some time.

Libby Bush, president and CEO of Deerfield Episcopal Retirement Community, located in Asheville, said her facility is also currently under the Boil Water Notice.

“It has been challenging to keep up with the current and most accurate information,” she told ABC News.

Greene said he and other nursing home residents are deeply appreciative of the nursing home staff and government assistance in the wake of Hurricane Helene. While he now understands the scale of Helene’s destruction, Greene said in his letter that his initial days during and immediately after the storm were spent in seclusion, with the initial lack of internet, landline, and cell phone service contributing to “an utter sense of isolation.”

“The fact that no [one] called in, or could call out, made it worse,” he told ABC News.

Smith added that many nursing home residents suffered “an emotional toll” because they weren’t able to get in touch with their families.

Phone and internet services have been largely restored, Smith and Bush separately told ABC News.

Smith is also grateful for the shower trailers, portable toilets, hand washing stations and extra generators provided by the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, the state’s Office of Emergency Medical Services, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

They brought “a lot of things that we tried to get on our own and couldn’t,” Smith said. “All the regulatory people have kind of come together to help the nursing homes.”

Still, there’s a long road to recovery ahead for senior care facilities in Asheville.

Greene visited a Red Cross/FEMA disaster assistance center in Asheville and was impressed by the resources provided.

“It distresses me and others to see the negative reporting on FEMA and the Red Cross,” he said.

“The senior citizens here, many of them retired deaconesses and missionaries, dealt well with the hardship conditions,” Greene added of his fellow nursing home residents. “No doubt we are a bit traumatized, but God was good to us.”

Sejal Parekh, M.D. is a board-certified practicing pediatrician and a member of the ABC News Medical Unit.

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