Odinism, third-party suspects to play role in appeal

The clock is ticking for Richard Allen’s appellate attorneys. They have just 15 days to file an appellate brief in response to his conviction for the murder of Abigail Williams and Liberty German.

The 1,200 pages of court documents and exhibits from the September 2023 Franks hearing were released Nov. 10.

Allen’s attorneys, Mark Leeman and Stacy Uliana, received the more than 1,200 court documents and exhibits, which they say will help determine the direction of their appeal.

Although many pages of the documents are excluded from public access under rules on access to court records, a large portion of the 1,200 pages deals with third-party suspects and individuals who are alleged to practice Asatru (Odinism), a Norse-Pagan religion.

Included is the affidavit of Todd Click, the former Rushville assistant police chief. Click worked with Detectives Greg Ferency and Kevin Murphy on the Delphi case, and says his work centered around individuals who lived in Rushville and practiced Odinism.

“During briefings with Detective Ferency, I was told that the Behavioral Analysis Unit of the FBI determined that individual(s) responsible for the homicides were involved in Nordic beliefs,” Click stated in the affidavit. “Detective Ferency informed me that there was a group of individuals called Vinlanders that practice Odinism and Viking-like beliefs that resided in the Rushville area.”

Click stated he was “frustrated because we as police officers were not allowed to take any material investigative actions without first reaching up the chain of command and getting permission of unified command.”

In the affidavit, Click wrote, “Upon reviewing the Probable Cause affidavit supporting Richard Allen’s arrest, it became immediately clear to me that the information contained in the Affidavit, pointing toward Richard Allen’s guilt, was far less compelling than the totality of the information that Detective Ferency, Detective Murphy, and myself had accumulated during the Rushville portion of the investigation. I also noticed that there was absolutely no reference to any of the individuals that our team had investigated, nor any association between the Odinistic evidence that seemed to tie the crime scene to the behaviors and actions of the Vinlanders.”

Also included in the exhibits was the Indiana State Police Laboratory’s analysis of DNA and blood found at the scene. All swabs presented with no male DNA or failed to demonstrate a sufficient quantity of male DNA for further analysis.

The reports also included photos and paintings depicting Odinist beliefs and practices, including a painting posted to Facebook that Allen’s attorneys say closely matched the position of the bodies from the crime scene. That Facebook page belongs to a Logansport man whom attorneys claimed was connected to the girls through his son.

Affidavits from Max Baker and Matthew Hoffman, employees of Allen’s trial attorneys, Brad Rozzi, Andrew Baldwin, and Jennifer Auger, were also included in the filing. Attached to the affidavit was a photo of Allen with a bruised face and shoulder. Baker claims that during multiple visits to the IDOC to meet with Allen, he noticed a deterioration in Allen’s mental and physical health.

Baker also claimed to see IDOC officers wearing patches embroidered with “In Odin We Trust,” and “I Hate People.”

The court documents also included an interview with Allen’s wife, Kathy. During the interview, Kathy told officers that the day Abby and Libby went missing, her husband told her he “went for a walk” on the trail.

“He did say he went for a walk out there and that he ran into these three girls that were weird,” she said. “And so, he was like, I’m just going to go home … one of them had long black hair … or at least that’s what he told me. … That’s all he told me.”

She said she got home from work around 6 p.m. on Feb. 13 and found her husband sleeping on the couch. She then saw the news that Abby and Libby were missing.

“I wanted to go out and look for them,” she said, but her husband discouraged her from going.

She also told police she and her husband had guns and knives in the home, and Richard Allen did own a blue Carhartt jacket.

Multiple affidavits from law enforcement and unified command were also included in the filing.

Allen’s appellate attorneys have until Dec. 10 to file their appellate brief. The State will then have 30 days to respond before it proceeds to the Court of Appeals for review.