INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — A man has been charged in Indiana Murders of two teenage girls during a winter hike in 2017, faces trial in a case that has long plagued her hometown of Delphi and sparked endless online speculation.

Richard Allen, 52, is charged with two counts of murder and two counts of murder for committing or attempting to commit kidnapping in the killings of 13-year-old Abigail Williams and 14-year-old Liberty German. If convicted, he could face up to 130 years in prison. Prosecutors are not seeking the death penalty.

Jury selection begins Monday in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Once the 12 members and four alternates are selected, they will be taken to Delphi, a town of about 3,000 people about 60 miles (100 kilometers) northwest of Indianapolis, where they will be sequestered for the duration of the trial under the supervision of bailiffs and it is theirs forbidden to use cell phones or watch news programs.

If jury selection is completed Wednesday, jury instructions and opening statements could occur Friday morning. The process is expected to take a month.

It was Allen, a pharmacy technician who had lived and worked in Delphi arrested in October 2022almost six years after the girls Abby and Libby were murdered.

A relative dropped off the eighth-graders at a hiking trail just outside Delphi on Feb. 13, 2017, but they failed to show up at the designated pickup location later that day. They were reported missing that evening and their bodies were found the next day in a rough wooded area near the trail.

Within days the police were fired Files found on Libby's phone – two grainy photos and audio of a man saying “down the hill” – who they believed was the murderer.

However, no arrest followed.

Investigators released a sketch of the suspect in July 2017 and another in April 2019. They also released a short video showing the suspect walking on an abandoned railroad bridge called the Monon High Bridge.

After years of failing to find a suspect, investigators said they went back and reviewed “previous leads.”

Allen was interviewed in 2017. He told the officer that he had been on the trail the day the girls went missing and that he had seen three “women” at another bridge – the Freedom Bridge – but had not spoken to them. According to an affidavit, he said he didn't notice anyone because he was distracted by a stock ticker on his phone.

Police questioned Allen again on October 13, 2022, when he again asserted that he had seen three “juvenile girls” during his walk in 2017. Investigators then searched Allen's home and seized a .40-caliber handgun. Tests revealed that an unspent bullet found between the teen's bodies had “passed” through Allen's gun.

According to the affidavit, Allen said he had never been to the location where the bullet was found, he did not know the owner of the property and “had no explanation as to why a bullet passed through his gun at that location.” “ .”

The case was repeatedly delayed after evidence was leaked. Allen's public defenders withdrew and were later reinstated by the Indiana Supreme Court. The Delphi Murders continue to be the subject of much speculation and theory from true crime enthusiasts.

Allen County Superior Court Judge Fran Gull, who is overseeing the case, issued one Gag order at the request of the public prosecutor In December 2022, two months after Allen's arrest, lawyers, law enforcement officials, court staff, the coroner and the girls' relatives were banned from commenting on the case, including on social media.

Gull banned cameras from the courtroom during Allen's trial, and reporters are prohibited from bringing electronic devices into the courthouse.

In August of this year, she ruled that prosecutors could present evidence of dozens of incriminating statements Allen allegedly made during interviews with correctional officers, inmates, law enforcement and relatives. That evidence includes a recording of a telephone conversation between Allen and his wife in which, prosecutors say, he confesses to the murders.

The judge's ruling was “a real blow to the defense,” said Hal Johnston, an associate criminal law professor at Indiana University who is not involved in the case.

“The incriminating testimony will be extremely compelling because that is what the jury wants to hear,” Johnston said. “In addition to the physical evidence, they also want to hear that the man said he did it.”

Allen's lawyers had hoped to present evidence that the girls were killed in a ritual sacrifice by members of a pagan Nordic religion and a white nationalist group called the Odinists, but Gull ruled against it, saying the defense had presented “no admissible evidence” of such a connection.

She also blocked Allen's lawyers from arguing that the murders may have been committed by others, including the deceased owner of the property where the teens' bodies were found.

Prosecutors have not revealed how Abby and Libby were killed. However, a court filing from Allen's lawyers in support of their Odinism theory states that their throats were cut.