The bullet that matched Richard Allen's pistol — and the confession he made to prison staff

The bullet sat in an evidence room for years before anyone matched it.

An unspent round, found at the scene where two girls died.

It was matched to a pistol owned by Richard Allen.

That match is what connected him to the case, per the source.

Allen had been interviewed early in the investigation.

He was not initially considered a suspect, per the source.

The case went cold for over five years.

One piece of metal, unexplained.

Then, in October 2022, it changed everything.

Police had already released what they had.

A short audio clip of a man's voice saying "down the hill."

A grainy photo of a man walking on the bridge.

The public dubbed him "Bridge Guy."

The photo is not proof of who he is.

It is not established by the record that the man in the photo is Richard Allen.

That identification is disputed.

The bullet is different.

The bullet is in the record.

The bullet is what the state says ties Allen to the crime.

How does one unspent round carry so much weight?

How does it sit unexplained for years and then decide a case?

How does a single object change everything?

That would require evidence.

The record has the bullet.

The record has the match.

The record does not have certainty about the man on the bridge.

FEBRUARY 13, 2017 — THE MISSING REPORT

February 13, 2017, began as a routine day on a hiking trail near the Monon High Bridge in Delphi, Indiana.

Two teenage girls, Abigail Williams, 13, and Liberty German, 14, went to the trail that afternoon.

They were supposed to be picked up when they were done.

They never were.

That evening, the girls were reported missing after they failed to be picked up from the trail, per the source.

A pickup that never happened.

That is the ordinary rhythm the record holds: a plan, a wait, a call that goes unanswered.

The search began that night.

The next day, February 14, their bodies were found in a wooded area near the trail, per the source.

The discovery ended the search and began something else.

The cause of death was later determined to be homicide by sharp-force injury to the neck, per the source.

A key witness was a juvenile who reported seeing a man on the trail that day.

The juvenile was not named publicly.

The exact time of the girls' arrival at the trail is not in the record.

The precise path they took is not in the record.

What is in the record is the report, the search, and the finding.

What is in the record is a man seen on the trail by a witness whose name was never released.

What is in the record is a case that would sit unsolved for more than five years.