Indiana police are looking into a series of photos from the crime scene of the 2017 Delphi murders that were allegedly leaked to the public.
The gruesome images — some of which were sent via text and at least one of which has appeared on social media — were taken in the wooded area off the Monon High Bridge Trail in Delphi where Liberty "Libby" German, 14, and Abigail "Abby" Williams, 13, were murdered after they disappeared from a hike on Feb. 13, 2017.
"Crime-scene photos obviously serve an investigative purpose, and the evidence depicted in these pictures can be used to potentially demonstrate the guilt of a particular individual," Kevin Greenlee, co-host of "The Murder Sheet" podcast — which has been closely covering Allen's case — told Fox News Digital. "So, obviously, it is very important for a jury to see these photos and these images."
Greenlee, a lawyer, further explained that when crime-scene images are shown during trials, they are typically displayed on a screen to the jury and that "precautions are made and no one gets an opportunity to copy and distribute the pictures outside of court for reasons unrelated to the court."
Since the Delphi murders, crime-scene photos have already been dispersed through social media and are now forever available for the public to view, which could harm suspect Richard Allen's case.
Allen, 50, was arrested on double-murder charges in October 2022.
Investigators initially questioned Allen in 2017 after witnesses and security footage tied him and his vehicle to the crime scene. He admitted to being on the Monon High Bridge Trail the day when Libby and Abigail were reported missing on Feb. 13, court documents show, but authorities did not file charges until years later.
Greenlee and co-host Áine Cain, a journalist, say a clerical error may be the reason why Allen's arrest came five years after police initially questioned him in 2017. The Delphi case has been rife with speculation from social media sleuths.
"Anybody who wanted to could copy [the photos] and do anything they want with them, including emailing the family members or doing other harassing things. And in addition to the pain it would cause the family members, it would also potentially infringe upon Richard Allen's rights because … people seeing these pictures could get inflamed with anger and passion and that could potentially taint the jury pool," Greenlee said.
Greenlee and Cain received the photos from a source who asked them to contact police, which they did.
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The podcast hosts identified one of the people allegedly associated with the leak as a former associate to Andrew Baldwin, one of Allen's attorneys.
"We contacted police to let them know that there had been a serious breach of discovery in the case. And we also sent an email to the defense team, letting them know," Cain said. "At that time, we had no idea where the leak was coming from, so we really felt it was important to let both sides know what was happening so that they could both address it and perhaps look into where … the leak originated from."
On their latest podcast episode, Greenlee and Cain discussed their process of confirming the authenticity of the photos and then reporting them, but they did not go into detail about the photos themselves because doing so, they said, would not only hurt the victim's families but disrupt the ongoing nature of the state's investigation into the girls' murders.
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Fox News Digital has also learned that a person associated with the photo leak has died by suicide, as FOX 59 Indianapolis first reported.
Allen's attorneys, Baldwin and Bradley Rozzi, last month alleged in a 136-page memo that Libby and Abby were killed by members of a pagan cult dedicated to Odin, a war god in Norse mythology, and that Allen was framed by law enforcement as the main suspect in the girls' murders.
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Lengthy descriptions of the crime scene, which had not previously been made public, were included in the memo that argues various pagan symbols were found at the crime scene, apparently signifying that the girls were killed in a ritualistic sacrifice. Prosecutors described the allegations made in the memo as "fanciful."
