Stunned Bar Owner Recalls Delphi Murder Suspect Sitting Inches Away From ‘Wanted’ Sketch
Looking back on it now, Bob Matlock can’t believe the suspect was sitting right in front of him all along.
Accused double murderer and CVS pharmacy technician Richard Allen, a 50-year-old father of two charged with killing Delphi, Indiana teens Libby German and Abby Williams on a hiking trail in 2017, was a regular customer at Matlock’s tavern, JC’s Bar.
“He would come in and we would always talk about the girls and everything,” Matlock, 75, told The Daily Beast on Monday. “We would carry on conversations about it, he would say, you know, it’s such a tragedy, and we’d say we felt sorry for the families and all that, but we tried not to talk about it too much because we all knew the families, and were friends with the families.”
Matlock, who owned JC’s from 2005 until it was shuttered in December 2021, said he has considered Allen and his wife Kathy “good friends” for nearly two decades. The couple were members of the bar’s pool league, and were active in the local community, according to Matlock, who said he spent time with them not only at JC’s but outside of work, as well. He insisted there “was never any indication” that Allen, known to his friends as Rick, would later be implicated in the dual killings that shocked the small Midwestern town.
“I just couldn’t believe it when they said they arrested him,” said Matlock. “I said, ‘Well, that can’t be the Rick we know.’ And then we come to find out it was… There wouldn’t have been any inkling to anyone that knew him that would expect him to do something like that. He just didn’t seem that type of person. But… you never know.”
In a dark twist, Allen posed for a photograph one evening in JC’s near a police sketch—meant to be a rendering of Allen’s own face—hanging on the wall behind him. In retrospect, Matlock doesn’t think the depiction was accurate at all.
A police sketch of Allen on the wall can be seen just over his right shoulder.
“We were all sitting at the table there, we were having a pool night, and just having fun—we were snapping pictures and everything,” Matlock recalled. “Every business in town had those [sketches] up. It just happened to be, he was sitting there at the time. But to me, that did not resemble Rick… My other patrons around town [would] come in for breakfast or lunch, everybody would say, ‘Christ, that don’t look like anybody,’ or, ‘It could be anybody.’”
Libby and Abby disappeared the day before Valentine’s Day 2017. The two had gone out for a walk and never returned, prompting a massive search that night. The girls’ bodies were found the next day, near a creek.
Libby’s grandmother, Becky Patty, told The Daily Beast last December that the family’s lives had “been on hold for five years.” In 2019, Indiana State Police Superintendent Doug Carter said police believed the suspect was “from Delphi—currently or has previously lived here, visits Delphi on a regular basis or works here.”
Investigators discovered a brief video on Libby’s cellphone which was taken the day she and Abby vanished. The grainy footage appeared to show a man walking on a narrow bridge near where the girls had been last seen. In audio released by police, the suspect can be heard saying, “Down the hill.”
“To me, even the voice… I didn’t think that resembled Rick’s voice,” said Matlock. “Everybody listened to all this, because everybody was interested.”
But Allen continued hiding in plain sight, even going out of his way to appear empathetic with one of his alleged victims’ families.
Becky Patty and Libby’s grandfather Mike told reporters on Monday that Allen didn’t charge them to print funeral photos of the two girls when they brought them into CVS for processing.
In an email, a CVS spokesperson told The Daily Beast, “As members of the Carroll County community, we remain devastated by these murders and our hearts go out to the German and Williams families. We are shocked and saddened to learn that one of our store employees was arrested as a suspect in these crimes. We stand ready to cooperate with the police investigation in any way we can.”
As the investigation wore on, Matlock and his staff would bring food to a nearby police station where detectives were working late to solve the murders. He and all of the JC’s regulars were keenly aware of developments in the case as they happened, since everyone in Delphi was waiting for answers.
Allen was a “quiet guy,” and always “so friendly,” Matlock said. He said Allen’s wife was “so sweet” and works for a veterinarian.
Kathy Allen was unable to be reached for comment on Monday.
There have been numerous persons of interest probed by cops over the years, including a 27-year-old Peru, Indiana resident named Kegan Anthony Kline. Kline, who is awaiting trial on a slew of charges including child solicitation, child exploitation, possession of child pornography, identity fraud, and obstruction of justice, allegedly confessed to having communicated with underage girls on social media, reportedly receiving more than 100 explicit photos and videos from them.
Police searched Kline’s home 11 days after Libby and Abby went missing. However, he has not thus far been linked directly to their murders.
At a press conference earlier Monday, Carter called Allen’s arrest “a major step in leading to a conclusion of this long-term and complex investigation,” but declined to provide further details about the evidence that finally led to Allen’s arrest. A probable cause affidavit in the case is sealed until further notice.
“I’m totally in shock that it’s Rick,” Matlock said. “There’s got to be something [there], or else they wouldn’t have arrested him. Until I hear exactly what they have, I'm just going to roll with it.”
Allen’s trial date has been set for March 20, 2023. The investigation, according to Carter, continues.
—with additional reporting by Pilar Melendez
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