A murder trial begins in a small Indiana town in the killings of two teenage girls

DELPHI, Ind. (AP) — A murder trial in the 2017 killings of two teenage girls was beginning Friday in the small Indiana town where the teens and the man charged with killing them all lived.

Richard Allen, 52, is accused of killing 13-year-old Abigail Williams and 14-year-old Liberty German. Their deaths had gone unsolved for more than five years when Allen, then a pharmacy worker, was arrested in the case that has drawn outsized attention from true-crime enthusiasts.

Allen had been there all along in Delphi, living and working in the community of about 3,000 people in northwest Indiana. He faces two counts of murder and two counts of murder while committing or attempting to commit kidnapping. If convicted, Allen could face up to 130 years in prison.

Nearly two years after his October 2022 arrest, opening statements are scheduled to begin before a special judge in the Carroll County Courthouse, just blocks from the pharmacy where Allen had worked. A panel of jurors has been brought in from nearly 100 miles (160 kilometers) away. They'll be sequestered throughout what's expected to be a monthlong trial, banned from watching the news and allowed limited use of their cellphones to call relatives while monitored by bailiffs.

The judge also barred reporting from the courtroom while trial is in session.

Prosecutors said during this week’s jury selection in Fort Wayne that they plan to call about 50 witnesses. Allen’s defense attorneys expect to call about 120 people. The 12 jurors and four alternates will receive preliminary instructions Friday morning before hearing opening statements.

The case has seen repeated delays, some surrounding a leak of evidence, the withdrawal of Allen’s public defenders and their later reinstatement by the Indiana Supreme Court. It's also the subject of a gag order.

The teens, known as Abby and Libby, were found dead on Feb. 14, 2017, in a rugged, wooded area about a quarter-mile from the Monon High Bridge Trail. The girls went missing the day before while hiking that trail just outside their hometown. Within days, police released files found on Libby’s cellphone that they believed captured the killer's image and voice — two grainy photos and audio of a man saying “down the hill.”

Investigators also released one sketch of a suspect in July 2017 and another in April 2019. And they released a brief video showing a suspect walking on an abandoned railroad bridge, known as the Monon High Bridge. After more years passed without a suspect identified, investigators said they went back and reviewed “prior tips."

Investigators found that Allen had been interviewed in 2017. He told an officer he had been walking on the trail the day Abby and Libby went missing and had seen three “females” at a bridge called the Freedom Bridge but did not speak to them, according to an affidavit.

Allen told the officer that as he walked from that bridge to the Monon High Bridge he did not see anyone but was distracted, “watching a stock ticker on his phone as he walked."

Police interviewed Allen again on Oct. 13, 2022, when he said he had seen three “juvenile girls” during his walk in 2017. Investigators searched Allen’s home and seized a .40-caliber pistol. Prosecutors said testing determined that an unspent bullet found between Abby and Libby’s bodies “had been cycled through” Allen’s gun.

According to the affidavit, Allen said he’d never been to the scene and “had no explanation as to why a round cycled through his firearm would be at that location.”

Allen County Superior Court Judge Fran Gull, now overseeing the Carroll County trial, has ruled that prosecutors can present evidence of dozens of incriminating statements they say Allen made during conversations with correctional officers, inmates, law enforcement and relatives. That evidence includes a recording of a telephone call between Allen and his wife in which, prosecutors say, he confesses to the killings.

Allen’s defense attorneys have sought to argue that the girls were killed in a ritual sacrifice by members of a pagan Norse religion and white nationalist group known as the Odinists.

Prosecutors have not disclosed how the teens were killed. But a court filing by Allen’s attorneys in support of their ritual sacrifice theory states their throats had been cut.

Spectators line up to enter the Carroll County Courthouse for the trail of Richard Allen, accused of the slayings of two teenage girls in 2017, is set to begin in Delphi, Ind., Friday, Oct. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

Security stands by a gate outside the Carroll County Courthouse where the trial of Richard Allen, accused of the slayings of two teenage girls in 2017, is set to begin in Delphi, Ind., Friday, Oct. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

Security stand by a gate outside the Carroll County Courthouse where the trial of Richard Allen, accused of the slayings of two teenage girls in 2017, is set to begin in Delphi, Ind., Friday, Oct. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

Spectators line up to enter the Carroll County Courthouse for the trail of Richard Allen, accused in the the 2017 slayings of two teenage girls, in Delphi, Ind., Friday, Oct. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

Spectators line up to enter the Carroll County Courthouse for the trail of Richard Allen, accused of the slayings of two teenage girls in 2017, is set to begin in Delphi, Ind., Friday, Oct. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

Decorated stones bearing the names of Abigail Williams and Liberty German, who were killed in February 2017, are placed at a memorial along the Monon High Bridge Trail in Delphi, Ind., Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

Decorated stones bearing the names of Abigail Williams and Liberty German, who were killed in February 2017, are placed at a memorial along the Monon High Bridge Trail in Delphi, Ind., Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

FILE - Grandparents of victim Libby German, Becky Patty, left, and her husband Mike Patty, speak during a news conference for the latest updates on the investigation of the double homicide of Liberty German and Abigail Williams on Thursday, March 9, 2017, at Carroll County Courthouse in Delphi, Ind. (J. Kyle Keener/The Pharos-Tribune via AP, File)

The Soldiers and Sailors Monument on the grounds of the Carrol County Court House is shown in Delphi, Ind., Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

FILE - Officers escort Richard Allen out of the Carroll County courthouse following a hearing, Nov. 22, 2022, in Delphi, Ind. Allen, of Delphi, is scheduled to go on trail Oct. 14, 2024 for the slayings of two teenage girls, Liberty German, 14, and Abigail Williams, 13, who were killed while hiking in 2017 near their small community in northern Indiana hometown. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings, File)

A Delphi Police Department vehicle drives under the Monon High Bridge Tail in Delphi, Ind., Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

DETROIT (AP) — The U.S. government's road safety agency is investigating Tesla's “Full Self-Driving” system after getting reports of crashes in low-visibility conditions, including one that killed a pedestrian.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says in documents that it opened the probe on Thursday after the company reported four crashes when Teslas encountered sun glare, fog and airborne dust.

In addition to the pedestrian's death, another crash involved an injury, the agency said.

Investigators will look into the ability of “Full Self-Driving” to “detect and respond appropriately to reduced roadway visibility conditions, and if so, the contributing circumstances for these crashes.”

The investigation covers roughly 2.4 million Teslas from the 2016 through 2024 model years.

A message was left early Friday seeking comment from Tesla, which has repeatedly said the system cannot drive itself and human drivers must be ready to intervene at all times.

Last week Tesla held an event at a Hollywood studio to unveil a fully autonomous robotaxi without a steering wheel or pedals. Musk, who has promised autonomous vehicles before, said the company plans to have autonomous Models Y and 3 running without human drivers next year. Robotaxis without steering wheels would be available in 2026 starting in California and Texas, he said.

The investigation's impact on Tesla's self-driving ambitions isn't clear. NHTSA would have to approve any robotaxi without pedals or a steering wheel, and it's unlikely that would happen while the investigation is in progress. But if the company tries to deploy autonomous vehicles in its existing models, that likely would fall to state regulations. There are no federal regulations specifically focused on autonomous vehicles, although they must meet broader safety rules.

NHTSA also said it would look into whether any other similar crashes involving “Full Self-Driving” have happened in low visibility conditions, and it will seek information from the company on whether any updates affected the system’s performance in those conditions.

“In particular, this review will assess the timing, purpose and capabilities of any such updates, as well as Telsa’s assessment of their safety impact,” the documents said.

Tesla reported the four crashes to NHTSA under an order from the agency covering all automakers. An agency database says the pedestrian was killed in Rimrock, Arizona, in November of 2023 after being hit by a 2021 Tesla Model Y. Rimrock is about 100 miles (161 kilometers) north of Phoenix. Messages were left seeking information on the crash from local and state agencies.

Tesla has twice recalled “Full Self-Driving” under pressure from NHTSA, which in July sought information from law enforcement and the company after a Tesla using the system struck and killed a motorcyclist near Seattle.

The recalls were issued because the system was programmed to run stop signs at slow speeds and because the system disobeyed other traffic laws. Both problems were to be fixed with online software updates.

Critics have said that Tesla’s system, which uses only cameras to spot hazards, doesn’t have proper sensors to be fully self driving. Nearly all other companies working on autonomous vehicles use radar and laser sensors in addition to cameras to see better in the dark or poor visibility conditions.

The “Full Self-Driving” recalls arrived after a three-year investigation into Tesla's less-sophisticated Autopilot system crashing into emergency and other vehicles parked on highways, many with warning lights flashing.

That investigation was closed last April after the agency pressured Tesla into recalling its vehicles to bolster a weak system that made sure drivers are paying attention. A few weeks after the recall, NHTSA began investigating whether the recall was working.

NHTSA began its Autopilot crash investigation in 2021, after receiving 11 reports that Teslas that were using Autopilot struck parked emergency vehicles. In documents explaining why the investigation was ended, NHTSA said it ultimately found 467 crashes involving Autopilot resulting in 54 injuries and 14 deaths. Autopilot is a fancy version of cruise control, while “Full Self-Driving” has been billed by Musk as capable of driving without human intervention.

The investigation that was opened Thursday enters new territory for NHTSA, which previously had viewed Tesla's systems as assisting drivers rather than driving themselves. With the new probe, the agency is focusing on the capabilities of “Full Self-Driving" rather than simply making sure drivers are paying attention.

Michael Brooks, executive director of the nonprofit Center for Auto Safety, said the previous investigation of Autopilot didn't look at why the Teslas weren't seeing and stopping for emergency vehicles.

“Before they were kind of putting the onus on the driver rather than the car,” he said. “Here they're saying these systems are not capable of appropriately detecting safety hazards whether the drivers are paying attention or not.”

US to probe Tesla's 'Full Self-Driving' system after pedestrian killed in low visibility conditions

The logo of Tesla car is pictured at the Paris Auto Show, in Paris, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

US to probe Tesla's 'Full Self-Driving' system after pedestrian killed in low visibility conditions