Witness in Delphi murders trial becomes emotional as he recounts finding teens' bodies

Note: The video in the player above is from a previous report in the Delphi murders trial.

A witness became choked up during Day 2 of testimony in the Delphi murders trial as he described the moment he discovered the bodies of Abigail Williams and Liberty German.

Pat Brown testified on Saturday in the trial of Richard Allen, who was charged with the murders of Libby, 14, and Abby, 13, who were killed in February 2017 along a hiking trail in the small Indiana community of around 3,000 residents.

Brown, who said he's known Mike Patty since high school, said his wife told him that Becky Patty - Libby's grandmother - posted on Facebook that Libby was missing, WTHR, the NBC affiliate in Indianapolis, reported. He called Mike that day - Feb. 13, 2017 - and told him he would help look near the Monon High bridge, where the girls had gone walking.

Brown said he walked down the ravine near Deer Creek and saw people setting up a drone. He then went to Mears' entrance and drove around the countryside to see if the girls were there.

Brown said he saw people searching with flashlights and a flying drone then drove into town looking for the girls and stopped at a fire station before going home.

The Delphi resident resumed to the area the following day with his friend, Tom Mears. As the day got underway, he saw Steve Mullin, Delphi's then police chief, coordinating search efforts with people and got Mullin's phone number.

Brown said he picked up his daughter from school mid-morning, because she didn't feel well, and then had lunch.  Mears called him to say he got a call that Shane Haygood had found clothing and asked Brown to check the area. 

During his testimony, Brown told the jury, “First I thought they were mannequins.”

Brown said he was five feet from Libby and Abby's bodies. "I stood there facing away from them," he said. Then, police arrived.

Mullin, who also testified on Saturday, explained the day following the girls' disappearance, he set up a command center at the Delphi Fire Department and coordinated searches.

He noted that the original searches were "downstream."

Mullin showed the jury where Abby and Libby’s bodies were found on a huge aerial map showing Monon High Bridge trails. He also took drone footage on Feb. 13, 2024 to show jurors the trails from Freedom Bridge and Monon High Bridge. 

Mullin pointed out improvements to the jury made to the Monon High Bridge since the 2017 murders and original areas of the unimproved railroad ties. 

Following the testimony of three witnesses on Saturday, the jury was released for the weekend.