Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Capturing Their Killer: The Girls on the High Bridge’ on Hulu, a docuseries about the years-long hunt for the killer of two teenage girls
Capturing Their Killer: The Girls on the High Bridge is a three-part docuseries about the brutal February 2017 murders of 13-year-old Abigail Williams and 14-year-old Liberty German in the woods outside the small town of Delphi, Indiana. The killings not only shocked the small, close-knit town, but it sparked worldwide speculation on who was in the image of a man that Libby took on her phone before she died, following the girls on the rickety Monon High Bridge and telling them to go “Down the hill.”
Opening Shot: Home video of Abigail Williams and Liberty German as babies.
The Gist: The usual mix of law enforcement officials who investigated the case, as well as journalists and other experts, are interviewed for the docuseries. But the key to the series are interviews with Carrie Timmons, Libby’s mother, Mike and Becky Patty, Libby’s grandparents, and Anna Williams, Abby’s mother. There is also an interview with Kathy Allen, the wife of Richard Allen, who was arrested for the killings in 2022 and convicted in November, 2024.
Most of the first episode talks about the girls’ brief lives, their friendship, and the circumstances that placed them near the High Bridge that day. Their bodies were found the day after their disappearance; both their throats had been cut, one of them was naked and the other was wearing her friend’s clothes instead of hers.
Libby had the presence of mind to record a video of what was happening in the minutes before her death, which is what gave law enforcement the remarkable image of the aforementioned “Bridge Guy.” Despite that, though, it took over five-and-a-half years for law enforcement officials to arrest Allen for the murders.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Capturing Their Killer: The Girls On The High Bridge is similar to other ABC News Studios docuseries, like Mr. & Mrs. Murder.
Our Take: The storytelling in Capturing Their Killer is pretty straightforward, going in more or less the order of events. The only thing we didn’t really get from the first episode is just what leads had been given to the Indiana State Police and law enforcement in Carroll County in the five-plus years since the girls’ deaths. The series gives an accurate representation of how much of a global story the murders became, especially after officials released the fuzzy picture of “Bridge Guy;” that led to thousands of tips that came in, all of which had to be checked out.
But before Allen came into focus as the primary suspect, did they have any other strong leads or suspicions? Or was the investigation mostly dormant for much of that time? Perhaps we get that information in the second part of the series, when Allen is arrested but before he goes on trial.
The one sneaky thing the filmmakers did was present Kathy Allen as a generic Delphi resident for much of the first episode, getting her observations on how the murders spooked the town, one of those “we never locked our doors” kind of towns that true crime docuseries producers love. By the end, though, we know exactly who she is, and she is definitely in the camp that her husband did not commit, and was never capable of, these brutal murders. It’s a good contrast to have, something we tend not to see in these kinds of series, as they demonize whoever was arrested and convicted without looking at them as people with lives.
Because of the copious media coverage of the murders and trial, there was a minimal amount of reenactments needed. We wish that the victims themselves get a little more of the narrative attention as the series goes on, before things turn to Allen’s arrest and trial, but that might be asking a lot of any true crime docuseries.
Sex and Skin: None.
Parting Shot: “I want true justice for Abby and Libby,” says Kathy Allen, “but it should not be at the expense of an innocent person.”
Sleeper Star: This definitely goes to Abby’s mother, Anna Williams, and Libby’s mother, Carrie Timmons. Having them recall those horrible days must have been rough.
Most Pilot-y Line: That being said, though, did we need footage of the producer asking both women, “How are you doing?” How do we think they’re doing?
Our Call: STREAM IT. The straightforward narrative of Capturing Their Killer: The Girls On The High Bridge is almost refreshing in the current world of true crime docuseries, though we wish a bit more time was spent on the victims, their families and friends, and how deeply their murders affected the entire town of Delphi.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.
