Bill Lukitsch and Luke Nozicka
The Kansas City Star
(TNS)
Feb. 1—Records recently released by the Justice Department through court order show investigators found new information more than 10 years ago to suggest that two security guards may have been involved in a 1988 arson-fueled explosion at a construction site that killed six Kansas City firefighters.
In its report, finalized in 2011 but never publicly disclosed in its entirety, Justice Department investigators tasked with reviewing the case concluded that security guards Debbie Riggs and Donna Costanza “may have been involved in the arsons” as part of an attempted insurance fraud. However, the DOJ found that the new information did not exonerate the five Kansas Citians who had been sentenced to life in prison.
The DOJ’s identification of Riggs and Costanza as additional suspects comes more than 10 years after the department released a two-and-a-half page summary of its findings at the close of its investigation. In the earlier release, Justice officials redacted their names and those of the witnesses interviewed.
The conclusion by the DOJ bolsters long standing suspicions about Riggs and Costanza that were raised by the…
