The Security Guards (Parts 1 & 2)

The Security Guards (Part 1)

November 29th, 1988:

In south Kansas City Mo., at a construction site, around 4 am, six Firefighters were killed from an explosion which was caused by an arson fire. Robert and Debra Riggs were the security guards on duty that morning. Robert owns Ameriguard security and Debra, his sister, was working for him while she was laid off from her original job.

At 9:30pm Debra called Melvin Stanton, a fellow employee, into work. Melvin arrived around 10:00pm, Seeing Debra stationed on the west side of the highway alone, he took position on the east side. At 11:00 pm Robert tells Stanton to go home. Where was Robert Riggs between 10-11pm?

Debra stated that at 3:30 am, while she was stationed, still on the westside, (Robert on east) she had seen two large people walking across the highway. When they got close to the manager's trailer (sitting in the median between highways) they disappeared. She called her brother to report this suspicious activity. Robert drove over to where Debra was and they both got in his station wagon and drove around the trailer. Seeing nothing, they drove on to Quiktrip. While Debra is in the store, a lady drives up telling Robert there is a truck on fire at the site. Moments later, Debra and Robert head back to the site to find her truck engulfed in flames, along with another fire on the east side up by the trailers that store ammonium nitrate and fuel oil.

Debra admitted after one of many interviews, that she had lied about her brother being on the east side when she saw two people walking. She said, actually, that she was sitting in his station wagon with him when she saw these two people walking.
                                                                                                                                  
A witness stated that as she drove by the site the dome light in the station wagon was on and Debra was sitting in the vehicle alone. Debra then stated her brother was asleep and reclined back.  Robert, when questioned, said he had gone to urinate behind some machinery.

Robert Riggs said it took them 4 1/2 minutes to go from Debra's truck , to the trailer, on over to Quiktrip and then back to the truck, finding it in flames. Vivian Rhodes drove by the truck, already in flames, then drove down the highway, turned around, and drove to the Quiktrip.
                                                                                    
So that gives about 90 seconds for an outsider to set the truck on fire, and also set the trailer full of explosives and a compressor on fire, across the hwy.

Feb. 21st, 1989:
                                                                                                                    
Melvin Stanton told detectives that a few days before the explosion, Robert Riggs had said to him, ""If anything happens out here, you keep your mouth shut!"

The Security Guards (Part 2)

"If anything happens out here, you keep your mouth shut!" That's what Robert Riggs told Melvin Stanton, a fellow employee, a few days before the explosion. That statement alone should have put the Riggs' at the top of the suspects list. Instead, in March of 1989, the police publicly exonerated them from suspicion.

Records show that even after they excluded the Riggs' from suspicion, they continued investigating them. ATF Agent Dave True repeatedly tried to link Debra and Darlene Edwards (one of the convicted) together. Darlene denies knowing Debra Riggs.

Debra admitted that neither she nor her brother ever went to see what was happening on the east side of the highway. But in a deposition she stated that the Mt. Plains pickup was on fire and might have set fire to the trailers full of ammonium nitrate and fuel oil.

Detectives also reenacted the scene, when Debra saw two people walking across the highway the night of the explosion. They determined there was no way that she could have seen anyone where she said she saw them.

Melvin Stanton had also told police Debra always has a large boxer dog with her at work. The night of the explosion, she didn't.

The Riggs' never mentioned Stanton, any of the numerous times they were questioned, coming to work or being sent home. Melvin Stanton was never again questioned by authorities, and couldn't be found by the defense attorneys when preparing for trial.

Here's another thing that doesn't fit. Debra stated, in a deposition, that she told all six of the firemen that the trailers were loaded with ammonium nitrate and fuel oil. A commonly known rule, firefighters do not fight a fire once it reaches ammonium nitrate. They evacuate and let the fire burn out.

One more thing I meant to include : On Feb. 16, 1994, ATF agent True took a signed statement from a woman, which said: "Approximately five years ago, shortly after the explosion which killed the six Kansas City Firefighters, I believe some television news program mentioned the explosion, which caused Sandy DiGiovanni to say she had information about the cause of the explosion. DiGiovanni said that a friend of hers, Donna Constanza (sic), claimed to have worked as a security guard on the construction site where the explosion occurred. Donna Constanza (sic) said that on the night of the explosion, she assisted a fellow female security guard to burn her private pick-up truck. This was done to collect insurance on the truck."