Kansas City Star By Luke Nozicka and Bill Lukitsch Updated February 01, 2022 3:02 PM

A look back at the explosion that killed six firefighters in 1988 This is a file video from 2008 that gives an overview of the events that led to the deaths of six firefighters, and the convictions of five people in the case. The youngest defendant in the case, Bryan Sheppard, who was 17 at the time of the explo By Todd Feeback, Mike McGraw and David Helling

Jackson County prosecutors believe a review of new evidence in the 1988 explosion that killed six Kansas City firefighters is “warranted” following reports that two additional suspects may have been involved.

In a two-sentence statement Tuesday, the Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office said it was asked to review recently released evidence in the case for charges against other potential suspects.

“We believe a review is warranted given that no statute of limitations exists for murder,” the office said.

Kansas City Star By Bill Lukitsch and Luke Nozicka Updated February 01, 2022 12:20 PM

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 defendants at trial. It also complicates the theory presented by investigators with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and federal prosecutors that the five convicted — all small-time criminals from Kansas City’s Marlborough neighborhood — were the sole perpetrators and set the Nov. 29, 1988 fires to divert the attention of those security guards and to cover up a burglary gone wrong.

Dana and Parks Podcast KMBZ 98.1FM Feb. 1st, 2022

Pulitzer-prize winning journalist Mike McGraw thought about the 1988 deaths of six Kansas City firefighters almost every day. Michelle T. Johnson (left) and director Jennifer Welch staged the play “Justice in the Embers” in 2016 about his work on the case. SUSAN PFANNMULLER Special to the Star

Kansas City Star Feb 1st, 2022 By Derek Donovan

Mike McGraw, “Mick” to his friends, never believed he got the full story about the explosion that killed six firefighters at a south Kansas City construction site early one morning in 1988. But with the release of a long-hidden report from the Department of Justice, we might finally be closer to the truth.

When Mick first started looking into the case in 2006 as an investigative reporter for The Star, I was director of research for the newsroom. Mick loved public documents, and it was part of my job to help him find and organize them. We filed federal Freedom of Information Act, Missouri Sunshine Law and Kansas Open Records Act requests for paperwork and emails pertaining to almost every story he latched onto. He was relentless in tracking down documents, and was passionate when he explained why: Records generated by the government belong to the people, not the bureaucrats who all too often guard them like personal property. It’s your right to see them.

Mick gathered as much information as he could get his hands on about the arson that caused the deadly blast — court transcripts, police reports, attorneys’ files. Along with extensive original reporting, he put together a June 29, 2008, front-page investigation questioning prosecutors’ case that led to the 1997 convictions of five residents of the south Kansas City Marlborough neighborhood for the firefighters’ deaths. Among the story’s revelations: Witnesses claimed Debbie Riggs or her roommate Donna Costanza, who both worked as security guards at the construction site, had implicated themselves in the crime.

Sam Harrel/ASSOCIATED PRESS/AP

Investigators search through a highway construction site, Nov. 29, 1988, in Kansas City, where explosions shattered windows over a 10-mile area and killed six firefighters.

KCUR | By Dan Margolies Published February 1, 2022

Bryan Sheppard, who won a lawsuit to obtain Department of Justice records, said the government knew more than a decade ago that other individuals may have been involved.

Newly released government documents involving a 1988 arson fire that killed six Kansas City firefighters affirm the guilt of five people who were convicted of the crime but also find that two other individuals may have been involved.

The review, prompted by a series of investigative stories in The Kansas City Star, was conducted by the Criminal Division of the Justice Department over a three-year period from 2008 to 2011.

Until recently, the government had released only a condensed, highly redacted copy of its review. But after one of the convicted defendants, Bryan Sheppard, sued for the release of the entire report under the Freedom of Information Act, a federal judge last year ordered the government to disclose the report to Sheppard.

The 117 pages of slightly redacted government documents, which a representative of Sheppard provided to KCUR, stated that “the review team did not find any credible support for the Star’s allegations.”

The Star’s investigation, a series of articles by the late Mike McGraw in 2007, 2008 and 2009, reported that witnesses had been pressured by law enforcement to provide false testimony and that new evidence showed two security guards at the construction site where the arson occurred had set the fire, not the defendants.

But while the government’s review found the security guards may have been involved in the arson, it also concluded that newly developed information about their possible involvement “would not have called into question the defendants’ guilt of the crimes charged.”

Sheppard, in a phone interview with KCUR, reiterated his claim of innocence and said the government’s conclusion about the defendants’ guilt was already known when the condensed, redacted report was released in 2011.

What's noteworthy about the newly released batch of documents, he said, was that the government knew more than a decade ago that other individuals may have been involved.

“It doesn’t matter to me what the public feels about my guilt or innocence,” Sheppard said. “It’s not about that. It’s about uncovering the truth about this case and getting the right people incarcerated.”

KANSAS CITY, MO (KCTV) by Angie Ricono Feb 1st, 2022-- There is new information in a construction site fire which ultimately killed 6 Kansas City Firefighters back in 1988.

Two security guards who worked at the construction site are named in a 2011 DOJ report.

The government document previously blacked out names, paragraphs, and even full pages from public view.

“During its review, the review team identified several newly-developed pieces of information that were not previously known to the prosecution. Significantly, this newly-developed information suggests that Deborah Riggs and [Donna] Costanza may have been involved in the arsons in addition to –and not to the exclusion of—the defendants.”

A new court decision forced the less redacted version to be released.

The case was handled by attorneys at Shook, Hardy & Bacon, Stephanie Sankar and Megan Egli.

“At the end of the day the government wanted everyone to take it on faith that their conclusions were supported,” said Egli. “For the citizenry to know what its public officials and what the government is doing is so important for our government, for our democracy, for our way of life.”

Reaction from those connected to the case was immediate.

“I hope that this will give us and the city and opportunity to really know what happened. And I hope that this can bring some relief to the victims to the families of the firefighters,” Cyndy Short said.

Short is an attorney who represents defendant Bryan Sheppard, who previously served federal prison time in this case.