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Prosecutor: 'There's somebody out there' who could still be charged in Richmond Hill Explosion

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INDIANAPOLIS -- The lead prosecutor in the Richmond Hill Explosion case thinks there could still be someone out there who could be charged in the case.

Denise Robinson was one of two senior deputy prosecutors tasked with trying the fatal 2012 explosion that killed Dion and Jennifer Longworth and damaged or destroyed nearly 100 homes.

Robinson and her co-counsel, Mark Hollingsworth, eventually secured sentences of life without parole for brothers Mark and Bob Leonard in connection with the explosion, and 50 years in prison for Monserrate Shirley – who owned the house at the center of the blast.

Two other defendants, Gary Thompson and Glenn Hults, pleaded guilty and received 20 years and 3 years in prison, respectively.

But, in an interview with RTV6 this week, Robinson said there may be a sixth person out there who could be charged in the case.

“I suppose if I were to say, ‘What unanswered question do I have?’ – because I still think there’s somebody out there who could be charged – it’s: Where did the property go?” Robinson said. “Where are the television sets? Where’s the jewelry? Where’s the furniture? Where are the things that we all have in our homes that should have been there that weren’t there? We had some indicators, but we were never able to track that down and definitively prove where the items went. That’s probably a question, but at this point, none of that matters.”

Nov. 10, 2017, marks five years since the devastating Richmond Hill Explosion. Find our special coverage of the case – including never-before-heard stories from the victims, investigators and prosecutors – below:

On Friday, the victims of the explosion will mark five years since the fateful blast.

For Robinson, now the chief counsel and head of investigations at the Indiana Attorney General’s Office, the important thing as that all of the main actors were brought to justice, -- and that their sentences have been upheld by the Indiana Supreme Court.

“So the residents – while I’m not saying they can now set this aside and forget about it, because I’m not sure that’s possible – but we were able to do what we could within the justice system to bring this to a successful end,” Robinson said. “At the end of the day, I can look at anybody from Richmond Hill and say, ‘I did my best.’ I gave it everything for that four-year period of time. I lived with this case. I learned about this case. And I did everything that a prosecutor could do to bring a successful resolution in the case.”

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