The final suspect in a decades-old case dubbed the “KFC murders” has been identified, Texas officials have announced.
Devan Riggs was named as the last of three men tied to the grisly killings of five people who had been abducted from the fast-food restaurant in Rusk County, Texas, during an armed robbery in 1983.
On the morning of September 24, 1983, the bodies of Opie Hughes, 39, Mary Tyler, 37, Joey Johnson, 20, David Maxwell, 20, and Monty Landers, 19, were found on a remote oil lease in the county.
Apart from Landers, all the victims had worked at the KFC where the violent incident took place.
Tyler was a mother of four and the assistant manager of the restaurant, according to The Dallas Morning News. Hughes was also a mother. Landers, Johnson and Maxwell were all students at Kilgore College.
Each victim had been fatally shot in the back of the head, execution-style, and Hughes had been sexually assaulted, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety.
Investigators determined that all five victims had been abducted from a KFC several miles away, in Kilgore, during an armed robbery the night before, but the case went cold for over 20 years.
In 2007 and 2008, two men – Romeo Pinkerton and Darnell Hartsfield – were convicted of the killings using DNA evidence collected at the restaurant.
However, one further piece of DNA evidence, collected from Hughes’ clothing, did not match either man, suggesting the involvement of a third person. Investigations continued, but no further arrests were made.
Then, 40 years after the original incident, in 2023, the Texas Rangers identified the case as being eligible for testing and comparison through DPS’s Sexual Assault Kit Initiative program – aimed at bringing historic justice to the family of victims.
In July 2024, the unidentified piece of DNA evidence taken from Hughes’ clothing was sent for additional advanced DNA testing and genealogy, the results of which came back in May 2025.
The testing led to the identification of one of three brothers living in East Texas as a potential suspect.
In November, further testing confirmed that the DNA was a match to one of the brothers, Devan Riggs. However, Riggs had been deceased for more than a decade, and no arrests were made.
“Cases like this highlight the importance of collaborative investigative work between the Texas Rangers and our law enforcement partners to keep unsolved cases alive, ultimately bringing closure to victims’ families and the community,” the Texas DPS said in a statement.
