After four decades of investigation, Texas authorities have finally identified the third and final suspect in one of the state’s most notorious murder cases — the 1983 “KFC murders” that left five people dead in an East Texas killing spree.
The Texas Department of Public Safety announced Tuesday that Devan Riggs, who died in 2010, has been linked through advanced DNA testing to evidence found on a victim’s clothing, closing the book on a case that has haunted investigators for 42 years.
“After 42 years of investigation, law enforcement officials have identified the last perpetrator in the abduction and murder of five Texans in Rusk Co. – an event known to many across the country as the Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) murders,” DPS said in a statement.
A Cold Case That Shocked East Texas
The gruesome crime unfolded on September 23, 1983, when five people were abducted from a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant in Kilgore, Texas. The victims — Opie Hughes, 39; Mary Tyler, 37; Joey Johnson, 20; David Maxwell, 20; and Monty Landers, 19 — were found executed the next day on a remote oil lease in Rusk County, according to reports.
What made this case particularly challenging for investigators? Two suspects — Romeo Pinkerton and Darnell Hartsfield — were eventually convicted in 2007 and 2008 based on blood evidence collected from the restaurant. But DNA found on victim Opie Hughes’ clothing didn’t match either man, suggesting a third perpetrator had been involved in the heinous crime.
Hughes had been sexually assaulted, and the DNA from that assault became the critical piece of evidence that would eventually lead to Riggs’ identification decades later.
Modern Science Cracks Decades-Old Mystery
The breakthrough came after Texas Rangers reopened the case in 2023, employing advanced genealogical DNA testing techniques that weren’t available during the original investigation. By May 2025, investigators had narrowed their search to three brothers in East Texas. Six months later, in November 2025, they positively matched Devan Riggs to the DNA evidence found on Hughes’ clothing, according to CBS.
“We’ve been able to confirm that the DNA is that of a man by the name of Devin Riggs,” investigators revealed in a news conference. The spelling of Riggs’ first name appears as both “Devin” and “Devan” in various reports.
Because Riggs died in 2010, no arrests will be made. Authorities are still working to determine whether Riggs had any connection to Pinkerton and Hartsfield, the two men currently serving life sentences for the murders.
Closure After Four Decades
The identification of Riggs brings a measure of resolution to a case that has long puzzled investigators and haunted the East Texas community. The brutal killing of five people — ranging from teenagers to adults in their 30s — shocked the small town of Kilgore and remained one of Texas’ most notorious unsolved aspects of a partially solved mass murder.
Family members of the victims have waited 42 years for complete answers about who was responsible for their loved ones’ deaths. While the identification of the final suspect cannot undo their loss, it does provide the closure that investigators have sought for more than four decades.
In the end, it was the persistence of law enforcement combined with scientific advances that finally put names to all three perpetrators of one of Texas’ most infamous murder cases — a testament to investigators’ commitment never to give up on finding justice, no matter how much time passes.
