The Richmond Hill explosion was a deliberate natural gas blast that leveled a home in the Richmond Hill subdivision on the south side of Indianapolis on the night of November 10, 2012, killing two neighbors and damaging roughly 80 houses. It was not an accident. Homeowner Monserrate Shirley, her boyfriend Mark Leonard, and his half-brother Bob Leonard filled the house at 8349 Fieldfare Way with natural gas and ignited it as part of an insurance fraud scheme. All three were convicted. Two are serving life without parole; the third is serving 50 years.
What Happened That Night
At about 11:11 p.m., the house at 8349 Fieldfare Way exploded with a force that residents and investigators later compared to a military bomb. Christopher Braun, vice president of Citizens Energy Group, testified that 186 hundred cubic feet of natural gas had been pumped into the home, roughly two and a half times what neighboring houses consumed, producing a blast equivalent to approximately 6,844 pounds of TNT.1Fox 59. Witness Says Richmond Hill Explosion Equal to Three Tons of TNT Other estimates placed the force closer to five tons of TNT.2WRTV. The Night the Sky Caught Fire: The Untold Stories of the Richmond Hill Explosion
An F-16 pilot who lived in the neighborhood compared the concussion to a 2,000-pound Mark 84 bomb. An Army National Guard veteran compared it to a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device he had experienced in Afghanistan.2WRTV. The Night the Sky Caught Fire: The Untold Stories of the Richmond Hill Explosion First responders at a nearby fire station were physically pushed off a wall by the shockwave. Insulation and debris fell across the subdivision. Fire officials initially suspected a plane crash at the local airport, and more than 500 calls hit 911 dispatchers within minutes. Thirty-three homes were eventually demolished because of structural damage, and total property losses exceeded $4 million.3Fox 59. Bob Leonard Jr. Sentenced to Life in Prison Without Parole in Deadly Richmond Hill Explosion
The Two People Who Died
Dion and Jennifer Longworth lived in the home immediately next to Shirley’s. Both were killed. Jennifer died nearly instantly from the pressure wave of the blast, according to testimony from the city’s chief forensic pathologist.2WRTV. The Night the Sky Caught Fire: The Untold Stories of the Richmond Hill Explosion Dion was found trapped in a void space in his basement. Firefighters could not reach him before the structure became fully engulfed; his cause of death was inhalation of soot and hot gases followed by severe burns.4WRTV. Richmond Hill Explosion Victims Father: Theres Nothing for Us to Be Happy About At least eight other people were injured.5Fox 59. Public Safety Officials Unveil Report on Emergency Response in Richmond Hill Explosion
The Insurance Fraud Motive
Mark Leonard first proposed the scheme in February 2012. Shirley had accumulated $63,000 in credit card debt, was facing foreclosure, and owed a $65,000 second mortgage on top of the original $116,000 loan. Leonard had lost roughly $10,000 at a casino shortly before the explosion, charged to Shirley’s credit card.6IndyStar. Richmond Hill Prosecutors Plan to Present Insurance Fraud Motive In late 2011, Shirley had increased her personal property coverage to $304,000. A week before the explosion, Leonard told a friend he expected a $300,000 payout and planned to keep $100,000 for himself.
Bob Leonard joined the conspiracy on November 1, 2012, agreeing to help in exchange for $10,000 of the insurance proceeds.7Findlaw. Leonard v. State of Indiana There had been at least two failed attempts to destroy the house before the fatal night. Two days after the explosion, Shirley filed a claim with State Farm describing the cause as an “accidental fire,” along with a separate claim for hotel reimbursement.8WRTV. Monserrate Shirley Filed Insurance Claim With State Farm Claiming Accidental Fire Destroyed Home
How the House Was Turned Into a Bomb
The conspirators removed the step-down regulator from the gas line, a safety device that controls gas flow, and replaced it with a hard piece of black piping so gas could pour into the house unrestricted.1Fox 59. Witness Says Richmond Hill Explosion Equal to Three Tons of TNT A key safety valve on the gas fireplace’s ignitor was also removed.9Fox 59. State Removes ATF Agent From Witness List in Richmond Hill Case Bob Leonard sealed areas of the home with hot glue to trap the accumulating gas inside.7Findlaw. Leonard v. State of Indiana
For ignition, the plotters placed a metal cylinder of flammable liquid inside a microwave oven and set its programmable timer. When the timer activated, the cylinder superheated and ruptured, producing a fireball that ignited the natural gas saturating the home.10IndyStar. Richmond Hill Explosion: 7 Keys to Solving the Case Gasoline had also been poured on the living room carpet as a liquid accelerant.11WRTV. Richmond Hill: Piles of Evidence Bog Down Week 3
Shirley and Mark Leonard left town for the weekend, reserving a hotel room to establish an alibi. Shirley arranged for her 12-year-old daughter to stay with a friend and boarded the family cat.12Indianapolis Monthly. Richmond Hill 10 Years Later They had removed televisions, furniture, and sentimental items before leaving. In the week before the blast, Shirley told others her daughter smelled gas in the house, a claim investigators later viewed as groundwork for an accidental-fire story.13Indiana Encyclopedia. Richmond Hill Explosion
How Investigators Proved It Was Arson
A criminal investigation involving the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, the Indianapolis Fire Department, the ATF, and the Marion County Crime Lab was underway within nine days.9Fox 59. State Removes ATF Agent From Witness List in Richmond Hill Case Key evidence included the missing gas regulator, tool marks on fireplace pipes and gas fittings found by the crime lab, the microwave remnants, and gas meter data showing wildly abnormal consumption at the home.1Fox 59. Witness Says Richmond Hill Explosion Equal to Three Tons of TNT Investigators from the ATF Fire Research Laboratory confirmed the microwave door had been blown outward by internal pressure rather than crushed by external debris, supporting the prosecution’s theory of a planted incendiary device.12Indianapolis Monthly. Richmond Hill 10 Years Later A private fire investigator established the gasoline pour through burn-pattern analysis.11WRTV. Richmond Hill: Piles of Evidence Bog Down Week 3
On December 21, 2012, Mark Leonard, Monserrate Shirley, and Bob Leonard were charged with two counts of felony murder and conspiracy to commit arson. Prosecutors eventually brought 50 or more felony charges against each defendant, including multiple counts of arson and insurance fraud.8WRTV. Monserrate Shirley Filed Insurance Claim With State Farm Claiming Accidental Fire Destroyed Home
Who Was Convicted and What They Got
Mark Leonard
Identified as the mastermind, Mark Leonard was tried in Marion County in 2015 and convicted of murder, arson, and related charges. He received two consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole for the murders of Dion and Jennifer Longworth.14WANE. Mark Leonard, Convicted in Richmond Hill Explosion, Found Dead in Prison
While awaiting trial, Leonard tried to hire a hitman from the Marion County Jail to kill Mark Duckworth, a longtime friend who had become a key prosecution witness. Duckworth had spoken to Leonard days before the explosion, when Leonard bragged about an anticipated $300,000 insurance payout.15WRTV. Mark Ray Leonard Back in Court for Allegedly Trying to Hire Hitman to Kill Richmond Hill Witness Leonard contacted a fellow inmate about finding a hitman and then made recorded phone calls to an undercover ATF agent posing as one, giving directions to Duckworth’s home and instructing that Duckworth be forced at gunpoint to call 911 and recant. Leonard was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder in January 2017 and sentenced to an additional 50 years.16WRTV. Convicted Richmond Hill Killer Found Guilty in Murder-for-Hire Plot
The Indiana Supreme Court affirmed his explosion convictions and life-without-parole sentences on May 2, 2017.17Findlaw. Leonard v. State of Indiana Leonard died on January 30, 2018, at age 48, after being transferred from Wabash Valley Correctional Facility to an Indianapolis hospital.18Indiana Department of Correction. Press Release: Mark Leonard The Marion County coroner determined his cause of death was a gastrointestinal hemorrhage complicating idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura, a blood disorder he had suffered from for years.19Fox 59. Cause of Death of Richmond Hill Conspirator Mark Leonard Determined
Bob Leonard
Bob Leonard Jr. went to trial in January 2016. A jury found him guilty on all 51 counts, including two counts of knowing murder, multiple counts of arson, and conspiracy to commit arson.3Fox 59. Bob Leonard Jr. Sentenced to Life in Prison Without Parole in Deadly Richmond Hill Explosion On March 18, 2016, he was sentenced to two consecutive life terms without parole plus 70 years.7Findlaw. Leonard v. State of Indiana The Indiana Supreme Court upheld the sentence on August 10, 2017.20WRTV. Indiana Supreme Court Upholds Bob Leonards Life Sentence in Richmond Hill Explosion Case He is serving his sentence at the Wabash Valley Correctional Facility in Carlisle, Indiana.
Monserrate Shirley
Shirley reached a plea deal in January 2015, pleading guilty to two felony counts of conspiracy to commit arson in exchange for testifying against her co-defendants.21IndyStar. Richmond Hill Suspect Monserrate Shirley Gets 50 Years She received 50 years, the maximum under her plea, with credit for time served. If she serves without incident, she could be eligible for release as early as 2032 after roughly 21 years.22WRTV. Monserrate Shirley Sentenced to 50 Years in Prison for Richmond Hill Explosion She is incarcerated at the Indiana Women’s Prison.12Indianapolis Monthly. Richmond Hill 10 Years Later
What Changed in Indianapolis After
The night overwhelmed local emergency infrastructure. Hundreds of 911 calls poured in simultaneously, and dispatchers needed about four minutes to identify Richmond Hill as the source.5Fox 59. Public Safety Officials Unveil Report on Emergency Response in Richmond Hill Explosion Firefighters from Station 63 arrived to find the Longworth home 70 to 80 percent engulfed. A formal after-action review produced several changes. The Indianapolis Fire Department and Metro Police now conduct joint training exercises, and emergency services adopted a standardized federal system for marking searched buildings and tracking individuals with bar-coded wristbands. A 2016 city ordinance requires any new residential development with more than 30 units to have at least two points of entrance and exit, addressing the access bottleneck responders hit at Richmond Hill.23WRTV. Public Safety Changes 7 Years After the Richmond Hill Explosion
Richmond Hill Today
The subdivision has largely rebuilt. Many residents stayed and repaired or reconstructed their homes, and by the ten-year mark, longtime neighbors described the community as “stronger than ever.”24WTHR. Richmond Hill Neighborhood Rebuilt Stronger 10 Years After Deadly Explosion The lot where Shirley’s house stood, the lot where the Longworths died, and a third adjacent lot remained empty as of 2022. No formal memorial has been erected; neighbors have said they mark the anniversary through personal reflection and prayer when passing the vacant land.25WRTV. Were Survivors: Richmond Hill Neighbors 10 Years Later