Fire at scene of homicide is labeled suspicious

staff report

VERNON — Officials are investigating a suspicious fire at a garage where a woman was slain late last month.

The Vernon Township Fire Department was called to 4918 Bushnell Campbell Road at 10:37 p.m. Thursday after a neighbor called Trumbull County 911 to advise that the garage was engulfed in flames.

The garage is where authorities have said Nathan A. Riggs, of Burghill, admitted killing his girlfriend, 31-year old Tracia W. Wade. The couple was living at the address at the time.

The fire scene is under investigation by the Vernon Township Fire Department, the state fire marshal’s office and the Trumbull County Sheriff’s Department.

Lawrence Foltz, Vernon fire chief, said the fire is suspicious because the home is now vacant and has no electrical service.

Riggs was indicted Thursday by a Trumbull County grand jury on charges of aggravated murder and abuse of a corpse.

Riggs is in the county jail in lieu of a $2 million bond and will be arraigned at 9 a.m. Tuesday before Judge Andrew Logan of Trumbull County Common Pleas Court.

Sheriff Thomas Altiere has said that Riggs confessed that he bludgeoned Wade with a hammer in the garage. She was found dead on a couch in the garage.

After the slaying, Altiere said, Riggs called his mother, who in turn called 911.