Police to quiz mother who plunged from window of blast flat where three children were found 'stabbed to death'

U.S. mother embroiled in custody battle with father
By Daily Mail Reporter

Last updated at 2:18 PM on 5th August 2010

Police are waiting to question the mother of three young children who have been found dead in 'suspicious' circumstances following an explosion at a block of flats.

Eight-year-old twins Gianluca and Austin Riggi and their sister Cecilia, five, were found dead by firefighters tackling a blaze at the Edinburgh home.

Sources said the three children had stab wounds.

Their mother, 46-year-old Theresa Riggi, was discovered outside the building after jumping or falling from a second-floor balcony of the building in the Slateford area of the city.

She is in a serious condition at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary where she is sedated. Police are waiting to quiz her over the deaths.

US-born Mrs Riggi and her husband Pasquale, 46, have been embroiled in a custody battle since he launched divorce proceedings.

The pair had been due to attend court in Edinburgh on Tuesday but she did not turn up. Though she called Mr Riggi ahead of the case, she did not say where she was.

Mr Riggi's lawyer David Jack asked for an order to safeguard the children's interests and told judge Lady Clark: 'I think there is a real emergency in this matter'.

A search was launched and social workers were advised to apply to a local sheriff for child protection orders if they thought it necessary, once the youngsters were found.

But the next day, they were discovered dead.

Only last month, Mrs Riggi and the children were reported missing from their home in Westhill, Aberdeenshire.

There were fears at the time she had been planning on taking them abroad and ports and airports were alerted to be on the look-out.

But the family group were found two weeks ago at a friend's flat in Edinburgh. Mrs Riggi had asked that no information about their whereabouts be released.

On Tuesday, the Court of Session heard the mother objected to her estranged husband seeing the children and had equipped them with mobile phones and personal alarms when they visited him.

Reports prepared as part of the divorce action advised contact between father and children and said there would be no problems with the youngsters living with him.

The court heard the couple disagreed on their education with Mr Riggi wanting them to go to school while Mrs Riggi wanted to teach them at home. They were being home schooled before their deaths.

Police said they were speaking to Mr Riggi who has worked for oil firm Shell since 1987 and was in Aberdeen at the time of the incident. He was not being interviewed as a suspect.

Today floral tributes to his children were left close to the scene.

One card attached to a bunch of flowers and a yellow teddy bear simply said: 'With sympathy'.

Another, from an anonymous Edinburgh taxi driver, said: 'Gone far too soon (Luca, Austin + Cecilia) your (sic) in God's loving arms now.'

A third note, attached to a small grey teddy bear, said: 'To the little ones lost so tragically. There are now three more stars in the sky. I hope the angels are taking care of you.'

A police cordon guarded by two officers remained at the entrance to the townhouses.

Despite initial reports that the blast had been caused by gas, it later emerged there was no fault with the supply.

The tragedy happened shortly before 3pm at the flat in Slateford Road in the Craiglockhart district of the capital.

Neighbours reported an explosion and a woman falling or jumping from a window in the block.

Firefighters then discovered the bodies of the children after extinguishing a 'small blaze' in the first-floor flat.

Scotland Gas Networks sent engineers to the scene but said the explosion did not involve its system.

Shortly after 5pm yesterday, a police forensic team moved in. Detectives also began trying to source CCTV footage from commercial premises in the area.

The tragedy stunned people living in and near the flats, many of which are occupied by overseas students attending Queen Margaret University.

One 21-year-old neighbour watched as the woman plunged from the balcony.

The man, who did not want to give his name, said: 'I heard screaming. It was really bad, big screaming - the sort of screaming you would only do if a death or something very, very bad had happened.

'She was standing on the third-floor balcony. She was holding her arms, like she was already injured. She was crying and screaming.'

He added: 'There were about five of us standing, saying to her, "don't do it, don't jump".

'Then she jumped off. My neighbour tried to catch her and she kind of landed on his arms. I think he's a bit bruised but okay.

'She was lying on the floor and I left the scene, it was just too much. I don't think she was jumping to save herself. If she was she would have jumped from the first-floor balcony.'

The man added that he had never seen the woman before.

Meanwhile, student Moe Harbi, 22, said: 'My brother Rabbah was inside our flat when he heard an explosion. It was so powerful it made his chair move.

'He went out on the balcony and he saw the woman on the balcony above. She was shouting. When he next looked, she was gone.'

Zane Harvey, 28, who lives in the same block as the explosion, saw the woman on the ground. The shop worker said: 'I was walking home and I saw this woman lying.

'She was white with blonde hair and wearing beige clothes, but I'm not sure what age she was. She was getting help from four people.'

He added: 'Once I was inside my flat I looked back out and realised that there was a window open at the balcony and smoke coming out.'

Student Fattah Hamami, 19, said: 'There was a big bang and it shook me awake. Suddenly the police were there and the keeper opened the door for the police. I could smell gas before it happened.'

Others confirmed that they, too, had smelled gas earlier in the day.

Mr Harbi, a chemical engineering student from Saudi Arabia, said: 'I smelled gas about 1pm and I thought it was from my flat.

'I checked the kitchen and the oven and then I slept. I didn't think it was from my neighbours.'

Mr Harbi left his flat and arrived home shortly after the explosion.

Detective Superintendent Allan Jones today said it was too early to determine the children's cause of death.

He said the youngsters had been living a 'cosseted life' in the city for a few weeks while their mother and father - one from California and the other from Colorado - had been in the country for 13 years.

'First and foremost our thoughts are with the children's family, and we are doing what we can to support them at this tragic time,' he added.

He said Mr Riggi was 'heartbroken' but 'very composed'.

In a statement, Shell said: 'This is obviously a human tragedy of proportions that most of us find hard to comprehend and our thoughts are with Pasquale and his family.

'Shell will continue to provide Pasquale with support.

'We would urge that he is left alone to deal with his great personal loss.'

A post-mortem examination is expected to be carried out on the children today.

City councillor Gordon Buchan, who represents the Fountainbridge and Craiglockhart ward, said City of Edinburgh Council would visit the building when it had been made safe and provide assistance to anyone who had been affected by the blast.

From: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1300340/Police-quiz-mother-3-children-stabbed-death-Edinburgh-flat.html