Father charged with abandonment in kids' deaths

RICHMOND, Mo. (AP) - A northwest Missouri man who gave police a detailed account of how he valiantly tried to save his two young sons from a mobile home fire in December has been charged with abandoning them to die in the blaze.

Randy Garrison, 31, of Orrick, was charged in Ray County on two charges of child abandonment in the deaths of 1-year-old Ashton Garrison and 3-year-old Roger Garrison.

Prosecutors say Garrison lied when he told authorities he fought his way through flames and smoke to try to reach the boys in the midday blaze, tripped over a bungee cord and fell face-down into the fire, The Kansas City Star (http://bit.ly/1fKvVca) reported.

He also claimed to have ripped siding off the outside of the trailer and punched a hole through to try to reach his sons before being overcome by smoke.

Investigators said in court documents that Garrison changed many parts of his account over several days of questioning. Medical personnel said he did not have burns or carbon monoxide levels consistent with someone who had been involved in a fire the way he described, and a firefighter said there was no damage to the outside of the trailer consistent with someone trying to force entry.

Garrison allegedly told an officer that a woman who also lived in the trailer had threatened to kill him and his sons, and that he later said he thought she had abducted his sons and they were not dead, according to court documents. There is no indication how the fire started.

Garrison was being held Friday morning on $100,000 cash-only bond.