Governor Blunt is calling on Attorney General Jay Nixon to investigate the owner of the Anderson Guest House, saying that a preliminary report indicates Robert DuPont was in violation of state law. Fire gutted the residential care facility in southwest Missouri in the early morning hours of November 27th, killing nine residents and one staff member. Robert DuPont owns the Joplin River of Life Ministries, which ran the Anderson Guest House in southwest Missouri. He was convicted three years ago of conspiracy to commit Medicare fraud. State law forbids convicted felons from holding official positions with a long-term care facility. In a written statement, Blunt says “I am outraged at the growing evidence that Robert DuPont, a convicted felon, was illegally involved in the operations of Anderson Guest House and three other facilities.” The Anderson Guest House was a private facility. It cared for the elderly and the mentally ill. Sixteen of its 33 residents were clients of the Mental Health Department. Three of the ten people who died were patients with the state. The department contracts with many community providers throughout the state. Nothing in the investigation has disclosed that the Anderson group home itself violated any state regulations. Blunt says it doesn’t appear that the Departments of Health and Mental Health were negligent in discovering DuPont had an active role in running the Anderson Guest House, but he says it is a question that must be answered.