August 5, 2021 • 45 mins
As Christopher Vaughn prepares to bury his wife and three children, handcuffs are placed on his wrists.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Murder in Illinois is a production of iHeartRadio. When the
bodies of the three Vaughn children and their mother were discovered,
the crime scene was so traumatizing that a police chaplain
was brought to the location to provide counseling for first responders.
(00:21):
All their emotions, their horror, heartbreak, and anger would have
been intertwined with the need for an explanation and for justice.
As the lone survivor, Christopher Vaughn appears to have been
eyed almost immediately as the prime suspect, and, according to
his mother Gail, in many ways after the tragedy, his
(00:42):
behavior and personality further implicated him.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Chris prided himself with in not showing a lot of emotions.
Even growing up. He tried to be very stuck, and
he would take everything in stride and he would smile,
you know, all and stuff, but he tried not to
show motion. I'm not sure where that came from, but
because as a child he was just happy and happy,
(01:09):
go lucky and smart alec and I'm a little boy.
But then after he got married, he decided he just didn't.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
Want to show emotion anymore.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
And you knew by his eyes a twinkle or the
crease or you know what. He was happy, sad or angry,
which he didn't really get angry that often, but he
did get angry. The evening before the funeral was supposed
to take place.
Speaker 4 (01:37):
We had gathered on our back deck. Our other son
had a one son that was a toddler. I don't
even think he made it. He was a year old.
But he was walking around like.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
A little bumblebee with his arms out and you.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Know, doing that stumbley thing.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
And whenever Chris saw him.
Speaker 5 (01:55):
Tears would come down his face.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
He was really quiet around the case. As he'd sit
down and let him crawl over him or walk over him,
and he just cried. But the jinny went to the
fielder Roland.
Speaker 6 (02:10):
That was it.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
So did they let him bury his family?
Speaker 2 (02:15):
No?
Speaker 1 (02:17):
I'm Lauren Brat Pacheco, and this is murder in Illinois.
Speaker 7 (02:25):
Crying out, okay, few the ground hold hold?
Speaker 8 (02:35):
How you?
Speaker 1 (02:58):
The Vaughan family was shot early morning of June fourteenth,
two thousand and seven. Chris was taken to the hospital
and interrogated for a period of the three days. Following
the deaths of his wife and children, Their bodies were
transported to Missouri for the funeral planned for Saturday, June
twenty third, as both sides of the grieving family prepared
(03:20):
to bury Kimberly and her three children. It was against
the backdrop of relentless media coverage that painted Christopher Vaughan
in an increasingly negative light.
Speaker 9 (03:30):
Witnesses described Vaughan's family as happy and normal in the
days leading up to their deaths. Their bodies were found
in the family vehicle parked near I fifty five on
a narrow path near a cell phone tower. Vaughn's father
in law said he was troubled over how he left
for work one morning, stone faced and didn't say a
word to anyone. His sister in law said he talked
(03:51):
to Kimberly Vaughan at least twice before her death, and
she seemed fine.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
Here's Chris's brother.
Speaker 10 (03:58):
Eric, Well, I mean, it was portrayed that way on
the news, and it was like on every channel, both
local and up in Chicago area. You could find multiple
stations broadcasting their opinions on it.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
So you felt like you watched your brother become a
suspect in the media long before he was formally charged.
Speaker 10 (04:23):
Oh, most definitely, most definitely yeah, it's breaking news and
everything like that. But you know, within hours they had
released names, photos and everything that normally doesn't happen within hours.
It's usually half a day or a day stuff is
(04:45):
released to the press. It was almost like they were
released it before they really even did a lot of
stuff testing and forensics and stuff like that.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
In the days following the tr tragedy, Christopher seemed somewhat
unresponsive to his family, though his actions were more in
keeping with those of a grieving father than a murderer,
even a remorseful one.
Speaker 10 (05:12):
When I first saw him once he got back to
my parents' house, I definitely gave him a big hug,
a lot longer than I would normally give him a hug.
I mean, he looked just lost. This to look in
his eyes, he was shocked. I guess it's still in shock.
We talked a little bit, but nothing. We really didn't
(05:34):
talk about what was happening. We talked and chit chatted
about stuff, nothing related to what's happening with him for
the most part.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
Did you ever talk to him about what happened that day?
Did you ever try to get answers from him?
Speaker 11 (05:52):
Now?
Speaker 10 (05:53):
I didn't ask any direct questions, and I really wasn't
sure if it was too soon to ask what happened?
According to him, what happened. If I would have known
a couple of days later he would be in jail,
I would have probably asked some questions, but I didn't.
Speaker 5 (06:15):
What was he like? Emotionally and mentally had.
Speaker 10 (06:18):
Head down a lot, just kind of that blazed, stunned look.
If you asked him a question or asked him if
you need anything, I mean he'd answer you and kind
of a very low enthusiasm is a kind of I'm okay, no,
I don't need anything. He definitely didn't have the sarcasm
(06:40):
like my family is is good for. I saw more
emotion in his body movement and the way he held
himself and walked, and the way he was I'd never
seen anything like that, you know, from Chris. I would
have been thinking of through my head trying to replay
every thing to figure out what happened. Yeah, I'm sure
(07:04):
there's some type of pain from being shot to the
leg or whatever he was tobbling around. Yeah. I would
have personally been more concerned with, Okay, what's going to
happen next? What do I need to do. What can
I do? I would have them clue.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
In the days leading up to the funeral of Kim
and his children, the police focus on Chris intensified. It
was becoming clear to him and to his family that
he was the primary, if not only, suspect, in their murders.
Here's Gail Vaughan.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
When Chris was still with us and the Illinois State
Police asked us to come back over for another interview
with Pierre and Chris separately. Chris had a bad feeling
about it, he says, Mom. They shouldn't be interviewing me
over and over about the same thing. Already told them
(08:00):
all I know and what I know, and it just
we were getting different information feedbacks. We were reading what
was happening in the paper against us, but we were
told not to make any comments. We did have reporters
(08:22):
come to our door and leave cards to get an interview,
and we were told not to talk to any of them.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
The Vaughan family's decision to grieve privately and to avoid
the press seems to have fueled the impression that they
were either aloof or elusive. Christopher's family now has the
benefit of hindsight. I wondered what they would have done
differently if they'd have remained as quiet in the public eye.
Here's Gale.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
I would definitely not fly under the radar. We were
told not to talk to any press by our lawyers.
We were not to talk about this to anybody about
our case or our feelings anything. We were not to
say anything to anybody.
Speaker 3 (09:10):
I think we should have.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Just gone right out there and just started telling everybody
that this was not true. It was just not right.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
Here's Adam, Chris's brother.
Speaker 8 (09:21):
You read about these types of tragedies in the news,
you see them in the news, but you never you
never expected to actually happen to someone you know, let
alone your family. But it was a very surreal situation,
and I can remember wondering why the police kept bringing
(09:44):
Chris back into questioning. From the little bits and pieces
that I heard between my parents and Chris, they weren't
very consoling for an individual who had just lost his family.
The feel right from the beginning was that the police
were trying to wring anything out of him. But they
(10:05):
released him, and he came home to my parents' house
and we were able to set up the funeral.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
Adam remembers watching his eldest brother begin to slowly unravel
in the days leading up to the service.
Speaker 12 (10:19):
He was hurting.
Speaker 8 (10:20):
I mean, that was very.
Speaker 10 (10:22):
Evident in his demeanor.
Speaker 8 (10:25):
Wee bon mails are not overly demonstrative, but I absolutely
saw him crying. I saw him trying to hold it
together around people, but you could just see pain emanating
from him. I mean, just the emotional pain and trauma
(10:46):
is beyond what I could imagine. And then on top
of that, he had physical pain. He had gunshot wounds
that he was attempting.
Speaker 10 (10:55):
To heal from as well.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
Arrangements for the service and burial had to be made
in tandem with Kimberly's family. Needless to say, they likely
had a different perspective on things than the Vaughns. What
the Vonns didn't know is just how involved law enforcement
had become in the background, and because of the existing dynamic,
there was already strained communication between the two families.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
When we went to make the arrangements for the funeral,
we had the Phillips there and I think their daughter Jinny,
and really the first out of Susan's mouth was, where's
Kimberly's jewelry?
Speaker 1 (11:37):
I want it.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Somehow, Chris had anticipated she was going to want that,
so he had put together a jewelry box full of
everything he had purchased for Kimberly and gave it to her.
And she stilled it out on the table at that
point and went through it and says, well, where's her
wedding ring, where's this? Where's that? I want it all?
(12:00):
And we just shrugged our shoulders because we weren't sure.
I told Chris it was his, that he should have
kept it, but he said, no, Susan would want it
or make his life terrible, so he just gave it
to her and then we went ahead with the funeral arrangements.
Speaker 6 (12:18):
But during the funeral arrangements there was a lot of tension,
I mean because missus Phillips Susan, I mean, she wanted
to direct everything and have it.
Speaker 13 (12:28):
Her way, and it pretty much turned out to it
pretty much turned out to be because they had to
buy the grave sites and everything like that, and Chris
said that he would like to have a grave site
there too.
Speaker 6 (12:43):
And at first she was not going to let them
let him have a grave site there.
Speaker 8 (12:47):
Susan.
Speaker 6 (12:48):
Finally she admitted that she would let him have a
grave site there. Oh, and they wanted to keys the
house too, because they had already assumed that they were
going to get the house and everything with it.
Speaker 14 (13:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (13:03):
I mean, it was not a good scenario being in
the same room with those people. But Chris handled it
pretty good. And when I started to get a little upset,
he put his hand on my arm and just sort
of patted it and said, no, let it be, it's
(13:23):
not worth it.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
This is how the Vaughns remember these interactions. The Phillips
family has declined our multiple requests for comment. Given this situation,
it's hard to fault anyone's reactions or actions during such
a tumultuous time, though the Phillips likely saw Chris as
the person who'd taken away their daughter and grandchildren. Not
(13:46):
only were they dealing with grief, but also intense anger.
But Chris, on the other hand, murderer or not, whether
driven by guilt or grief or both, was visibly affected
by his loss. Here's Rachel Vaughan, the wife of the
youngest Bond brother, Adam.
Speaker 15 (14:04):
When we arrived at the funeral home the day before
the funeral, so for the visitation, we all came in,
but then Gil and Pierre took Chris in by himself first,
and I remember that because I was standing right by
the door watching him go in, and he was still
walking with a cane because of his leg injury, and
(14:25):
he walked in with him and then as soon as
he got in the door he crumpled. I remember because
Pierre had to kind of hold him up and get
him into his seat. There was a room designated in
the back so we could get out of the crowd essentially,
and he pretty much stayed in there the whole time.
(14:48):
And looking back now, I can see how that probably looked.
But he was not fit for greeting people. He just
was not in any kind of shape to be interacting
with people.
Speaker 5 (15:05):
Can you expand upon that?
Speaker 15 (15:08):
I mean the greeting area where we were supposed to
be to greet people that were coming in to see us,
was literally right in front of their coffins. So he
was expected to either sit or stand in front of
his family open casket and talk to people. He was
(15:31):
not While he was in that room, he was not
saying words that made sense. Like he was broken essentially,
And once they got him out he was able to
kind of collect himself. Chris could not go back in
that room again.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
And the next day was the funeral. It was already
an emotionally daunting event for both families, but for the Vonds,
it was about to get a lot worse. Here's Pierre.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
The day of the.
Speaker 6 (16:06):
Funeral, Chris knew something was up, but he wasn't talking
to us because the police told him not to and
he was protecting us. But in the meantime, he went
through paperwork and he found a life insurance policy, he
signed a title over on his jeep to us, and
(16:27):
he was doing other things, and you know, and I said, Chris,
why are you doing all this? And he says, Daddy says,
he says, I got to feeling there out to get me.
And you know, that way things were protected.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
As mourners arrived for the funeral, the Vaughn family sent
something was deeply a mess. Here's Gail's younger sister, Rose.
Speaker 12 (17:04):
Felt like something was going on that day. There was
just a lot of tension in the air with the
people that worked there and everything. And I remember our
family being sequestered into a big room until we couldn't move,
We couldn't leave. We were put in that room. And Chris,
(17:28):
I believe they told him he needed to check on
her rings.
Speaker 6 (17:33):
Here's Pierre, the funeral director person was there. And the
big deal was that the Phillips family wanted all her jewelry.
They came, you know that she was supposed to be
buried with, but they didn't want her to be buried
with it. They wanted they wanted to take it home
(17:54):
with them.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
She said that.
Speaker 6 (17:59):
We had go downstairs to sign the papers.
Speaker 3 (18:04):
For the jewelry, which struck me.
Speaker 6 (18:07):
His ode and everything like that. So we walked downstairs.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
And she only wanted Chris to go down and Pure
went with him.
Speaker 6 (18:15):
Anyway. She let us downstairs and walked in there like
a conference room down there, and when we opened the door,
there was fourteen different policemen standing there and they immediately
handcuffed him and writing his rights and telling him his
being arrested for the murder of his family. And I
was totally in shock. They had to have Saint Charles
(18:38):
County police arrest him. This Illinois State police were there
and Chris just back over his shoulder at me as
they were walking him out, and he just had a
look of shock on his face.
Speaker 15 (18:52):
He didn't say anything, and.
Speaker 6 (18:54):
I told him just hang in there. We'll get this
taken care of. And then I had to walk back
upstairs and talked to my family.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
Here's Rachel Vaughan.
Speaker 15 (19:06):
Pierre came back in. I will never forget this moment
as long as I live. He went up to Gail
and put his hands on her arm and he said,
they just arrested Chris, and she just she had been
(19:27):
like a rock the whole time, and she fell apart
and her first words were, but he didn't do it.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
Here's Rachel's husband, Adam.
Speaker 8 (19:39):
And then it became very apparent that there were no
Phillips family in the room with else and it quickly
became obvious that the Phillips were part of those who
were supporting the police in their arrest.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
Here's Chris's brother Eric.
Speaker 10 (20:01):
They didn't even let him be there present when they
were buried.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
I can't imagine watching your sibling being taken away like that.
Under those circumstances.
Speaker 10 (20:16):
It was very difficult just to even concentrate, yeah, to
do simple things. I mean, I was one of the
pall bearers that was up front with him, and it
just felt not taking four people out, you know, from
one family. I looked like a little waterfall. Standing up there. Now.
(20:42):
Granted I wasn't the only one, and all the people
that were pall bearers were pretty much in the same boat.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
Chris Vaughn was arrested at seven fifty am as he
prepared to bury his family afterwards. His brother and father
served as pall bearers. At the center of Chris's criminal
charges and the driving forces behind the funeral arrest were
the Illinois State Police and the Will County States Attorney
James Glasgow. Here's Chris's initial defense investigator Bill Clutter.
Speaker 11 (21:14):
This is a classic case of tunnel vision where Sergeant
Lawson locked in on his theory that he did it,
and everybody rallied behind him, including the state's attorney, and
you know, they were full steam ahead Ray Road and
Chris Vaughn without really conducting the type of investigation that
(21:37):
should have been done before you charge a citizen who
has the presumption of innocence until proven guilty. But in
this case, they just threw the constitution out the window
and just declared that he was he did it, and
we're going to fuck with him, and by arresting him,
depriving him of grieving for his family. The funeral was
(22:01):
one of those ways they did that.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
You heard former Illinois State Police sergeant Gary Lawson interrogate
Christopher Vaughan hours after his family was shot, still clad
in a hospital gown and bleeding. In our last episode,
Lawson's testimony in front of a grand jury would be
key in securing Bond's indictment. We will revisit the significance
(22:23):
of that testimony later in much greater detail.
Speaker 11 (22:28):
You look at the timeline from when this happened on
Thursday morning, June fourteenth, and in about a week's time
they had already secured his arrest. The obvious thing is
that it was just another way of inflicting punishment on
(22:49):
a person that they presumed was guilty and never gave
the benefit of the presumption of innocence, which is supposed
to be ingrained in the constitution that w sists and has.
But in this case, they jumped to the conclusion that
he did it from day one.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
And actually the decision to arrest him the morning of
his family's funeral ends up making Vaughn look worse. In
other words, it makes it look like he's one hundred
percent guilty if you're going to arrest him at the funeral,
of his family.
Speaker 11 (23:24):
Well, yeah, that certainly came across in the.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
Media, and this is the moment that locked in the
new reality for Chris and his family. They were no
longer just a family grieving a loss. They were now
a family fighting for their son, and they were increasingly
alone in that effort.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
After that, the world just became a blurb. This couldn't
be happening. We knew Chris didn't do it, but it
fell on death airs. I so wanted to make a fuss,
but because I believed in law, I did what I
was told. It was like a never ending dream, getting
(24:03):
worse by the minute, and I couldn't wake up. I mean,
my grandchildren were dead, my daughter in law was ted.
My son was just arrested and accused of being a murderer,
later convicted. And I know he didn't do it. He
(24:25):
was innocent and in pain from his loss, and nobody
cared about him.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
It was devastating for the Vaughns. While Kim's family probably
had a different perspective. They likely felt Chris's arrest dispelled
any speculation that their daughter could have played an active
role in the tragedy, but Chris's family felt bundled into
the accusation by association. Here again is Rachel Vaughan.
Speaker 15 (24:51):
It was cruel because, regardless of anything else, there were
two things. First he was that was to be presumed innocent,
and someone presumed innocent should have the opportunity to attend
his children's funeral. If that cannot be the case, regardless
(25:13):
of what he did or did not do, his parents
still lost their grandchildren and their daughter in law, but
they were robbed of the opportunity to grieve them because
they just took him all at once. And in that moment,
(25:34):
we were so shocked by what was happening with Chris.
The actual burial and everything was a blur. And I
understand that Kim's family believes that he is guilty. I
get that. I cannot imagine what that is like to
(25:54):
feel that a man that you led into your home
took your daughter from you. I understand that. But what
happened was right after we found out, the woman from
the funeral home went out and notified the Phillips, who
were standing right outside our window, and they were celebrating.
(26:19):
And I do not begrudge them the celebration because I
understand from their perspective Kim was vindicated that their daughter
could not possibly have done this horrible thing. It must
be him, and I understand that. And whether or not
they knew that we could see them, it just was.
It was like a perfect storm of horrible for us.
(26:45):
They went in, they took all the front rows of
the area, so our family sat all in the back.
It just I think that was the worst part. Regardless
of what Chris did or did not do, the entire
family was lumped in with him. And to me, that
(27:10):
was the greatest tragedy of that day, that suddenly we
were no longer families of victims. We were the family
of a killer and should be treated as such.
Speaker 1 (27:49):
Let's revisit the concept of the presumption of innocence, which
is crucial to ensuring individuals receive a fair trial and
is meant to protect the integrity of the justices as
well as the human dignity of people who are accused
of committing crimes. Here's private investigator Bill Clutter.
Speaker 11 (28:07):
We have the constitutional protections because there was a time
when there was no presumption of innocence, going back to
the Salem witch trials, where there wasn't a lot of
protection against someone who may be falsely accused.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
Where you were guilty until proven innocent.
Speaker 11 (28:33):
Right until you can prove your innocence.
Speaker 1 (28:35):
Right after Chris's arrest, Kimberly's family allegedly removed anything they
considered to be of value from the Swego family home.
The Vaughan family began the process of cleaning out the
house for very different reasons. Rose Chris's aunt was there
to help.
Speaker 12 (28:52):
I have notes of everything, but I saw feelings, emotions.
It's pretty crazy that Like that was surreal too.
Speaker 2 (29:04):
It was.
Speaker 12 (29:07):
Didn't really to get through it. You couldn't have an emotion.
You just systematically started on one side of the house
and boxed stuff up, got rid of things that had
names and baits on it so people wouldn't go through
the dumpster and try and make money on it. It
(29:31):
was sad.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
Even in their state of grief and anger and defensiveness,
the Vaughan family was still trying to shield and protect
the memories and privacy of their loved ones from the
relentless and prying nature of the tabloid mentality that continued
to swirl around the tragedy.
Speaker 12 (29:50):
When we were cleaning the house out, there was a
little girl that knocked on their front door. We answered it,
and she introduced herself as Abbie's friend, and she said
that Abby was a good drawer, and she asked if
she could have a sketchbook or pictures that Abby had drawn.
(30:11):
So my sister said sure, and so she gave her
some pictures. Not more than a few minutes later, another
room knock at the door, so there was another little
girl with the first little girl, and she also asked
for some pictures that Abby had drawn, and so Gail
said sure, and she went and got some more. Well,
(30:33):
the girls were talking with us, and what the girls
had said was that they were allowed to come and
play on the front porch the area in front of
the house, but they were never allowed in the house.
Even if they had to use the restroom, they had
to go back home, which isn't that far, but still
inconvenient for a little person that has to use the restroom.
(30:58):
And then the little girl said that she was supposed
to have a sleepover, but when she came to the
door with her stuff, she was told that it was
canceled by who Kimberly, So there's another side that we're
not seeing, and that really stuck out because these little
(31:24):
girls were so sweet, and that kind of also talks
to the situation at hand.
Speaker 1 (31:32):
And it was in this innocent and revealing moment with
her granddaughter's friends that Gail began to understand there was
likely more to Kim's behavior than anyone outside of the
household really understood.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
Yes, and there was two little girls, and we invited
them in, and we went into ADDIE's room and I
asked him, is there something small here from ADDIE's room
that you would like to remember her by? And she
looked for a long time, and they found something very
(32:08):
small and they're just very tiny at the moment, I
can't remember what it was, but they said thank you.
Because actually it was the first time they'd been in
the house. Kimberly really didn't allow kids in her house.
(32:30):
It was okay to let Babby, Sandy and Blake go
and play in other houses, but Kimberly just didn't. I'm
not sure why, but this was the first time these
two little girls had ever been in the house.
Speaker 5 (32:45):
And they said that they were her best friends.
Speaker 2 (32:48):
They were her best friends. Yes, they came. We gave
them something and they left, and probably an hour later,
maybe an hour and a half, they came back, and
what they didn't done was the picture that they had
taken with him that Abby drew. They had put in
a little frame and gave it back to us to
(33:10):
remember Abbie. That's so sweet and they were just so
sad it just could happen to their friend.
Speaker 1 (33:24):
There was another neighborhood playmate who wasn't with those two girls.
She would later write a letter, which Gaila saved to
this day, asking to also receive anything to remember Abby.
Her name is Alexa, and we were able to connect
to discuss her memories of Abby and the tragedy.
Speaker 3 (33:42):
Oh, I have so many.
Speaker 16 (33:45):
When she came over, she drew me once and I
remember her telling me like, please don't be mad at me.
Speaker 3 (33:52):
I'm not the best drawer. I think you're beautiful.
Speaker 16 (33:56):
And that was the first time I ever heard of
anyone besides my parents call me.
Speaker 3 (33:59):
Beautiful, And I'm like, who are you?
Speaker 13 (34:02):
Like?
Speaker 3 (34:02):
You are so mature. You are somebody that I will
have in my life forever.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (34:09):
I wish she was still around, but I know that
she's with me every day.
Speaker 1 (34:14):
Did she ever talk to you about her parents, particularly
mom or dad?
Speaker 3 (34:19):
Not really, not from what I can remember, Like thinking
about it.
Speaker 16 (34:23):
I kind of felt like she was trying to escape something,
if that makes sense, because whenever we would talk about
family or I would ask a question, it would be
kind of like a broad answer, or she would kind
of change the subject.
Speaker 1 (34:37):
You mentioned that there was a conversation on the bus
one day. Can you remember what it was about or
why that comment sticks out?
Speaker 3 (34:48):
I was probably arguing with my younger brother.
Speaker 16 (34:50):
We definitely butt heads a lot, and I was telling her,
I'm like, you know, I wish I had a perfect
family like yours, and she was telling me, you know,
not everything is what it's me And when I kind
of asked her to elaborate, then it.
Speaker 17 (35:03):
Was like, no, it's nothing too crazy. I'm just saying,
you know, no one's perfect. Everybody has their problems and
their issues. And then we would kind of move on
and kind of go past it.
Speaker 1 (35:15):
Can you just tell me about why? And when you
reached out to Gail Vaughan.
Speaker 3 (35:23):
Everything happened and I felt alone.
Speaker 16 (35:27):
I felt like my person was snatched away from me, and.
Speaker 3 (35:33):
I was really angry for a period.
Speaker 16 (35:35):
Of time, and then I kind of had an epiphany
and I was like, how selfish of me to be
angry when there are people like missus Vaughn who lost
all of her grandchildren.
Speaker 3 (35:49):
You know, I couldn't even imagine how she feels.
Speaker 16 (35:52):
So I remember my mom, I asked her if she
could help me, and writing a letter because I didn't
want to sound selfish, and some of her belongings as well,
so I didn't have anything to remember her by. Miss
Gail came to our house, but I don't think we
were home, and I remember coming home to just a
(36:12):
small box of a few things and a letter that
she wrote back to me. There's this like a little
statue of blonde girl that looks like Abby on a unicorn.
Speaker 3 (36:23):
It's still on my vanity fourteen years later.
Speaker 16 (36:26):
And another picture that she gave me that I keep
in my desk in a drawer.
Speaker 1 (36:31):
Connections like these are what sustained Gail during this tragic time.
But not everything was good. As they continued to go
through the house, they discovered something rather upsetting and more
than a bit odd. Here's rose.
Speaker 12 (36:45):
When we were cleaning out the closet, there were wrapped packages.
I don't know if they were birthday Christmas what they were.
When we my sister looked at them, she said those
are things that I sent the kids, meaning Sandy, Abby
and Blake and and it had their names on it,
(37:08):
and they weren't opened. They were wrapped and the one
tag had on it that for Christopher to build this
with Blake and then make one for himself. And I
believe it was like a bals of wood airplane, something
they could do together.
Speaker 5 (37:28):
And there was more than just one or two. There
was like four or five six.
Speaker 12 (37:32):
Different packages in the two different closets that were downstairs.
And when my sister saw it, it was hurtful for her,
but seeing her face because there's nothing she wouldn't do
for those kids.
Speaker 5 (37:52):
Here's Gail.
Speaker 2 (37:53):
They were gifts that we had given the kids, but
they had never been delivered. Also, when we were going
through the file cabinet in the basement, there was a
bunch of birthday cards we had sent to the children
and they had never been opened. They still had five
(38:14):
dollars in them, because that's usually what I sent, five
dollars because you don't know what the child wants. So
when the kids would come and spend a week or
a couple of days, probably a couple of days, I
would take a bunch of pictures and I'd put them
together in a small little album and I'd give it
to them so they can remember their trip. These were
(38:36):
up There also pictures that I had sent home with
the kids. I was just, wow, what do you say?
Speaker 5 (38:48):
You must have been heartbroken.
Speaker 2 (38:51):
I was that the kids didn't realize that we had
given them and we had thought about them, We had
sent them cards, and they'd never received them. They never
knew we cared unless we were right there and talk
to them and did stuff.
Speaker 5 (39:11):
Why would someone do that?
Speaker 1 (39:13):
Why would someone keep Christmas and Birthday presents and cards
from children from their grandparents.
Speaker 2 (39:22):
That's a question I would like to had answer for,
because I don't know. We rose and I just looked
at that, and we looked at each other and it
was just unbelievable. I did ask Chris about that, and
he says, I don't know what's in the closets, like
a typical meal, you know, unless he wants something, he
doesn't really look in closet. There was many things I
(39:45):
personally didn't like about Kim, but you know what, my
son adored her, And what can you say about that?
Love doesn't know a boundary.
Speaker 1 (39:57):
To get greater insight into whether the comp the skating
of presents and cards is unusual and or significant. I
reached out to doctor James Fallen. In addition to being
a neuroscientist, Fallin as Professor of psychiatry and Human Behavior
and emeritus Professor of Anatomy and Neurobiology in the University
of California, Irvine School of Medicine. Upon review of the materials,
(40:21):
he flagged the fact that the two medications prescribed for
Kimberly's anxiety and migraines were also used to treat bipolar disorder,
a condition associated with episodes of mood swings.
Speaker 14 (40:33):
She was using a SSRI select of serotonin reuptake inhibitor,
which keeps the serotonin from being taken back up into
the cell body so it stays out in the synapses.
And so the way of keeping serotonin out in the
synaptic space longer, so it can have an effect. And
so she was taken SSRI. What I originally heard was
(40:54):
she was taking for migraine and for anxiety, but it's
used to treat bipolar disorder of both the main and
the depression. That's one thing. But also she was taking
topo max, so the topo max added to the SSRI.
This can induce you know, suicidal thoughts and actions definitely,
and it can actually make depression worse. So instead of
(41:16):
fixing the depression, so these two can interact. Okay, the
SSRI and topomax can interact to produce a very pretty
dire situation.
Speaker 1 (41:27):
He also found the unopened gifts telling.
Speaker 14 (41:31):
Who sequestered them and hid them.
Speaker 1 (41:33):
Apparently Kimberly Vaughn.
Speaker 18 (41:36):
Oh boy, she had also done that with all the
birthday cards and holiday cards. They were in a folder, unopened,
with the five dollar bills that she had been sent
for the kids still inside, so she knew what she
was doing.
Speaker 14 (41:52):
This was a setup for something, right, I mean, she's
or just to drive him crazy or them crazy, or
just to be manipulated. Do we know if she had
bipolar but bipolars, it's not unusual for them to be
very cruel. I mean that just you may not have
to go further than that.
Speaker 1 (42:11):
What we do know is that during the trial, an
investigator with the Public Defender's Office read an email message
sent from Kimberly Vaughn to one of her classmates at
the University of Phoenix in online college. The classmate apparently
suffered from multiple sclerosis, and Kimberly told him of her
sister's struggles with the symptoms of the disease. Kimberly also
(42:35):
wrote about her sister's suffering from bipolar disorder. That could
be significant because numerous studies have found that people with
a parent or sibling with bipolar disorder have an increased
chance of developing the disorder themselves. We'll revisit Kimberly Vaughn's
behavior in the months leading up to the tragedy in
(42:56):
much greater detail later. Back to our timeline. Christopher Vaughan
was initially held in Missouri on one million dollar cash
bond while awaiting extradition to Illinois. Once he arrived in Illinois,
he was held without bond. Because of this, Chris would
(43:17):
sit in jail from the morning of his family's funeral
until his trial five years later. The state of Illinois
was planning to seek the death penalty, but with a
criminal investigation comes digging and then discovery, and what would
soon come out about Christopher Vaughan would make his already
challenging defense nearly impossible. On the next murder in Illinois,
(43:49):
Chris and Kimberley Vaughn's troubled marriage becomes tabloid fodder.
Speaker 11 (43:53):
And he made two visits to a scrip club and
spent an enormous amount of money I think over four thousand.
Speaker 1 (44:01):
Dollars, and Vaughan is betrayed as a man looking for
a way out of his marriage at any cost.
Speaker 11 (44:08):
He had recently confided, or I should say, confessed to
her that he had had a relationship when he was
out of the country in Mexico.
Speaker 1 (44:17):
Murdered Illinois is a production of iHeartRadio. Executive producers are
Lauren Bright Pacheco and Taylor Chacoine. Written by Lauren Bright
Pacheco and Matthew Riddle, Story editing by Matthew Riddle, editing
and sound design by Evan Tyre and Taylor Chackoine. Featuring
music by Cicada Rhythm, with new compositions engineered and mixed
(44:39):
by Evan Tyre and Taylor Chackoine. Archived news reports provided
by wgn ick You.
Speaker 15 (44:49):
I'm dope and father right.
Speaker 6 (44:53):
You are through the name.
Speaker 19 (44:56):
I'll leave with them d hay hinste A dream Hello, Yes,
oh dream.
Speaker 7 (45:09):
Stee you we are.
Speaker 19 (45:18):
Dream Hello.
Speaker 1 (45:29):
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, check out the iHeartRadio, app,
Apple podcasts, or wherever you get the stories that matter
to you.
Murder in Illinois is a production of iHeartRadio. When the
bodies of the three Vaughn children and their mother were discovered,
the crime scene was so traumatizing that a police chaplain
was brought to the location to provide counseling for first responders.
(00:21):
All their emotions, their horror, heartbreak, and anger would have
been intertwined with the need for an explanation and for justice.
As the lone survivor, Christopher Vaughn appears to have been
eyed almost immediately as the prime suspect, and, according to
his mother Gail, in many ways after the tragedy, his
(00:42):
behavior and personality further implicated him.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Chris prided himself with in not showing a lot of emotions.
Even growing up. He tried to be very stuck, and
he would take everything in stride and he would smile,
you know, all and stuff, but he tried not to
show motion. I'm not sure where that came from, but
because as a child he was just happy and happy,
(01:09):
go lucky and smart alec and I'm a little boy.
But then after he got married, he decided he just didn't.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
Want to show emotion anymore.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
And you knew by his eyes a twinkle or the
crease or you know what. He was happy, sad or angry,
which he didn't really get angry that often, but he
did get angry. The evening before the funeral was supposed
to take place.
Speaker 4 (01:37):
We had gathered on our back deck. Our other son
had a one son that was a toddler. I don't
even think he made it. He was a year old.
But he was walking around like.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
A little bumblebee with his arms out and you.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Know, doing that stumbley thing.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
And whenever Chris saw him.
Speaker 5 (01:55):
Tears would come down his face.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
He was really quiet around the case. As he'd sit
down and let him crawl over him or walk over him,
and he just cried. But the jinny went to the
fielder Roland.
Speaker 6 (02:10):
That was it.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
So did they let him bury his family?
Speaker 2 (02:15):
No?
Speaker 1 (02:17):
I'm Lauren Brat Pacheco, and this is murder in Illinois.
Speaker 7 (02:25):
Crying out, okay, few the ground hold hold?
Speaker 8 (02:35):
How you?
Speaker 1 (02:58):
The Vaughan family was shot early morning of June fourteenth,
two thousand and seven. Chris was taken to the hospital
and interrogated for a period of the three days. Following
the deaths of his wife and children, Their bodies were
transported to Missouri for the funeral planned for Saturday, June
twenty third, as both sides of the grieving family prepared
(03:20):
to bury Kimberly and her three children. It was against
the backdrop of relentless media coverage that painted Christopher Vaughan
in an increasingly negative light.
Speaker 9 (03:30):
Witnesses described Vaughan's family as happy and normal in the
days leading up to their deaths. Their bodies were found
in the family vehicle parked near I fifty five on
a narrow path near a cell phone tower. Vaughn's father
in law said he was troubled over how he left
for work one morning, stone faced and didn't say a
word to anyone. His sister in law said he talked
(03:51):
to Kimberly Vaughan at least twice before her death, and
she seemed fine.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
Here's Chris's brother.
Speaker 10 (03:58):
Eric, Well, I mean, it was portrayed that way on
the news, and it was like on every channel, both
local and up in Chicago area. You could find multiple
stations broadcasting their opinions on it.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
So you felt like you watched your brother become a
suspect in the media long before he was formally charged.
Speaker 10 (04:23):
Oh, most definitely, most definitely yeah, it's breaking news and
everything like that. But you know, within hours they had
released names, photos and everything that normally doesn't happen within hours.
It's usually half a day or a day stuff is
(04:45):
released to the press. It was almost like they were
released it before they really even did a lot of
stuff testing and forensics and stuff like that.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
In the days following the tr tragedy, Christopher seemed somewhat
unresponsive to his family, though his actions were more in
keeping with those of a grieving father than a murderer,
even a remorseful one.
Speaker 10 (05:12):
When I first saw him once he got back to
my parents' house, I definitely gave him a big hug,
a lot longer than I would normally give him a hug.
I mean, he looked just lost. This to look in
his eyes, he was shocked. I guess it's still in shock.
We talked a little bit, but nothing. We really didn't
(05:34):
talk about what was happening. We talked and chit chatted
about stuff, nothing related to what's happening with him for
the most part.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
Did you ever talk to him about what happened that day?
Did you ever try to get answers from him?
Speaker 11 (05:52):
Now?
Speaker 10 (05:53):
I didn't ask any direct questions, and I really wasn't
sure if it was too soon to ask what happened?
According to him, what happened. If I would have known
a couple of days later he would be in jail,
I would have probably asked some questions, but I didn't.
Speaker 5 (06:15):
What was he like? Emotionally and mentally had.
Speaker 10 (06:18):
Head down a lot, just kind of that blazed, stunned look.
If you asked him a question or asked him if
you need anything, I mean he'd answer you and kind
of a very low enthusiasm is a kind of I'm okay, no,
I don't need anything. He definitely didn't have the sarcasm
(06:40):
like my family is is good for. I saw more
emotion in his body movement and the way he held
himself and walked, and the way he was I'd never
seen anything like that, you know, from Chris. I would
have been thinking of through my head trying to replay
every thing to figure out what happened. Yeah, I'm sure
(07:04):
there's some type of pain from being shot to the
leg or whatever he was tobbling around. Yeah. I would
have personally been more concerned with, Okay, what's going to
happen next? What do I need to do. What can
I do? I would have them clue.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
In the days leading up to the funeral of Kim
and his children, the police focus on Chris intensified. It
was becoming clear to him and to his family that
he was the primary, if not only, suspect, in their murders.
Here's Gail Vaughan.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
When Chris was still with us and the Illinois State
Police asked us to come back over for another interview
with Pierre and Chris separately. Chris had a bad feeling
about it, he says, Mom. They shouldn't be interviewing me
over and over about the same thing. Already told them
(08:00):
all I know and what I know, and it just
we were getting different information feedbacks. We were reading what
was happening in the paper against us, but we were
told not to make any comments. We did have reporters
(08:22):
come to our door and leave cards to get an interview,
and we were told not to talk to any of them.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
The Vaughan family's decision to grieve privately and to avoid
the press seems to have fueled the impression that they
were either aloof or elusive. Christopher's family now has the
benefit of hindsight. I wondered what they would have done
differently if they'd have remained as quiet in the public eye.
Here's Gale.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
I would definitely not fly under the radar. We were
told not to talk to any press by our lawyers.
We were not to talk about this to anybody about
our case or our feelings anything. We were not to
say anything to anybody.
Speaker 3 (09:10):
I think we should have.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Just gone right out there and just started telling everybody
that this was not true. It was just not right.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
Here's Adam, Chris's brother.
Speaker 8 (09:21):
You read about these types of tragedies in the news,
you see them in the news, but you never you
never expected to actually happen to someone you know, let
alone your family. But it was a very surreal situation,
and I can remember wondering why the police kept bringing
(09:44):
Chris back into questioning. From the little bits and pieces
that I heard between my parents and Chris, they weren't
very consoling for an individual who had just lost his family.
The feel right from the beginning was that the police
were trying to wring anything out of him. But they
(10:05):
released him, and he came home to my parents' house
and we were able to set up the funeral.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
Adam remembers watching his eldest brother begin to slowly unravel
in the days leading up to the service.
Speaker 12 (10:19):
He was hurting.
Speaker 8 (10:20):
I mean, that was very.
Speaker 10 (10:22):
Evident in his demeanor.
Speaker 8 (10:25):
Wee bon mails are not overly demonstrative, but I absolutely
saw him crying. I saw him trying to hold it
together around people, but you could just see pain emanating
from him. I mean, just the emotional pain and trauma
(10:46):
is beyond what I could imagine. And then on top
of that, he had physical pain. He had gunshot wounds
that he was attempting.
Speaker 10 (10:55):
To heal from as well.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
Arrangements for the service and burial had to be made
in tandem with Kimberly's family. Needless to say, they likely
had a different perspective on things than the Vaughns. What
the Vonns didn't know is just how involved law enforcement
had become in the background, and because of the existing dynamic,
there was already strained communication between the two families.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
When we went to make the arrangements for the funeral,
we had the Phillips there and I think their daughter Jinny,
and really the first out of Susan's mouth was, where's
Kimberly's jewelry?
Speaker 1 (11:37):
I want it.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
Somehow, Chris had anticipated she was going to want that,
so he had put together a jewelry box full of
everything he had purchased for Kimberly and gave it to her.
And she stilled it out on the table at that
point and went through it and says, well, where's her
wedding ring, where's this? Where's that? I want it all?
(12:00):
And we just shrugged our shoulders because we weren't sure.
I told Chris it was his, that he should have
kept it, but he said, no, Susan would want it
or make his life terrible, so he just gave it
to her and then we went ahead with the funeral arrangements.
Speaker 6 (12:18):
But during the funeral arrangements there was a lot of tension,
I mean because missus Phillips Susan, I mean, she wanted
to direct everything and have it.
Speaker 13 (12:28):
Her way, and it pretty much turned out to it
pretty much turned out to be because they had to
buy the grave sites and everything like that, and Chris
said that he would like to have a grave site
there too.
Speaker 6 (12:43):
And at first she was not going to let them
let him have a grave site there.
Speaker 8 (12:47):
Susan.
Speaker 6 (12:48):
Finally she admitted that she would let him have a
grave site there. Oh, and they wanted to keys the
house too, because they had already assumed that they were
going to get the house and everything with it.
Speaker 14 (13:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (13:03):
I mean, it was not a good scenario being in
the same room with those people. But Chris handled it
pretty good. And when I started to get a little upset,
he put his hand on my arm and just sort
of patted it and said, no, let it be, it's
(13:23):
not worth it.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
This is how the Vaughns remember these interactions. The Phillips
family has declined our multiple requests for comment. Given this situation,
it's hard to fault anyone's reactions or actions during such
a tumultuous time, though the Phillips likely saw Chris as
the person who'd taken away their daughter and grandchildren. Not
(13:46):
only were they dealing with grief, but also intense anger.
But Chris, on the other hand, murderer or not, whether
driven by guilt or grief or both, was visibly affected
by his loss. Here's Rachel Vaughan, the wife of the
youngest Bond brother, Adam.
Speaker 15 (14:04):
When we arrived at the funeral home the day before
the funeral, so for the visitation, we all came in,
but then Gil and Pierre took Chris in by himself first,
and I remember that because I was standing right by
the door watching him go in, and he was still
walking with a cane because of his leg injury, and
(14:25):
he walked in with him and then as soon as
he got in the door he crumpled. I remember because
Pierre had to kind of hold him up and get
him into his seat. There was a room designated in
the back so we could get out of the crowd essentially,
and he pretty much stayed in there the whole time.
(14:48):
And looking back now, I can see how that probably looked.
But he was not fit for greeting people. He just
was not in any kind of shape to be interacting
with people.
Speaker 5 (15:05):
Can you expand upon that?
Speaker 15 (15:08):
I mean the greeting area where we were supposed to
be to greet people that were coming in to see us,
was literally right in front of their coffins. So he
was expected to either sit or stand in front of
his family open casket and talk to people. He was
(15:31):
not While he was in that room, he was not
saying words that made sense. Like he was broken essentially,
And once they got him out he was able to
kind of collect himself. Chris could not go back in
that room again.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
And the next day was the funeral. It was already
an emotionally daunting event for both families, but for the Vonds,
it was about to get a lot worse. Here's Pierre.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
The day of the.
Speaker 6 (16:06):
Funeral, Chris knew something was up, but he wasn't talking
to us because the police told him not to and
he was protecting us. But in the meantime, he went
through paperwork and he found a life insurance policy, he
signed a title over on his jeep to us, and
(16:27):
he was doing other things, and you know, and I said, Chris,
why are you doing all this? And he says, Daddy says,
he says, I got to feeling there out to get me.
And you know, that way things were protected.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
As mourners arrived for the funeral, the Vaughn family sent
something was deeply a mess. Here's Gail's younger sister, Rose.
Speaker 12 (17:04):
Felt like something was going on that day. There was
just a lot of tension in the air with the
people that worked there and everything. And I remember our
family being sequestered into a big room until we couldn't move,
We couldn't leave. We were put in that room. And Chris,
(17:28):
I believe they told him he needed to check on
her rings.
Speaker 6 (17:33):
Here's Pierre, the funeral director person was there. And the
big deal was that the Phillips family wanted all her jewelry.
They came, you know that she was supposed to be
buried with, but they didn't want her to be buried
with it. They wanted they wanted to take it home
(17:54):
with them.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
She said that.
Speaker 6 (17:59):
We had go downstairs to sign the papers.
Speaker 3 (18:04):
For the jewelry, which struck me.
Speaker 6 (18:07):
His ode and everything like that. So we walked downstairs.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
And she only wanted Chris to go down and Pure
went with him.
Speaker 6 (18:15):
Anyway. She let us downstairs and walked in there like
a conference room down there, and when we opened the door,
there was fourteen different policemen standing there and they immediately
handcuffed him and writing his rights and telling him his
being arrested for the murder of his family. And I
was totally in shock. They had to have Saint Charles
(18:38):
County police arrest him. This Illinois State police were there
and Chris just back over his shoulder at me as
they were walking him out, and he just had a
look of shock on his face.
Speaker 15 (18:52):
He didn't say anything, and.
Speaker 6 (18:54):
I told him just hang in there. We'll get this
taken care of. And then I had to walk back
upstairs and talked to my family.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
Here's Rachel Vaughan.
Speaker 15 (19:06):
Pierre came back in. I will never forget this moment
as long as I live. He went up to Gail
and put his hands on her arm and he said,
they just arrested Chris, and she just she had been
(19:27):
like a rock the whole time, and she fell apart
and her first words were, but he didn't do it.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
Here's Rachel's husband, Adam.
Speaker 8 (19:39):
And then it became very apparent that there were no
Phillips family in the room with else and it quickly
became obvious that the Phillips were part of those who
were supporting the police in their arrest.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
Here's Chris's brother Eric.
Speaker 10 (20:01):
They didn't even let him be there present when they
were buried.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
I can't imagine watching your sibling being taken away like that.
Under those circumstances.
Speaker 10 (20:16):
It was very difficult just to even concentrate, yeah, to
do simple things. I mean, I was one of the
pall bearers that was up front with him, and it
just felt not taking four people out, you know, from
one family. I looked like a little waterfall. Standing up there. Now.
(20:42):
Granted I wasn't the only one, and all the people
that were pall bearers were pretty much in the same boat.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
Chris Vaughn was arrested at seven fifty am as he
prepared to bury his family afterwards. His brother and father
served as pall bearers. At the center of Chris's criminal
charges and the driving forces behind the funeral arrest were
the Illinois State Police and the Will County States Attorney
James Glasgow. Here's Chris's initial defense investigator Bill Clutter.
Speaker 11 (21:14):
This is a classic case of tunnel vision where Sergeant
Lawson locked in on his theory that he did it,
and everybody rallied behind him, including the state's attorney, and
you know, they were full steam ahead Ray Road and
Chris Vaughn without really conducting the type of investigation that
(21:37):
should have been done before you charge a citizen who
has the presumption of innocence until proven guilty. But in
this case, they just threw the constitution out the window
and just declared that he was he did it, and
we're going to fuck with him, and by arresting him,
depriving him of grieving for his family. The funeral was
(22:01):
one of those ways they did that.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
You heard former Illinois State Police sergeant Gary Lawson interrogate
Christopher Vaughan hours after his family was shot, still clad
in a hospital gown and bleeding. In our last episode,
Lawson's testimony in front of a grand jury would be
key in securing Bond's indictment. We will revisit the significance
(22:23):
of that testimony later in much greater detail.
Speaker 11 (22:28):
You look at the timeline from when this happened on
Thursday morning, June fourteenth, and in about a week's time
they had already secured his arrest. The obvious thing is
that it was just another way of inflicting punishment on
(22:49):
a person that they presumed was guilty and never gave
the benefit of the presumption of innocence, which is supposed
to be ingrained in the constitution that w sists and has.
But in this case, they jumped to the conclusion that
he did it from day one.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
And actually the decision to arrest him the morning of
his family's funeral ends up making Vaughn look worse. In
other words, it makes it look like he's one hundred
percent guilty if you're going to arrest him at the funeral,
of his family.
Speaker 11 (23:24):
Well, yeah, that certainly came across in the.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
Media, and this is the moment that locked in the
new reality for Chris and his family. They were no
longer just a family grieving a loss. They were now
a family fighting for their son, and they were increasingly
alone in that effort.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
After that, the world just became a blurb. This couldn't
be happening. We knew Chris didn't do it, but it
fell on death airs. I so wanted to make a fuss,
but because I believed in law, I did what I
was told. It was like a never ending dream, getting
(24:03):
worse by the minute, and I couldn't wake up. I mean,
my grandchildren were dead, my daughter in law was ted.
My son was just arrested and accused of being a murderer,
later convicted. And I know he didn't do it. He
(24:25):
was innocent and in pain from his loss, and nobody
cared about him.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
It was devastating for the Vaughns. While Kim's family probably
had a different perspective. They likely felt Chris's arrest dispelled
any speculation that their daughter could have played an active
role in the tragedy, but Chris's family felt bundled into
the accusation by association. Here again is Rachel Vaughan.
Speaker 15 (24:51):
It was cruel because, regardless of anything else, there were
two things. First he was that was to be presumed innocent,
and someone presumed innocent should have the opportunity to attend
his children's funeral. If that cannot be the case, regardless
(25:13):
of what he did or did not do, his parents
still lost their grandchildren and their daughter in law, but
they were robbed of the opportunity to grieve them because
they just took him all at once. And in that moment,
(25:34):
we were so shocked by what was happening with Chris.
The actual burial and everything was a blur. And I
understand that Kim's family believes that he is guilty. I
get that. I cannot imagine what that is like to
(25:54):
feel that a man that you led into your home
took your daughter from you. I understand that. But what
happened was right after we found out, the woman from
the funeral home went out and notified the Phillips, who
were standing right outside our window, and they were celebrating.
(26:19):
And I do not begrudge them the celebration because I
understand from their perspective Kim was vindicated that their daughter
could not possibly have done this horrible thing. It must
be him, and I understand that. And whether or not
they knew that we could see them, it just was.
It was like a perfect storm of horrible for us.
(26:45):
They went in, they took all the front rows of
the area, so our family sat all in the back.
It just I think that was the worst part. Regardless
of what Chris did or did not do, the entire
family was lumped in with him. And to me, that
(27:10):
was the greatest tragedy of that day, that suddenly we
were no longer families of victims. We were the family
of a killer and should be treated as such.
Speaker 1 (27:49):
Let's revisit the concept of the presumption of innocence, which
is crucial to ensuring individuals receive a fair trial and
is meant to protect the integrity of the justices as
well as the human dignity of people who are accused
of committing crimes. Here's private investigator Bill Clutter.
Speaker 11 (28:07):
We have the constitutional protections because there was a time
when there was no presumption of innocence, going back to
the Salem witch trials, where there wasn't a lot of
protection against someone who may be falsely accused.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
Where you were guilty until proven innocent.
Speaker 11 (28:33):
Right until you can prove your innocence.
Speaker 1 (28:35):
Right after Chris's arrest, Kimberly's family allegedly removed anything they
considered to be of value from the Swego family home.
The Vaughan family began the process of cleaning out the
house for very different reasons. Rose Chris's aunt was there
to help.
Speaker 12 (28:52):
I have notes of everything, but I saw feelings, emotions.
It's pretty crazy that Like that was surreal too.
Speaker 2 (29:04):
It was.
Speaker 12 (29:07):
Didn't really to get through it. You couldn't have an emotion.
You just systematically started on one side of the house
and boxed stuff up, got rid of things that had
names and baits on it so people wouldn't go through
the dumpster and try and make money on it. It
(29:31):
was sad.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
Even in their state of grief and anger and defensiveness,
the Vaughan family was still trying to shield and protect
the memories and privacy of their loved ones from the
relentless and prying nature of the tabloid mentality that continued
to swirl around the tragedy.
Speaker 12 (29:50):
When we were cleaning the house out, there was a
little girl that knocked on their front door. We answered it,
and she introduced herself as Abbie's friend, and she said
that Abby was a good drawer, and she asked if
she could have a sketchbook or pictures that Abby had drawn.
(30:11):
So my sister said sure, and so she gave her
some pictures. Not more than a few minutes later, another
room knock at the door, so there was another little
girl with the first little girl, and she also asked
for some pictures that Abby had drawn, and so Gail
said sure, and she went and got some more. Well,
(30:33):
the girls were talking with us, and what the girls
had said was that they were allowed to come and
play on the front porch the area in front of
the house, but they were never allowed in the house.
Even if they had to use the restroom, they had
to go back home, which isn't that far, but still
inconvenient for a little person that has to use the restroom.
(30:58):
And then the little girl said that she was supposed
to have a sleepover, but when she came to the
door with her stuff, she was told that it was
canceled by who Kimberly, So there's another side that we're
not seeing, and that really stuck out because these little
(31:24):
girls were so sweet, and that kind of also talks
to the situation at hand.
Speaker 1 (31:32):
And it was in this innocent and revealing moment with
her granddaughter's friends that Gail began to understand there was
likely more to Kim's behavior than anyone outside of the
household really understood.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
Yes, and there was two little girls, and we invited
them in, and we went into ADDIE's room and I
asked him, is there something small here from ADDIE's room
that you would like to remember her by? And she
looked for a long time, and they found something very
(32:08):
small and they're just very tiny at the moment, I
can't remember what it was, but they said thank you.
Because actually it was the first time they'd been in
the house. Kimberly really didn't allow kids in her house.
(32:30):
It was okay to let Babby, Sandy and Blake go
and play in other houses, but Kimberly just didn't. I'm
not sure why, but this was the first time these
two little girls had ever been in the house.
Speaker 5 (32:45):
And they said that they were her best friends.
Speaker 2 (32:48):
They were her best friends. Yes, they came. We gave
them something and they left, and probably an hour later,
maybe an hour and a half, they came back, and
what they didn't done was the picture that they had
taken with him that Abby drew. They had put in
a little frame and gave it back to us to
(33:10):
remember Abbie. That's so sweet and they were just so
sad it just could happen to their friend.
Speaker 1 (33:24):
There was another neighborhood playmate who wasn't with those two girls.
She would later write a letter, which Gaila saved to
this day, asking to also receive anything to remember Abby.
Her name is Alexa, and we were able to connect
to discuss her memories of Abby and the tragedy.
Speaker 3 (33:42):
Oh, I have so many.
Speaker 16 (33:45):
When she came over, she drew me once and I
remember her telling me like, please don't be mad at me.
Speaker 3 (33:52):
I'm not the best drawer. I think you're beautiful.
Speaker 16 (33:56):
And that was the first time I ever heard of
anyone besides my parents call me.
Speaker 3 (33:59):
Beautiful, And I'm like, who are you?
Speaker 13 (34:02):
Like?
Speaker 3 (34:02):
You are so mature. You are somebody that I will
have in my life forever.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (34:09):
I wish she was still around, but I know that
she's with me every day.
Speaker 1 (34:14):
Did she ever talk to you about her parents, particularly
mom or dad?
Speaker 3 (34:19):
Not really, not from what I can remember, Like thinking
about it.
Speaker 16 (34:23):
I kind of felt like she was trying to escape something,
if that makes sense, because whenever we would talk about
family or I would ask a question, it would be
kind of like a broad answer, or she would kind
of change the subject.
Speaker 1 (34:37):
You mentioned that there was a conversation on the bus
one day. Can you remember what it was about or
why that comment sticks out?
Speaker 3 (34:48):
I was probably arguing with my younger brother.
Speaker 16 (34:50):
We definitely butt heads a lot, and I was telling her,
I'm like, you know, I wish I had a perfect
family like yours, and she was telling me, you know,
not everything is what it's me And when I kind
of asked her to elaborate, then it.
Speaker 17 (35:03):
Was like, no, it's nothing too crazy. I'm just saying,
you know, no one's perfect. Everybody has their problems and
their issues. And then we would kind of move on
and kind of go past it.
Speaker 1 (35:15):
Can you just tell me about why? And when you
reached out to Gail Vaughan.
Speaker 3 (35:23):
Everything happened and I felt alone.
Speaker 16 (35:27):
I felt like my person was snatched away from me, and.
Speaker 3 (35:33):
I was really angry for a period.
Speaker 16 (35:35):
Of time, and then I kind of had an epiphany
and I was like, how selfish of me to be
angry when there are people like missus Vaughn who lost
all of her grandchildren.
Speaker 3 (35:49):
You know, I couldn't even imagine how she feels.
Speaker 16 (35:52):
So I remember my mom, I asked her if she
could help me, and writing a letter because I didn't
want to sound selfish, and some of her belongings as well,
so I didn't have anything to remember her by. Miss
Gail came to our house, but I don't think we
were home, and I remember coming home to just a
(36:12):
small box of a few things and a letter that
she wrote back to me. There's this like a little
statue of blonde girl that looks like Abby on a unicorn.
Speaker 3 (36:23):
It's still on my vanity fourteen years later.
Speaker 16 (36:26):
And another picture that she gave me that I keep
in my desk in a drawer.
Speaker 1 (36:31):
Connections like these are what sustained Gail during this tragic time.
But not everything was good. As they continued to go
through the house, they discovered something rather upsetting and more
than a bit odd. Here's rose.
Speaker 12 (36:45):
When we were cleaning out the closet, there were wrapped packages.
I don't know if they were birthday Christmas what they were.
When we my sister looked at them, she said those
are things that I sent the kids, meaning Sandy, Abby
and Blake and and it had their names on it,
(37:08):
and they weren't opened. They were wrapped and the one
tag had on it that for Christopher to build this
with Blake and then make one for himself. And I
believe it was like a bals of wood airplane, something
they could do together.
Speaker 5 (37:28):
And there was more than just one or two. There
was like four or five six.
Speaker 12 (37:32):
Different packages in the two different closets that were downstairs.
And when my sister saw it, it was hurtful for her,
but seeing her face because there's nothing she wouldn't do
for those kids.
Speaker 5 (37:52):
Here's Gail.
Speaker 2 (37:53):
They were gifts that we had given the kids, but
they had never been delivered. Also, when we were going
through the file cabinet in the basement, there was a
bunch of birthday cards we had sent to the children
and they had never been opened. They still had five
(38:14):
dollars in them, because that's usually what I sent, five
dollars because you don't know what the child wants. So
when the kids would come and spend a week or
a couple of days, probably a couple of days, I
would take a bunch of pictures and I'd put them
together in a small little album and I'd give it
to them so they can remember their trip. These were
(38:36):
up There also pictures that I had sent home with
the kids. I was just, wow, what do you say?
Speaker 5 (38:48):
You must have been heartbroken.
Speaker 2 (38:51):
I was that the kids didn't realize that we had
given them and we had thought about them, We had
sent them cards, and they'd never received them. They never
knew we cared unless we were right there and talk
to them and did stuff.
Speaker 5 (39:11):
Why would someone do that?
Speaker 1 (39:13):
Why would someone keep Christmas and Birthday presents and cards
from children from their grandparents.
Speaker 2 (39:22):
That's a question I would like to had answer for,
because I don't know. We rose and I just looked
at that, and we looked at each other and it
was just unbelievable. I did ask Chris about that, and
he says, I don't know what's in the closets, like
a typical meal, you know, unless he wants something, he
doesn't really look in closet. There was many things I
(39:45):
personally didn't like about Kim, but you know what, my
son adored her, And what can you say about that?
Love doesn't know a boundary.
Speaker 1 (39:57):
To get greater insight into whether the comp the skating
of presents and cards is unusual and or significant. I
reached out to doctor James Fallen. In addition to being
a neuroscientist, Fallin as Professor of psychiatry and Human Behavior
and emeritus Professor of Anatomy and Neurobiology in the University
of California, Irvine School of Medicine. Upon review of the materials,
(40:21):
he flagged the fact that the two medications prescribed for
Kimberly's anxiety and migraines were also used to treat bipolar disorder,
a condition associated with episodes of mood swings.
Speaker 14 (40:33):
She was using a SSRI select of serotonin reuptake inhibitor,
which keeps the serotonin from being taken back up into
the cell body so it stays out in the synapses.
And so the way of keeping serotonin out in the
synaptic space longer, so it can have an effect. And
so she was taken SSRI. What I originally heard was
(40:54):
she was taking for migraine and for anxiety, but it's
used to treat bipolar disorder of both the main and
the depression. That's one thing. But also she was taking
topo max, so the topo max added to the SSRI.
This can induce you know, suicidal thoughts and actions definitely,
and it can actually make depression worse. So instead of
(41:16):
fixing the depression, so these two can interact. Okay, the
SSRI and topomax can interact to produce a very pretty
dire situation.
Speaker 1 (41:27):
He also found the unopened gifts telling.
Speaker 14 (41:31):
Who sequestered them and hid them.
Speaker 1 (41:33):
Apparently Kimberly Vaughn.
Speaker 18 (41:36):
Oh boy, she had also done that with all the
birthday cards and holiday cards. They were in a folder, unopened,
with the five dollar bills that she had been sent
for the kids still inside, so she knew what she
was doing.
Speaker 14 (41:52):
This was a setup for something, right, I mean, she's
or just to drive him crazy or them crazy, or
just to be manipulated. Do we know if she had
bipolar but bipolars, it's not unusual for them to be
very cruel. I mean that just you may not have
to go further than that.
Speaker 1 (42:11):
What we do know is that during the trial, an
investigator with the Public Defender's Office read an email message
sent from Kimberly Vaughn to one of her classmates at
the University of Phoenix in online college. The classmate apparently
suffered from multiple sclerosis, and Kimberly told him of her
sister's struggles with the symptoms of the disease. Kimberly also
(42:35):
wrote about her sister's suffering from bipolar disorder. That could
be significant because numerous studies have found that people with
a parent or sibling with bipolar disorder have an increased
chance of developing the disorder themselves. We'll revisit Kimberly Vaughn's
behavior in the months leading up to the tragedy in
(42:56):
much greater detail later. Back to our timeline. Christopher Vaughan
was initially held in Missouri on one million dollar cash
bond while awaiting extradition to Illinois. Once he arrived in Illinois,
he was held without bond. Because of this, Chris would
(43:17):
sit in jail from the morning of his family's funeral
until his trial five years later. The state of Illinois
was planning to seek the death penalty, but with a
criminal investigation comes digging and then discovery, and what would
soon come out about Christopher Vaughan would make his already
challenging defense nearly impossible. On the next murder in Illinois,
(43:49):
Chris and Kimberley Vaughn's troubled marriage becomes tabloid fodder.
Speaker 11 (43:53):
And he made two visits to a scrip club and
spent an enormous amount of money I think over four thousand.
Speaker 1 (44:01):
Dollars, and Vaughan is betrayed as a man looking for
a way out of his marriage at any cost.
Speaker 11 (44:08):
He had recently confided, or I should say, confessed to
her that he had had a relationship when he was
out of the country in Mexico.
Speaker 1 (44:17):
Murdered Illinois is a production of iHeartRadio. Executive producers are
Lauren Bright Pacheco and Taylor Chacoine. Written by Lauren Bright
Pacheco and Matthew Riddle, Story editing by Matthew Riddle, editing
and sound design by Evan Tyre and Taylor Chackoine. Featuring
music by Cicada Rhythm, with new compositions engineered and mixed
(44:39):
by Evan Tyre and Taylor Chackoine. Archived news reports provided
by wgn ick You.
Speaker 15 (44:49):
I'm dope and father right.
Speaker 6 (44:53):
You are through the name.
Speaker 19 (44:56):
I'll leave with them d hay hinste A dream Hello, Yes,
oh dream.
Speaker 7 (45:09):
Stee you we are.
Speaker 19 (45:18):
Dream Hello.
Speaker 1 (45:29):
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, check out the iHeartRadio, app,
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