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