Speaker 1: Murder in Illinois is a production of iHeartRadio. Kimberly Ellen
Speaker 1: Phillips had an undeniable and immediate impact on the young
Speaker 1: Chris Vaughn. Strikingly beautiful and two years older, she likely
Speaker 1: seemed much more sophisticated and mature to the teenaged Vaughn,
Speaker 1: who was just out of high school when they met.
Speaker 1: Kimberly was raised in Saint Charles, Missouri, the daughter of Dell,
Speaker 1: a lawyer, and Susan, a teacher. In high school, she
Speaker 1: enjoyed sports, especially volleyball. One of three daughters, Kimberly was
Speaker 1: also an identical twin. It was that identical twin, Jennifer,
Speaker 1: who would deliver a victim impact statement after Christopher was
Speaker 1: convicted of killing his three children and Kimberly, which means
Speaker 1: Vaughn would face a woman who shared the features of
Speaker 1: the wife he was sentenced to life for having murdered.
Speaker 2: He had a lot of friends before he met Kimberly.
Speaker 2: Once he met Kimberly, she kind of got in between
Speaker 2: him and any friends or oh was she called hard
Speaker 2: sad cases that Chris just wanted to take home and
Speaker 2: help him fix their problems. She would get rid of
Speaker 2: them somehow, I am not sure how, but she would
Speaker 2: make sure that Chris distanced himself between him and his friends.
Speaker 1: According to his family, when Chris and Kimberly first started dating,
Speaker 1: she consumed his world, his grades declined, and after she
Speaker 1: became pregnant, he dropped out of college. But outwardly he
Speaker 1: seemed happy, and as a couple they appeared happy, at
Speaker 1: least initially. I'm Lauren Bright Pacheco and this is murder
Speaker 1: in Illinois, Carrie.
Speaker 2: And now do say good places a.
Speaker 3: Fine?
Speaker 4: Teach them to.
Speaker 2: Listen to this.
Speaker 1: Like many marriages and relationships, Christopher and Kimberly Vaughan's union
Speaker 1: seemed relatively unremarkable, but people close to them, Chris's parents
Speaker 1: in particular, could see that underneath outward appearances, there was
Speaker 1: a complicated core, likely rooted in their very different upbringings.
Speaker 1: Most of what we understand about Chris and Kimberly's relationship,
Speaker 1: particularly in regards to kim and her family's behavior and
Speaker 1: attitudes towards Chris, comes from his family, But we tried
Speaker 1: to represent their relationship and marriage based on the information
Speaker 1: we were able to obtain. Again, we reached out to
Speaker 1: Kimberly's family multiple times, and to date they've declined to participate.
Speaker 1: While those close to Chris were taken aback by the
Speaker 1: way Chris entered his marriage, they weren't surprised by his
Speaker 1: reaction to the situation. Here is his aunt Rose, Gail's
Speaker 1: younger sister.
Speaker 4: No, I was more shocked that.
Speaker 5: He called me and told me that he.
Speaker 4: Was going to have a baby.
Speaker 1: Talking about Chris, especially as a father, remains very emotional
Speaker 1: for Rose.
Speaker 6: He actually called and tell me first, and I figured
Speaker 6: he would do the right thing, and he did so. No,
Speaker 6: I was not shocked about him getting married.
Speaker 1: As we've mentioned, there had already been a number of
Speaker 1: awkward interactions between the two families, most notably a few
Speaker 1: not too successful dinners. But it was these early interactions
Speaker 1: that started to give Gail and Pierre a glimpse into
Speaker 1: what Kim's family was like, and in particular, how they
Speaker 1: viewed Chris's family. Here's Gail.
Speaker 6: Oh.
Speaker 5: The first first time I felt really like something was
Speaker 5: wrong with her family in liking us was when I
Speaker 5: had invited them over for dinner just to get to
Speaker 5: meet them, because we didn't really know these people. And
Speaker 5: this was after the announcement that Chris and Kim were
Speaker 5: going to be married, and I invited her mom and
Speaker 5: dad over to our house and have dinner, and we
Speaker 5: grilled some chicken, and she didn't really touch anything on
Speaker 5: her plate, and she just didn't really talk to us.
Speaker 5: And afterwards I thought it was a complete failure. I
Speaker 5: had gone in to this dinner to try to figure
Speaker 5: out her family period, you know, get to know somebody,
Speaker 5: because these are going to be our family also. But
Speaker 5: she made it quite clear that we were not going
Speaker 5: to be her family. And they left and went home
Speaker 5: and they didn't come back. We would offer them to
Speaker 5: come over, you know, have dinner or just sit and talk,
Speaker 5: and she said no.
Speaker 1: Even at the wedding, there was little warmth between the
Speaker 1: two families. Each side mostly kept themselves. Here again is
Speaker 1: Gail's sister Rose.
Speaker 4: Oh oh yeah.
Speaker 7: Yeah.
Speaker 6: Everybody tried to stay distant. Niceties was about all there was.
Speaker 6: There wasn't any overly outgoingness.
Speaker 1: It was very awkward, but by most accounts, it was
Speaker 1: still a pleasant event, although Kimberly had relayed some unpleasant
Speaker 1: issues regarding the planning.
Speaker 4: Oh the wedding was beautiful.
Speaker 5: Leading up to the wedding though for some reason, her
Speaker 5: mom didn't like any if the choices, and it looked
Speaker 5: like it was going to be more Kim's mom's wedding
Speaker 5: than Kimberly's wedding. And I tried to go with Kimberly
Speaker 5: to get her stuff that they wished me to get
Speaker 5: form like the flowers, you know, and the day before
Speaker 5: the wedding or hook soon before the wedding, her mom went.
Speaker 4: To the florist and changed everything.
Speaker 5: So it was quite a tug of war, and I
Speaker 5: tried really hard not to make waves, but it was interesting.
Speaker 1: Gail says that dysfunctional dynamic continued after the couple exchanged vows.
Speaker 5: When we were doing the pictures after the wedding, Susan,
Speaker 5: that's Kim's mom's name, got very upset with I'm not
Speaker 5: sure exactly what it was, but her mom, Susan's mom
Speaker 5: kind of collered at her and told her to straighten
Speaker 5: out and act right right there in church. And it was.
Speaker 4: Interesting too.
Speaker 1: Another memory from the wedding day stands out for the Bonds,
Speaker 1: and it involves a comment that Susan Phillips apparently made
Speaker 1: to Pierre's mother during the reception at the Phillips home.
Speaker 5: Susan said something to my mother in law, which my
Speaker 5: mother in law never told me what she said. But
Speaker 5: my mother in law went home with us because that's
Speaker 5: where she was staying for the wedding, and they left
Speaker 5: with something that had been said between her and Susan.
Speaker 1: That comment was apparently so offensive that Gail's mother in
Speaker 1: law not only refused to repeat it, but insisted on
Speaker 1: leaving the Phillips home immediately.
Speaker 5: We did find out from her my mom in law,
Speaker 5: that Susan had told her something or said something.
Speaker 4: To her that just hurt her very badly.
Speaker 5: She did not want to stay there, so we took
Speaker 5: her home and we never found out what that was.
Speaker 1: Pierre's mother chose to take that comment with her to
Speaker 1: her grave. Still, the Vaughans contend they continuously tried to
Speaker 1: forge a good relationship with Kim's family.
Speaker 5: The Phillips invited us for dinner and they told us
Speaker 5: to be there at six point thirty, and she says, oh,
Speaker 5: take the whole family. Well, Kim told us, I didn't
Speaker 5: talk to Susan, but Kim invited us over to her
Speaker 5: mom's house in dad's house to have dinner. It's going
Speaker 5: to be a Chinese restaurant type dinner, and we were
Speaker 5: supposed to bring our other two sons, so it was
Speaker 5: a family thing. So that dinner was again interesting. Chris
Speaker 5: and kim tried to keep the conversation going and otherwise
Speaker 5: it would just just fall Susan just it was either
Speaker 5: her way or the highway.
Speaker 4: And she asked us about, you know, hunting, and.
Speaker 5: That's just the way our families have grown up through
Speaker 5: the generations of going out and shooting a deer or
Speaker 5: you know, a rabbit or a squirrel and bringing them
Speaker 5: home and making them a dinner. She pointed out quite
Speaker 5: a few times through this dinner that we were not educated,
Speaker 5: so we really didn't have.
Speaker 2: She didn't want to take our word for anything.
Speaker 5: Because we did not have the paper pedigree that she
Speaker 5: thought we were.
Speaker 4: Supposed to have.
Speaker 1: They're first born, Abigail, came soon after Chris and Kimberly
Speaker 1: were married, and not long after, Kimberly was pregnant again
Speaker 1: with a couple's second daughter, Cassandra.
Speaker 2: Kim's Baum told her that if you were breastfeeding, you
Speaker 2: can't get pregnant. Well, it doesn't exactly shin' true.
Speaker 1: This is when Christopher decided to have a house built
Speaker 1: and use this as an opportunity to make an effort
Speaker 1: to keep the balance between the two families. He gave
Speaker 1: a lot of consideration to the location.
Speaker 2: Chris had done a lot of surveying and checking, and
Speaker 2: they were exactly the same amount mileage wise between the
Speaker 2: two family fans, So he was directly in the middle,
Speaker 2: not even a quarter mile more or less, but exactly
Speaker 2: so many miles between two families.
Speaker 1: And then a few years after that, Kevin Chris had
Speaker 1: their third child, a son, Blake.
Speaker 4: So Sandy was.
Speaker 2: Maybe fourteen months thirteen months younger than Abbey, and then
Speaker 2: there was a little break there, and then about five
Speaker 2: years later there was Blake.
Speaker 1: Interesting, so it's almost like the same age difference between
Speaker 1: your boys.
Speaker 8: Yeah, that's gonna hit me. When we had our little grandside,
Speaker 8: I go, how this is amazing. You guys are following
Speaker 8: in our footstep. Needless to say, her parents were not
Speaker 8: happy about that, and.
Speaker 1: With Chris and Kim living in their own house separate
Speaker 1: from either of the families, Gallan Pierre were able to
Speaker 1: spend a lot more time with their grandkids.
Speaker 4: They were great.
Speaker 5: Chris made sure we would get to see them, you know,
Speaker 5: like every other weekend or something. They didn't just stop in.
Speaker 5: We always seemed to have to make an appointment to
Speaker 5: get to see them. But when we had them, it
Speaker 5: was fantastic. Few were smart little kids. They didn't seem
Speaker 5: to worry about mom and dad going out the door.
Speaker 5: We just had a wonderful time. We took them to parks,
Speaker 5: We played in our yard. I had a big house,
Speaker 5: so we played, you know, hide and seek, and we
Speaker 5: did crafty things for Maddi Grau. We painted masks of
Speaker 5: paper plates and we just had a fantastic time.
Speaker 1: Here they are in home video dying Easter eggs the
Speaker 1: year before the tragedy.
Speaker 9: Out No Young One.
Speaker 1: Chris and Pierre are seated at opposite end of the table.
Speaker 1: Abby and Cassandra on one side, while Blake caulls down
Speaker 1: the other, stretching over the center of the table to
Speaker 1: dip his egg as he negotiates for access to the colors.
Speaker 1: All involved or smiling and engaged as usual. Gail is
Speaker 1: behind the camera. Blake turns and waves to her with
Speaker 1: a goofy grin. I asked Gail to share what she
Speaker 1: remembers about each of the kids. Even with the pain
Speaker 1: that accompanies her recollections, you hear her grandmotherly pride and love.
Speaker 10: Well.
Speaker 5: Abigail had her mom's complexion. She was a beautiful peaches
Speaker 5: and cream type complexion with beautiful blue eyes, and she
Speaker 5: had an intellect that was unbelievable. She acted a lot
Speaker 5: like her mom, but she was more giving and loving.
Speaker 5: I mean she hugged and stuff long. And then there
Speaker 5: was Sandy. She has a little brunette with sparkly green eyes,
Speaker 5: and we used to call her a Sander the commander
Speaker 5: because she would tell everybody, we're going to have a play,
Speaker 5: and you're going to be Pluto, and you're going to
Speaker 5: be the star, and you know, things like this. She
Speaker 5: had a mind of her own, so she was our
Speaker 5: little stubborn one. But she I mean, she would walk
Speaker 5: out into a room and everybody would light up. She
Speaker 5: just had a way about her. And then there was Blake.
Speaker 5: Blake was only eight when he left, but she was
Speaker 5: also a very smart little boy, very intelligent. She was
Speaker 5: reading books three or four years above his grade level
Speaker 5: and understanding them and he would retain knowledge. And he
Speaker 5: was fantastic with baseball. I mean he could give you
Speaker 5: the stats of any player on the Cardinals team, and
Speaker 5: he was only eight.
Speaker 4: It was remarkable.
Speaker 1: For most accounts, Christopher loved his children and was an
Speaker 1: excellent father. Gail shared many photos and home videos of
Speaker 1: her son interacting with his children, like this one three
Speaker 1: years before their deaths. Chris is seated as the kids
Speaker 1: play the game Hangman with their grandparents outdoors. Cassandra is
Speaker 1: running the game on a large drawing pad as Abbey
Speaker 1: sits alongside. Blake pops up occasionally from his father's lap,
Speaker 1: where he quickly returns to snuggle. Chris welcomes him each
Speaker 1: time with a smile and a pat once the little
Speaker 1: boy hops back onto his lap again. We want to
Speaker 1: acknowledge that these memories are from Chris's own family, not Kimberly's,
Speaker 1: but there is nothing to suggest Christopher would have been
Speaker 1: capable of harming his children. Here's his aunt Rose.
Speaker 6: He was always happy. I mean, he was always goofy.
Speaker 6: The pictures that I.
Speaker 1: Sent you The photos Rose is referencing covered the lifetime
Speaker 1: relationship the two shared. While she's Gail's younger sister, there's
Speaker 1: a fifteen year age gap between the two, which meant
Speaker 1: Rose grew up closer in age to Christopher and more
Speaker 1: like his cousin than aunt. The photographs she shared show
Speaker 1: Chris through the years as a toddler, boy, teen, and
Speaker 1: young father. They also reflect the Vaughn family's deep enthusiasm
Speaker 1: for outdoor sports, camping, and the wilderness on a multi generational,
Speaker 1: extended family level. Throughout the range of time the photos represent,
Speaker 1: Chris is more often than not wearing a broad, happy smile,
Speaker 1: especially in the photos that show him as a father.
Speaker 5: He's always got a goofy smile on.
Speaker 6: He's always just the center of attention, having fun, just down.
Speaker 4: To earth fun.
Speaker 1: In one particular photo, he's standing on the beach hoisting
Speaker 1: Abbey Inn, a bouncy infant up towards the camera with
Speaker 1: one arm as he lifts the brim of her sunbonnet
Speaker 1: back with his other hand, revealing the baby's beautiful gerber
Speaker 1: like features. Kim Is standing in the background, arms of
Speaker 1: Kimbo all three or smiling widely.
Speaker 6: They were at our house in Winfield, and my husband
Speaker 6: and I are like, well, let's go take them to
Speaker 6: Lake Michigan. Let's see what the how the baby reacts
Speaker 6: with the water. Because when I had mine. Whenever her
Speaker 6: feet hit the water, she would jump up like a
Speaker 6: little little jumping bean, And so everybody was on board
Speaker 6: with it. So we went up to Lake Michigan, Kim
Speaker 6: and Chris and Abby and my husband and I, and
Speaker 6: that's exactly what she did. He tried to put her
Speaker 6: little feet in the water, and she jok right back up,
Speaker 6: and she would laugh and laugh and laugh. It was
Speaker 6: just it was just a great day. It was warm,
Speaker 6: it was beautiful.
Speaker 1: Rose sent many other photos of Chris interaction acting with
Speaker 1: his children, and they all reflect an engaged, doting father, just.
Speaker 6: Love and warmth and amusement. He was highly amused by
Speaker 6: the antics of his children, sometimes not remembering that he
Speaker 6: was once like that and did the very same goofy thing.
Speaker 6: He just he looked at them like these incredible little creatures,
Speaker 6: just just wonderful.
Speaker 1: Chris's youngest brother, Adam, also recalls his impression of Chris
Speaker 1: as a father.
Speaker 7: He was amazing. I still find myself applying some of
Speaker 7: the things that I observed him doing with his kids,
Speaker 7: I find myself attempting to do with mine. One of
Speaker 7: the things that definitely stood out for me is just
Speaker 7: how easily he could communicate to children. I mean, obviously,
Speaker 7: I have four children on my own now, and I
Speaker 7: am no strangers to the difficulties of parenting, so it
Speaker 7: even puts it more into context on how he could
Speaker 7: approach them on their level. He would actually make the
Speaker 7: effort to physically neil or sit to where he was
Speaker 7: high level with them and talk with them, and it
Speaker 7: was just really amazing to see how how just that
Speaker 7: change in altitude really changed the child's demeanor and allowed
Speaker 7: them to be a little bit more communicative with them.
Speaker 1: By the time he was twenty five, Christopher Vaughan was
Speaker 1: a father of three. While Kimberly and Christopher seemed to
Speaker 1: be adjusting well to the responsibilities of a growing family,
Speaker 1: their relationship had become strained. Various insecurities plagued them and
Speaker 1: started to take root, and the pressure from Kim's family
Speaker 1: wasn't making it any easier. According to Gail and Pierre Vond, they.
Speaker 11: Both had a problem with their education for insecurities. Yes,
Speaker 11: I think Kim figured she would be better respected in.
Speaker 12: Her own family, her side of the family if she
Speaker 12: got this degree.
Speaker 13: So many times we heard them make comments on things
Speaker 13: and the family as a whole would not listen to
Speaker 13: Kimberly because she didn't know what she was talking about,
Speaker 13: because she didn't have the degrees to go with the conversation.
Speaker 1: College degrees or lack thereof, obviously appears to have been
Speaker 1: a huge sticking point with both families.
Speaker 2: We were just tolerated because.
Speaker 3: Because, like we said, they all had college degrees, and
Speaker 3: according to them, if you had a college degree, you
Speaker 3: were smarter than everybody else, and it didn't matter what
Speaker 3: your degree was in or not. And you know, her mom,
Speaker 3: her college degree was in language, so she taught German
Speaker 3: in school. Her dad was a lawyer, but he was
Speaker 3: a jag lawyer in the army or military, and then
Speaker 3: when he came out, he was an ambulance chaser. You know,
Speaker 3: if somebody pulled and broke the leg and you wanted
Speaker 3: to sue somebody, he.
Speaker 2: Was your guy.
Speaker 1: Again, this is the Vaughn's perception, but it seems to
Speaker 1: be one that's confirmed by multiple members and generations of
Speaker 1: their family. Numerous instances in front of different members of
Speaker 1: the Vaughn family that proceved negative judgment to the point
Speaker 1: of insult, and it apparently extended to Kimberly.
Speaker 5: According to what I understand.
Speaker 3: When the family got together for a holiday or then
Speaker 3: anything like that, they would exclude Kimberly from their conversations
Speaker 3: because she wasn't smart enough, because she didn't have a college.
Speaker 1: Degree, and from the Bond's perspective, Kim's and security wasn't
Speaker 1: limited to her lack of a college education. They felt
Speaker 1: the years of her mother's controlling influence had shaped Kim
Speaker 1: into someone who apparently wanted attention, even at the expense
Speaker 1: of her children.
Speaker 2: She was almost jealous about their firstborn daughter, Abigail, because
Speaker 2: Chris he was just so proud of her. He wanted
Speaker 2: to take her in a stroller in the mall, and
Speaker 2: Kim got really upset and she wouldn't let him do that.
Speaker 3: Even though everybody saw the happy, bully, friendly side of Kimberly,
Speaker 3: she was.
Speaker 2: A lot like her mother.
Speaker 3: More than anybody knows that there was a dark, mean side.
Speaker 2: Even the kids called her a monster mommy.
Speaker 3: Right when nobody else was around, that dark side would
Speaker 3: come out.
Speaker 1: The Bonds contend Kim's children were subject to a lot
Speaker 1: of her outbursts, leading to the nickname. They would sometimes
Speaker 1: use monster Mommy to describe her when she was angry.
Speaker 2: I actually got to witness one of her Monster Mommy
Speaker 2: episodes Christmas before this happened. It was crazy because.
Speaker 5: It basically happened because Abigail decided she didn't want to.
Speaker 4: Take a shower.
Speaker 2: Kimberly said, yes, you mus take a shower. Well, she
Speaker 2: is an upen age, Yeah, okay, mom's got to tell
Speaker 2: their daughters what to do.
Speaker 4: Okay, fine, But she took it to a.
Speaker 2: Hair pulling, abusive, screaming, rustling type match with her.
Speaker 4: Daughter, Abigail.
Speaker 2: And this was happening upstairs in my house where the
Speaker 2: kids were staying at that point, they were visiting. And
Speaker 2: I went up the stairs.
Speaker 5: And Sandy and Blake came and says, Monster Mommy doesn't
Speaker 5: want to talk to anybody else. You've got to stay
Speaker 5: away from her. Shall hurt you too? And they took
Speaker 5: my hands and we went downstairs. I let the episode
Speaker 5: happen upstairs, and I feel guilty about that now that
Speaker 5: I didn't step in.
Speaker 1: Stressed with the friction between the two families, Kim and
Speaker 1: Chris's relationship started to struggle, but Chris was still on
Speaker 1: the hunt for better and better jobs to take care
Speaker 1: of his family and Eventually he found an opportunity in
Speaker 1: Washington and used it to make things better.
Speaker 5: Here's Gail Well it hit him John Chris's career.
Speaker 13: Wherever he had the best job is where he went.
Speaker 14: He had a job offer on the coast.
Speaker 12: Up there, and he took it.
Speaker 13: It made more money.
Speaker 10: He could get a.
Speaker 14: Bigger house and get Kim the vehicles she wanted, and
Speaker 14: kids would be happy, and.
Speaker 5: We'll taken care of And he went wherever the job
Speaker 5: took him, he did.
Speaker 3: But also so I think at the time they thought
Speaker 3: that they got away from both of us, they have
Speaker 3: a better chance of.
Speaker 5: Keeping their marriage together.
Speaker 3: He originally started out working for a big company as
Speaker 3: a forensic computer guy, and then he started his own
Speaker 3: company called stone Bridge, which was the name of the
Speaker 3: streets they lived on.
Speaker 1: When Chris got to Washington, he was doing computer and
Speaker 1: tech work for multiple clients as a contractor for a
Speaker 1: company that served other tech companies. Eventually he took his
Speaker 1: skill set and branched out on his own, which leads
Speaker 1: up to stone Bridge Consulting. Here again is private investigator
Speaker 1: Bill Clutter, who's been involved with Chris's case since two
Speaker 1: thousand and seven.
Speaker 9: Chris head his own private tech agency and stone Bridge Investigations.
Speaker 9: He was based in Bellevue, Washington, and he really developed
Speaker 9: a special He had computer threns and he was remarkably
Speaker 9: self taught.
Speaker 1: Again, Clutter was on Vaughn's initial defense team and as
Speaker 1: one of the people who knows Chris's story perhaps better
Speaker 1: than anyone.
Speaker 9: Yeah, I recall in my conversations with Chris, you know
Speaker 9: he was charging two hundred fifty dollars an hour as
Speaker 9: a private investigator to do computer for instance, which is
Speaker 9: subverting a fee.
Speaker 1: In fact, Chris had catapulted himself into a six figure
Speaker 1: salary well before he turned thirty. Pierre Vaughan slowly came
Speaker 1: around to understanding that his son was forging his future
Speaker 1: in a field that was the future.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, and I agreed with him because I mean, I'm
Speaker 3: not a tech person, but just what I saw in
Speaker 3: the tech industry, it was just exploding with new things
Speaker 3: in technology and things are fastly changing. The Phillips family
Speaker 3: could did not understand why.
Speaker 13: A kid without college could.
Speaker 3: Advance this bath this far and make this kind of
Speaker 3: money without a college degree, because they didn't understand computer industry,
Speaker 3: and that's where Chris made his money. He went out,
Speaker 3: and when he went to Washington, he worked for companies
Speaker 3: like Boeing and Microsoft, and he worked for colleges that
Speaker 3: needed computer forensics and security, and he was a top
Speaker 3: guy in a field.
Speaker 1: By the early two thousands, Chris seemed pretty happy and
Speaker 1: his family was enjoying a more affluent life than they'd
Speaker 1: had in Missouri. Chris's love of the wilderness was also
Speaker 1: well served in that part of the country. Here's Bill Clutter.
Speaker 9: Being in Washington, they had easy access to the outdoors
Speaker 9: and nature, and that's really the environment that they seemed
Speaker 9: to thrive.
Speaker 1: And shared his adoration of all things outdoors with his
Speaker 1: growing children.
Speaker 3: Definitely, on the weekends when Chris had free time, he
Speaker 3: would take kids hiking through the many parks they had
Speaker 3: out the parks and forests they had, because out there
Speaker 3: they had the great big redwoods or cedars or whatever
Speaker 3: they are that are like, you know, ten foot a round,
Speaker 3: humongus trees and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: Chris's career also afforded Kimberly the opportunity to finally pursue
Speaker 1: an online college degree. With Chris now working for himself,
Speaker 1: the potential was there to expand his company and possibly
Speaker 1: include her as part of the business when.
Speaker 3: They moved to.
Speaker 2: Washington State.
Speaker 3: That's when she decided to join the Phoenix Educational program.
Speaker 3: She wanted to get a degree in criminology so that
Speaker 3: she could help Chris be a private investigator.
Speaker 1: Chris earned an excellent working reputation in Washington and an
Speaker 1: impressive array of clients and industry contacts. Soon recruiters were
Speaker 1: reaching out with offers. Here's Bill Clutter again.
Speaker 9: Through his networking in the state of Washington, he landed
Speaker 9: an interview with a company called Navigant. The job was
Speaker 9: stationed in Chicago, but it's a major company that provides
Speaker 9: litigation support to the attorneys and law firms, and Chris
Speaker 9: was given a job as a computer forensic specialist with
Speaker 9: that company and resulted in the family moving from the
Speaker 9: state of Washington to Oswego, Illinois, just outside of Chicago. Yeah.
Speaker 9: I mean it was a job that was paying almost
Speaker 9: two hundred thousand a year, incredible salary and an opportunity.
Speaker 1: For Chris, plus bonuses I believe.
Speaker 9: Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1: At the time of the murders, Chris was probably at
Speaker 1: the height of his professional career.
Speaker 9: Oh, he was totally at the height of his professional career,
Speaker 9: in fact, that the company had agreed to invest in
Speaker 9: a forensic slab that Chris would run.
Speaker 1: Chris's parents were also elated to have him so much
Speaker 1: closer to them in Missouri.
Speaker 12: I was super.
Speaker 11: Happy because they would be within driving distance to visit.
Speaker 1: I was so excited, and they visited early on after
Speaker 1: the move, when Chris and Kim were still living in
Speaker 1: an apartment while their house was being built.
Speaker 13: It was all Kim.
Speaker 14: Kim was telling us how she was going to get
Speaker 14: the house built and how she wanted it to look. Eventually,
Speaker 14: it did turn out that way, but it was very,
Speaker 14: very expensive.
Speaker 1: And it wasn't what Chris had hoped for.
Speaker 12: Actually, Chris wanted to do look for a farmhouse that
Speaker 12: he could re work, rebuild or upgrade with a little
Speaker 12: bit of property on it, and they ended up not
Speaker 12: doing it and going with a.
Speaker 13: Builder in a subdivision.
Speaker 3: Kim wanted a big, fancy house with you know, shaw
Speaker 3: off to all the neighbors and the Sina thing money
Speaker 3: and status and so on and so forth.
Speaker 1: And the happiness Chris had found in Washington with his
Speaker 1: old business, despite his current success, started to fade. He
Speaker 1: was no longer working for himself, and he no longer
Speaker 1: had an easy commute or access to the outdoors and
Speaker 1: wilderness that Washington had offered when.
Speaker 3: He was in the house. He actually had to get
Speaker 3: up the morning, drive to the train, and be on
Speaker 3: the train by a certain time early because otherwise, if
Speaker 3: he tried to get on it later it was full
Speaker 3: and he could he wouldn't make the work on time.
Speaker 3: So he got up early, got to the train, took
Speaker 3: the train in, went to work, and got off work
Speaker 3: and come back, got in the jeep and kind of
Speaker 3: home and then had to make Sucker herself. The only
Speaker 3: interaction Chris really had was is that Blake was in
Speaker 3: Scouts and Chris would take him the Scouts because Kimberly
Speaker 3: didn't want anything to do with with the Scouts part
Speaker 3: of it.
Speaker 1: In fairness, Kimberly did serve at certain times as a
Speaker 1: Brownian Girl Scout leader for her daughters. But to his family,
Speaker 1: Chris seemed more isolated as his time in Illinois continued.
Speaker 1: They perceived his happiness to be fading as his dissatisfaction increased,
Speaker 1: and they worried about his marriage.
Speaker 2: Here's Gail Vaughan, we known as Chris turning more into
Speaker 2: a loaner. He would be in the family, but he
Speaker 2: wouldn't really laugh and be as happy, and we just
Speaker 2: figured it was marital problems or you know, something at work.
Speaker 2: Just for this all happened just before we went on
Speaker 2: our jeep outing in April. He was here with his
Speaker 2: brother and his dad and he just sat at the
Speaker 2: back of the boat and smoked his pipe. He loved
Speaker 2: being outside, but he was always in thought.
Speaker 1: It was sad and Pierre believes there was a troubling
Speaker 1: reason why marriage troubles would have weighed heavily on Chris.
Speaker 3: Chris was threatened by Kimberly's parents because he was a lawyer.
Speaker 3: He said, if you ever mistreat my daughter, or if
Speaker 3: you ever divorced my daughter or anything like that, you'll
Speaker 3: regret it for the rest of your life because there's
Speaker 3: so many laws.
Speaker 2: That we can go after you.
Speaker 3: For that, you'd have to work ten jobs just to
Speaker 3: pay for it.
Speaker 1: Again, we cannot confirm this threat was made, but the
Speaker 1: couple did begin to lead separate lives under the same roof.
Speaker 1: Chris would often have to try for his job with Navigant.
Speaker 1: It wouldn't come out until after the murders but at
Speaker 1: some point Vonn went to Mexico and wound up spending
Speaker 1: the night with some women he'd met there, and he'd
Speaker 1: also begun to frequent strip clubs, but not for the
Speaker 1: reasons you might think. Here's his mother, Gail.
Speaker 2: I wasn't as surprised about the strip club thing as
Speaker 2: I was when he had gone to Mexico and found
Speaker 2: comfort there.
Speaker 3: The strip club thing was kind of a last stitch
Speaker 3: effort or something. But what amazed to me is when
Speaker 3: it came out in the trial is that when they
Speaker 3: had the Gail from the strip club there, she just
Speaker 3: said all.
Speaker 4: He did was talk.
Speaker 3: They did not have any kind of relationship or did
Speaker 3: not have any interaction with them other than.
Speaker 2: Just sit and talk for hours.
Speaker 4: They would just sit and talk.
Speaker 1: Chris's visits to Mexico and later the strip clubs would
Speaker 1: wind up weighing heavily against him at his trial, but
Speaker 1: we'll come back to that. And then came the day
Speaker 1: that would change everything. Chris and Kimberly's anniversary was coming up,
Speaker 1: and perhaps as a final desperate attempt to help salvage
Speaker 1: their marriage, he made plans to visit Missouri.
Speaker 5: On Sunday, June second, Chris left me a message on
Speaker 5: our answering machine. He had planned to surprise Kim with
Speaker 5: an anniversary trip to Herman. He wanted to go to
Speaker 5: the bed and breakfast that they had originally went to
Speaker 5: for their honeymoon. He planned to drop the children off
Speaker 5: with us late Friday night, June fifteenth, and I'm not
Speaker 5: sure if Chris and Kim would stay the night at
Speaker 5: our house and continue on the next day, but we
Speaker 5: never found out.
Speaker 1: They were planning multiple visits, both the weekend getaway Chris
Speaker 1: was planning to surprise him with for their anniversary, and
Speaker 1: also a trip around July fourth for the kids to
Speaker 1: stay with their grandparents.
Speaker 5: June fourth, Pierre left a message on Chris's cell phone
Speaker 5: to call back regarding the sixteenth and seventeenth of June.
Speaker 5: June's fifth, Chris called me back. I suggested an alternative
Speaker 5: plan to them driving all the way up. I had
Speaker 5: said I would drive up Friday afternoon the fifteenth along
Speaker 5: with my sister Nancy, and watched the kids at their
Speaker 5: home instead of them coming to our house.
Speaker 1: But Chris told Gail he'd get back to her on
Speaker 1: that idea. Somewhere in the middle of their planning. About
Speaker 1: a week before the trip, Gail got an unusual, out
Speaker 1: of character call from Kem. Kim had emailed Gail about
Speaker 1: the July trip and Gail had not yet responded, and
Speaker 1: Kim was triggered.
Speaker 15: On the sixth, jimberly called and she just started out
Speaker 15: very loud, and she hollered at me for not answering
Speaker 15: her e mail on the week we would have the kids.
Speaker 4: She didn't introduce herself.
Speaker 2: She just started loudly speaking, hollering.
Speaker 4: Over the phone.
Speaker 5: After I picked up the phone and said hello, I
Speaker 5: had call her ID, so I knew it was Kim,
Speaker 5: So I just kind of like held the phone away
Speaker 5: from my ear as she vented. After about I stay
Speaker 5: a good two or three minutes, her voice pitch went
Speaker 5: down and we continued talking, and she calmed down the
Speaker 5: entire conversation, and the conversation ended nicely.
Speaker 4: So I'm not sure.
Speaker 5: Why she was all ramped up when she began the call,
Speaker 5: but by the end of the call it was a
Speaker 5: fine She was just normally talking on the phone to Gail.
Speaker 1: This sort of mood swing phone call seemed unusual for Kim.
Speaker 1: There had been other Monster Mommy episodes, but this one
Speaker 1: was something different that was.
Speaker 4: Way out of character.
Speaker 5: Usually Kim would call and say, hey, this is Kimberly,
Speaker 5: and I would say, well, hello, there is Kimberly, you know,
Speaker 5: and we would start a conversation.
Speaker 4: But this one, you know, I picked up the phone
Speaker 4: and she just started.
Speaker 5: I mean, there was a screaming lady on the other
Speaker 5: side of that phone.
Speaker 1: Chris would reach out in an attempt to smooth things
Speaker 1: over as he worked with the kids to keep the
Speaker 1: anniversary trip a surprise for Kim.
Speaker 5: So on June seventh, I think Chris called and he
Speaker 5: said the idea of I Nancy coming up to watch
Speaker 5: the children as a go because he said there was
Speaker 5: going to be a parade, and Blake was supposed to
Speaker 5: be in the parade with his Scout group of Scouts,
Speaker 5: and I think Abby was going to be in there
Speaker 5: with her soccer team, and all the kids had something
Speaker 5: to do, and they really didn't want to come up
Speaker 5: to our house. They wanted to stay at their house
Speaker 5: so they could go on this parade, you know. So
Speaker 5: he says, yeah, that sounds good. He wanted us to
Speaker 5: be there Friday around two two thirty ish, so that
Speaker 5: he and Kim could leave soon after making it to Herman,
Speaker 5: Missouri round between ten and eleven that night.
Speaker 1: We were able to track down the proprietor of the
Speaker 1: Missouri Bed and Breakfast. Chris claimed he called for reservations
Speaker 1: for June sixteenth and seventeenth of two thousand and seven
Speaker 1: to celebrate the couple's wedding anniversary, while she's asked that
Speaker 1: we do not use her name. Fourteen years later, she
Speaker 1: confirms the booking and what Chris said on that call?
Speaker 10: Did I have a room? And I said yeah? And
Speaker 10: he said, well, we stayed with you before in our anniversary.
Speaker 10: We wanted to stay again. I said, oh, that'd be wonderful.
Speaker 10: So I just took down the information and that was
Speaker 10: the end of it.
Speaker 1: Do you remember anything in particular about the conversation.
Speaker 10: I didn't notice anything every ordinary, so he seemed pleasant.
Speaker 1: Do you remember your thoughts when you realized that it
Speaker 1: was the same Chris.
Speaker 10: Vaughan, Oh, thank guy, me can show up and shoot
Speaker 10: her here.
Speaker 1: The day before Gail was supposed to make that drive
Speaker 1: up to see the kids with her sister, she got
Speaker 1: an unexpected phone call.
Speaker 5: On Thursday, June fourteenth. Yeah, at eleven o five, I
Speaker 5: was contacted by a reporter from the Chicago Sun Times.
Speaker 5: She introduced herself and asked me if I was Christopher's mother.
Speaker 5: She continued to ask questions that she was doing a
Speaker 5: write upon them. I asked her where this information was
Speaker 5: to be used. That's when she told me of the
Speaker 5: terrible accident that had happened that morning. Then she told
Speaker 5: me that there were four dead and one was taken
Speaker 5: to the hospital with non life threatening wounds. At this
Speaker 5: point I told her I needed to talk to my
Speaker 5: family and I hung up from her.
Speaker 1: After this day, this moment, Chris's life and the lives
Speaker 1: of his and Kim's family were forever changed. Chris was injured,
Speaker 1: his three children were dead, His wife, Kimberly was dead,
Speaker 1: all four from gunshot wounds. What happened that day fourteen
Speaker 1: years ago remains an unfathomable mystery to many, including it
Speaker 1: would seem the man serving life for having been convicted
Speaker 1: of taking four I started communicating with a lone survivor,
Speaker 1: Christopher Vaughan, more than a year ago. Here's an excerpt
Speaker 1: from the very first letter, one of many I've received
Speaker 1: from Christopher Vaughn, a man now identified by a five
Speaker 1: digit prisoner number quote. I must let you know I
Speaker 1: am as hopelessly confused now as I was then, if
Speaker 1: not more so. Having spent a considerable amount of time
Speaker 1: over the years in speculation, cannot say if I am
Speaker 1: closer to the truth or further from it. Un But
Speaker 1: like many things you'll soon learn when it comes to
Speaker 1: the Vaughn family murders, nothing is as it seems. On
Speaker 1: the next murder in Illinois, the unthinkable becomes reality.
Speaker 7: The one that most vividly earned its image into my
Speaker 7: memory was an aerial shot.
Speaker 9: He could see.
Speaker 7: Kimberly's form lying over in the front seat.
Speaker 5: My sister came up from downstairs, but she says, what
Speaker 5: are you doing?
Speaker 13: On the fly is my family has been healed.
Speaker 1: And Christopher Vaughan goes from grieving father to suspect where.
Speaker 3: I met by recorders, Ray wanted to know why Chris
Speaker 3: killed his family.
Speaker 1: Murder in Illinois is a production of iHeartRadio. Executive producers
Speaker 1: are Lauren Bright, Pacheco, and Taylor Chicoigne. Written by Lauren Bright,
Speaker 1: but Checko and Matthew Riddle. Story editing by Matthew Riddle.
Speaker 1: Editing and sound design by Evan Tyre. And Taylor Chaqoine
Speaker 1: featuring music by Cicada Rhythm with new compositions engineered and
Speaker 1: mixed by Evan Tyre and Taylor Chackoine.
Speaker 10: You Gray.
Speaker 2: Gang feel the ground.
Speaker 10: Holding gag Be.
Speaker 12: Grey Gage be the Ground.
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