Speaker 1: Murder in Illinois is a production of iHeartRadio. Five weeks
Speaker 1: after the killings, a grand jury indicted Christopher Vaughan on
Speaker 1: four counts of first degree murder in connection with the
Speaker 1: shooting deaths of his wife and three children. His family
Speaker 1: has never shared their story or spoken publicly about the murders,
Speaker 1: the investigation, or Chris until now.
Speaker 2: Oh.
Speaker 3: He has always been curious. If there was a puzzle,
Speaker 3: he had to do it. If something was broken, he
Speaker 3: would try to fix it.
Speaker 1: Long before Christopher Vaughan was known as a killer, he
Speaker 1: was a son and a brother in the Vaughan family
Speaker 1: of Missouri by way of Indiana, the eldest of Gail
Speaker 1: and Pierre Vaughan's three boys.
Speaker 2: I compare the other boys to Aiman, I would say
Speaker 2: they were more typical. But if he gave Chris something
Speaker 2: to do, he did it be slightly different than I
Speaker 2: would do it, or somebody else would do it. That
Speaker 2: was just him. He had his own way of doing things.
Speaker 1: When Gail speaks of her three sons, there's a definite
Speaker 1: sparkle in her voice that shimmers with pride. But when
Speaker 1: she shares specific memories of Chris as a child, there's
Speaker 1: also a sense of awe.
Speaker 3: Chris was a natural. Anything he touched, he could do.
Speaker 3: He was really good at sports. His academic achievements are amazing.
Speaker 4: There was one time it was Christmas and he had
Speaker 4: asked for an R two D two.
Speaker 3: It was a little motorized robot. Well, he was so
Speaker 3: excited when he opened it up and he just his
Speaker 3: eyes just oh my gosh, oh my gosh, you know,
Speaker 3: and he's bouncing around, and he disappeared and we were
Speaker 3: still opening gifts, but he has gone. Well about an
Speaker 3: hour or two, Laters comes out of his bedroom and
Speaker 3: he was so excited because he came out with a
Speaker 3: walking dinosaur holding an object like a card in front
Speaker 3: of him. What he'd done is he'd taken his R
Speaker 3: two D two apart and along with some of his
Speaker 3: other toys, made a dinosaur butler that tried to carry objects.
Speaker 3: The way he could think was amazing. If you have
Speaker 3: a routine and you do something a certain way all
Speaker 3: the time, but it takes you twenty minutes to do it,
Speaker 3: he would look at what you're doing and he would
Speaker 3: be able to get the result that you got faster
Speaker 3: than what you did in twenty minutes. It was just
Speaker 3: aggravating sometimes because you think, man, I've done this forever
Speaker 3: and look at the sool squirt. He just showed me
Speaker 3: how to do it better and more efficiently.
Speaker 4: So now that took quite a bit from us parents
Speaker 4: not to Chris do it this way.
Speaker 3: Because we tried not to do that. We tried really hard.
Speaker 3: All the boys think on your own, you know, think
Speaker 3: out of the box, don't always go with the crowd.
Speaker 3: So that's kind of what we got.
Speaker 1: I'm Lauren brad Pacheco, and this is murder in Illinois.
Speaker 3: You know, think foot baby like sticky, a beautyful bards.
Speaker 5: You came to distress Fuxicent.
Speaker 2: All on broging hard cards, but you.
Speaker 5: Did try to love somewhat. But now you've got to listen.
Speaker 6: To Lisa.
Speaker 1: During his trial, Christopher Vaughan was portrayed by the prosecution
Speaker 1: as a fairly monstrous person, a selfish, emotionless man who
Speaker 1: thought nothing of murdering his wife and three children. But
Speaker 1: that depiction is at odds with the Chris the people
Speaker 1: closest to him claim to know. As we start to
Speaker 1: unpack this case, it's important to understand who Vaughn was.
Speaker 1: According to those who have known him his entire life
Speaker 1: for more than thirty years. Before Christopher Vaughan was a
Speaker 1: headlined villain and later a convicted killer, he was a
Speaker 1: son and a brother. The eldest of three, Chris's creative
Speaker 1: mind set him apart early on. Here's his brother Eric,
Speaker 1: the younger by thirteen months.
Speaker 7: Well, I am definitely a middle child, which in my
Speaker 7: definition as an instiator and in the moodlifter. Chris has
Speaker 7: always been kind of a rock. He was the brains
Speaker 7: of the three of us until a little brother got older.
Speaker 7: But he would always be curious on technologies, and you know,
Speaker 7: he took a part in my parents' first computer and
Speaker 7: ended up blowing it up, which was not a good deal.
Speaker 7: He was always curious as to, you know, how things
Speaker 7: worked and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: Being so close in age, Eric and Chris were excited
Speaker 1: about the prospect of having a younger sibling, but only
Speaker 1: a brother. Here's their dad, Pierre.
Speaker 2: There was a time too that when we were living Indiana,
Speaker 2: we found out Gail was pregnant with Adham. That the
Speaker 2: boys huddled in their room for all morning and they
Speaker 2: come out and they told Gails. They said, yeah, we
Speaker 2: decided you need to have another boy, because we really
Speaker 2: don't want a girl, and if we have a girl,
Speaker 2: we'll have center back. Of course, they were like three
Speaker 2: and four years old when that happened, so that was
Speaker 2: pretty cute.
Speaker 1: Until recently, Air, who also goes by the nickname Pete,
Speaker 1: kept busy as an estimator and product manager for a
Speaker 1: large painting company. He shares his wife's love of all
Speaker 1: things outdoors, given the activities they've just finished or are
Speaker 1: about to set out on each and every time I
Speaker 1: call I joke, they're the most active retired couple I know.
Speaker 1: Here's the youngest, Vaughan Adam's take.
Speaker 8: I think my dad probably spearheads that no pun intended
Speaker 8: with his enjoyment of the outdoors. He's always pres only
Speaker 8: I can remember. He's always been into fishing, fishing and hunting,
Speaker 8: just being outside, always doing something in the yard, whether
Speaker 8: that's maintenance or or improvement. He doesn't sit still very well,
Speaker 8: so out of doors was just always a really good
Speaker 8: good place for him. He always said that he could,
Speaker 8: you know, sit in a deer stand or or on
Speaker 8: a boat fishing and just relax and decompressed from work
Speaker 8: and all that. And he attempted to pass that love
Speaker 8: of out of doors onto my brother's snary. We did
Speaker 8: do a lot of fishing.
Speaker 1: Growing up, Gail says. Chris had an interesting spin on that.
Speaker 1: From an early age.
Speaker 3: We taught the boys how to fish for catfish because
Speaker 3: they were ponds only used for children to fish in.
Speaker 4: But the fish didn't realize that they were in a.
Speaker 3: Small pond, and they were very large catfish, and Chris
Speaker 3: showed his brother how to catch one. After we caught
Speaker 3: a couple, he watched them and he would he always
Speaker 3: think of ways to make things better. So what he
Speaker 3: did was he would lock his reel once he got
Speaker 3: a bike, and he just turned to the shore and
Speaker 3: run full speed, dragging the fish out of the water with.
Speaker 1: Him so we wouldn't have to reel it in exactly.
Speaker 3: So all the other kids were watching him, going wow, oh.
Speaker 3: So pretty soon there were other children doing the same things,
Speaker 3: and you know, the catch ratio was much better that way.
Speaker 1: The von boys enjoyed a childhood of camaraderie and healthy competition.
Speaker 1: According to Pierre.
Speaker 2: The three boys were close, Chris and Eric. You know,
Speaker 2: they were always doing boy things, picking on each other
Speaker 2: and stuff like that. And they you know, those two
Speaker 2: were close enough where they they would challenge each other
Speaker 2: whether we were practicing archery or fishing or whatever. Typical boys,
Speaker 2: they had to, you know, have a challenge all the time,
Speaker 2: so it was a competition. But no, they were always
Speaker 2: great and they looked out after each other, and if
Speaker 2: one of them needed help doing something, you know, Chris
Speaker 2: would jump in and help them, and the other ones would.
Speaker 2: To Adam come a few of the years later, but
Speaker 2: they included him in the brotherhood.
Speaker 1: Chris in particular, was a huge influence on his youngest brother.
Speaker 8: Chris was quite a role model for most of my childhood.
Speaker 8: Being five years older than I am, he was kind
Speaker 8: of the trendsetter in the house. Being the oldest child,
Speaker 8: he had to clear the path with the parents and
Speaker 8: between Chris and my other brother, Eric, they were able
Speaker 8: to explore both ends of the spectrum, which allowed me
Speaker 8: to learn from their mistakes and successes and plot a
Speaker 8: path right down the middle. I looked Chris a lot
Speaker 8: for some of the direction during what I would consider
Speaker 8: my formative years, simple things such as his passion for
Speaker 8: soccer or his ability to buckle down and do well
Speaker 8: in school.
Speaker 1: Even now decades later, somewhat shadowed by the exhaustion and
Speaker 1: sadness of the tragedy they've weathered. There's a fondness and
Speaker 1: affinity for the bond the brothers have shared since childhood.
Speaker 1: Here again is Eric.
Speaker 7: You know, we were pretty close to the three of us,
Speaker 7: even with the age gap for a younger brother, but
Speaker 7: we were the eighth team. Adam, Chris, Eric is what
Speaker 7: we dubbed as kids, which is pretty cool. We didn't
Speaker 7: have a lot of video games and stuff like that.
Speaker 7: We got creative, went outside and did stuff, played outside.
Speaker 1: And tell me a little bit more about that. It
Speaker 1: really sounds like your parents instilled a love of outdoor
Speaker 1: activity for you guys. So just tell me how did
Speaker 1: the outdoors kind of become your playground?
Speaker 7: Well, I think what started at a pretty early age.
Speaker 7: I was probably a five six seven range. On weekends,
Speaker 7: usually either Saturday or Sunday, Mom and Dad would load
Speaker 7: us up in the back of the pickup truck and
Speaker 7: we go out to Bush Wildlife, which is a wildlife
Speaker 7: area that has like forty some odd man made lakes,
Speaker 7: and we'd spend the whole day fishing. If we got
Speaker 7: board fishing, then we had brought games and stuff, so
Speaker 7: we'd go back to the truck and play games, and
Speaker 7: we'd have a picnic lunch. And as we got a
Speaker 7: little older and parents trust us a little more, we
Speaker 7: would go fishing. They it actually he could rent like
Speaker 7: a John boat, but they wouldn't give us the trolley motor.
Speaker 7: We had to row with oars. That was a lot
Speaker 7: of fun. It was like the three Stooges in a boat.
Speaker 1: According to Adam, that sense of humor wasn't limited to
Speaker 1: the water.
Speaker 8: Something comes to mind that makes me smile. Chris was
Speaker 8: probably about medium height and build. Eric was a little
Speaker 8: smaller and a little thinner, whereas I was always the
Speaker 8: large one in the group. Always carried a little bit
Speaker 8: more weight than I wanted to you, So for a
Speaker 8: number of years there I was actually larger than Eric.
Speaker 8: What Chris and Eric figured out is that one of
Speaker 8: them could stand behind me. It was almost like a
Speaker 8: ventriloquist skit where I would stand there and move my
Speaker 8: mouth and then one of them would talk from behind me.
Speaker 8: I was just kind of the teenage hijinks that we
Speaker 8: got into.
Speaker 1: The Vaughns all convey a functional family and a loving home. Again,
Speaker 1: here's Adam.
Speaker 8: I'd say we were a pretty tight knit family. Both
Speaker 8: parents were engaged in seeing that my brothers and I
Speaker 8: followed the rules and did our best to do whatever
Speaker 8: it is that we were tasked with doing, whether that
Speaker 8: be school or work or sports. My mom had the
Speaker 8: opportunity to stay home most of my school years, so
Speaker 8: she was around and involved. My dad worked, but he
Speaker 8: did make the effort to still interact with us quite
Speaker 8: a bit after work. He was, you know, a baseball
Speaker 8: coach for Chris and Eric for quite some time. Cool
Speaker 8: thing about that was it was it was kind of
Speaker 8: a family thing, and I got to be the bat
Speaker 8: boy for a number of years as well, so that
Speaker 8: was one of the family type events that he did.
Speaker 1: Well. It sounds like Gallon Pierre gave Chris and his
Speaker 1: brothers an idyllic childhood. With three boys, you'd imagine there
Speaker 1: would be the potential for a lot of fights or
Speaker 1: physical altercation, but that was against family rules, and it
Speaker 1: was also against Chris's nature. According to Gail, he was pretty.
Speaker 3: Much kind of time and he wasn't a mean spirited person.
Speaker 3: He still isn't.
Speaker 8: Well.
Speaker 3: The first rule of the house was you can't hit
Speaker 3: the other person. You can holler at him, but you're.
Speaker 5: Not supposed to knack anybody, So there was no physical
Speaker 5: fights between them or anything. And they were all just
Speaker 5: really good and work played well together all the time.
Speaker 3: He was just so good.
Speaker 1: Nothing we found and Crispond's upbringing or history suggests a
Speaker 1: predisposition or inclination towards any sort of violent behavior. His
Speaker 1: mother recalls he had a special affinity towards animals.
Speaker 3: Yes, that is true.
Speaker 4: He's especially like cats, all kinds of cats, domestic panthers, tigers,
Speaker 4: makes no difference, just as long as as a cat.
Speaker 4: And he admired their abilities the most because they were independent,
Speaker 4: They were great parents to their cubs. They have an
Speaker 4: ability to observe and ponder before pouncing instead of like
Speaker 4: a dog just rushing.
Speaker 3: In growing up, that thing to be what he was.
Speaker 4: Trying to strive for, as in his abilities to be
Speaker 4: independent and to observe before he did something.
Speaker 3: And we did have one.
Speaker 4: Cat when he was growing up in Manchester along with
Speaker 4: our great name. Her name was Stormy, and she was
Speaker 4: just a regular domestic cat and Chris had a lot
Speaker 4: of patients and he taught her to do tricks and
Speaker 4: he taught her to sit up and wave, and he
Speaker 4: could tell her to wave one paw or wave the
Speaker 4: other paw, and then he also taught her to play fetch,
Speaker 4: among other things. Those are the things I remember the most,
Speaker 4: because it's kind of hard to get a cat to
Speaker 4: bring you anything back unless they want to.
Speaker 1: That patience and sensitivity seems to have gone hand in
Speaker 1: hand with a bit of introversion. Many I've interviewed Chris,
Speaker 1: particularly in his youth, as quiet and thoughtful.
Speaker 3: There was one time in elementary school he was going
Speaker 3: to be in a Christmas play and he was all
Speaker 3: dressed out in his little outfit, and when it came
Speaker 3: for him to go on to stage, he crawled under
Speaker 3: his desk and stayed there. He didn't want to be
Speaker 3: on the spotlight. But as he got older he got
Speaker 3: a little better. Because he and a girl in junior
Speaker 3: high for a speech contest, they did a like a
Speaker 3: little skit about Mark Twain and he.
Speaker 4: Did really, really, really well, and he started coming out
Speaker 4: of his shell a little bit.
Speaker 1: That may have coincided a bit with teenage hormones and
Speaker 1: Chris's growing effect on girls. Here's how Adam puts it.
Speaker 8: He was definitely able to catch the eyes of the
Speaker 8: fair sex. I was always envious to that as well.
Speaker 8: As I said he.
Speaker 2: Was.
Speaker 8: He was kind of the goal of what I wanted
Speaker 8: to be.
Speaker 3: Back to Gail, Well, he enjoyed talking to girls.
Speaker 4: I mean, Chris was and is a very good looking
Speaker 4: young man.
Speaker 3: They would just do anything to talk to him. But
Speaker 3: he really didn't date, so to speak. He was shy
Speaker 3: at the dand says he didn't want to do that
Speaker 3: and we didn't pressure it. But he would talk to
Speaker 3: his girls on the phone, and it seemed like there
Speaker 3: for a while he had all of his girlfriends were
Speaker 3: the name of Christie, Kristen, Christy. He told me that
Speaker 3: that was so if he said their name, they all
Speaker 3: sounded the same and they wouldn't know he was talking
Speaker 3: to somebody else.
Speaker 1: But while he may have joked about it with his mom,
Speaker 1: Chris wasn't overly comfortable with female attention.
Speaker 4: No, They overwhelmed him sometime and he just kind of
Speaker 4: took it, tried and treated him nicely, but.
Speaker 3: He just did not single any one girl out, which
Speaker 3: drove him crazy.
Speaker 1: And then right before Chris's first year of college, he
Speaker 1: finally met the girl who would end up breaking that pattern.
Speaker 3: He and his brother Eric were working at a miniature
Speaker 3: golf place and two girls came past this one girl
Speaker 3: made a Tommy joy and he goes, oh, really, and
Speaker 3: somehow he just picked her ball up and threw it
Speaker 3: in the water.
Speaker 4: Well, then she demanded he got here another mall, and
Speaker 4: it seemed like he was just instantly smitten with her.
Speaker 3: I mean, it was just a click. He was just there.
Speaker 1: That encounter wasn't just by chance. Through a mutual friend,
Speaker 1: his brother Eric met the girl he thought Chris needed
Speaker 1: to meet, and in a way, Chris's fate was sealed.
Speaker 7: Vocally with introducing Chris to Kimberly. Through Kimberly's friend Colleen.
Speaker 7: I knew Colleen from when I was in middle school.
Speaker 7: At high school, her parents owned the golf driving range,
Speaker 7: and that summer I was working as a painter's apprentice
Speaker 7: from the company, my painting company my dad worked for
Speaker 7: during the day, and then you know, I would go
Speaker 7: from there to the golf driving range after they closed
Speaker 7: and helped pick up golf balls. Well, one evening when
Speaker 7: I was up there, Kim was up there visiting colleens.
Speaker 7: So I got to talking with him and a little bit,
Speaker 7: and then I went home, you know, next day, told
Speaker 7: Chris that he really needed to come up and meet
Speaker 7: this person. You know, I think he did work together.
Speaker 1: Even though Kimberly was a bit older, Eric thought she'd
Speaker 1: nicely balance Chris's more quiet, introspective nature.
Speaker 7: Well, my first impression she was very bubbly. You could
Speaker 7: see that she was pretty intelligent, just with the witty
Speaker 7: comments that she would come back with when I was
Speaker 7: making jokes or picking on her. Slender blonde several years
Speaker 7: older than myself, so I wasn't unnecessarily interested, but I
Speaker 7: could tell she had a really good personality and all
Speaker 7: in all seemed to be like a nice person. That
Speaker 7: was my first impression of her, for sure.
Speaker 1: Once christ and Kimberly started hanging out, things progressed quickly.
Speaker 7: They would come over and you know, she'd bring her
Speaker 7: school books and stuff like that, and they would sit
Speaker 7: in the front room and talk and you know, appear
Speaker 7: to be doing homework er studying or whatever. He would
Speaker 7: go see her in the evenings whenever he was available,
Speaker 7: and you know, it was more frequent that they were
Speaker 7: hanging out, so it was noticeable that, you know, they
Speaker 7: were getting to know each other better.
Speaker 1: Gail picks it up here.
Speaker 3: From there, they started dating, I mean seriously dating, dinner, movies,
Speaker 3: drive picnics, and going to her house a lot.
Speaker 1: Chris and Kimberly apparently became serious right.
Speaker 4: Away instantly, I mean there was no in between, just
Speaker 4: from just talking to all the girls to one.
Speaker 1: But Pierre didn't necessarily feel they were an ideal match.
Speaker 2: She was more or less the one decided that she
Speaker 2: wanted to be with Chris and talking with Chris. Other
Speaker 2: than having a good time when they were together, they
Speaker 2: really had nothing in common.
Speaker 1: Having raised Chris and his brothers to have strong and
Speaker 1: active ethics, both in terms of work and recreation, Pierre
Speaker 1: and Gail found Kimberly's inclinations more sedentary and cerebral.
Speaker 2: With Chris, we had him doing so many different things,
Speaker 2: and he worked at Summer help in construction. I had
Speaker 2: him out in the field painting and delivering goods to
Speaker 2: the painters, and so he got some construction experience. And
Speaker 2: Kimberly's family their bookworms, their college people, and they never camped,
Speaker 2: they hiked, they stayed in the house. When they weren't
Speaker 2: studying or reading books, they were watching TV. So they
Speaker 2: weren't outdoors people at all. So Chris was like this
Speaker 2: amazing person that knew a lot about everything, and she
Speaker 2: was very sheltered, so you know, that was another thing
Speaker 2: that she liked about him.
Speaker 1: We want to reiterate here that the Phillips family has
Speaker 1: declined our request for an interview. What we are presenting
Speaker 1: is the Bond's take on the dynamic between the young couple,
Speaker 1: one in which they saw Chris as the protector, even
Speaker 1: though he was younger than kim by two years.
Speaker 3: Chris was always good night in shining armor. He was
Speaker 3: always rescuing, and Kimberly came across as being very, very needy,
Speaker 3: and she was always arguing with their parents, and she
Speaker 3: was in tears about something that happened during the day,
Speaker 3: and he was always trying to boister her up and
Speaker 3: make her happy again and try to solve her problems.
Speaker 1: And as Chris was heading to college, there was another
Speaker 1: reason why the Bonds may have wanted that to be
Speaker 1: his focus. Here's Adam.
Speaker 8: I do remember a conversation between my parents and Chris
Speaker 8: prior to Chris leaving for school in regards to Kimberly.
Speaker 8: At that point, Chris was the first vawd that I
Speaker 8: was aware of that attended college. My parents told him
Speaker 8: pretty directly that they didn't anticipate his relationship with Kimberly
Speaker 8: to be a long term the situation because they wanted
Speaker 8: them to focus on school, and Chris, of course took
Speaker 8: offense to that, as most hot blooded teenage boys will,
Speaker 8: and said he would find a way to make it work.
Speaker 1: Did you ever think in a million years that Chris
Speaker 1: would come home from college and tell you guys he
Speaker 1: was getting married.
Speaker 8: No, well that's not entirely true. I remember one Friday
Speaker 8: night at Pizza Hut, we had a conversation basically to
Speaker 8: the effect that with three boys, this was my dad talking,
Speaker 8: do you expect us at some point to be curious
Speaker 8: and eventually to want to be a girl? It was
Speaker 8: my dad's attempt at telling us to use protection if
Speaker 8: we ever chose to go that group that got me thinking, oh, wow,
Speaker 8: I guess my brothers are into things more advanced than
Speaker 8: where I was.
Speaker 1: During Chris's first and only year of college in Missouri,
Speaker 1: he was traveling to see Kim fairly often. Here's Gail.
Speaker 3: She was going to Missou at the time in Colombia,
Speaker 3: and he was in Ralla, Missouri, so he would make
Speaker 3: the trip quite often and not tell us about it.
Speaker 3: There was just no way you could put a webs
Speaker 3: between them.
Speaker 1: And while Chris had traditionally done fairly well in school,
Speaker 1: Gail believed his growing relationship with Kim started to change that.
Speaker 3: Back in high school, all of his classes were honors classes.
Speaker 3: He had been on the honor wall the entire high
Speaker 3: school four years, and then once he got Durala and Kimberly, his.
Speaker 4: Grades started showing signs of stress. His report cards were
Speaker 4: terrible and he just couldn't concentrate.
Speaker 1: It's interesting that Gail pointed out what she perceived from
Speaker 1: Chris was stress rather than happiness, but academic achievements in
Speaker 1: general represented very different goals to both families. Here's Pierre's
Speaker 1: take on the Phillips.
Speaker 2: They're basically professional students. They went to college and they
Speaker 2: got their degrees, and they kept going back and got
Speaker 2: more degrees, and they eventually, you know, worked around the college.
Speaker 1: Keep in mind, Chris was the first Bond to attend college,
Speaker 1: while one of Kim's sisters obtained multiple graduate degrees. According
Speaker 1: to the Vaughn family, the discrepancy left them feeling judged.
Speaker 7: Here's Eric, especially Kim was one of Kim's sisters. I mean,
Speaker 7: even up into the anth that they happened in O seven,
Speaker 7: she was still said doctorate in multiple master's degrees, and
Speaker 7: to the lifelong student that pretty much ran on their
Speaker 7: side of the family. I think with Susan being Kim's mother,
Speaker 7: I believe she had a master's degree also in teaching.
Speaker 7: If you didn't have that, you weren't good enough for
Speaker 7: anybody type attitude. I just let it roll off my
Speaker 7: shoulder as they go, Well, I mean, you know, I'm
Speaker 7: not a book smart person. I'm more of a street smarts.
Speaker 7: You know, you show it to me once I can
Speaker 7: stand up and give a presentation on it. Versus they
Speaker 7: were very much book smart individuals, especially.
Speaker 1: In the early stages of the relationship. The Vaughns didn't
Speaker 1: have many encounters with Kim's family, but when they did,
Speaker 1: they felt definite discomfort. Eric recalls a holiday dinner they
Speaker 1: attended at the Phillips home.
Speaker 7: Well, we went over and we met Kimberly's parents for
Speaker 7: the first time, and it was definitely an odd, odd family.
Speaker 7: Her dad and her mom had a unique relationship coming
Speaker 7: from my family and seeing their family is like, I
Speaker 7: don't know how this works. And I remember thinking to myself,
Speaker 7: if I had to grow up in a house like this,
Speaker 7: I wouldn't be home very much at all because I
Speaker 7: wouldn't want to be here.
Speaker 1: Decades later, this is how he remembers that evening.
Speaker 7: Jim's mom definitely ran the household. She was a teacher
Speaker 7: at a local high school. And Kim's dad, Dell, he
Speaker 7: was a attorney X army guy, I believe, and he
Speaker 7: was very submissive. She asked him to do anything, he'd
Speaker 7: jump up and just go run and do it. And
Speaker 7: I had not ever seen, you know, married couple act
Speaker 7: like that before. It was not cut the tension with
Speaker 7: a knife type, but it was definitely awkward. My parents' opinion,
Speaker 7: if I remember correctly, it was we're doing this for
Speaker 7: Chris and Kim, we really don't want to be here
Speaker 7: type thing, just because it just felt weird when you
Speaker 7: were there. And Tim's mom couldn't cook with a darn, so,
Speaker 7: you know, my mom being a really good cook, and
Speaker 7: which rubbed off on me, you know, very critical on
Speaker 7: you know, the dishes that they chose to serve.
Speaker 1: So Eric recalls the time frame of that meal was
Speaker 1: odd too.
Speaker 7: Yeah, we got there at like six o'clock. They waited
Speaker 7: until we got there to actually start cooking it. In
Speaker 7: my mind, I would have prepped the stuff because there's
Speaker 7: a lot of like chopping and preparing that you could
Speaker 7: have done ahead of time, but they didn't. They waited
Speaker 7: until we got there to start cooking. So when we
Speaker 7: got there, you know, Kimberly was helping her mom in.
Speaker 7: Kim's dad, Dell, was in the living room watching TV,
Speaker 7: and my parents and you know, I was kind of
Speaker 7: bouncing back and forth instead of sitting in front of
Speaker 7: the TV. But yeah, we came over to expecting dinner,
Speaker 7: not to sitting awkwardly converse for almost three hours before eating.
Speaker 1: Kim and Chris's relationship progressed in an equally awkward way
Speaker 1: for both families. Here's Gail.
Speaker 3: I had a very strong reaction. Chris came back on
Speaker 3: Valentine's Day or Mother's Day and says, well, I'm going
Speaker 3: to marry Kimberly because we're expecting and being the night
Speaker 3: shining armor, he was going to take care of what
Speaker 3: he had done. And I was very upset with him,
Speaker 3: to say the least, that actually put a little rift
Speaker 3: in between us for a while, but I got over
Speaker 3: it because he was determined. He had a determination that
Speaker 3: when he started something, he was going to finish it,
Speaker 3: and he was actually looking forward to a family.
Speaker 1: Christopher Vaughan was nineteen. Pierre was upset to especially since
Speaker 1: he believed Kimberly's father had been enabling the situation the
Speaker 1: entire time without Gail or Pierre's knowledge.
Speaker 2: I had pretty much the same reaction as Gail did.
Speaker 2: I was not happy with it. And then, like I said,
Speaker 2: we found out later that her father was driving her
Speaker 2: down for the weekends and stuff like that and.
Speaker 3: Just dropping her off and supposedly staying with a girlfriend,
Speaker 3: but it never turned.
Speaker 2: Out that way. Yeah, she was really staying in Chris's
Speaker 2: dorm because his roommate was either staying with somebody else
Speaker 2: or going home for the weekends and stuff like that.
Speaker 2: And then one thing led to another and we were grandparents.
Speaker 2: But like Gail said, you know, Chris took responsibility for
Speaker 2: it and everything like that. Even though he was not
Speaker 2: happy with the situation either, he wasn't going to walk
Speaker 2: away from it.
Speaker 1: We will be revisiting the unexpected nature of Kim's pregnancy
Speaker 1: in another episode, but the time, Eric wasn't all that
Speaker 1: aware of the real reason his older brother was getting hitched.
Speaker 7: He didn't come out and tell me he was getting
Speaker 7: married or the reason for getting married necessarily, but he
Speaker 7: alluded to it, and you know, I kind of drew conclusion. Okay,
Speaker 7: they've been dating for six, seven, eight months or so.
Speaker 7: They seem to be pretty serious. I mean, that's natural progression.
Speaker 1: Their wedding day perhaps included a slight foreshadowing of problems
Speaker 1: to come.
Speaker 7: The wedding itself went off without a hitch, you know,
Speaker 7: when they got to the point of the pastor said
Speaker 7: if anybody has objections, please say so now, and then
Speaker 7: enlightening struck. That was a little awkward. It didn't rain.
Speaker 7: It was just like a heat lighting or something like that.
Speaker 7: So I made a big boom. He had beenished saying it,
Speaker 7: and then within like ten seconds, you know, it happened.
Speaker 7: It was just like, okay, that's weird. Everyone kind of
Speaker 7: looked around at each other and kind of, you tell
Speaker 7: everyone a snicker in a little bit amongst themselves, but
Speaker 7: standing up in the front looking back on everybody in attendance, it.
Speaker 1: Was kind of funny he was still a teenager. But
Speaker 1: Chris brought that same driven ethic he'd applied to academics
Speaker 1: and life in general into his marriage. Here's Pierre.
Speaker 2: He responded very well. He was working full time and
Speaker 2: trying to upgrade his job up times a year. It
Speaker 2: was pretty amazing because he would change jobs, you know,
Speaker 2: half dozen times a year just to improve himself, and
Speaker 2: every time he did he made more money. But as
Speaker 2: far as taking responsibility, Jim really didn't cook, so after
Speaker 2: work he would come home and cook the meals and
Speaker 2: stuff like that.
Speaker 1: As newlyweds, Chris and Kim weren't quite able to afford
Speaker 1: their own place at first, especially with a baby on
Speaker 1: the way. Here again is Eric.
Speaker 7: Once they got married, they stayed with Dell and Susan
Speaker 7: for quite a while they didn't have their own place,
Speaker 7: and then at some point in time they stayed with
Speaker 7: my parents. My dad and I and Chris. We made
Speaker 7: an apartment with a full bathroom in the basement at
Speaker 7: my parents' house. They kind of kept to themselves when
Speaker 7: they were there in the house. They were downstairs, and
Speaker 7: I really didn't go down and bug them too often.
Speaker 3: Here's Gail's take they had nowhere to stay and they
Speaker 3: had no money, so we had a downstairs apartment, a
Speaker 3: one bedroom, and that's where they stayed until two days
Speaker 3: before they induced our granddaughter's birth, and after that they
Speaker 3: stayed with Kimberly's mom and dad, and Kimberly's mom and
Speaker 3: dad were overly protective and didn't really let anybody come
Speaker 3: and visit.
Speaker 1: According to both Pierre and Gale, Kim's family started to
Speaker 1: edge out the bonds from the young couple's lives, and
Speaker 1: they perceived it as judgmental.
Speaker 2: Basically, Kimberly's parents attitude towards Chris and our family was
Speaker 2: that we were the people who lived on the other
Speaker 2: side of the tracks, and we were dumb and illiterate
Speaker 2: because we didn't have college educations, and that.
Speaker 3: Was a big deal in their family. College.
Speaker 1: Apparently Kimberly didn't escape that judgment either.
Speaker 3: Actually, they looked down on Kimberly because she hadn't gotten
Speaker 3: a diploma on some specific venue. She never followed her
Speaker 3: master's or did any dissertations to create anything, so her
Speaker 3: parents actually treated her just like they treated us at times.
Speaker 1: After Abigail was born, Gail says Kim's parents quickly turned
Speaker 1: into gatekeepers of sorts, making it hard for the Bonds
Speaker 1: to visit.
Speaker 3: My parents were still alive and at the time of
Speaker 3: the birth of Abigail, and we were all so very excited,
Speaker 3: and my parents came up to celebrate and come and
Speaker 3: see the baby, and we were actually turned away at
Speaker 3: the door of Kimberly's moms, saying that they were busy
Speaker 3: and they didn't have time to see them us, which
Speaker 3: my mom was broken hearted. Pretty much.
Speaker 1: The Vaughan say they weren't even allowed to visit until
Speaker 1: months after the baby was born, at.
Speaker 6: Least two or three months, so she was probably three
Speaker 6: months old when we really started to get to see her,
Speaker 6: because that's when Kim's mom said it was okay for
Speaker 6: them to come out and visit the world.
Speaker 1: In addition to restricting access, Gale and Pierre claimed Kimberly's
Speaker 1: mom asserted an odd control over the way Ken and
Speaker 1: Chris parented.
Speaker 2: Kimberly's moms had weird ideas under things, baby shouldn't be
Speaker 2: in sunlight, the baby shouldn't drink water, this, you know things.
Speaker 2: It was just very strange.
Speaker 1: Eventually things loosened up and Gale and Pierre were able
Speaker 1: to visit as often as they could. Kim and Chris
Speaker 1: had finally gotten a place of their own, just in
Speaker 1: time for more news.
Speaker 2: Wasn't too long after that that they moved out of
Speaker 2: Shorty's parents' house and and got an apartment, and so
Speaker 2: then we could we could come over and see the kids.
Speaker 3: It was just Abigail at the time, and then we
Speaker 3: found out that and was pregnant with the Sandy. Then
Speaker 3: Chris just kept building from there, and he decided that
Speaker 3: the apartment that he had was not big enough, so
Speaker 3: they he took it upon himself to get a house built.
Speaker 1: The kids came quickly. They're firstborn, Abigail, and their second Cassandra,
Speaker 1: were born just a year apart. Chris applied an equally
Speaker 1: accelerated approach to applying for employment, a typical but effective.
Speaker 4: First he applied for a job, and it wasn't just
Speaker 4: a small job, it wasn't a fast food. He was
Speaker 4: going for executive status at major companies, and for some
Speaker 4: reason they would call him back and they send us
Speaker 4: your resume. He says, no, I would rather have a
Speaker 4: face to face, and he never used a resume.
Speaker 3: What he did was he researched the company, he would
Speaker 3: find weaknesses within the company. Then when he was at
Speaker 3: the face to face, he would advise on.
Speaker 4: How to strengthen or relieve the weaknesses, and he would
Speaker 4: actually just sell himself on how valuable he was on
Speaker 4: fixing their problem and darning he got hired every single.
Speaker 1: Time, even without a college degree, Chris would quickly create
Speaker 1: an impressive career that would bring affluence to his young family. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: the couple's relationship would not be as successful. On the
Speaker 1: next murder in Illinois, Kim and Chris present as a
Speaker 1: picture perfect family with behind closed doors, their marriage is
Speaker 1: marred by dysfunction and the stress of Chris's career.
Speaker 2: When nobody else was around, that dark side would come out.
Speaker 3: We noticed Chris turning more into a loner. He would
Speaker 3: be in the family, but he wouldn't laugh and be
Speaker 3: as happy.
Speaker 2: Kimberly's parents said, if you do you ever mistreat my daughter,
Speaker 2: or if you ever divorced my daughter, or anything like that,
Speaker 2: you'll regret it for the rest of your life.
Speaker 3: I was contacted by a reporter. She told me of
Speaker 3: the terrible accident. Then she told me that there were four.
Speaker 1: Dead Murder and Illinois, a production of iHeartRadio. Executive producers
Speaker 1: are Lauren Bright Pacheco and Taylor Chackoine. Written by Lauren
Speaker 1: Bright Pacheco 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 Chaqoine.
Speaker 8: Sunday Day World is sad, it so and leave it all.
Speaker 3: It's just STAGEO.
Speaker 1: What's that used in a dream with our juerneys.
Speaker 2: E Speeze is so live?
Speaker 7: Wait you.
Speaker 8: Chake you up? Wait you w.
Speaker 2: Shake you Up.
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