Kimberly Vaughn, 34, who had recently completed an online degree in criminal justice, was killed first, prosecutors said. Funding his defense reverted back to Will County. He said Kimberlys arm blocked it. Will County States Attorney James Glasgow. blood stains occur not only during the bullet impact or exit (back spatter or forward spatter) but also following blood seepage or dripping from the wounds. . However, the case AGAINST the guy seems pretty damn strong. Emma Reynolds At one point in the intensive questioning, he crumples up a picture of his eight-year-old son, Blake, and throws it into the corner of the room. , Your post contains more evidence than the seven hours of this podcast so far. It's believed the killings began around 12:45 p.m., but they weren't discovered for nearly 12 hours. Why is her dad responsible for the teen pregnancy?! This evidence suggested he was seated as his wife was bleeding and he leaned back, pressing the jacket against the leather seat, making contact with the secondary spatter stains. (CBS), Christopher Vaughn, He posted wistful Internet messages about building a cabin and. A potential family annihilator unhappy in his marriage that seems 100% guilty just based on the fact he is the biggest threat to the attacker, but is not killed. The program is hosted by Lauren Bright Pacheco who examines the complicated . Christopher Vaughn, 32, is charged with eight counts of murder (The McDonald case is probably also fresh in my mind because I recently listened to three part series on the case from The Prosecutors.). It was his blood that bled onto her buckled seat belt. .. TOP 10%. Mar 12, 2020, 9:30am PST. Reviewing his statements, it was apparent that he had no memory of what happened to his family. Wtf would you blame the deceaseds mother! Charles, Mo. During his second inspection of the vehicle, Haag attached a laser to the end of the dowel rod and was able, with the tip of his finger, to demonstrate that the shot that struck Cassandra had been fired from the passenger seat, Kimberly was seated. I can breathe again. It was a sickening feeling, as the architect of our defense experts and strategy, watching the case swirling around the toilet bowl. Season 1 explored a different case. Theres also a low key misogynistic vibe throughout their entire monologue. Approved by the FDA to treat epilepsy and seizures, Topamax has an off label use for the treatment of migraine headaches. Judge Clifton Newman agreed on . His interview began about five hours after the killings, soon after he was released from a hospital following treatment for minor gunshot wounds and taken to the state police station in Lockport. I sincerely hope Kims friends and family never listen to this. Effort underway to free Christopher Vaughn 9 years after conviction for murdering wife, kids, Gunfire kills mom, 3 kids - Wounded dad says wife pulled the trigger, police say he is not a suspect at this time after bodies found in SUV, Article on staging crime found in accused killer Chris Vaughns home, Dream roadtrip ended in nightmare for Christopher Vaughns family, Joliet farmers wrangle cows thrown from semitrailer after crash on Interstate 80, 1 killed, 3 wounded in shootings Tuesday in Chicago, Cook County judge refused to speak with police investigating another judge, CPD shifting cops to more violent beats as summer approaches, Woman claims self-defense in murder of rapper Johnny May Cash, says he beat her, Lightfoot is out, Vallas and Johnson are in the April runoff, Chicago police officer dies after exchanging gunfire at close range with suspect in Gage Park, Analysis: How Lightfoot went from political rock star to rock bottom, Patrick Kane leaves Chicago with clear legacy: Blackhawks greatest player of all time, Mayor Lori Lightfoot was in a fight she couldnt have won, Northwestern falls to Penn State in OT for third consecutive loss, Bulls nearly blow 21-point lead but survive against Pistons, Defensive whiz Richard Zoller, high-flying Angelo Ciaravino help Mount Carmel take down Hyde Park. His blood is on her side of the car. Our crime scene expert Tom Bevel used a dowel rod to determine the bullet trajectory. Before the execution could be carried out, Earnest was stabbed 30-times by a fellow inmate at the state penitentiary. Then, later, he adds: 'She shot me, she shot the kids.'. The Oswego family was reportedly taking a day trip to a water park in Springfield when Christopher Vaughn left Interstate 55 and drove onto a frontage road when his wife became ill. "48. Blake, 8, a kind-hearted boy who loved baseball and had an outsized vocabulary, was slain last, apparently after raising his arms in self-defense. the Murderpedia project stay alive. Just after 5 a.m., his wife asked him to pull off the highway . Prosecutors will continue playing portions of interviews with Vaughn today. Rozak said before imposing his sentence that he was "very frustrated" by the state Legislature's restrictions, an apparent reference to Illinois' decision last year to end the death penalty. Then the doctor was asked what the significance would be taking both medications Nortriptyline and Topamax together. I cannot believe his mom blames the other grandmother for subsequent pregnancies. On Saturday, Vaughn was arrested in St. Charles and Christopher Vaughn was convicted of killing his wife and three young children after their bodies were found in the family's SUV just off I-55 in Channahon. Sept. 5, 2021. Prosecutors have charged Christopher Vaughn with shooting and killing his wife and their three young children on June 14, 2007, the day he was supposed to be driving them to an Illinois water. 1. Another showed the three children, who were settled under blankets and on pillows for the long, early-morning ride to Springfield, dead together in the backseat of the SUV. said she always spoke highly of her family. I couldnt buckle the belt. Richard Kling, another veteran Chicago defense attorney, confirmed he is part of the effort. He was leading a dual life. [1] All four members of the family were shot in their SUV while on the way to a Springfield, IL waterpark. In some cases, the observation of back spatter on the hand that held the gun will provide unmistakable evidence of suicide. . NL VFW Friday Fish Fry. He said that when he was told at the hospital he had been shot, he was incredulous because there was no one else around and his wife didn't own a gun. This is the first time I've heard about the Vaughn family. . And Vaughn certainly did not betray his feelings or emotions as prosecutors repeatedly projected ghastly images of Vaughn's wife, Kimberly, 34, and children Blake, 8, Cassandra, 11, and Abigayle, 12 on a large, flat-screen television. They said, he had to make it look like he didnt do this, so he then got back into the SUV and shot himself in the left wrist and thigh before dropping the gun between Kimberlys feet, unbuckling her seat belt and walking away. On the case for four years, Chriss defense team, now preparing for trial, was yanked from the game. He claims he had been patching things up with her after he had confessed to cheating on her and was trying to be a better family man. And in Stone, Vaughn has enlisted the same attorney who represents Marni Yang, the woman convicted of killing the pregnant girlfriend of former Chicago Bear Shaun Gayle another case being challenged. The manual said a person would remember everything up until the trauma producing event, but would have no memory of the events that produced the trauma. Try to get any leverage doing that, every mom knows you have to square up to do anything difficut from the passenger seat, they were mortgaged to the eyeballs, he was going to strip joints spending thousands, he was telling people he didnt have a wife or family, he was planning on going to live in the woods somewhere and was looking for a female companion to go with him, why would she have to have him pull over to shoot? However, a DNA report from the ISP crime lab contradicted this theory. Murderpedia has thousands of hours of work behind it. Vaughn at first insists his wife, Kimberly, could not have been responsible, as he had initially claimed. There were two holes in his jacket. I have no problem delving into the evidence if theres something substantial pointing to a wrongful conviction, but the vitriol and complete lack of decency I kept hearing just became too much to take. A few years before, Chris Vaughn had started Stone Bridge Security, a licensed private detective agency in Bellevue, WA. . The gun had not been jammed under her chin, as investigators initially suspected. That was really off putting. 'Murder in Illinois' also explores the details of Chris Vaughn's family. On the second day, when police pressed him to try to remember what happened by telling him do it for your children, he had a fragmentary memory. He was in pants, tshirt AND long sleeve flannel shirt. Despite this chain of events, Chris's family believe he's innocent. The 51/2 week trial included testimony from two former strippers whom Vaughn plied with cash and an FBI expert who translated 140 pages of runic writings that Vaughn, who had an interest in druidism, had scribbled in a notebook while in jail awaiting trial. Still, even a bloodstain expert called by Vaughns lawyers agreed at trial that a defense claim that Vaughn left the SUV before Kimberly was shot didnt make sense. When they extended the passenger seatbelt there was a heavy concentration of blood that had soaked through the fabric of the belt which had been concealed within the frame of the vehicle. CAUTION, CRIME SCENE PHOTOS! This led him to question the states theory that Chris had killed his family. Ending 12-hour video interview, Vaughn crumpled up son's photo, Footage from video of intense 14-hour police interview, Crumples up photo of eight-year-old son and throws it into corner, Will not even say the names of his dead wife and three children. It didnt make sense that a guy, like Chris, an expert computer forensic investigator, would leave damaging evidence on his computer if he were contemplating killing his family. Vaughn, who was stockpiling camping gear and spending thousands of dollars at strip clubs in the weeks before the slayings, declined to address the court before he was sentenced. On Thursday, she told the Sun-Times that rifts in the family contributed heavily to the public perception of Vaughns guilt.. While prosecutors flashed grisly photos of his wife and three young children slumped dead and bleeding in the family SUV, Christopher Vaughn sat expressionless, calmly jotting notes. Neighbors and the press began to speculate as to what happened, with many pointing the finger at Christopher Vaughn. And after Vaughn was taken to the hospital with minor gunshot wounds to his wrist and leg, Mills said, Vaughn expressed more concern for his special jacket and the possibility that emergency workers "were ruining his cowboy boots" than for his dead wife and children. Yeah, in the middle of episode 3 and boy, so far the narrative is the wife and mother in law were bitches and thats it. Then, see some truly haunting murder scenes from the streets of old New York. They told him that after 911 cell phone towers were equipped with security cameras. Did You Wonder Who Fired the Gun? ", After the sentencing, Kimberly's family hugged and shook hands with investigators. Our expert called me and said he was convinced by watching the 20 hours of video that Chris may be innocent. After getting back inside the car, he said, I looked over and thought I saw a gun, but I knew that was impossible why does Kim have a gun? His defense team argued that Kimberly had killed the children and then herself. After murdering his entire family . Susan Phillips, right, mother of Kimberly Vaughn, and Kimberly's twin sister, Jennifer Ledbetter, spoke at Christopher Vaughn's sentencing Tuesday at the Will County Courthouse in Joliet. Murder in Illinois: With Lauren Bright Pacheco. He said her big change in personality was of concern to him. But what we see on the left thumb is seepage of blood from the wound, creating large patterns of passive blood drops. The familys SUV was shot up on its route to a water park in Springfield, Illinois, killing all four occupants. A federal court has overturned the 1991 conviction and death sentence of Von Lester Taylor, pictured here. A jury took less than an hour in September 2012 to convict Christopher Vaughn at the end of a five-week trial that featured more than 80 witnesses. He pulled the Expedition over, got out under the guise of checking a cargo compartment on the roof of the SUV, grabbed his wife through the open passenger window, stuck a pistol under her chin and blew her brains out, Mills said. The two detectives leave Vaughn in the interview room for hours between discussions, alternating between courteous questioning and intense interrogation. Though he had been an early member of Vaughns defense team when Vaughn initially faced the death penalty, Clutter said he was discharged when the death penalty was abolished and has mostly worked pro bono on the case. Christopher sustained minor injuries to his wrist and leg while the other four sustained fatal gunshot . But he always seemed unemotional. . Thankful to unload this and release some aggravation! They noted that he had to have been seated inside the vehicle when his wife was shot and killed, yet he failed to remember his wife and kids being killed. "Our hearts ache with the knowledge that they were priceless to everyone but the one man who should have loved them more than his own life," she said of her four slain family members. "When you first opened the door, it looked like they all should be sleeping," he said. Vaughn murdered his family members, prosecutors say, because he saw them as obstacles to his dream of a new life in Canada. She was one of Susan's three daughters with Del, an attorney. But in Vaughns case, he said the evidence was overwhelming.. A member of Kimberlys family declined to speak to the Sun-Times. 'An eye for an eye.'. I just started listening to the podcast, "Murder in Illinois Who Killed the Vaughn Family?". Create an account to follow your favorite communities and start taking part in conversations. On Tuesday, Kimberly's identical twin sister, Jennifer Ledbetter, explained that she feared her looks and personality traits were a painful reminder for the rest of her family of Kimberly's absence and violent death. There was no sexual contact, not even a lap dance. I forgot, his co worker said they went out on a work trip, partied, came back to the hotel at 1AM and later Chris said he went back out, returned at 5AM and chris eluded to things getting wild during that time. Vaughn was convicted of killing (from left) Blake, 8; Cassandra, 11, Kimberly, 34, and Abigayle, 12. Pritzkers press secretary declined to comment. The Colorado father and oil worker was convicted of murdering his pregnant wife Shanann, their unborn child, and their two children, Celeste and Bella, ages 4 and 3. He replied, Well, it would increase the risk of suicidal thoughts.. RELATED: Jurors hear about Lakewood murder linked by DNA to 1984 killing of Bennett family Contact 9NEWS reporter Kevin Vaughan with tips about this or any story: kevin.vaughan@9news.com or 303 . At first blush, it looked like Chris was guilty. (By Zbigniew Bzdak, Chicago Tribune), Investigators collect evidence from the Vaughn Not buying it. why cant the family feel pride in academic achievements? 'Whatever they did, they deserve back,' said Vaughn. Around 5:20 a.m. on June 14, 2007, a man driving to work along the frontage road of Interstate 55 south of Joliet, Illinois encountered Christopher Vaughn, 32, limping away from the Ford Expedition he had been driving. 'I'm really confused,' Vaughn says early in the interview with detectives. Five years later, a jury found Chris guilty of murdering his family; today, he is incarcerated for four lifetimes. Alex Murdaugh called 911 on June 7, 2021, to report he found his wife Margaret, 52, and son Paul, 22, shot dead outside their Islandton home about an hour from Hilton Head Island, the South . On November 9, 1971, 46-year-old accountant John List killed his entire family in their Westfield, NJ, mansion. Angelo Ciaravino and Richard Zoller both have a way of getting their Mount Carmel teammates and the crowd fired up. 'The only thing I can think is that Kim somehow got a hold of my gun,' Vaughn said. That would be significant, he said. Kim was slumped so I tried to buckle her. Chris Vaughn and his family are driving to a water park when their lives are tragically ended in a roadside shooting. ', 'They're gone,' Vaughn answers, his head bowed. Gov. Vaughn's initial statement revealed an outlandish story he would cling to during the course of his defense. Courtesy Melville Vaughan When the FBI took up the case, in 1923, agents badly bungled the probe. 'Today I lost everything,' Vaughn says on the video, later referring to how tired he is. Later, under pressure, Vaughn is asked to guess what happened. The mistake he made, they told him, was parking the vehicle under the cell phone tower. Each of his childrenBlake, 12, Abigayle, 11, and Cassandra, 8was found in the back passenger seat of the car with two bullet wounds. It was like my mind shut off . There's circumstantial evidence that he was unhappy and wanted to leave his family, his story is sketchy as hell (he knew what happened at first, and then he had amnesia? The prosecution said he had shoved the gun under his wife's chin and killed her first, before turning . After she enrolled in her online class, Kimberly began to experience migraine headaches that her doctor attributed to stress. When Vaughn's family was killed, he lost his three young children and his wife, making him the sole survivor. I had the exact same feelings about the podcast. Vaughn got out of the family SUV to look at the luggage rack on the roof. But he also has parents and his wife, Kimberly Vaughn, had parents she left behind who haven't yet spoken to Lauren regarding the case. The psychiatrist said this nuance of detail would be difficult to fake. its sad to me that before her death Kim was telling other people about her husbands good traits and she was looking into marriage counseling. She was right handed. Police and EMS were both called, and both arrived at the scene. 15:45 GMT 29 Aug 2012. I was hoping to find some website with a list of all the reasons Chris Vaughn is guilty like the pro/con websites you find for more popular cases like the West Memphis Three. I came here for this!!! He described to the police how he and his family left their home at around five in the morning to go to a water park in Springfield. The Oswego man, now 38, murdered his family in 2007 after pulling their SUV off Interstate 55 onto an isolated frontage road near Channahon on the way to what he said was a surprise trip to a Springfield water park. The ISP crime scene investigator documented in his report that the bullet that struck Cassandra, seated in the middle between her two siblings, exited through the back of her seat and lodged in the rear cargo seat. For the first few months, I had assumed this would be a sentencing case. By accepting all cookies, you agree to our use of cookies to deliver and maintain our services and site, improve the quality of Reddit, personalize Reddit content and advertising, and measure the effectiveness of advertising. A piece of his flesh was recovered around the margins of the exit hole of the back of the jacket. Why not ask how they are, why are you not upset that you cant remember? Your son murdered them and you are talking smack about their daughter, no way I would have allowed them to be there. The Oswego family was reportedly taking a day trip to a water park in Springfield when Christopher Vaughn left Interstate 55 and drove onto a frontage road when his wife became ill. "You could lock him up for 500 lifetimes and it would not compensate the victims in this case or the family members.". Abigayle "Abbi" Vaughn, 12, an accomplished student and athlete who had just begun wearing eye makeup, was slain while clutching a Harry Potter book and a stuffed animal. He allegedly killed his family so he could live by himself in the Canadian wilderness. Authorities said no one motive had been established but. Kimberly Phillips was born on December 12, 1972, to Del and Susan Phillips of Saint Charles, Missouri. He spends much of the gruelling 12-hour interview with his face in his hands or down on the table. 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