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