GUILTY IL - Kimberly Vaughn, 34, & 3 children slain, Channahon Twp, 14 June 2007

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Also from the link in my previous post:

As Vaughn prepared in 2010 for his trial, his lawyers asked the judge to bar testimony about Vaughn’s visits with dancers at strip clubs.

They said he also visited a dancer named Chrystal Miller at Scores in Stone Park who said Vaughn spent “large sums of money” there and lied about being a single man from Naperville. She said he gave her a strange feeling and he made comments about “knowing what would happen in the future.”

For those non local. Just to get a feel for what locals think of Stone Park. Stone Park is known for it's strip clubs and bars that are open 23 hours a day. In general a place for the hard core sex/strip club addict or the hard core drinker/drugger.

It would not be the closest strip club to the Vaughn residence in Oswego. Though anywhere other than Stone Park wouldn't have the cluster of a number of strip clubs in a relatively small area.
 
Lawyers for Christopher Vaughn on Wednesday backed off their opposition to a Will County jury hearing testimony about a coded poem he wrote in jail that included a brief reference to a stripper with whom prosecutors allege he wanted to start a new life.

In dropping their objection, Vaughn's attorneys said they intend to explore other parts of the daily journal he scribbled on 37 loose-leaf pages using a coded alphabet of dashes, circles and interconnected lines.

The diary was seized by authorities at the Will County Jail four months after the Oswego man's arrest in the slayings of his wife and three children in June 2007.


http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-vaughn-jailhouse-poem-20120816,0,1621258.story
 
On Monday, opening statements in Vaughn's trial are set to take place in a courtroom next door to where former Bolingbrook police Sgt. Drew Peterson has been on trial for weeks in the death of his third wife, Kathleen Savio. The convergence of the two sensational cases at the cramped Joliet courthouse has even veteran court watchers taking notice.

"To have two cases like that going on at the same time is unprecedented, certainly in Will County, and maybe in the country," said Terry Sullivan, a veteran attorney. "The Vaughn trial is the kind of case that should get national coverage … (but) it might be overshadowed with all the tomfoolery going on in the courtroom next door."

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/...er-vaughn-trial-0819-20120820,0,4843773.story
 
During her opening statement before Will County Judge Daniel Rozak on Monday, Assistant State’s Attorney Debbie Mills said Vaughn killed his family because he wanted to move to Northern Canada and be isolated from people.

“He intended to move to Canada, permanently, and soon.” Mills said. A month before his wife and children were killed, Vaughn took a “scouting trip” to Canada under the guise of taking a business trip.

“He needed an exit scenario,” so he murdered his wife and children, she said.

“This wasn’t just some fantasy for Christopher Vaughn. He had started to plan,” Mills said.


Full article at link:

http://heraldnews.suntimes.com/news...vaughn-on-trial-in-deaths-of-wife-3-kids.html
 
BrownRice said:
I think I remember about reading this when it happened way back..

With all of this ridiculous evidence, why the heck did it take 5 years to come to trial?
Click to expand...


BBM

One of the delays was forensically studying the bullet trajectory through his jacket. MSM has stated he shot his wife through the arm of his jacket. (will look for a link).

Illinois abolished the death penalty too, so when that occured his prior defense team quit a few years in. He had to get a new defense team and start over so to speak.
 
Vaughn trial continues after graphic testimony


Kimberly Vaughn, 34, was killed instantly when her husband shoved a 9 mm handgun under her chin and pulled the trigger, Mills said. Christopher Vaughn had been taking target practice at a Plainfield gun range the night before while his wife made dinner for the neighbors, she said.

Abigayle, 12, who was seated behind Vaughn, was killed next, shot in the chest and in the head as she slept. A soccer player who had a practice scheduled for that afternoon, she was found holding a novel and stuffed animal, an emotional firefighter testified.

Cassandra "Sandy" Vaughn, 11, who had science camp later that day, was killed with shots to the head and chest as she sat in the middle seat, Mills said. Her body fell to the right almost atop her 8-year-old brother, Blake.

Blake, who apparently raised his hands to defend himself, was shot once under the left arm and then once in the head, Mills said. Gruesome crime scene photos were displayed on a courtroom TV for jurors, showing the children lifeless amid a tangle of blood, blankets and pillows.

Vaughn then shot himself in the wrist and leg, incurring minor wounds before dropping his gun between his wife's feet, Mills said. He then flagged down a passing car.


http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/...hic-testimony-20120821,0,4973230.story?page=1




 
The couple were apparently trying to reconnect, Kimberly's mother Susan Phillips, of St. Charles, Mo., testified, and there were no signs of the impending carnage.

Phillips kept her emotions in check on the stand, showing only a flash of anger by glaring at Vaughn when asked to identify him in court.

A few days before the slayings, Kimberly had graduated from University of Phoenix, an online university, and her parents and family had celebrated afterward at a German restaurant in Naperville.

The day before the graduation, Vaughn and his wife had gone on a dinner and movie date. The day after her graduation, the couple took their Irish setter, Scotch, for a walk while family members prepared a surprise graduation party at their home with a cake.

There were plans in the weeks after the slayings to take a family vacation in the Wisconsin Dells. Vaughn and his wife also were planning to take a trip back to the Missouri bed-and-breakfast where they had honeymooned 13 years prior.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/...ony-20120821,0,4973230.story?page=2&track=rss


Very difficult to read how cold and calculating this guy was. To kill his wife first and then turn the gun on his children from oldest to youngest. I can only imagine the fear the kids felt as I am sure the bullets which killed their mother woke them.
 
Cubby said:
During her opening statement before Will County Judge Daniel Rozak on Monday, Assistant State’s Attorney Debbie Mills said Vaughn killed his family because he wanted to move to Northern Canada and be isolated from people.

“He intended to move to Canada, permanently, and soon.” Mills said. A month before his wife and children were killed, Vaughn took a “scouting trip” to Canada under the guise of taking a business trip.

“He needed an exit scenario,” so he murdered his wife and children, she said.

“This wasn’t just some fantasy for Christopher Vaughn. He had started to plan,” Mills said.


Full article at link:

http://heraldnews.suntimes.com/news...vaughn-on-trial-in-deaths-of-wife-3-kids.html
Click to expand...

Entries by CV: http://www.43things.com/person/dewoodsman/entries

Pics: http://www.43things.com/person/dewoodsman/photos

Here is something I'm puzzled about: Why would he have posted these pics and admissions on a public forum? (Dec 20 2006 - May 14 2007.) He writes that he's planning a serious reconnaissance trip in May, then making his move after that.

The orange/red doors of the storage facility in the photo -- wonder where that was, and why he posted that picture for all to see?

You'd think a 'computer security' guy who writes in code would know better than to leave pics and words like this "out there." Could the "wild escape" stuff possibly have been a 'decoy' plan, or was he really planning to disappear into the northern wilderness? I hope the trial can bring out the truth.


:prayer: May the victims rest in peace, and may justice prevail.

BBM

---

ETA To clarify: yes, the evidence does seem to show he was interested in 'living off the land' after possibly 'disappearing.' My interest regarding his posts was whether or not his intention was to leave a false trail. Was puzzled as to why he would publicly post about the plans, and post photos of himself, especially since he was a PI, forensic investigator, code writer, and secretive person.
 
Very disappointed yet again in the lack of coverage on this case. Haven't found any strong twitter updates, InSession has not even mentioned that it is going on this week. While the Sneiderman case is also interesting, I don't see why the entire morning needs to be spent on it at this time. I was really looking forward to hearing the Vaughn evidence.
 
Was the trip to the shooting range to shore up his confidence/resolve or to explain away the gunshot residue on his clothes? The clothes he was wearing for a "trip to waterpark" was interesting too. I was wondering if they found a copy of the book or DVD of Into The Wild in the house. It struck me when I read of him posting online that he was ready to take the long walk that it sounded like something Christopher McCandless/Alexander Supertramp may have said, and his shaggy hair & beard was also similar to CM's.

Edited: would have had to have been the book, the movie was released in Fall 2007.
 
Towels packed in anticipation for the family’s trip to a Springfield water park were also in the vehicle where Kimberly Vaughn and her three children would eventually be found dead on a desolate frontage road in Channahon. Christopher Vaughn is accused of shooting his wife and children early that morning. His defense claims it was a distraught Kimberly who Vaughn and the kids and then turned the gun on herself.


Kimberly’s towel, found bloody and draped across her lap, would become a matter of controversy after Deel and other crime scene investigators failed to collect it as evidence. When Kimberly’s body was transferred to the morgue, so was the towel, which was accidentally washed.

“Want me to tell you what happened with the towel and cut to the chase?” Deel said, seemingly embarrassed. “It would have been great if me or someone else would have grabbed the towel in the first place,” he said, but that didn’t happen.

“I don’t know what they were thinking,” he said of whoever washed away the blood evidence.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/...er-vaughn-murder-trial-to-wrap-up-friday.html

They, They? Deel, the lead investigator doesn't know what THEY were thinking?

Deel, the people of Illinois do not know what YOU were thinking! I hope Deel knows he is an embarassment to law enforcement and inept in his job. EPIC FAIL!

As lead investigator evidence collection was Deel's responsibility but here he is minimizing HIS responsibility by his comment.
 
I agree! He botched Katherine Savio's investigation and to have a glaring blunder like the towel being washed...how does he still have a job?!?

Blood spatter on the retracted seatbelt....Chris, Chris, Chris....not quite the misunderstood genius you wanted us all to believe you were.
 
Have to post the google search description for the following info, since for some reason this MSM source is already wanting a pay subscription for the Vaughn case coverage.

Evidence suggests shooter in vehicle - Morris Daily Herald

www.morrisdailyherald.com/2012/08/24/...shooter...vehicle/ai88ocm...

5 hours ago – Deel said investigators believe the shooter was inside the vehicle, based on bullet holes in the back and that investigators also later found blood that wasn't initially apparent on Kimberly's unbuckled seat belt. It wasn't until a suited-up investigator of about the same build pulled the seat belt across her chest ...
 
jury is presently watching his interviews to LE, it is possible Kimberley shot him, killed her children then herself , anything is possible, but highly improbable, if she was as the defence contends pissed at him over his confession to affairs then he would have been the one she made sure was dead,

and why wait to do it at the side of the road inside a car, she could have very easily done it whilst he slept at home in there bed,
 
From what I have read, Kimberly spoke very highly of her husband. In fact, to read it now that they are deceased makes me cringe.

Additionally, the info on the blood spatter on the retracted seatbelt is enough for me. She did not murder her children and then commit suicide while wearing her seatbelt. I can not drive in reverse without taking off my seatbelt. I can't turn around to look back wearing the belt. There is no way she murdered her kids and then herself with the seatbelt on, or decided to buckle back up after murdering her kids, before shooting herself. I wouldn't need to hear any more evidence, the seatbelt info sealed it for me.
 
Yep, the retracted seat belt, and didn't they also say the spent shell casings (or the majority of them) were on the floor on the driver's side? I think what has gotten me about this case is Kimberly seemed like a genuinely sweet person, and for him to not only kill her and her children, but turn around and point the finger at her is the absolute height in arrogance and assholishness.

The annihilation of the Vaughn family has been overshadowed in the media both during the time the crime took place & now because of killer cops, Bobby Cutts & Drew Peterson.
 
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