ID ID - Michael “Monkey” Vaughan, 5, last seen near home, Fruitland, 27 Jul 2021 #2

[Allabouttrial]

I thought Brandi said that LE tried to get an Amber Alert issued but were told he didn't meet the criteria.

 

[Unalienable Rights]

I received approval from Admin. to post the following link. It is a one time approval for this channel. This an interview with both of Michael's parents -- Brandi Neal and Tyler Vaughan. It is questions and answers from several people, and more of a conversation than an interview. It is audio only and was apparently originally on Twitter. Since it is from December, maybe some of you who are on social media have already heard it.

It is not an organized interview, it is nearly 3 hours long, and it is somewhat scattered and occasionally wanders off topic. I took extensive notes of the highlights which I will post in my next 2 or 3 posts. My notes cover summaries of most of the discussions that directly relate to Michael's case, as well as a few of their comments on more personal topics. Since some topics come up more than once at different times, I have organized the notes by topic, so they are not always in the same order as in the conversation. The timestamps are included for each portion covered.
There is a lot more at the link that I didn't include in the notes, mostly about their family and some of their experiences. For anyone who has the time, I think that it is worth a listen.

As far as I know, this is the only time that the father has spoken in public.

 

[Unalienable Rights]

Part 1 - Notes from conversation with Brandi Neal and Tyler Vaughan, Moms4Missing YouTube link posted above.

People have been asking about cell tower dumps and, yes, the FBI is doing all of that. The FBI is going all out, and every single person on the Fruitland PD is working on Monkey's case. 239:04 The lead FBI agent on M's case is Doug Hart who worked on the Smart case. He says he won't give up until M is home. 109:52

Many dogs were used; scent, cadaver, all types from all around the country. LE even rented a plane to bring in a special dog from somewhere else in the country. Dogs were used everywhere within a 2 mile radius. Scent and cadaver dogs were used together. 10:19

BN was told by LE that dogs traced M's scent all through the neighborhood. "His scent was picked up around our yard, our backyard, our neighbor's yard to the corner, our next door neighbor's yard if you're standing on my front porch to the left. His scent was tracked down to the following house and it was in a neighbor's yard across the street. His scent was lost in a yard 2 houses down from the end of our street going east." 12:46 She talks more about dogs, and how she walked through the field with them during the last search at 14:39.

M was seen by 3 neighbors after he left home. The kids next door have a trampoline. They are much older than M, but sometimes they play with him, so he went next door to see if they could play. Then he went to the house on the other side of them where there are older kids who have played soccer with him a few times. He was seen by neighbors at those two locations, but was unable to find playmates. Until recently, all of the children in the neighborhood have been much older than M, so he hasn't had anyone his own age to play with. A couple of months before he went missing, a little boy his age moved in across the street. One day at the park M's family met a couple with a boy M's age and a newborn baby boy. The husband is a Marine who was about to be deployed, and his wife and children were going to live with his mother while he was away. The husband's mother / grandmother lives across the street from the Vaughans and 4 houses down, but they had never met her. The wife is a work-from-home mom, and after they met at the park, they would sometimes see her outside with her two boys and would stop to talk, but the mother-in-law / grandmother was never outside at the time, so they still hadn't met her at the time that M went missing. When M couldn't find playmates at his first two tries, he went across the street and 4 houses down to see if the little boy his own age could play. The grandmother is the one who answered the door, she had never met M, didn't recognize him. As far as they know, she is the last person to see him. They estimate that he went to the houses around 6:30 - 6:45. The time stamp of the white Pilot leaving 8th St is 6:47. 149.31 There was only one ring camera on their street and, unfortunately, it was angled to face the driveway and not the street, so it didn't pick up M passing by. 152.18

 

[Unalienable Rights]

Part 2 - Notes from conversation with Brandi Neal and Tyler Vaughan - Moms4Missing YouTube link posted above.

The image of the white Honda Pilot was taken by a camera on top of a duplex at the top of 8th St., across from the turn-in to the Splash Pad. LE has several different images of the Pilot, at different angles, from different cameras, and this is the image they felt was the best representation. 109:18 Remember that it is a picture of a moving car. It is the only car captured by a camera in the neighborhood that has not been identified. Including the two subdivisions, there are more than 200 homes in the neighborhood, and the residents cooperated with LE to identify hudreds of cars. 104:12 In one of the subdivisions there were 2 parties that day -- a birthday party and a baby shower -- and the cars of all of the visiting guests have been identified. 8th St is the only way in and out of the neighborhood. They said that "There are only 3 reasons you'd be driving down this road (9th St) either way -- a. you're lost, b. you live here, c. you're visiting someone who lives here. There is no reason to come down this street at all. 8th St is a very, very busy street and that connects to where we live." 102:44. LE talked to a dealership and to several other experts to try to be as accurate as possible about the make and model of the car. 66:58 They determined that the model would have been made from 2016 -2020. BN said that an amazing lady contacted her on-line who said she had knowledge about Pilots that could narrow it down more, something about the headlights, so BN put the lady in touch with the Chief of Police and after he talked to her, both he and the Captain seemed to think that the information was quite helpful and that they could narrow the years down to 2016 - 2018. 107:18 49:14, 101:31

The Chief of Police told them that the Pilot didn't show up on the camera at the Maverick Gas Station while leaving town, which would mean that it probably went toward the highway. They are not really clear on the meaning though, because they believe that he said that it was possible that it passed by but wasn't caught on camera. They are not sure they fully understood what he was telling them, and need to talk to someone about it again. 49:14 TV wants to know if the Pilot was seen on camera entering the neighborhood. He asked the Captain, and the Captain said that he didn't know the answer. TV says he needs to pursue it further and try to find someone who can give him the answer. (This was in December.) 115:14

They said that M couldn't have tried to walk to the park or splash pad, because if he had, he would have been seen on the same camera that took the image of the Pilot. The grass and cement that is seen in the picture of the Pilot is the turn-in for the splash pad. 156:04 Also, when TV was looking for M, he drove to the splash pad around 7:00 pm. There were a couple of moms there with kids and they all said they hadn't seen M. It is necessary to walk by the splash pad to get to the park. 87:48

They feel certain that none of their neighbors are responsible. TV said all of the neighbors houses were checked multiple times. 35:28

 

[Allabouttrial]

Part 1 - Notes from conversation with Brandi Neal and Tyler Vaughan, Moms4Missing YouTube link posted above.

People have been asking about cell tower dumps and, yes, the FBI is doing all of that. The FBI is going all out, and every single person on the Fruitland PD is working on Monkey's case. 239:04 The lead FBI agent on M's case is Doug Hart who worked on the Smart case. He says he won't give up until M is home. 109:52

Many dogs were used; scent, cadaver, all types from all around the country. LE even rented a plane to bring in a special dog from somewhere else in the country. Dogs were used everywhere within a 2 mile radius. Scent and cadaver dogs were used together. 10:19

BN was told by LE that dogs traced M's scent all through the neighborhood. "His scent was picked up around our yard, our backyard, our neighbor's yard to the corner, our next door neighbor's yard if you're standing on my front porch to the left. His scent was tracked down to the following house and it was in a neighbor's yard across the street. His scent was lost in a yard 2 houses down from the end of our street going east." 12:46 She talks more about dogs, and how she walked through the field with them during the last search at 14:39.

M was seen by 3 neighbors after he left home. The kids next door have a trampoline. They are much older than M, but sometimes they play with him, so he went next door to see if they could play. Then he went to the house on the other side of them where there are older kids live who have played soccer with him a few times. He was seen by neighbors at those two locations, but was unable to find playmates. Until recently, all of the children in the neighborhood have been much older than M, so he hasn't had anyone his own age to play with. A couple of months before he went missing, a little boy his age moved in across the street. One day at the park M's family met a couple with a boy M's age and a newborn baby boy. The husband is a Marine who was about to be deployed, and his wife and children were going to live with his mother while he was away. The husband's mother / grandmother lives across the street from the Vaughans and 4 houses down, but they had never met her. The wife is a work-from-home mom, and after they met at the park, they would sometimes see her outside with her two boys and would stop to talk, but the mother-in-law / grandmother was never outside at the time, so they still hadn't met her at the time that M went missing. When M couldn't find playmates at his first two tries, he went across the street and 4 houses down to see if the little boy his own age could play. The grandmother is the one who answered the door, she had never met M, didn't recognize him. As far as they know, she is the last person to see him. They estimate that he went to the houses around 6:30 - 6:45. The time stamp of the white Pilot leaving 8th St is 6:47. 149.31 There was only one ring camera on their street and, unfortunately, it was angled to face the driveway and not the street, so it didn't pick up M passing by. 152.18

This is great! Thank you .

 

[Unalienable Rights]

Part 3 - Notes from conversation with Brandi Neal and Tyler Vaughan -Moms4Missing YouTube link posted above.

They talked about how the neighborhood has changed. At the time M went missing there was only one ring camera on their street, and not many in the subdivisions. Immediately afterward, people in their 3 city area started buying cameras. Before M went missing, there were always children outside playing and riding their bikes in the neighborhood ("neighborhood" includes 2 subdivisions) but that has changed. BN said that previously, during the school year, they would always see a lot of kids waiting at the school bus stop; now there are parents sitting in their cars at the bus stop waiting until the kids are safely on the bus. 152:35

They were asked if they were aggravated by anything inaccurate that had been reported about them. TV said it was inaccurate when it was said that he and BN were taking donations. He said that they never asked for donations and they have not taken one penny. Any money that has been donated to them has gone into the reward fund. It also bothers him when he hears that he was home alone with M and the baby when M went missing, when actually the two oldest children were also there. 123:14 BN said that is her fault, because she had tried to keep the children out of the spotlight. 129:01 BN said that it bothers her when people say that they let their children run willy nilly and leave them unsupervised. She did say, however, that M had slipped out before through the back door and the garage. The question people ask them that bothers them most is "How are you doing?" They say that they understand that it is human nature to ask, but how do you answer that? 111:06

BN said to go back to the question about things that were aggravating to them, she wanted to comment that it drives her crazy when people say "this is what I would be doing." In her words, "I honestly could never imagine being in our shoes. I could never imagine what a mother is going through, a father is going through, a family is going through, and the continuous...'well, this is what I would be doing, this is what I would be doing' There have been a few times that I have lashed out and said, 'you know what, how in the h---, please, please tell me how in the h--- would you know what you would do, how you would act if every breath, every sigh, every blink you take; if you lick your lips, if you move in a certain way; please tell me exactly what you would do, because you have absolutely no idea what in the h--- you would do, nobody does unless you've actually lived the situation.' And that is a very, very big one to me." 139:20

They touch upon how difficult it has been to have some people accusing them of harming M. BN said that it is not only social media, sometimes it is in person too, but she has nothing to hide so people can speculate. She said that someone walked up to her at work and said "you killed your child." 18:45 She said that there was a local business owner who refused to put M's poster in the window of the business, because they were starting to believe all of the speculation. 20:15 TV said that he doesn't understand how people think he could have harmed M and removed the evidence, all in a few minutes, in front of the other children. 25:26 It is really difficult when it involves the children. BN said that the oldest daughter started her freshman year in high school just one week after M went missing. On her 5th day of school, she phoned her mother from the bathroom at school, crying, and asked if she could come home. She said that some of the kids at school had said that her mom and dad had killed her brother. BN told her she would be right there to pick her up. BN said that her ex-husband's mother-in-law (later she said his mother), who she said is a saint, took charge and went to the school the next day to talk to the principal and teachers and they were very kind and understanding. There hasn't been any problem at the school since then. 89:50

BN says that she reads every single message she receives. She just asks that people please not send tips to her -- sometimes seeing them is very, very difficult. Tips should be sent to the tip line. The police have always followed up when BN and TV have asked them to check out a tip. They even followed up on a tip in Greece. Someone sent two pictures to BN of a little boy in Greece who spoke English with an American accent and looked something like M. The parents knew it wasn't M, but the little boy looked so sad, and looked like he had a black-eye, so they asked LE if they could arrange for someone to check on his welfare. LE followed through and it turned out the the boy was being abused, and he was removed from the home. BN and TV felt good that at least one child had been helped. 118:00

They talked about the Amber Alert -- the police wanted one, but weren't able to get approval. Now that the police are saying it was an abduction, M still doesn't meet the Amber Alert criteria, because in Idaho the alert has to go out within 12 hours and that time is long past. There was a Code Red Endangered Alert for M, which is an opt-in alert, and was something that BN and TV hadn't known about. Many people in the area probably don't know about it, but even still it was received by those who had opted-in, and some of them immediately came to help. When BN arrived home from work, after receiving a call from TV, she said there were about 40 people on their front lawn. Volunteers helped search throughout the night. They talked about some of the changes they think should be made to the alert system when a child goes missing. They think that when a child is reported missing, an alert should go out within 30 minutes and be spread out to other areas over time. For instance, if an alert went out in Fruitland, ID, and the child still hadn't been found an hour later, an alert would go out as far as Boise, and in 2 - 3 hours it would go out to all of the western states. As time passed, the alert would continue going farther until it was nationwide. They have been talking about working on "Monkey's Law." 220:04

 

[katydid23]

I received approval from Admin. to post the following link. It is a one time approval for this channel. This an interview with both of Michael's parents -- Brandi Neal and Tyler Vaughan. It is questions and answers from several people, and more of a conversation than an interview. It is audio only and was apparently originally on Twitter. Since it is from December, maybe some of you who are on social media have already heard it.

It is not an organized interview, it is nearly 3 hours long, and it is somewhat scattered and occasionally wanders off topic. I took extensive notes of the highlights which I will post in my next 2 or 3 posts. My notes cover summaries of most of the discussions that directly relate to Michael's case, as well as a few of their comments on more personal topics. Since some topics come up more than once at different times, I have organized the notes by topic, so they are not always in the same order as in the conversation. The timestamps are included for each portion covered.
There is a lot more at the link that I didn't include in the notes, mostly about their family and some of their experiences. For anyone who has the time, I think that it is worth a listen.

As far as I know, this is the only time that the father has spoken in public.

WOW!!!! THANK YOU so much for all this effort and hard work. I am really looking forward to unpacking this.

 

[carbuff]

I may have to revise my opinion about the Pilot. Thanks for taking all these notes!

 

[ChatteringBirds]

How sad to think he may have been abducted by someone in the one vehicle that hasn't been identified.

Thanks for summarizing that interview. I am going to stop writing into my posts what I think I would do...

How cruel some people are being to this family.

 

[ScorpioRising]

It was good to hear the dad participate in this interview. It has to be so tough for them to give these interviews. What a terrible situation!

What stood out to me was that it’s mostly older kids in the neighborhood that he plays with and just one boy his age who moved there recently. Mom mentioned that the three houses he knocked on all have kids (which is something I was wondering) and it sounds like the dogs lost his scent about two houses down. He didn’t make it all the way to the splash pad or he would have been seen on the same camera the Honda Pilot was seen on.

Mom mentioned they don’t know when the Honda Pilot entered the community.

 

[Turkeytrot]

I was listening to a podcast on this case earlier, so I just went back and read through the threads again to see if anything stands out.

I really wish there was info regarding the Honda Pilot. I feel like they must not have found the driver or ruled it out at this point.. seems an important detail to clear up one way or the other. The timing is really suspect, imo.

It also bothers me that LE hasn't really confirmed M knocking on doors or being seen by neighbors. It would help to get a clearer picture of where exactly he went missing..if this neighbor and that neighbor saw him, but he didn't make it to a certain point down the street. I saw where mom said he couldn't have made it down to the splash pad because he wasn't caught on the ring camera that caught the Honda pilot.

I wonder if the ring cameras are 100% with detecting motion/recording. We have a different brand and it can be hit or miss, especially if someone just walks down the street vs a vehicle driving by. It doesn't always pick up those smaller movements, especially in the daytime. So I'm not sure if that could be a possibility here.

I really fear that he was abducted

 

[MoeInVA]

I was listening to a podcast on this case earlier, so I just went back and read through the threads again to see if anything stands out.

I really wish there was info regarding the Honda Pilot. I feel like they must not have found the driver or ruled it out at this point.. seems an important detail to clear up one way or the other. The timing is really suspect, imo.

It also bothers me that LE hasn't really confirmed M knocking on doors or being seen by neighbors. It would help to get a clearer picture of where exactly he went missing..if this neighbor and that neighbor saw him, but he didn't make it to a certain point down the street. I saw where mom said he couldn't have made it down to the splash pad because he wasn't caught on the ring camera that caught the Honda pilot.

I wonder if the ring cameras are 100% with detecting motion/recording. We have a different brand and it can be hit or miss, especially if someone just walks down the street vs a vehicle driving by. It doesn't always pick up those smaller movements, especially in the daytime. So I'm not sure if that could be a possibility here.

I really fear that he was abducted

Agree!
re:
-Small child walking might not be picked up as consistently as a vehicle.
-Wish LE confirmed neighbor sightings (and times ideally).

I also wonder why PD no longer has info on the Honda Pilot on their Facebook page.

 

[Psychic Sleuth]

Agree!
re:
-Small child walking might not be picked up as consistently as a vehicle.
-Wish LE confirmed neighbor sightings (and times ideally).

I also wonder why PD no longer has info on the Honda Pilot on their Facebook page.

Maybe that's a good sign and they have someone on their radar.

 

[katydid23]

I may have to revise my opinion about the Pilot. Thanks for taking all these notes!

From UR's notes:

"His scent was tracked down to the following house and it was in a neighbor's yard across the street. His scent was lost in a yard 2 houses down from the end of our street going east."


His scent was 'lost' 2 houses down the street? Were any of the sightings of him AFTER he had been at that house? Could that house, where his scent was lost, be his last known location?

Maybe he was snatched by someone right there?

 

[carbuff]

From UR's notes:

"His scent was tracked down to the following house and it was in a neighbor's yard across the street. His scent was lost in a yard 2 houses down from the end of our street going east."


His scent was 'lost' 2 houses down the street? Were any of the sightings of him AFTER he had been at that house? Could that house, where his scent was lost, be his last known location?

Maybe he was snatched by someone right there?

It sounds like that's definitely possible.

 

[Unalienable Rights]

The parents said that as far as they know, the last person to see him was at a house across the street and four houses down. His mother said that she was told that his scent was lost 2 houses before the end of the street, so it sounds like he must have continued on down the street after leaving the house across the street. I am not good with on-line maps. I tried to figure out how many houses are on the street, and which house would have been two houses before the end, but couldn't figure it out -- does anyone else here know?

His father said that LE has pictures of the Pilot from several different cameras in the same area. Even though Michael is a small boy, I think that since there were multiple cameras in that area of 8th St, he would have been picked up by a camera if he had been in the area of the splash pad.

It stood out to me that when M's father asked the captain if the Pilot was seen on camera entering the neighborhood, the captain said he didn't have the answer. It seems to me that the captain would certainly know the answer to that, and that LE is holding that information very close as part of the investigation.

It is very curious that the PD removed the picture and mention of the Pilot from their FB. If they had located it and cleared it, surely they would have said so. I wonder if they might have been able to match up a phone ping with the owner of a Pilot and have that person under surveillance -- at least I hope so. It is also interesting that the PD removed all of the previous updates and comments. They are also restricting comments on the current update, but I can understand why they would do that. There is just a different feel about it now. I hope that means that they are on the right track.

 

[Friday Fan]

I think there is still a chance that he could be in one of the fields nearby. I know they searched and searched. But dogs are not infallible. Murder of Ebby Steppach - Wikipedia
Friends smelt decomposition in drain where teen's remains were found but cops did nothing about it | Daily Mail Online


I sometimes wonder if something happened with one of the older kids in the neighborhood? Although there really isn't any evidence pointing to this.
When I think of kids going from house to house, I also think of potential bullying. (Just a thought.....)

 

[Allabouttrial]

I think there is still a chance that he could be in one of the fields nearby. I know they searched and searched. But dogs are not infallible. Murder of Ebby Steppach - Wikipedia
Friends smelt decomposition in drain where teen's remains were found but cops did nothing about it | Daily Mail Online


I sometimes wonder if something happened with one of the older kids in the neighborhood? Although there really isn't any evidence pointing to this.
When I think of kids going from house to house, I also think of potential bullying. (Just a thought.....)

Not totally ruled out an older kid, but as for bullying I don't see it. Michael was very young compared to the older kids he sometimes played with.

Plus, Brandi said a lot of the time they would just watch the older kids on their bikes etc. in summer. I don't think Michael playing with the older kids was a frequent occurrence, going on Brandi's interviews.

 

[carbuff]

I think there is still a chance that he could be in one of the fields nearby. I know they searched and searched. But dogs are not infallible. Murder of Ebby Steppach - Wikipedia
Friends smelt decomposition in drain where teen's remains were found but cops did nothing about it | Daily Mail Online


I sometimes wonder if something happened with one of the older kids in the neighborhood? Although there really isn't any evidence pointing to this.
When I think of kids going from house to house, I also think of potential bullying. (Just a thought.....)

I can see the possibility that after none of the other kids would play with him, he wandered out into the field looking for something to do--maybe followed a cat or chased a bird or something like that--and met with an accident. They were awfully thorough in their search but a kid that age isn't very big.

 

[Kiranerys]

I can see the possibility that after none of the other kids would play with him, he wandered out into the field looking for something to do--maybe followed a cat or chased a bird or something like that--and met with an accident. They were awfully thorough in their search but a kid that age isn't very big.

This reminds me of Lizzy, they were so thorough and searched with dogs but didn't find her. She was so close the whole time