July 22, 2021 • 43 mins
As a young couple Kimberly and Christopher struggle with financial insecurity, the pressures of parenting and the growing dysfunction between their two families.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
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.
(00:22):
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
(00:45):
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.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
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
(01:19):
make sure that Chris distanced himself between him and his friends.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
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
(01:46):
in Illinois, Carrie.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
And now do say good places a.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
Fine?
Speaker 4 (02:11):
Teach them to.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Listen to this.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
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,
(02:46):
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.
(03:08):
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.
Speaker 4 (03:20):
No, I was more shocked that.
Speaker 5 (03:24):
He called me and told me that he.
Speaker 4 (03:27):
Was going to have a baby.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
Talking about Chris, especially as a father, remains very emotional
for Rose.
Speaker 6 (03:34):
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.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
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.
Speaker 6 (04:13):
Oh.
Speaker 5 (04:13):
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
(04:34):
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
(04:55):
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
(05:18):
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.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
Even at the wedding, there was little warmth between the
two families. Each side mostly kept themselves. Here again is
Gail's sister Rose.
Speaker 4 (05:37):
Oh oh yeah.
Speaker 7 (05:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (05:38):
Everybody tried to stay distant. Niceties was about all there was.
There wasn't any overly outgoingness.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
It was very awkward, but by most accounts, it was
still a pleasant event, although Kimberly had relayed some unpleasant
issues regarding the planning.
Speaker 4 (06:02):
Oh the wedding was beautiful.
Speaker 5 (06:05):
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
(06:26):
the wedding or hook soon before the wedding, her mom went.
Speaker 4 (06:31):
To the florist and changed everything.
Speaker 5 (06:32):
So it was quite a tug of war, and I
tried really hard not to make waves, but it was interesting.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
Gail says that dysfunctional dynamic continued after the couple exchanged vows.
Speaker 5 (06:49):
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.
Speaker 4 (07:11):
Interesting too.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
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.
Speaker 5 (07:24):
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.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
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.
Speaker 5 (07:52):
We did find out from her my mom in law,
that Susan had told her something or said something.
Speaker 4 (07:58):
To her that just hurt her very badly.
Speaker 5 (08:02):
She did not want to stay there, so we took
her home and we never found out what that was.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
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.
Speaker 5 (08:19):
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
(08:42):
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.
Speaker 4 (09:04):
And she asked us about, you know, hunting, and.
Speaker 5 (09:07):
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,
(09:32):
so we really didn't have.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
She didn't want to take our word for anything.
Speaker 5 (09:37):
Because we did not have the paper pedigree that she
thought we were.
Speaker 4 (09:43):
Supposed to have.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
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.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
Kim's Baum told her that if you were breastfeeding, you
can't get pregnant. Well, it doesn't exactly shin' true.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
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.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
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.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
And then a few years after that, Kevin Chris had
their third child, a son, Blake.
Speaker 4 (10:40):
So Sandy was.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
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.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
Interesting, so it's almost like the same age difference between
your boys.
Speaker 8 (10:58):
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.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
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.
Speaker 4 (11:18):
They were great.
Speaker 5 (11:20):
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.
(11:40):
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.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
Here they are in home video dying Easter eggs the
year before the tragedy.
Speaker 9 (12:10):
Out No Young One.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
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
(12:38):
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.
Speaker 10 (12:52):
Well.
Speaker 5 (12:53):
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
(13:15):
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
(13:38):
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
(14:02):
was fantastic with baseball. I mean he could give you
the stats of any player on the Cardinals team, and
he was only eight.
Speaker 4 (14:13):
It was remarkable.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
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
(14:37):
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,
(15:00):
but there is nothing to suggest Christopher would have been
capable of harming his children. Here's his aunt Rose.
Speaker 6 (15:08):
He was always happy. I mean, he was always goofy.
The pictures that I.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
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
(15:34):
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.
Speaker 5 (15:58):
He's always got a goofy smile on.
Speaker 6 (16:00):
He's always just the center of attention, having fun, just down.
Speaker 4 (16:04):
To earth fun.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
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.
Speaker 6 (16:26):
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
(16:48):
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.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
Rose sent many other photos of Chris interaction acting with
his children, and they all reflect an engaged, doting father, just.
Speaker 6 (17:05):
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.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
Chris's youngest brother, Adam, also recalls his impression of Chris
as a father.
Speaker 7 (17:30):
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,
(17:51):
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
(18:12):
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.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
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.
Speaker 11 (19:09):
Both had a problem with their education for insecurities. Yes,
I think Kim figured she would be better respected in.
Speaker 12 (19:22):
Her own family, her side of the family if she
got this degree.
Speaker 13 (19:30):
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.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
College degrees or lack thereof, obviously appears to have been
a huge sticking point with both families.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
We were just tolerated because.
Speaker 3 (19:53):
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
(20:14):
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.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
Was your guy.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
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.
Speaker 5 (20:52):
According to what I understand.
Speaker 3 (20:54):
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.
Speaker 1 (21:03):
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.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
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.
Speaker 3 (21:34):
Even though everybody saw the happy, bully, friendly side of Kimberly,
she was.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
A lot like her mother.
Speaker 3 (21:42):
More than anybody knows that there was a dark, mean side.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
Even the kids called her a monster mommy.
Speaker 3 (21:51):
Right when nobody else was around, that dark side would
come out.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
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.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
I actually got to witness one of her Monster Mommy
episodes Christmas before this happened. It was crazy because.
Speaker 5 (22:18):
It basically happened because Abigail decided she didn't want to.
Speaker 4 (22:21):
Take a shower.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
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.
Speaker 4 (22:30):
Okay, fine, But she took it to a.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
Hair pulling, abusive, screaming, rustling type match with her.
Speaker 4 (22:38):
Daughter, Abigail.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
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.
Speaker 5 (22:50):
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.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
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.
Speaker 5 (23:30):
Here's Gail Well it hit him John Chris's career.
Speaker 13 (23:34):
Wherever he had the best job is where he went.
Speaker 14 (23:37):
He had a job offer on the coast.
Speaker 12 (23:40):
Up there, and he took it.
Speaker 13 (23:43):
It made more money.
Speaker 10 (23:44):
He could get a.
Speaker 14 (23:45):
Bigger house and get Kim the vehicles she wanted, and
kids would be happy, and.
Speaker 5 (23:51):
We'll taken care of And he went wherever the job
took him, he did.
Speaker 3 (23:59):
But also so I think at the time they thought
that they got away from both of us, they have
a better chance of.
Speaker 5 (24:08):
Keeping their marriage together.
Speaker 3 (24:10):
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.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
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.
Speaker 9 (24:47):
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.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
Again, Clutter was on Vaughn's initial defense team and as
one of the people who knows Chris's story perhaps better
than anyone.
Speaker 9 (25:13):
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.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
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.
Speaker 3 (25:41):
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.
Speaker 13 (26:01):
A kid without college could.
Speaker 3 (26:04):
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
(26:26):
needed computer forensics and security, and he was a top
guy in a field.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
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.
Speaker 9 (26:48):
Being in Washington, they had easy access to the outdoors
and nature, and that's really the environment that they seemed
to thrive.
Speaker 1 (26:59):
And shared his adoration of all things outdoors with his
growing children.
Speaker 3 (27:04):
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,
(27:26):
humongus trees and stuff like that.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
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.
Speaker 3 (27:44):
They moved to.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
Washington State.
Speaker 3 (27:49):
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.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
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.
Speaker 9 (28:16):
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
(28:37):
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.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
For Chris, plus bonuses I believe.
Speaker 9 (28:58):
Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:00):
At the time of the murders, Chris was probably at
the height of his professional career.
Speaker 9 (29:07):
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.
Speaker 1 (29:19):
Chris's parents were also elated to have him so much
closer to them in Missouri.
Speaker 12 (29:25):
I was super.
Speaker 11 (29:25):
Happy because they would be within driving distance to visit.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
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.
Speaker 13 (29:40):
It was all Kim.
Speaker 14 (29:41):
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.
Speaker 1 (29:55):
And it wasn't what Chris had hoped for.
Speaker 12 (29:58):
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.
Speaker 13 (30:15):
Builder in a subdivision.
Speaker 3 (30:18):
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.
Speaker 1 (30:28):
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.
Speaker 3 (30:44):
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
(31:04):
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.
Speaker 1 (31:23):
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.
Speaker 2 (31:43):
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
(32:09):
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.
Speaker 1 (32:19):
It was sad and Pierre believes there was a troubling
reason why marriage troubles would have weighed heavily on Chris.
Speaker 3 (32:28):
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.
Speaker 2 (32:43):
That we can go after you.
Speaker 3 (32:45):
For that, you'd have to work ten jobs just to
pay for it.
Speaker 1 (32:51):
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
(33:12):
also begun to frequent strip clubs, but not for the
reasons you might think. Here's his mother, Gail.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
I wasn't as surprised about the strip club thing as
I was when he had gone to Mexico and found
comfort there.
Speaker 3 (33:29):
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.
Speaker 4 (33:45):
He did was talk.
Speaker 3 (33:47):
They did not have any kind of relationship or did
not have any interaction with them other than.
Speaker 2 (33:52):
Just sit and talk for hours.
Speaker 4 (33:53):
They would just sit and talk.
Speaker 1 (34:05):
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.
Speaker 5 (34:27):
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
(34:47):
sure if Chris and Kim would stay the night at
our house and continue on the next day, but we
never found out.
Speaker 1 (34:54):
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.
Speaker 5 (35:06):
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
(35:26):
with my sister Nancy, and watched the kids at their
home instead of them coming to our house.
Speaker 1 (35:32):
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.
Speaker 15 (35:52):
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.
Speaker 4 (36:03):
She didn't introduce herself.
Speaker 2 (36:04):
She just started loudly speaking, hollering.
Speaker 4 (36:09):
Over the phone.
Speaker 5 (36:10):
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.
Speaker 4 (36:33):
So I'm not sure.
Speaker 5 (36:34):
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.
Speaker 1 (36:43):
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.
Speaker 4 (36:53):
Way out of character.
Speaker 5 (36:55):
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.
Speaker 4 (37:03):
But this one, you know, I picked up the phone
and she just started.
Speaker 5 (37:06):
I mean, there was a screaming lady on the other
side of that phone.
Speaker 1 (37:10):
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.
Speaker 5 (37:18):
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
(37:41):
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.
Speaker 1 (38:02):
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?
Speaker 10 (38:24):
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.
Speaker 1 (38:41):
Do you remember anything in particular about the conversation.
Speaker 10 (38:47):
I didn't notice anything every ordinary, so he seemed pleasant.
Speaker 1 (38:55):
Do you remember your thoughts when you realized that it
was the same Chris.
Speaker 10 (38:59):
Vaughan, Oh, thank guy, me can show up and shoot
her here.
Speaker 1 (39:08):
The day before Gail was supposed to make that drive
up to see the kids with her sister, she got
an unexpected phone call.
Speaker 5 (39:16):
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
(39:41):
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.
Speaker 1 (40:02):
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
(40:24):
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
(40:49):
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
(41:16):
the next murder in Illinois, the unthinkable becomes reality.
Speaker 7 (41:21):
The one that most vividly earned its image into my
memory was an aerial shot.
Speaker 9 (41:28):
He could see.
Speaker 7 (41:30):
Kimberly's form lying over in the front seat.
Speaker 5 (41:33):
My sister came up from downstairs, but she says, what
are you doing?
Speaker 13 (41:37):
On the fly is my family has been healed.
Speaker 1 (41:40):
And Christopher Vaughan goes from grieving father to suspect where.
Speaker 3 (41:45):
I met by recorders, Ray wanted to know why Chris
killed his family.
Speaker 1 (41:52):
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
(42:12):
mixed by Evan Tyre and Taylor Chackoine.
Speaker 10 (42:20):
You Gray.
Speaker 2 (42:25):
Gang feel the ground.
Speaker 10 (42:32):
Holding gag Be.
Speaker 12 (42:39):
Grey Gage be the Ground.
Speaker 1 (43:11):
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, check out the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get the stories that matter
to you
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.
(00:22):
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
(00:45):
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.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
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
(01:19):
make sure that Chris distanced himself between him and his friends.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
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
(01:46):
in Illinois, Carrie.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
And now do say good places a.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
Fine?
Speaker 4 (02:11):
Teach them to.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Listen to this.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
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,
(02:46):
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.
(03:08):
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.
Speaker 4 (03:20):
No, I was more shocked that.
Speaker 5 (03:24):
He called me and told me that he.
Speaker 4 (03:27):
Was going to have a baby.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
Talking about Chris, especially as a father, remains very emotional
for Rose.
Speaker 6 (03:34):
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.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
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.
Speaker 6 (04:13):
Oh.
Speaker 5 (04:13):
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
(04:34):
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
(04:55):
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
(05:18):
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.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
Even at the wedding, there was little warmth between the
two families. Each side mostly kept themselves. Here again is
Gail's sister Rose.
Speaker 4 (05:37):
Oh oh yeah.
Speaker 7 (05:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (05:38):
Everybody tried to stay distant. Niceties was about all there was.
There wasn't any overly outgoingness.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
It was very awkward, but by most accounts, it was
still a pleasant event, although Kimberly had relayed some unpleasant
issues regarding the planning.
Speaker 4 (06:02):
Oh the wedding was beautiful.
Speaker 5 (06:05):
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
(06:26):
the wedding or hook soon before the wedding, her mom went.
Speaker 4 (06:31):
To the florist and changed everything.
Speaker 5 (06:32):
So it was quite a tug of war, and I
tried really hard not to make waves, but it was interesting.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
Gail says that dysfunctional dynamic continued after the couple exchanged vows.
Speaker 5 (06:49):
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.
Speaker 4 (07:11):
Interesting too.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
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.
Speaker 5 (07:24):
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.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
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.
Speaker 5 (07:52):
We did find out from her my mom in law,
that Susan had told her something or said something.
Speaker 4 (07:58):
To her that just hurt her very badly.
Speaker 5 (08:02):
She did not want to stay there, so we took
her home and we never found out what that was.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
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.
Speaker 5 (08:19):
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
(08:42):
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.
Speaker 4 (09:04):
And she asked us about, you know, hunting, and.
Speaker 5 (09:07):
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,
(09:32):
so we really didn't have.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
She didn't want to take our word for anything.
Speaker 5 (09:37):
Because we did not have the paper pedigree that she
thought we were.
Speaker 4 (09:43):
Supposed to have.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
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.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
Kim's Baum told her that if you were breastfeeding, you
can't get pregnant. Well, it doesn't exactly shin' true.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
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.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
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.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
And then a few years after that, Kevin Chris had
their third child, a son, Blake.
Speaker 4 (10:40):
So Sandy was.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
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.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
Interesting, so it's almost like the same age difference between
your boys.
Speaker 8 (10:58):
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.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
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.
Speaker 4 (11:18):
They were great.
Speaker 5 (11:20):
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.
(11:40):
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.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
Here they are in home video dying Easter eggs the
year before the tragedy.
Speaker 9 (12:10):
Out No Young One.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
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
(12:38):
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.
Speaker 10 (12:52):
Well.
Speaker 5 (12:53):
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
(13:15):
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
(13:38):
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
(14:02):
was fantastic with baseball. I mean he could give you
the stats of any player on the Cardinals team, and
he was only eight.
Speaker 4 (14:13):
It was remarkable.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
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
(14:37):
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,
(15:00):
but there is nothing to suggest Christopher would have been
capable of harming his children. Here's his aunt Rose.
Speaker 6 (15:08):
He was always happy. I mean, he was always goofy.
The pictures that I.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
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
(15:34):
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.
Speaker 5 (15:58):
He's always got a goofy smile on.
Speaker 6 (16:00):
He's always just the center of attention, having fun, just down.
Speaker 4 (16:04):
To earth fun.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
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.
Speaker 6 (16:26):
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
(16:48):
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.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
Rose sent many other photos of Chris interaction acting with
his children, and they all reflect an engaged, doting father, just.
Speaker 6 (17:05):
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.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
Chris's youngest brother, Adam, also recalls his impression of Chris
as a father.
Speaker 7 (17:30):
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,
(17:51):
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
(18:12):
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.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
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.
Speaker 11 (19:09):
Both had a problem with their education for insecurities. Yes,
I think Kim figured she would be better respected in.
Speaker 12 (19:22):
Her own family, her side of the family if she
got this degree.
Speaker 13 (19:30):
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.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
College degrees or lack thereof, obviously appears to have been
a huge sticking point with both families.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
We were just tolerated because.
Speaker 3 (19:53):
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
(20:14):
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.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
Was your guy.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
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.
Speaker 5 (20:52):
According to what I understand.
Speaker 3 (20:54):
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.
Speaker 1 (21:03):
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.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
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.
Speaker 3 (21:34):
Even though everybody saw the happy, bully, friendly side of Kimberly,
she was.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
A lot like her mother.
Speaker 3 (21:42):
More than anybody knows that there was a dark, mean side.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
Even the kids called her a monster mommy.
Speaker 3 (21:51):
Right when nobody else was around, that dark side would
come out.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
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.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
I actually got to witness one of her Monster Mommy
episodes Christmas before this happened. It was crazy because.
Speaker 5 (22:18):
It basically happened because Abigail decided she didn't want to.
Speaker 4 (22:21):
Take a shower.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
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.
Speaker 4 (22:30):
Okay, fine, But she took it to a.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
Hair pulling, abusive, screaming, rustling type match with her.
Speaker 4 (22:38):
Daughter, Abigail.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
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.
Speaker 5 (22:50):
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.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
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.
Speaker 5 (23:30):
Here's Gail Well it hit him John Chris's career.
Speaker 13 (23:34):
Wherever he had the best job is where he went.
Speaker 14 (23:37):
He had a job offer on the coast.
Speaker 12 (23:40):
Up there, and he took it.
Speaker 13 (23:43):
It made more money.
Speaker 10 (23:44):
He could get a.
Speaker 14 (23:45):
Bigger house and get Kim the vehicles she wanted, and
kids would be happy, and.
Speaker 5 (23:51):
We'll taken care of And he went wherever the job
took him, he did.
Speaker 3 (23:59):
But also so I think at the time they thought
that they got away from both of us, they have
a better chance of.
Speaker 5 (24:08):
Keeping their marriage together.
Speaker 3 (24:10):
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.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
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.
Speaker 9 (24:47):
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.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
Again, Clutter was on Vaughn's initial defense team and as
one of the people who knows Chris's story perhaps better
than anyone.
Speaker 9 (25:13):
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.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
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.
Speaker 3 (25:41):
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.
Speaker 13 (26:01):
A kid without college could.
Speaker 3 (26:04):
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
(26:26):
needed computer forensics and security, and he was a top
guy in a field.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
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.
Speaker 9 (26:48):
Being in Washington, they had easy access to the outdoors
and nature, and that's really the environment that they seemed
to thrive.
Speaker 1 (26:59):
And shared his adoration of all things outdoors with his
growing children.
Speaker 3 (27:04):
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,
(27:26):
humongus trees and stuff like that.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
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.
Speaker 3 (27:44):
They moved to.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
Washington State.
Speaker 3 (27:49):
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.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
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.
Speaker 9 (28:16):
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
(28:37):
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.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
For Chris, plus bonuses I believe.
Speaker 9 (28:58):
Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:00):
At the time of the murders, Chris was probably at
the height of his professional career.
Speaker 9 (29:07):
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.
Speaker 1 (29:19):
Chris's parents were also elated to have him so much
closer to them in Missouri.
Speaker 12 (29:25):
I was super.
Speaker 11 (29:25):
Happy because they would be within driving distance to visit.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
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.
Speaker 13 (29:40):
It was all Kim.
Speaker 14 (29:41):
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.
Speaker 1 (29:55):
And it wasn't what Chris had hoped for.
Speaker 12 (29:58):
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.
Speaker 13 (30:15):
Builder in a subdivision.
Speaker 3 (30:18):
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.
Speaker 1 (30:28):
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.
Speaker 3 (30:44):
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
(31:04):
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.
Speaker 1 (31:23):
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.
Speaker 2 (31:43):
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
(32:09):
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.
Speaker 1 (32:19):
It was sad and Pierre believes there was a troubling
reason why marriage troubles would have weighed heavily on Chris.
Speaker 3 (32:28):
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.
Speaker 2 (32:43):
That we can go after you.
Speaker 3 (32:45):
For that, you'd have to work ten jobs just to
pay for it.
Speaker 1 (32:51):
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
(33:12):
also begun to frequent strip clubs, but not for the
reasons you might think. Here's his mother, Gail.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
I wasn't as surprised about the strip club thing as
I was when he had gone to Mexico and found
comfort there.
Speaker 3 (33:29):
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.
Speaker 4 (33:45):
He did was talk.
Speaker 3 (33:47):
They did not have any kind of relationship or did
not have any interaction with them other than.
Speaker 2 (33:52):
Just sit and talk for hours.
Speaker 4 (33:53):
They would just sit and talk.
Speaker 1 (34:05):
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.
Speaker 5 (34:27):
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
(34:47):
sure if Chris and Kim would stay the night at
our house and continue on the next day, but we
never found out.
Speaker 1 (34:54):
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.
Speaker 5 (35:06):
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
(35:26):
with my sister Nancy, and watched the kids at their
home instead of them coming to our house.
Speaker 1 (35:32):
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.
Speaker 15 (35:52):
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.
Speaker 4 (36:03):
She didn't introduce herself.
Speaker 2 (36:04):
She just started loudly speaking, hollering.
Speaker 4 (36:09):
Over the phone.
Speaker 5 (36:10):
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.
Speaker 4 (36:33):
So I'm not sure.
Speaker 5 (36:34):
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.
Speaker 1 (36:43):
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.
Speaker 4 (36:53):
Way out of character.
Speaker 5 (36:55):
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.
Speaker 4 (37:03):
But this one, you know, I picked up the phone
and she just started.
Speaker 5 (37:06):
I mean, there was a screaming lady on the other
side of that phone.
Speaker 1 (37:10):
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.
Speaker 5 (37:18):
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
(37:41):
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.
Speaker 1 (38:02):
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?
Speaker 10 (38:24):
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.
Speaker 1 (38:41):
Do you remember anything in particular about the conversation.
Speaker 10 (38:47):
I didn't notice anything every ordinary, so he seemed pleasant.
Speaker 1 (38:55):
Do you remember your thoughts when you realized that it
was the same Chris.
Speaker 10 (38:59):
Vaughan, Oh, thank guy, me can show up and shoot
her here.
Speaker 1 (39:08):
The day before Gail was supposed to make that drive
up to see the kids with her sister, she got
an unexpected phone call.
Speaker 5 (39:16):
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
(39:41):
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.
Speaker 1 (40:02):
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
(40:24):
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
(40:49):
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
(41:16):
the next murder in Illinois, the unthinkable becomes reality.
Speaker 7 (41:21):
The one that most vividly earned its image into my
memory was an aerial shot.
Speaker 9 (41:28):
He could see.
Speaker 7 (41:30):
Kimberly's form lying over in the front seat.
Speaker 5 (41:33):
My sister came up from downstairs, but she says, what
are you doing?
Speaker 13 (41:37):
On the fly is my family has been healed.
Speaker 1 (41:40):
And Christopher Vaughan goes from grieving father to suspect where.
Speaker 3 (41:45):
I met by recorders, Ray wanted to know why Chris
killed his family.
Speaker 1 (41:52):
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
(42:12):
mixed by Evan Tyre and Taylor Chackoine.
Speaker 10 (42:20):
You Gray.
Speaker 2 (42:25):
Gang feel the ground.
Speaker 10 (42:32):
Holding gag Be.
Speaker 12 (42:39):
Grey Gage be the Ground.
Speaker 1 (43:11):
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