July 29, 2021 • 41 mins
Gail receives an unfathomable call as news of the horrific family massacre dominates the media. Chris Vaughn is interrogated, while still in a hospital gown, within hours of the killings.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Murder in Illinois is a production of iHeartRadio. Fourteen years later,
it's still difficult to imagine oneself on either side of
this tragic coin. Whether you lost your loved ones to murder,
or you also believed your loved one had been wrongfully
convicted of those murders, there would be pain, anger, and bitterness.
(00:22):
As reporter Erica Worst aptly put it, no.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
One's gonna get what they want, which is their loved
one's beast.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Here's Gale Vaughan.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
I got a phone call about noon, a personal phone
call from a lady from the Sun Times, I believe,
and she was interviewing me on how Kim intermingled with
the family. And it was like, well, where did this
call comes from? And she says, oh, didn't you hear
they were killed? And it was like turned on the news,
(01:04):
so yeah. I told her I couldn't talk any longer,
and I went to the TV and I called my husband.
I was just I was going to sixty directions, but
I wasn't going anywhere. It was just I didn't know
how to react. I just sat on the floor for
a few minutes and just and so my sister came
(01:25):
up from downstairs where she's been staying, and she says,
what are you doing sting on the phone. I says,
my fail has been killed.
Speaker 4 (01:33):
Jale called me after the reporter called her. She told
me that there was one survivor.
Speaker 5 (01:40):
She didn't know who it was.
Speaker 4 (01:42):
So I tried calling Chris a couple times on his phone,
tried calling Kim on her phone, leave once, and I
tracked down his office number and talked to them. Finally
I had somebody tell me, no, he did not.
Speaker 5 (01:58):
Show for work that day.
Speaker 4 (02:00):
As far as they know, he had took taken a
vacation day.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
Pierre immediately began to feel a mixture of fear and panic.
Speaker 4 (02:09):
I thought somebody had to do this to them. I
didn't believe it was within the family, and I was
very angry, and my mind was racing about one hundred
miles a minute because I was at work. I just
kept calling back and forth, and I finally called gailback
(02:29):
and said, I cannot get a hold of it. Well,
she called me back not too long after that, and
evidently missus Phillips had called her and asked her if
she's seen the news, and missus Phillips told her that
it was Chris and Kim's truck, and Kimberly was in
the front seat and the children in the back, and
(02:53):
they believed them all to be he dead.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
I'm Lauren Brt Pacheco and this is murdering Allinois.
Speaker 6 (03:01):
Hey, no face food you baby faced the king? Bye
all be f.
Speaker 7 (03:19):
You came to.
Speaker 6 (03:23):
Distrushed for had been she.
Speaker 8 (03:31):
A brock came.
Speaker 6 (03:35):
Bye? You did jack you.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
The Vaughn family had loaded into their suv and left
their oswe Go home before four forty five am. At
approximately five point fifteen am, a passing motorists would stop
to render assistance to Christopher Vaughan, who was found limping
along the frontage road of Interstate fifty five. He'd been
shot twice. Ten minutes later, our first responders would find
(04:09):
the rest of his family inside their suv. Like Vaughn,
each of the three children had been shot twice. The
body of their mother, Kimberly Vaughan, was slumped in the
passenger seat, a single gunshot wound under her chin and
a nine millimeter Torus handgun at her feet. Almost immediately,
(04:30):
the scene of the murders would be broadcast as breaking
and heartbreaking news. Gail's sister Rose vividly remembers that fateful morning.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
Yep, because we have a large property. I at the
time had commercial greenhouses on her property. I was working
outside and I just came out of the barn and
my brother called me and told me. I came in
the house, and of course.
Speaker 8 (04:56):
It was all over TV.
Speaker 9 (04:58):
Their bodies were found in the family vehicle parked near
I fifty five, on a narrow path near a cell
phone tower.
Speaker 10 (05:05):
His thirty four year old wife, Kimberley, along with their
twelve year old daughter Abigail, eleven year old daughter Cassandra,
and eight year old son Blake, were found dead in
their suv that was parked on a frontage road just
west of Interstate fifty five in Shanahan.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
Did you jump to any conclusions or did you assume
that it must have been a robbery? What were your
initial thoughts?
Speaker 9 (05:26):
Do you remember if I wouldn't have seen their car
on TV, I wouldn't have expected it to be true.
Speaker 8 (05:37):
It was crazy. I had no idea. I literally had
no idea, because of.
Speaker 9 (05:43):
Course with the TV, they don't tell you anything, and
if they do, you can't always believe anything they say.
Speaker 8 (05:50):
So I was just waiting to.
Speaker 9 (05:53):
Talk to my sister again, which we kept in contact
to see exactly what the next step was, what we
need to to do.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
I spoke to both of Chris's brothers, and nearly fifteen
years later, they both still remember the exact moment they
heard the details of the news. Here's Adam Bond.
Speaker 11 (06:12):
At the time, I was based in Junction City, Kansas,
working for a small biotech company. I got a call
on my cell phone from my parents' number.
Speaker 5 (06:24):
They called in and let.
Speaker 11 (06:25):
Me know that there had been an accident and that
they didn't have all the details yet.
Speaker 4 (06:31):
I I.
Speaker 11 (06:33):
Want to say that the initial story was that an
unknown shooter had attacked them while they were pulled over
on the side of the road or something, and it
just all kind of spiraled from there, and I was
able to quickly find some pictures online that were just disturbing.
(06:56):
The one that most vividly burned its image into my
memory was an aerial shot from I assume a helicopter
that was actually from an angle such that you could
see Kimberly's form lying over in.
Speaker 8 (07:15):
The front seat.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
Eric saw similar photos, and like his brother, Adam, was
in utter disbelief over the images.
Speaker 12 (07:24):
My dad called and told me to turn on the news,
so I pulled it up on my computer. It was
aerial helicopter footage of a wooded area with Chris and
Kim's maroon Ford expedition. Headlines were already flying at that
point in time, when it had just happened hours prior
(07:47):
to that. I was really confused. I really kind of
disbelief that something like that what was happening, or it
had happened. It definitely set me back on my rear.
I sat there and watched the footage and tried getting
a hold of my mom. Once the picture started popping
up on the news and everything, and my parents were
(08:10):
able to figure out where Chris was at, they got
in the truck and got up there to take care
of him.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
Pierre picks it up from here.
Speaker 4 (08:20):
We tried getting a hold of the state police and
everything like that, which we're totally uncooperative. Finally, after after
all afternoon to pacing back and forth, I decided let's go,
we'll go physically finding. So we spent the next five
and a half six hours driving up there and finally
(08:41):
tracking down a little state police station there.
Speaker 8 (08:45):
Here's Gale's take after many calls to the police made
by myself and my husband, we received no answers. Discontinued
throughout the morning and afternoon. June fourteenth, thirty pm, my
husband and I decided to go to the State Police
District five headquarters in Joliet.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
Gaiale and Pierre made that long drive with only one
goal in mind to find to their son. Other than
the location of the police station where Chris was being questioned,
they still had no real information.
Speaker 8 (09:21):
Ten thirty at night, we arrived at the State Police
headquarters asking to see Chris.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
They had no idea to the extent to which he
was hurt or what kind of state.
Speaker 11 (09:31):
He was in.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
And we went in and we told him the situation
and they said, sure, have a seat, and we sat
there for a couple of hours, and then we never
put in a room and it was recorded, and they
went through questions and everything, and each time, you know,
we keep asking how is Chris, Where is Chris, And
they said, well, he's here, but he's unavailable right now.
(09:58):
That was our first indication.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
Gale and Pierre still hadn't spoken to their son or
been given any official information about what had occurred. For
Kimberly's family, things have been quite a bit different, and
a lawyer, David Bush, was already speaking on behalf of
the Phillips.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
I think he was just a family friend. I'm not
sure how it came to be, but anyway, he seemed
to handle all the interviews throughout and he spoke for
the Phillips, and he is where I got the information
that the police had got into the Phillips home within
two hours of this incident, that eight o'clock in the morning,
(10:39):
eight thirty, and that grief counselor was on site.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
To reiterate. The Phillips were informed within hours of the
tragedy by officers with the grief counselor in tel The
Vonds found out through the press. Looking back, this seems
to set the tone for how the public and law
enforcement would view the crime from the beginning, foreshadowing the
way they would both deal with Christopher's versus Kimberly's family.
Speaker 8 (11:12):
We were told that Chris was not a suspect and
was helping the police try to make sense of what happened.
They did not want to disturb him at this time.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
We would have to wait, and so they waited at
the station, hoping for any information they could get about
their son. Finally, an officer was willing to speak to them.
Speaker 4 (11:35):
First of all, they didn't even want to let us in.
Then when we told them who we were, then a
couple police officers came out and talked to us a
little bit and they said, well, you can't see right now,
we're questioning him in this and the other thing. And
we asked him if he's been hurt, and he says, yes,
he was shot also, and he was staying a hospital
and treated, but he didn't have life threatening wounds. They
(11:57):
made us wait in the waiting room for a while,
and then then they come back out and they said,
can we talk to you, And they took us in
a closed room and talked to us and started asking
us all sorts of questions.
Speaker 5 (12:10):
And I said, is he'd be in charge? Is to
be in charge?
Speaker 4 (12:13):
And they said no, we's not being charge. And I said, well,
then we need to take him home. And then they said,
well no, he waved his right to an attorney, so
we got to finish question him. But at the time
he waved his right to an attorney, they had told
him the rest of his family it was dead.
Speaker 8 (12:33):
We were then greeted by some plain clothes officers and
ushered into our room. Richard Mullen began asking us questions,
not really answering any of our questions. The interview with
us ended and our Chris was still not available. We
were assured by Agent Mullen that Christopher knew we were
there and our cell phone number would be given to him.
(12:57):
Christopher would give us a call when he was finished
answering questions because he would need a ride home. Again,
we were told Chris was free to go at any time.
Speaker 4 (13:06):
He was not a suspect.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
So this is what Pierre and Gale were left with.
They now knew Chris had gunshot wounds and that he'd
waived his right to an attorney, and they believed, at
least at the time, he'd seemingly not been made aware
of the fate of his wife and children.
Speaker 4 (13:27):
All we were doing is pressing them to see and
talk to Chris. And we said, okay, well we'll just
sit in the waiting room. The name midnight or so.
Speaker 8 (13:36):
Then.
Speaker 12 (13:37):
Look, you can't sit here and wait, so we don't
know how long it's going to be.
Speaker 8 (13:42):
We left the police station at one ten in the morning,
so look for a hotel. After asking the police where
a hotel could be found, because we weren't familiar with
this area, no call came from Christopher.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
By the morning, they'd still not heard anything from Christopher
or the police.
Speaker 8 (14:13):
Friday, June fifteenth, we checked out the hotel, We went
through a fast food restaurant. We went back to the
state police headquarters in Juliette. We were told Chris had
asked to leave about two am. The police had called
Chris a cab. The police said they had no idea
(14:37):
where he had gone. We drove back to Chris and
Kim's house in Oswego, Illinois.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
Gall and Pierre thought that Chris's first instinct might have
been to try to return home, so that's where they headed.
A media circus was already building.
Speaker 8 (14:53):
There were many many reporters and news trucks were in
the cul de sac in front of Chris and Kim's house.
We parked in a driveway to the right of Chris's house,
pere ring the doorbell knock, peered inside. The house was dark.
No one was home at Chris's.
Speaker 13 (15:09):
Where met by reporters there and you know, they, you know,
wanted to know the reporters wanted to know.
Speaker 4 (15:18):
Right out the bat why.
Speaker 3 (15:21):
Chris killed his family.
Speaker 4 (15:22):
That was their first question, you know, and and where
is he at? I don't know where he's at.
Speaker 8 (15:30):
Your reporters, do your.
Speaker 13 (15:31):
Job, find out where he's at, and maybe you can
tell us.
Speaker 4 (15:34):
And I got in the car and left.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
At this point, Gallumpierre still had no word from Chris
or the police. They desperately wanted to locate their son,
and on top of it all, they were still processing
the fact that their daughter in law and grandchildren were dead.
There was grief and frustration and confusion all at once.
Speaker 8 (15:57):
It it was really surreal. I couldn't believe this had happened.
I hadn't really talked to anybody to get the details
on what had happened. How did this happen, Why did
this happen? Who did this? I mean, these thoughts were
going through our minds and we were trying to think
(16:18):
of what happened. And it didn't really sink in that
they were gone yet. But now we did talk to
the police and they said, yes, we are interviewing Chris.
So that answered the question of before we're dead and
(16:39):
one was alive. So we wanted to be with Chris.
We wanted to get to Chris as soon as we could,
and for some reason, the police we're not helping.
Speaker 14 (16:50):
Us do this.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
That reason would soon become clear, but the Vaughans were
simply left to search for their son.
Speaker 8 (16:59):
We didn't know what in the condition he was in.
He did sustain two gun wounds, we didn't know where.
We knew he wasn't dead, and he was walking around,
so it couldn't have been life threatening. But the imagination
is a terrible thing when you are near a traumatic incident.
(17:20):
So Pierre and I drove away from the media circus
from Chris's house and pulled into the clubhouse parking area
in the front by the pool. We again called the
state police to see if they could trace the cab
that they had called for Chris, and to find out
where they had dropped Chris at. The police called back
(17:40):
Chris had been dropped up at the Fairfield Inn, just
off Route thirty back in Joliet.
Speaker 11 (17:46):
We were now in.
Speaker 8 (17:47):
Northwego, so we drove to the Fairfield Inn and there
was no Christopher.
Speaker 4 (17:52):
But yeah, I remember, he's in an open hospital gown
with a pair of underwear on and hospital booties and
he's you knows Riss's bandage, his legs bandaged, and you
know they hadn't changed the bandage since the hospital treatedy
(18:14):
and that nine.
Speaker 5 (18:15):
In the morning.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
They'd later find out that shortly after telling the bonds
to leave, the police put Chris Vaughn in a cab
alone without a phone, at one forty a m. He
wasn't told his parents had actually been at the station,
and they knew that you were in town. They knew
that you had begged to see him. They you had
(18:38):
given them your cell phone, and they just put him
out on the street.
Speaker 5 (18:45):
They called him a cab and.
Speaker 4 (18:48):
I guess he had his wallet or a credit card
with you or whatever, but yeah, they put they get
he got a cab and they told the cab driver
take him to a hotel, and he went through three
or four hotels before you know, because he come walking
(19:09):
in in the hospital gown and with the bloody leg
and they're not going to exactly take you in.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
You'll recall that police claimed Chris was dropped at a
Fairfield end, but Gail and Pierre found him at a
motel eight.
Speaker 8 (19:22):
We asked Chris why he had been in the Motel eight.
When the cab dropped him at the Fairfield. His reply
was that Hotel eight was the only one out of
three that would let him have a room, seeing the
way he was dressed. So this meant that the tab
dropped him off the Fairfield and he walked in and
(19:42):
they turned him away. He walked into the next one
they turned him away, and the Motel eight was the
only one that allowed him to get a room.
Speaker 4 (19:53):
He told the guy he paid him double them to
stay in the room, so he went in there and crash.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
Gall and Pierre were finally able to locate their son
at the motel.
Speaker 8 (20:06):
We hugged him. He appeared to be in a state
of shock. His skin was cold and clammy. There there
was very little color in his face. His eyes were
blazed and dark. It was like his pupils were dilated.
They his eyes just weren't. I mean, he was wearing
(20:27):
two hospital gowns, underwear, and hospital booties when we found him.
The gauze from his leg wound was loose and bloody.
We went back into the hotel room the Motel eight
and I left Pierre with Christopher and I immediately went
(20:49):
to the store to buy his clothes, shoes, and bandages.
Pierre sat there. They sat in the dark. Chris said
he didn't on any lights all. I mean, he just
he was hiding. He didn't know what to do. His
world had collapsed. So Pierre sat with Chris. He hugged Chris.
(21:16):
They really did not speak at this point. Ollie did well.
Pierre did was just shold him. Pierre did not push
for answers at this time because Chris was in a daze,
quite a bit.
Speaker 4 (21:32):
Of shock, you know, to see your your son living
and bloody bandages and at the time he had long hair,
and it was it was just fuddled. It was all
over the place, and he was he was ghost white, pale,
(21:54):
and dark circles around his eyes, and he just yeah,
it was a bad scene.
Speaker 1 (22:02):
Pierre sat with his son, watching him try to process
what had happened, while also dealing with his own emotions
as a father and grandfather.
Speaker 5 (22:12):
And I stayed there and talked with him, and in
he just one word answers.
Speaker 4 (22:19):
Then he finally he asked me. He says, he says,
they told me my Kim and the kids are dead
and they're gone. And I says yeah, And I says
that's what they told us too. And he says, he all,
it's a long time. He says, well, he says, everything's gone.
Then he'sas, I have no reason to continue, no reason
(22:43):
to have a house job.
Speaker 5 (22:44):
You know, my family's gone.
Speaker 4 (22:45):
I have nothing.
Speaker 5 (22:47):
So at that moment, he was, he was at rock bottom.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
As we've stated in previous episodes, Chris had a parent
gaps in his memory in regard to the sequence of events,
which fostered almost immediate suspicion among the investigators. His parents
attributed his demeanor to the stress and shock of what
he'd just experienced. Gail and Pierre shifted their focus to
(23:12):
taking care of their son. As support of parents.
Speaker 8 (23:16):
Tierre talked to Chris about his physical wounds and just
mostly sat in silence, just being there with him. I
returned with clothes, flip flops, and moon clean cleaners and bandages,
and we washed Chris up, helped him put on his clothes.
We assisted him in changing his bandages on his left
(23:36):
wrist and left thigh. We left Motel eight and went
back to Target to fill up prescription for antibiotics. He
had received a script from the emergency room. When the
prescription was filled, we left. We found a restaurant starving
breakfast as well as lunch. We ordered, but not much
(23:59):
was he eaten. We checked into a Holiday Express Saturday
and watched TV together, not really seeing what was on
the screen.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
You will find multiple incidences of Chrispond's allegedly self inflicted
bullet wounds to his left wrist and leg, described as
superficial injuries. His parents disagree.
Speaker 13 (24:24):
His wrist was probably the least one because we thought
possibly the bullet had ricocheted off of the bend of
his watch that he had, so it just kind of
skittered down his skin. Yeah, it didn't go through his wrist, No,
it went perpendicular to his wrist and his bone stuff
like that, and made a nice gash in there.
Speaker 4 (24:47):
Now, his wound to his leg.
Speaker 3 (24:49):
That was a different matter.
Speaker 12 (24:50):
That's different matter, because that was a true and true wound.
Speaker 13 (24:54):
Luckily it went on the outside of the bone instead
of inside of the Who had gone on the inside
of the bone, it would have.
Speaker 3 (25:02):
Hit the main artery and he wouldn't be here to day.
Speaker 13 (25:05):
But it went through and through on the left side,
come out the backside of the sky. And sometime during
the week between that and the funeral. I took him
into a doctor and the doctor pulled thirty six inches
of gauze out of the wound hole they had packed
a pull of gauze.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
Christopher Vaughan was wounded, had lost his entire family, and
according to the law, was supposed to have had the
presumption of innocence.
Speaker 3 (25:35):
He just had a glassy stare and stared off in space,
and but he was with us, so you know, as
long as he was with us, that was okay. We
went back to the hotel, he went in for another
interrogation talk, and then the next day he went in again,
and after that we headed back to Saint Louis, Missouri.
Speaker 13 (26:00):
Home.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
There are many key and controversial moments of the initial interrogations,
but at the time Gale and Pierre had no idea
to the extent of the questioning Chris had endured until
later when they viewed the tapes, which they've shared with us.
Pierre Vaughan believes the aggressiveness of the interrogation was meant
(26:21):
to serve a very specific purpose.
Speaker 5 (26:25):
To break him down even further.
Speaker 4 (26:28):
It's kind of like boot camp in the military. They
were you out so bad that you submit to their orders,
and I think that's.
Speaker 6 (26:38):
What they did.
Speaker 4 (26:38):
I mean, when you questioned a guy from ten o'clock
in the morning till two o'clock the next morning, eighteen
hours or whatever it was, twenty hours of questioning, you
know you're going to break down his resistance, and that's
what they tried to do. But according to the transcripts
of the police tapes, he never did. That was never
(27:03):
presented at the trial.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
Here are some of the excerpts of the questioning of
Vaughn after the shootings, while he was still clad in
a hospital gown and bleeding.
Speaker 4 (27:30):
I don't remember. I got in, and I don't know.
Speaker 15 (27:37):
I don't even know if I was putting my seatbelt
on or what. And then once I saw my leg,
I don't know. I think I stopped thinking. Did you
see a gun in your hand? I don't even remember
seeing her.
Speaker 3 (27:56):
I just got in, and.
Speaker 15 (27:59):
I don't remember I remember even looking around, but that
I just I.
Speaker 11 (28:07):
Just got out.
Speaker 16 (28:08):
Do you remember something else you told me that happened
that you did or you said after you felt any
the the the injury to your life.
Speaker 15 (28:16):
So that was where I go for help, Okay, do
you remember you saying that? Not particularly but I remember,
I don't. I don't know if I said it or
if I meant to say it, but that was where
I was headed.
Speaker 4 (28:36):
Mkay.
Speaker 16 (28:37):
But you said you said it to her, Okay, I
I'm I'm only telling you. I'm repeating back to you what.
Speaker 13 (28:42):
You told me.
Speaker 4 (28:43):
Well, you guys asked exactly how. I don't remember if
I said, CANIM long for help? I'm longing for help?
I I don't remember other than I'm going for help.
Speaker 17 (28:57):
Did you say it the way you're talking now? Real solve?
Speaker 4 (29:00):
Like a little girl?
Speaker 1 (29:01):
Talk up here? Again? Is Pierre Vaughan, Well, you'd have to.
Speaker 4 (29:08):
Look at the beginning of the tape when he they
first run Hi back from the hospital and they started
talking to him and everything like that. They were asking
him questions and he was kind of in shocked because
he'd been shot. He kept asking, where's Kim, where's the kids?
Where's Kim, where's the kids? And they wouldn't tell him.
They wouldn't tell him, And that went on for quite
(29:30):
a while. So finally they told him. You know, he
told him, he said, well, unless you tell me where
Kim the kids are, I'm not going to talk to
you anymore. So that's when, you know, the nice policeman
said you killed all your family. They're dead, And then
(29:51):
they laid out the pictures and he said, no, that's
that's not true. You know, he says they're not dead,
and he as they are, and they kept pushing the
picture back and in front of him and you know,
accusing him of doing it.
Speaker 1 (30:07):
As a side note, during that interrogation, Chris could have
blamed his wife, but he didn't, pulling and over and over.
Speaker 14 (30:15):
And over.
Speaker 13 (30:18):
All.
Speaker 15 (30:18):
The thing I can think of is it Kim somehow?
Oh my god, And there's there's snowy around and.
Speaker 4 (30:28):
So, Okay, I don't.
Speaker 8 (30:34):
Know.
Speaker 17 (30:35):
I don't think she's killed all of that.
Speaker 4 (30:39):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (30:40):
Something private investigator Bill Clutter pointed out during one of
our interviews.
Speaker 14 (30:45):
As I started going through the transcripts of those interviews,
I was being able to see there were a number
of times when the detectives would try to get Chris
to point the finger it Kimberly for having done this,
and he just was reluctant to go there. When he
was given the opportunity to blame his wife, he defended
(31:09):
her and just found it impossible to believe that she
would kill her own children. So if this is a
person that had staged all this with the intent of
leading the police to believe that his wife had committed
this as a murder suicide, I mean, detectives gave him
(31:29):
every opportunity to bite on that, and he just never did.
Speaker 17 (31:35):
Why do you think she would shoe shoot?
Speaker 15 (31:38):
I can't imagine why she would do I can't imagine
her doing that.
Speaker 4 (31:42):
I don't know, I.
Speaker 5 (31:48):
Mean knew he had her words the night.
Speaker 4 (31:51):
Before, and she still didn't know about the weekend.
Speaker 15 (32:00):
I had no idea, I mean name, we had, we had.
Speaker 1 (32:10):
Plans all summer, Bill had. Doctor Terry Killian, a forensic psychiatrist,
examined the footage of the entire interrogation. His professional opinion
was that Chris exhibited signs of dissociative amnesia, which would
have been difficult to fake. Despite their attempts to break
Chris down over the duration of the police interview, he
(32:33):
stuck to the story that he could not remember, and
the police stuck to their narrative.
Speaker 17 (32:39):
Tell me you're a lucky guy. Out of here, tell
me you're a lucky guy. Say I'm a lucky guy
because I didn't die today.
Speaker 4 (32:45):
I don't think that's true.
Speaker 17 (32:46):
You're a lucky guy, Chris. You didn't die today. Guess
what you're gonna live? Things being here ain't here?
Speaker 9 (32:53):
No more?
Speaker 17 (32:54):
Gone, Dad, your kids? What's her name? This is Sandy?
How would a say? Is this the way you remember
Sandy looking this morning? Did she look just like this?
What did she look like? Her hair was shorter? How
else was it? What did she look like when she died?
(33:15):
What do you think she looked like when she died?
How about Abigail? What does she look like? Did she
look like this? Did she look like this before she
died today? Did she What do you think did she
have that same look on her face when she died today?
(33:37):
Is that the way she looked? You can't say? How
about Blake.
Speaker 3 (33:43):
Looks just like you?
Speaker 7 (33:45):
Did he look like that today when you killed him?
Did you kill him? Did you kill Blake? Did you
kill your wife? Did you kill anybody? But they're all dead?
Speaker 13 (33:59):
Right?
Speaker 8 (34:01):
What you said?
Speaker 17 (34:02):
That's what I'm telling you happened. They're all dead. They're
not here, but lucky Chris is still here. Not so lucky,
not so lucky?
Speaker 6 (34:10):
Why not?
Speaker 17 (34:10):
Why aren't you so lucky? Everything that everything you live for?
And it's gone. But guess what, you're still here. That's
pretty lucky.
Speaker 1 (34:19):
Here again is Pierre.
Speaker 5 (34:22):
Finally he pushed the pictures away and he shut down.
Speaker 4 (34:25):
I mean, he he would just keep denying that he
killed them, and that he'd answer the questions and tell
them he told him, he says. You know, after we
pulled off on the road, he says, I got out
to check check the truck, and he says after that,
he says, I do not remember anything. He says, the
(34:48):
next thing I remember is that I'm walking along the
road and the guy taps me on the shoulder. And
please wouldn't accept that. They you know, well, how can
you shoot your wife and kids and not remember that? Basically,
he shut down.
Speaker 5 (35:02):
If you're not gonna believe me, I'm not going to
talk to you type thing. And it gets that for me.
I mean, if if I.
Speaker 4 (35:09):
Talk to people and they're not listening to me, I
don't talk to him anymore.
Speaker 5 (35:12):
Wou'd you do it again?
Speaker 11 (35:14):
I didn't do it?
Speaker 4 (35:15):
But you do it again?
Speaker 13 (35:17):
I didn't do it.
Speaker 17 (35:18):
What did you do it again? You keep repeating, how
did you do it? I didn't Did they see it?
Speaker 14 (35:26):
I didn't do anything?
Speaker 17 (35:27):
Did they see it when you did it?
Speaker 4 (35:29):
I'm done talking.
Speaker 17 (35:30):
Did you see it? Did you see it? Did you
see their face? Did you see their faces when they
did it?
Speaker 8 (35:37):
Huh?
Speaker 17 (35:38):
I'm never talking.
Speaker 11 (35:39):
Huh.
Speaker 17 (35:40):
Don't shut down on me. This is a new Cress.
Remember I answered your question, Chris Man. This is a
new Chris.
Speaker 16 (35:48):
I lost everything, but you'd have everything now. You may
have lost things in the past, but what do you
have now? But you get to start a new don't you.
You're reborn again, the new Chris.
Speaker 17 (36:02):
Right else you do. But you know what, Chris, put
your head down. Keep it down, because that's where it belongs.
Speaker 7 (36:11):
The shame, the shame of it all, Chris, I just
don't want to hear what you have, the same of
it all and over this, the shame of it all.
Speaker 17 (36:19):
Quite put your head back down. I'd be shame too.
Speaker 7 (36:22):
If I did what you did, I'd be shaved. I
put my head down, just done. I would put my
head downheah, put your head back down. Shameful, But that's
old Chris.
Speaker 17 (36:31):
Would be a shameful. Do anything shameful.
Speaker 1 (36:38):
After everything, they let Chris go, but the police were
far from being done with him. He was followed constantly
They had a tail on.
Speaker 4 (36:46):
Him and us at all times. They had an unmarked car.
They knew exactly where we were, they knew exactly what
rooms where you're staying in and and everything. They tailed
us all the way coming back to the Missouri shape line.
Speaker 1 (36:59):
And then the next day, when it seemed as if
Chris had already hit rock bottom, things would continue to
get worse.
Speaker 4 (37:07):
It wasn't until we got Chris back to our house.
Speaker 13 (37:13):
And then.
Speaker 4 (37:15):
While we were making the funeral arrangements stuff like that,
the state police called us and they wanted to talk
to Chris and I again. And I said, okay, we'll
come over and talk to us. You know, this is
our address, and he said, no, you got to go
over there. Well, we had to go over across the
state line in Illinois because they had no jurisdiction. And
if you know, I didn't figure out this out till later,
(37:36):
but if Chris had said something or admitted something, they
could arrested him right there in Illinois because they had jurisdiction.
If they came over to our side of the river,
they had none.
Speaker 1 (37:45):
In spite of everything, the Vaughn still trusted the police
at that point and in the presumption of innocence. They
also felt they had nothing to hide, so.
Speaker 4 (37:56):
We went over there and talked to him again. On
the way back, Chris more or less told me he's
his dad. He says, I think they're going to try
to do in this on me. And I said, well,
you know, I says, you don't have any worry about
he didn't do it, and he said, well, that's not
what they think. And then that's about all I said
about it, because he he was still much in a
(38:18):
state of shock, trying to figure things out. Neither one
of us knew what to.
Speaker 1 (38:23):
Do, and it turns out there was very little that
could be done. It was at this point that Christopher
Vaughan was no longer just a grieving father and spouse.
He was the primary suspect, and the murders of his
wife and children called.
Speaker 6 (38:38):
His feet to my nor my flight diuma.
Speaker 18 (38:44):
He swollen him up, changing mine. I'll hope he fusing.
Speaker 6 (38:58):
This in that.
Speaker 1 (39:04):
On the next murder in Illinois, as Crispawn prepares to
place his wife and children in their graves.
Speaker 5 (39:11):
I absolutely saw him crying.
Speaker 11 (39:13):
I saw him trying to hold it together around people,
but you could just see pain emanating from him.
Speaker 1 (39:24):
Handcuffs are placed on his wrists.
Speaker 4 (39:27):
There was fourteen different policemen standing there and they immediately
handcuffed him and writing his rights and tell him his
being arrested for the murder of his family.
Speaker 1 (39:40):
Murder in Illinois is a production of iHeartRadio. Executive producers
are Lauren Bright Pacheco and Taylor Chaquoine. Written by Lauren
Bright Pacheco and Matthew Riddle, Story editing by Matthew Riddle,
editing and sound design by Evan Tyer and Taylor Chaquoine.
Featuring music by Cicada Rhythm with new compositions engineered and
(40:02):
mixed by Evan Tyer and Taylor Chaquoyne. Archived news reports
provided by w G.
Speaker 19 (40:08):
Nyma Hey It's way, alma I am.
Speaker 6 (40:26):
Bra and waitlaar yes, wait helma ar Wait kay say.
Speaker 1 (41:14):
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. Fourteen years later,
it's still difficult to imagine oneself on either side of
this tragic coin. Whether you lost your loved ones to murder,
or you also believed your loved one had been wrongfully
convicted of those murders, there would be pain, anger, and bitterness.
(00:22):
As reporter Erica Worst aptly put it, no.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
One's gonna get what they want, which is their loved
one's beast.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Here's Gale Vaughan.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
I got a phone call about noon, a personal phone
call from a lady from the Sun Times, I believe,
and she was interviewing me on how Kim intermingled with
the family. And it was like, well, where did this
call comes from? And she says, oh, didn't you hear
they were killed? And it was like turned on the news,
(01:04):
so yeah. I told her I couldn't talk any longer,
and I went to the TV and I called my husband.
I was just I was going to sixty directions, but
I wasn't going anywhere. It was just I didn't know
how to react. I just sat on the floor for
a few minutes and just and so my sister came
(01:25):
up from downstairs where she's been staying, and she says,
what are you doing sting on the phone. I says,
my fail has been killed.
Speaker 4 (01:33):
Jale called me after the reporter called her. She told
me that there was one survivor.
Speaker 5 (01:40):
She didn't know who it was.
Speaker 4 (01:42):
So I tried calling Chris a couple times on his phone,
tried calling Kim on her phone, leave once, and I
tracked down his office number and talked to them. Finally
I had somebody tell me, no, he did not.
Speaker 5 (01:58):
Show for work that day.
Speaker 4 (02:00):
As far as they know, he had took taken a
vacation day.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
Pierre immediately began to feel a mixture of fear and panic.
Speaker 4 (02:09):
I thought somebody had to do this to them. I
didn't believe it was within the family, and I was
very angry, and my mind was racing about one hundred
miles a minute because I was at work. I just
kept calling back and forth, and I finally called gailback
(02:29):
and said, I cannot get a hold of it. Well,
she called me back not too long after that, and
evidently missus Phillips had called her and asked her if
she's seen the news, and missus Phillips told her that
it was Chris and Kim's truck, and Kimberly was in
the front seat and the children in the back, and
(02:53):
they believed them all to be he dead.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
I'm Lauren Brt Pacheco and this is murdering Allinois.
Speaker 6 (03:01):
Hey, no face food you baby faced the king? Bye
all be f.
Speaker 7 (03:19):
You came to.
Speaker 6 (03:23):
Distrushed for had been she.
Speaker 8 (03:31):
A brock came.
Speaker 6 (03:35):
Bye? You did jack you.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
The Vaughn family had loaded into their suv and left
their oswe Go home before four forty five am. At
approximately five point fifteen am, a passing motorists would stop
to render assistance to Christopher Vaughan, who was found limping
along the frontage road of Interstate fifty five. He'd been
shot twice. Ten minutes later, our first responders would find
(04:09):
the rest of his family inside their suv. Like Vaughn,
each of the three children had been shot twice. The
body of their mother, Kimberly Vaughan, was slumped in the
passenger seat, a single gunshot wound under her chin and
a nine millimeter Torus handgun at her feet. Almost immediately,
(04:30):
the scene of the murders would be broadcast as breaking
and heartbreaking news. Gail's sister Rose vividly remembers that fateful morning.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
Yep, because we have a large property. I at the
time had commercial greenhouses on her property. I was working
outside and I just came out of the barn and
my brother called me and told me. I came in
the house, and of course.
Speaker 8 (04:56):
It was all over TV.
Speaker 9 (04:58):
Their bodies were found in the family vehicle parked near
I fifty five, on a narrow path near a cell
phone tower.
Speaker 10 (05:05):
His thirty four year old wife, Kimberley, along with their
twelve year old daughter Abigail, eleven year old daughter Cassandra,
and eight year old son Blake, were found dead in
their suv that was parked on a frontage road just
west of Interstate fifty five in Shanahan.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
Did you jump to any conclusions or did you assume
that it must have been a robbery? What were your
initial thoughts?
Speaker 9 (05:26):
Do you remember if I wouldn't have seen their car
on TV, I wouldn't have expected it to be true.
Speaker 8 (05:37):
It was crazy. I had no idea. I literally had
no idea, because of.
Speaker 9 (05:43):
Course with the TV, they don't tell you anything, and
if they do, you can't always believe anything they say.
Speaker 8 (05:50):
So I was just waiting to.
Speaker 9 (05:53):
Talk to my sister again, which we kept in contact
to see exactly what the next step was, what we
need to to do.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
I spoke to both of Chris's brothers, and nearly fifteen
years later, they both still remember the exact moment they
heard the details of the news. Here's Adam Bond.
Speaker 11 (06:12):
At the time, I was based in Junction City, Kansas,
working for a small biotech company. I got a call
on my cell phone from my parents' number.
Speaker 5 (06:24):
They called in and let.
Speaker 11 (06:25):
Me know that there had been an accident and that
they didn't have all the details yet.
Speaker 4 (06:31):
I I.
Speaker 11 (06:33):
Want to say that the initial story was that an
unknown shooter had attacked them while they were pulled over
on the side of the road or something, and it
just all kind of spiraled from there, and I was
able to quickly find some pictures online that were just disturbing.
(06:56):
The one that most vividly burned its image into my
memory was an aerial shot from I assume a helicopter
that was actually from an angle such that you could
see Kimberly's form lying over in.
Speaker 8 (07:15):
The front seat.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
Eric saw similar photos, and like his brother, Adam, was
in utter disbelief over the images.
Speaker 12 (07:24):
My dad called and told me to turn on the news,
so I pulled it up on my computer. It was
aerial helicopter footage of a wooded area with Chris and
Kim's maroon Ford expedition. Headlines were already flying at that
point in time, when it had just happened hours prior
(07:47):
to that. I was really confused. I really kind of
disbelief that something like that what was happening, or it
had happened. It definitely set me back on my rear.
I sat there and watched the footage and tried getting
a hold of my mom. Once the picture started popping
up on the news and everything, and my parents were
(08:10):
able to figure out where Chris was at, they got
in the truck and got up there to take care
of him.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
Pierre picks it up from here.
Speaker 4 (08:20):
We tried getting a hold of the state police and
everything like that, which we're totally uncooperative. Finally, after after
all afternoon to pacing back and forth, I decided let's go,
we'll go physically finding. So we spent the next five
and a half six hours driving up there and finally
(08:41):
tracking down a little state police station there.
Speaker 8 (08:45):
Here's Gale's take after many calls to the police made
by myself and my husband, we received no answers. Discontinued
throughout the morning and afternoon. June fourteenth, thirty pm, my
husband and I decided to go to the State Police
District five headquarters in Joliet.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
Gaiale and Pierre made that long drive with only one
goal in mind to find to their son. Other than
the location of the police station where Chris was being questioned,
they still had no real information.
Speaker 8 (09:21):
Ten thirty at night, we arrived at the State Police
headquarters asking to see Chris.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
They had no idea to the extent to which he
was hurt or what kind of state.
Speaker 11 (09:31):
He was in.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
And we went in and we told him the situation
and they said, sure, have a seat, and we sat
there for a couple of hours, and then we never
put in a room and it was recorded, and they
went through questions and everything, and each time, you know,
we keep asking how is Chris, Where is Chris, And
they said, well, he's here, but he's unavailable right now.
(09:58):
That was our first indication.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
Gale and Pierre still hadn't spoken to their son or
been given any official information about what had occurred. For
Kimberly's family, things have been quite a bit different, and
a lawyer, David Bush, was already speaking on behalf of
the Phillips.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
I think he was just a family friend. I'm not
sure how it came to be, but anyway, he seemed
to handle all the interviews throughout and he spoke for
the Phillips, and he is where I got the information
that the police had got into the Phillips home within
two hours of this incident, that eight o'clock in the morning,
(10:39):
eight thirty, and that grief counselor was on site.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
To reiterate. The Phillips were informed within hours of the
tragedy by officers with the grief counselor in tel The
Vonds found out through the press. Looking back, this seems
to set the tone for how the public and law
enforcement would view the crime from the beginning, foreshadowing the
way they would both deal with Christopher's versus Kimberly's family.
Speaker 8 (11:12):
We were told that Chris was not a suspect and
was helping the police try to make sense of what happened.
They did not want to disturb him at this time.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
We would have to wait, and so they waited at
the station, hoping for any information they could get about
their son. Finally, an officer was willing to speak to them.
Speaker 4 (11:35):
First of all, they didn't even want to let us in.
Then when we told them who we were, then a
couple police officers came out and talked to us a
little bit and they said, well, you can't see right now,
we're questioning him in this and the other thing. And
we asked him if he's been hurt, and he says, yes,
he was shot also, and he was staying a hospital
and treated, but he didn't have life threatening wounds. They
(11:57):
made us wait in the waiting room for a while,
and then then they come back out and they said,
can we talk to you, And they took us in
a closed room and talked to us and started asking
us all sorts of questions.
Speaker 5 (12:10):
And I said, is he'd be in charge? Is to
be in charge?
Speaker 4 (12:13):
And they said no, we's not being charge. And I said, well,
then we need to take him home. And then they said,
well no, he waved his right to an attorney, so
we got to finish question him. But at the time
he waved his right to an attorney, they had told
him the rest of his family it was dead.
Speaker 8 (12:33):
We were then greeted by some plain clothes officers and
ushered into our room. Richard Mullen began asking us questions,
not really answering any of our questions. The interview with
us ended and our Chris was still not available. We
were assured by Agent Mullen that Christopher knew we were
there and our cell phone number would be given to him.
(12:57):
Christopher would give us a call when he was finished
answering questions because he would need a ride home. Again,
we were told Chris was free to go at any time.
Speaker 4 (13:06):
He was not a suspect.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
So this is what Pierre and Gale were left with.
They now knew Chris had gunshot wounds and that he'd
waived his right to an attorney, and they believed, at
least at the time, he'd seemingly not been made aware
of the fate of his wife and children.
Speaker 4 (13:27):
All we were doing is pressing them to see and
talk to Chris. And we said, okay, well we'll just
sit in the waiting room. The name midnight or so.
Speaker 8 (13:36):
Then.
Speaker 12 (13:37):
Look, you can't sit here and wait, so we don't
know how long it's going to be.
Speaker 8 (13:42):
We left the police station at one ten in the morning,
so look for a hotel. After asking the police where
a hotel could be found, because we weren't familiar with
this area, no call came from Christopher.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
By the morning, they'd still not heard anything from Christopher
or the police.
Speaker 8 (14:13):
Friday, June fifteenth, we checked out the hotel, We went
through a fast food restaurant. We went back to the
state police headquarters in Juliette. We were told Chris had
asked to leave about two am. The police had called
Chris a cab. The police said they had no idea
(14:37):
where he had gone. We drove back to Chris and
Kim's house in Oswego, Illinois.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
Gall and Pierre thought that Chris's first instinct might have
been to try to return home, so that's where they headed.
A media circus was already building.
Speaker 8 (14:53):
There were many many reporters and news trucks were in
the cul de sac in front of Chris and Kim's house.
We parked in a driveway to the right of Chris's house,
pere ring the doorbell knock, peered inside. The house was dark.
No one was home at Chris's.
Speaker 13 (15:09):
Where met by reporters there and you know, they, you know,
wanted to know the reporters wanted to know.
Speaker 4 (15:18):
Right out the bat why.
Speaker 3 (15:21):
Chris killed his family.
Speaker 4 (15:22):
That was their first question, you know, and and where
is he at? I don't know where he's at.
Speaker 8 (15:30):
Your reporters, do your.
Speaker 13 (15:31):
Job, find out where he's at, and maybe you can
tell us.
Speaker 4 (15:34):
And I got in the car and left.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
At this point, Gallumpierre still had no word from Chris
or the police. They desperately wanted to locate their son,
and on top of it all, they were still processing
the fact that their daughter in law and grandchildren were dead.
There was grief and frustration and confusion all at once.
Speaker 8 (15:57):
It it was really surreal. I couldn't believe this had happened.
I hadn't really talked to anybody to get the details
on what had happened. How did this happen, Why did
this happen? Who did this? I mean, these thoughts were
going through our minds and we were trying to think
(16:18):
of what happened. And it didn't really sink in that
they were gone yet. But now we did talk to
the police and they said, yes, we are interviewing Chris.
So that answered the question of before we're dead and
(16:39):
one was alive. So we wanted to be with Chris.
We wanted to get to Chris as soon as we could,
and for some reason, the police we're not helping.
Speaker 14 (16:50):
Us do this.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
That reason would soon become clear, but the Vaughans were
simply left to search for their son.
Speaker 8 (16:59):
We didn't know what in the condition he was in.
He did sustain two gun wounds, we didn't know where.
We knew he wasn't dead, and he was walking around,
so it couldn't have been life threatening. But the imagination
is a terrible thing when you are near a traumatic incident.
(17:20):
So Pierre and I drove away from the media circus
from Chris's house and pulled into the clubhouse parking area
in the front by the pool. We again called the
state police to see if they could trace the cab
that they had called for Chris, and to find out
where they had dropped Chris at. The police called back
(17:40):
Chris had been dropped up at the Fairfield Inn, just
off Route thirty back in Joliet.
Speaker 11 (17:46):
We were now in.
Speaker 8 (17:47):
Northwego, so we drove to the Fairfield Inn and there
was no Christopher.
Speaker 4 (17:52):
But yeah, I remember, he's in an open hospital gown
with a pair of underwear on and hospital booties and
he's you knows Riss's bandage, his legs bandaged, and you
know they hadn't changed the bandage since the hospital treatedy
(18:14):
and that nine.
Speaker 5 (18:15):
In the morning.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
They'd later find out that shortly after telling the bonds
to leave, the police put Chris Vaughn in a cab
alone without a phone, at one forty a m. He
wasn't told his parents had actually been at the station,
and they knew that you were in town. They knew
that you had begged to see him. They you had
(18:38):
given them your cell phone, and they just put him
out on the street.
Speaker 5 (18:45):
They called him a cab and.
Speaker 4 (18:48):
I guess he had his wallet or a credit card
with you or whatever, but yeah, they put they get
he got a cab and they told the cab driver
take him to a hotel, and he went through three
or four hotels before you know, because he come walking
(19:09):
in in the hospital gown and with the bloody leg
and they're not going to exactly take you in.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
You'll recall that police claimed Chris was dropped at a
Fairfield end, but Gail and Pierre found him at a
motel eight.
Speaker 8 (19:22):
We asked Chris why he had been in the Motel eight.
When the cab dropped him at the Fairfield. His reply
was that Hotel eight was the only one out of
three that would let him have a room, seeing the
way he was dressed. So this meant that the tab
dropped him off the Fairfield and he walked in and
(19:42):
they turned him away. He walked into the next one
they turned him away, and the Motel eight was the
only one that allowed him to get a room.
Speaker 4 (19:53):
He told the guy he paid him double them to
stay in the room, so he went in there and crash.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
Gall and Pierre were finally able to locate their son
at the motel.
Speaker 8 (20:06):
We hugged him. He appeared to be in a state
of shock. His skin was cold and clammy. There there
was very little color in his face. His eyes were
blazed and dark. It was like his pupils were dilated.
They his eyes just weren't. I mean, he was wearing
(20:27):
two hospital gowns, underwear, and hospital booties when we found him.
The gauze from his leg wound was loose and bloody.
We went back into the hotel room the Motel eight
and I left Pierre with Christopher and I immediately went
(20:49):
to the store to buy his clothes, shoes, and bandages.
Pierre sat there. They sat in the dark. Chris said
he didn't on any lights all. I mean, he just
he was hiding. He didn't know what to do. His
world had collapsed. So Pierre sat with Chris. He hugged Chris.
(21:16):
They really did not speak at this point. Ollie did well.
Pierre did was just shold him. Pierre did not push
for answers at this time because Chris was in a daze,
quite a bit.
Speaker 4 (21:32):
Of shock, you know, to see your your son living
and bloody bandages and at the time he had long hair,
and it was it was just fuddled. It was all
over the place, and he was he was ghost white, pale,
(21:54):
and dark circles around his eyes, and he just yeah,
it was a bad scene.
Speaker 1 (22:02):
Pierre sat with his son, watching him try to process
what had happened, while also dealing with his own emotions
as a father and grandfather.
Speaker 5 (22:12):
And I stayed there and talked with him, and in
he just one word answers.
Speaker 4 (22:19):
Then he finally he asked me. He says, he says,
they told me my Kim and the kids are dead
and they're gone. And I says yeah, And I says
that's what they told us too. And he says, he all,
it's a long time. He says, well, he says, everything's gone.
Then he'sas, I have no reason to continue, no reason
(22:43):
to have a house job.
Speaker 5 (22:44):
You know, my family's gone.
Speaker 4 (22:45):
I have nothing.
Speaker 5 (22:47):
So at that moment, he was, he was at rock bottom.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
As we've stated in previous episodes, Chris had a parent
gaps in his memory in regard to the sequence of events,
which fostered almost immediate suspicion among the investigators. His parents
attributed his demeanor to the stress and shock of what
he'd just experienced. Gail and Pierre shifted their focus to
(23:12):
taking care of their son. As support of parents.
Speaker 8 (23:16):
Tierre talked to Chris about his physical wounds and just
mostly sat in silence, just being there with him. I
returned with clothes, flip flops, and moon clean cleaners and bandages,
and we washed Chris up, helped him put on his clothes.
We assisted him in changing his bandages on his left
(23:36):
wrist and left thigh. We left Motel eight and went
back to Target to fill up prescription for antibiotics. He
had received a script from the emergency room. When the
prescription was filled, we left. We found a restaurant starving
breakfast as well as lunch. We ordered, but not much
(23:59):
was he eaten. We checked into a Holiday Express Saturday
and watched TV together, not really seeing what was on
the screen.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
You will find multiple incidences of Chrispond's allegedly self inflicted
bullet wounds to his left wrist and leg, described as
superficial injuries. His parents disagree.
Speaker 13 (24:24):
His wrist was probably the least one because we thought
possibly the bullet had ricocheted off of the bend of
his watch that he had, so it just kind of
skittered down his skin. Yeah, it didn't go through his wrist, No,
it went perpendicular to his wrist and his bone stuff
like that, and made a nice gash in there.
Speaker 4 (24:47):
Now, his wound to his leg.
Speaker 3 (24:49):
That was a different matter.
Speaker 12 (24:50):
That's different matter, because that was a true and true wound.
Speaker 13 (24:54):
Luckily it went on the outside of the bone instead
of inside of the Who had gone on the inside
of the bone, it would have.
Speaker 3 (25:02):
Hit the main artery and he wouldn't be here to day.
Speaker 13 (25:05):
But it went through and through on the left side,
come out the backside of the sky. And sometime during
the week between that and the funeral. I took him
into a doctor and the doctor pulled thirty six inches
of gauze out of the wound hole they had packed
a pull of gauze.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
Christopher Vaughan was wounded, had lost his entire family, and
according to the law, was supposed to have had the
presumption of innocence.
Speaker 3 (25:35):
He just had a glassy stare and stared off in space,
and but he was with us, so you know, as
long as he was with us, that was okay. We
went back to the hotel, he went in for another
interrogation talk, and then the next day he went in again,
and after that we headed back to Saint Louis, Missouri.
Speaker 13 (26:00):
Home.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
There are many key and controversial moments of the initial interrogations,
but at the time Gale and Pierre had no idea
to the extent of the questioning Chris had endured until
later when they viewed the tapes, which they've shared with us.
Pierre Vaughan believes the aggressiveness of the interrogation was meant
(26:21):
to serve a very specific purpose.
Speaker 5 (26:25):
To break him down even further.
Speaker 4 (26:28):
It's kind of like boot camp in the military. They
were you out so bad that you submit to their orders,
and I think that's.
Speaker 6 (26:38):
What they did.
Speaker 4 (26:38):
I mean, when you questioned a guy from ten o'clock
in the morning till two o'clock the next morning, eighteen
hours or whatever it was, twenty hours of questioning, you
know you're going to break down his resistance, and that's
what they tried to do. But according to the transcripts
of the police tapes, he never did. That was never
(27:03):
presented at the trial.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
Here are some of the excerpts of the questioning of
Vaughn after the shootings, while he was still clad in
a hospital gown and bleeding.
Speaker 4 (27:30):
I don't remember. I got in, and I don't know.
Speaker 15 (27:37):
I don't even know if I was putting my seatbelt
on or what. And then once I saw my leg,
I don't know. I think I stopped thinking. Did you
see a gun in your hand? I don't even remember
seeing her.
Speaker 3 (27:56):
I just got in, and.
Speaker 15 (27:59):
I don't remember I remember even looking around, but that
I just I.
Speaker 11 (28:07):
Just got out.
Speaker 16 (28:08):
Do you remember something else you told me that happened
that you did or you said after you felt any
the the the injury to your life.
Speaker 15 (28:16):
So that was where I go for help, Okay, do
you remember you saying that? Not particularly but I remember,
I don't. I don't know if I said it or
if I meant to say it, but that was where
I was headed.
Speaker 4 (28:36):
Mkay.
Speaker 16 (28:37):
But you said you said it to her, Okay, I
I'm I'm only telling you. I'm repeating back to you what.
Speaker 13 (28:42):
You told me.
Speaker 4 (28:43):
Well, you guys asked exactly how. I don't remember if
I said, CANIM long for help? I'm longing for help?
I I don't remember other than I'm going for help.
Speaker 17 (28:57):
Did you say it the way you're talking now? Real solve?
Speaker 4 (29:00):
Like a little girl?
Speaker 1 (29:01):
Talk up here? Again? Is Pierre Vaughan, Well, you'd have to.
Speaker 4 (29:08):
Look at the beginning of the tape when he they
first run Hi back from the hospital and they started
talking to him and everything like that. They were asking
him questions and he was kind of in shocked because
he'd been shot. He kept asking, where's Kim, where's the kids?
Where's Kim, where's the kids? And they wouldn't tell him.
They wouldn't tell him, And that went on for quite
(29:30):
a while. So finally they told him. You know, he
told him, he said, well, unless you tell me where
Kim the kids are, I'm not going to talk to
you anymore. So that's when, you know, the nice policeman
said you killed all your family. They're dead, And then
(29:51):
they laid out the pictures and he said, no, that's
that's not true. You know, he says they're not dead,
and he as they are, and they kept pushing the
picture back and in front of him and you know,
accusing him of doing it.
Speaker 1 (30:07):
As a side note, during that interrogation, Chris could have
blamed his wife, but he didn't, pulling and over and over.
Speaker 14 (30:15):
And over.
Speaker 13 (30:18):
All.
Speaker 15 (30:18):
The thing I can think of is it Kim somehow?
Oh my god, And there's there's snowy around and.
Speaker 4 (30:28):
So, Okay, I don't.
Speaker 8 (30:34):
Know.
Speaker 17 (30:35):
I don't think she's killed all of that.
Speaker 4 (30:39):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (30:40):
Something private investigator Bill Clutter pointed out during one of
our interviews.
Speaker 14 (30:45):
As I started going through the transcripts of those interviews,
I was being able to see there were a number
of times when the detectives would try to get Chris
to point the finger it Kimberly for having done this,
and he just was reluctant to go there. When he
was given the opportunity to blame his wife, he defended
(31:09):
her and just found it impossible to believe that she
would kill her own children. So if this is a
person that had staged all this with the intent of
leading the police to believe that his wife had committed
this as a murder suicide, I mean, detectives gave him
(31:29):
every opportunity to bite on that, and he just never did.
Speaker 17 (31:35):
Why do you think she would shoe shoot?
Speaker 15 (31:38):
I can't imagine why she would do I can't imagine
her doing that.
Speaker 4 (31:42):
I don't know, I.
Speaker 5 (31:48):
Mean knew he had her words the night.
Speaker 4 (31:51):
Before, and she still didn't know about the weekend.
Speaker 15 (32:00):
I had no idea, I mean name, we had, we had.
Speaker 1 (32:10):
Plans all summer, Bill had. Doctor Terry Killian, a forensic psychiatrist,
examined the footage of the entire interrogation. His professional opinion
was that Chris exhibited signs of dissociative amnesia, which would
have been difficult to fake. Despite their attempts to break
Chris down over the duration of the police interview, he
(32:33):
stuck to the story that he could not remember, and
the police stuck to their narrative.
Speaker 17 (32:39):
Tell me you're a lucky guy. Out of here, tell
me you're a lucky guy. Say I'm a lucky guy
because I didn't die today.
Speaker 4 (32:45):
I don't think that's true.
Speaker 17 (32:46):
You're a lucky guy, Chris. You didn't die today. Guess
what you're gonna live? Things being here ain't here?
Speaker 9 (32:53):
No more?
Speaker 17 (32:54):
Gone, Dad, your kids? What's her name? This is Sandy?
How would a say? Is this the way you remember
Sandy looking this morning? Did she look just like this?
What did she look like? Her hair was shorter? How
else was it? What did she look like when she died?
(33:15):
What do you think she looked like when she died?
How about Abigail? What does she look like? Did she
look like this? Did she look like this before she
died today? Did she What do you think did she
have that same look on her face when she died today?
(33:37):
Is that the way she looked? You can't say? How
about Blake.
Speaker 3 (33:43):
Looks just like you?
Speaker 7 (33:45):
Did he look like that today when you killed him?
Did you kill him? Did you kill Blake? Did you
kill your wife? Did you kill anybody? But they're all dead?
Speaker 13 (33:59):
Right?
Speaker 8 (34:01):
What you said?
Speaker 17 (34:02):
That's what I'm telling you happened. They're all dead. They're
not here, but lucky Chris is still here. Not so lucky,
not so lucky?
Speaker 6 (34:10):
Why not?
Speaker 17 (34:10):
Why aren't you so lucky? Everything that everything you live for?
And it's gone. But guess what, you're still here. That's
pretty lucky.
Speaker 1 (34:19):
Here again is Pierre.
Speaker 5 (34:22):
Finally he pushed the pictures away and he shut down.
Speaker 4 (34:25):
I mean, he he would just keep denying that he
killed them, and that he'd answer the questions and tell
them he told him, he says. You know, after we
pulled off on the road, he says, I got out
to check check the truck, and he says after that,
he says, I do not remember anything. He says, the
(34:48):
next thing I remember is that I'm walking along the
road and the guy taps me on the shoulder. And
please wouldn't accept that. They you know, well, how can
you shoot your wife and kids and not remember that? Basically,
he shut down.
Speaker 5 (35:02):
If you're not gonna believe me, I'm not going to
talk to you type thing. And it gets that for me.
I mean, if if I.
Speaker 4 (35:09):
Talk to people and they're not listening to me, I
don't talk to him anymore.
Speaker 5 (35:12):
Wou'd you do it again?
Speaker 11 (35:14):
I didn't do it?
Speaker 4 (35:15):
But you do it again?
Speaker 13 (35:17):
I didn't do it.
Speaker 17 (35:18):
What did you do it again? You keep repeating, how
did you do it? I didn't Did they see it?
Speaker 14 (35:26):
I didn't do anything?
Speaker 17 (35:27):
Did they see it when you did it?
Speaker 4 (35:29):
I'm done talking.
Speaker 17 (35:30):
Did you see it? Did you see it? Did you
see their face? Did you see their faces when they
did it?
Speaker 8 (35:37):
Huh?
Speaker 17 (35:38):
I'm never talking.
Speaker 11 (35:39):
Huh.
Speaker 17 (35:40):
Don't shut down on me. This is a new Cress.
Remember I answered your question, Chris Man. This is a
new Chris.
Speaker 16 (35:48):
I lost everything, but you'd have everything now. You may
have lost things in the past, but what do you
have now? But you get to start a new don't you.
You're reborn again, the new Chris.
Speaker 17 (36:02):
Right else you do. But you know what, Chris, put
your head down. Keep it down, because that's where it belongs.
Speaker 7 (36:11):
The shame, the shame of it all, Chris, I just
don't want to hear what you have, the same of
it all and over this, the shame of it all.
Speaker 17 (36:19):
Quite put your head back down. I'd be shame too.
Speaker 7 (36:22):
If I did what you did, I'd be shaved. I
put my head down, just done. I would put my
head downheah, put your head back down. Shameful, But that's
old Chris.
Speaker 17 (36:31):
Would be a shameful. Do anything shameful.
Speaker 1 (36:38):
After everything, they let Chris go, but the police were
far from being done with him. He was followed constantly
They had a tail on.
Speaker 4 (36:46):
Him and us at all times. They had an unmarked car.
They knew exactly where we were, they knew exactly what
rooms where you're staying in and and everything. They tailed
us all the way coming back to the Missouri shape line.
Speaker 1 (36:59):
And then the next day, when it seemed as if
Chris had already hit rock bottom, things would continue to
get worse.
Speaker 4 (37:07):
It wasn't until we got Chris back to our house.
Speaker 13 (37:13):
And then.
Speaker 4 (37:15):
While we were making the funeral arrangements stuff like that,
the state police called us and they wanted to talk
to Chris and I again. And I said, okay, we'll
come over and talk to us. You know, this is
our address, and he said, no, you got to go
over there. Well, we had to go over across the
state line in Illinois because they had no jurisdiction. And
if you know, I didn't figure out this out till later,
(37:36):
but if Chris had said something or admitted something, they
could arrested him right there in Illinois because they had jurisdiction.
If they came over to our side of the river,
they had none.
Speaker 1 (37:45):
In spite of everything, the Vaughn still trusted the police
at that point and in the presumption of innocence. They
also felt they had nothing to hide, so.
Speaker 4 (37:56):
We went over there and talked to him again. On
the way back, Chris more or less told me he's
his dad. He says, I think they're going to try
to do in this on me. And I said, well,
you know, I says, you don't have any worry about
he didn't do it, and he said, well, that's not
what they think. And then that's about all I said
about it, because he he was still much in a
(38:18):
state of shock, trying to figure things out. Neither one
of us knew what to.
Speaker 1 (38:23):
Do, and it turns out there was very little that
could be done. It was at this point that Christopher
Vaughan was no longer just a grieving father and spouse.
He was the primary suspect, and the murders of his
wife and children called.
Speaker 6 (38:38):
His feet to my nor my flight diuma.
Speaker 18 (38:44):
He swollen him up, changing mine. I'll hope he fusing.
Speaker 6 (38:58):
This in that.
Speaker 1 (39:04):
On the next murder in Illinois, as Crispawn prepares to
place his wife and children in their graves.
Speaker 5 (39:11):
I absolutely saw him crying.
Speaker 11 (39:13):
I saw him trying to hold it together around people,
but you could just see pain emanating from him.
Speaker 1 (39:24):
Handcuffs are placed on his wrists.
Speaker 4 (39:27):
There was fourteen different policemen standing there and they immediately
handcuffed him and writing his rights and tell him his
being arrested for the murder of his family.
Speaker 1 (39:40):
Murder in Illinois is a production of iHeartRadio. Executive producers
are Lauren Bright Pacheco and Taylor Chaquoine. Written by Lauren
Bright Pacheco and Matthew Riddle, Story editing by Matthew Riddle,
editing and sound design by Evan Tyer and Taylor Chaquoine.
Featuring music by Cicada Rhythm with new compositions engineered and
(40:02):
mixed by Evan Tyer and Taylor Chaquoyne. Archived news reports
provided by w G.
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