seen Friday leaving a funeral home after the visitation in St. Will the strippers get two episodes to tell their story? It was a sickening feeling, as the architect of our defense experts and strategy, watching the case swirling around the toilet bowl. On Saturday, Vaughn was arrested in St. Charles and Victims Kimberly Vaughn, 34 Abigayle Vaughn, 12 Cassandra Vaughn, 11 Blake Vaughn, 8 News Archive: Vaughn Family murders Christopher Vaughn's defense centers on role of wife's medications Vaughn trial set for closing argument Prosecutor in Vaughn Case: "Give Them Justice" Christopher Vaughn guilty of killing family Husband, Father Convicted in 2007 Roadside Murder Case Christopher "He's going to get the opposite of what he wants," Weiss said. Not buying it. Chris parents, Gail and Pierre, and private investigator Bill Clutter, all claim Chris is innocent and Clutter claims he has evidence to prove it. Much of the trial focused on blood evidence that prosecutors said proved Vaughn murdered his family. They both would have turned 40 next month. It's believed the killings began around 12:45 p.m., but they weren't discovered for nearly 12 hours. Kim was slumped so I tried to buckle her. It was like my mind shut off . Alex Murdaugh called 911 on June 7, 2021, to report he found his wife Margaret, 52, and son Paul, 22, shot dead outside their Islandton home about an hour from Hilton Head Island, the South . 2007-02-15 Stephen Willott, was e-mail friend who planned to live in Canadian wilderness with Chris Vaughn 08/31/12 "Friend: Christopher Vaughn wanted simple life away from government, people" 'Whatever they did, they deserve back,' said Vaughn. Theres also a low key misogynistic vibe throughout their entire monologue. They said, he had to make it look like he didnt do this, so he then got back into the SUV and shot himself in the left wrist and thigh before dropping the gun between Kimberlys feet, unbuckling her seat belt and walking away. We asked the doctor who prescribed the Topamax about his patients email to her husband. A member of Kimberlys family declined to speak to the Sun-Times. Reddit and its partners use cookies and similar technologies to provide you with a better experience. The first entrance hole was the front right pocket; the second an exit hole near the back bottom left side of the jacket. Vaughn's family murder occurred on June 14th, 2007. 'You've been here all day. It was his blood that bled onto her buckled seat belt. Gone was the Capital Litigation Trust Fund, a $20 million statewide fund created as one of the reforms to level the playing field by providing funding for defense experts, investigators, and experienced criminal defense attorneys. He said Thursday he wants to find out when Vaughns memory returned. The Will County board denied a completion budget and appointed a local attorney. She set up a total financial package, but when she suggested insuring the lives of his children, Chris declined. So far, I have not found much Reddit discussion on it. I recommended that we appoint an expert in psychiatry to evaluate the statements Chris made to police. There is a transfer stain of blood on the inside of Kimberlys right thumb. The boy was with his mother, Meghan, and two other brothers when they were involved in a road rage. After getting back inside the car, he said, I looked over and thought I saw a gun, but I knew that was impossible why does Kim have a gun? Prosecutors say Vaughn of Oswego killed his wife and three children in . Key experts were never called to testify. Kimberly's father, Del Phillips, said the family never saw any sign that Christopher Vaughn was dangerous. None of this makes any logical sense. This report was sent to the lead detective several days before he took the grand jury witness stand. I got to the road to get help.. During my investigation, I found a June 2003 American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology article entitled Back-Spatter Patterns: Hands Hold the Clues for the Forensic Reconstruction of the Sequence of Events that showed an illustration of the same orientation of a self-inflicted gunshot wound: Blood spatter is mostly expected on the back of the thumb that is used for pulling the trigger . After the killings, Vaughn staggered off and flagged down a motorist who called the police. A group that supports unjust convictions, Investigating Innocence, is looking into the matter. The sergeant tells him: 'Say their names. . There is a swipe mark on the latch, which corresponds with the transfer stain on his wifes right thumb. Chris parents Gail and Pierre sit down with Dr. Phil for their first-ever live television appearance and discuss why they believe their son is innocent. Friday Raffle $66,230 and Fish Fry Special, NL VFW Top List Karaoke With Cheryl in the Bar Friday. .. Because this podcast made me want to scream. Neighbors and the press began to speculate as to what happened, with many pointing the finger at Christopher Vaughn. But the father does not respond. The massacre. Caption: WICS. "When you first opened the door, it looked like they all should be sleeping," he said. ", Steve Schmadeke and Chicago Tribune reporter. . James Waybern Hall: The murderer known as "Big Jim" killed 4 people, including his wife, in Arkansas between 1944 and 1945. No longer alive, Chris.'. Funding his defense reverted back to Will County. She had unbuckled her own seatbelt to reach back to shoot her three children. The letter said Vaughn trusted investigators to get to the truth. Vaughn told him, I believe my wife just shot me. The man called 911, police were dispatched around 5:15 a.m., and they found the bodies of Vaughns family in a Ford Expedition parked in a gravel path beside a cellphone tower. Christopher Vaughn, whose wife and three children were found fatally shot in the family's sports utility vehicle June 14, in Channahon, Ill., is seen Friday leaving a funeral home after the visitation in St. Charles, Mo. Previously running for mayor and a beloved activist. need your help for this. Still, even a bloodstain expert called by Vaughns lawyers agreed at trial that a defense claim that Vaughn left the SUV before Kimberly was shot didnt make sense. That spring he went on a vacation alone to explore the Yukon. It was only after police showed him the photos of his dead family that he began to refer to them in the past tense. It seems like the family was dead set on focusing on the negative with Kim and her family. When Vaughn's family was killed, he lost his three young children and his wife, making him the sole survivor. Ahhhhh. That was really off putting. Kimberly Vaughn, 34, who had recently completed an online degree in criminal justice, was killed first, prosecutors said. After murdering his entire family . The best defense evidence was developed when we went to inspect the family vehicle stored in the old Joliet Penitentiary. The Colorado father and oil worker was convicted of murdering his pregnant wife Shanann, their unborn child, and their two children, Celeste and Bella, ages 4 and 3. Charles, Mo. To keep creating Transfer stains occur when an object, like a thumb, comes into contact with a bloody object. Compared with what I knew about Kimberly, yes, that would be a big change. Murder in Illinois: With Lauren Bright Pacheco. Press J to jump to the feed. Then, with clinical "precision," he put two bullets each in Abigayle, Cassandra and Blake, in that order, she said. His defense team argued that Kimberly had killed the children and then herself. . Chris revolver was lying on the floorboard near her feet. It didnt make sense that a guy, like Chris, an expert computer forensic investigator, would leave damaging evidence on his computer if he were contemplating killing his family. I couldnt drive the truck. They also pointed to FDA warnings that drugs Kimberly took Topamax and Nortriptyline could lead to suicide. By analyzing the blood evidence on the wifes right thumb, it all comes together to prove it was the wife who unbuckled her own seatbelt, after her husband had been shot. family's sports utility vehicle June 14, in Channahon, Ill., is One symptom of experiencing a traumatic event is the freeze-response. His statement to police I froze is exactly what may have happened. He replied, Well, it would increase the risk of suicidal thoughts.. Plus, hear from the former Assistant States Attorney who believes Chris is right where he belongs. Kimberly, and three kids, Abigayle, Cassandra and Blake. Vaughn maintains his innocence and claims that Kimberly killed her family before committing suicide. He claims he had been patching things up with her after he had confessed to cheating on her and was trying to be a better family man. The family all dressed in water park attire because thats where they believed they were going. Susan Phillips, right, mother of Kimberly Vaughn, and Kimberly's twin sister, Jennifer Ledbetter, spoke at Christopher Vaughn's sentencing Tuesday at the Will County Courthouse in Joliet. Instead, the trip turned into a bloody scene with Vaughn's wife and children all dying after being shot, leaving Vaughn as the sole survivor. Christopher Vaughn was convicted of killing his wife and three young children after their bodies were found in the family's SUV just off I-55 in Channahon. Chris is wounded but survives. Prosecutors said blood evidence suggested Vaughn was moving over Kimberlys body after her death, and none of it pointed to a struggle. A prosecutor said that, if Vaughn had been wearing the jacket when the holes were made near the right front pocket and in the back, he might not be here today.. And after Vaughn was taken to the hospital with minor gunshot wounds to his wrist and leg, Mills said, Vaughn expressed more concern for his special jacket and the possibility that emergency workers "were ruining his cowboy boots" than for his dead wife and children. The Will County State's Attorney's office originally sought the death penalty, which has since been abolished in Illinois. Vaughn murdered his family members, prosecutors say, because he saw them as obstacles to his dream of a new life in Canada. 'I could warm them up for you if you want. Autopsy photos of her left thumb show patterns of passive drops of blood in the location where it would be expected, if she had pulled the trigger. . His insurance agent told me she had suggested they take out a life insurance policy as part of sound financial planning. I am new to Reddit. November 27, 2012 / 10:33 AM / CBS Chicago. Here is a look at some of the evidence and motives law enforcement have explored during the course of their investigation. However, a state police ballistic expert from ISP crime lab who was present when he made this remark disputed this chauvinistic assumption saying that her own hand was able to test fire the weapon with no difficulty. The psychiatrist said he was using the present tense when he talked about his wife and children. But that's just the kind of guy Vaughn is, the Oswego man's lawyer said Monday on the first day of his murder trial. Convicted of murder after a two-day trial in May 1945, Hall was sentenced to death. You killed them. She then turned the gun on herself and fired. You have entered an incorrect email address! Murder in Illinois follows the complicated circumstances that led to Vaughn's conviction, as well as the forensic evidence his supporters believe proves his innocence- in . He spent over $4,000 on one stripper during two visits a week apart. But on the day in June 2007 that his entire family was gunned down in a Ford Expedition, he did have on relatively strange attire. His jacket had holes in it that suggested it was bunched around the gun when fired. So the mind blocks it out. Theyre real people.' 15:45 GMT 29 Aug 2012. After Earnest Lee Hargon killed his cousin and cousin's wife, he tightened a rope around the neck of the couple's 4-year-old son, tied a knot and walked away as the child died, prosecutors said . plans and enthusiasm 07-CF-1308 Prepared by Bill Clutter, Private Investigator GSR AND BLOOD ON BOTH HANDS CONSISTENT WITH SUICIDE At 9:00 a.m. 6/14/07 CSI Robert Deel administers Gunshot Residue Analysis on the Murderpedia has thousands of hours of work behind it. I've got nothing to go back to.'. The sentence a foregone conclusion under Illinois law came after Kimberly Vaughn's mother and identical twin sister read statements detailing the devastation the family has suffered, her mother in a matter-of-fact tone and her sister in tears. See for yourself in the gallery of colorized vintage crime scene photos -- whether New York or elsewhere, whether gangland or other -- above. Just after 5 a.m., his wife asked him to pull off the highway . He allegedly killed his family so he could live by himself in the Canadian wilderness. Authorities said no one motive had been established but. At autopsy, the coroner was able to determine the orientation of the gun, based on the imprint of the guns site on Kimberlys chin. Police detectives found at the Vaughn home a copy of PI Magazine with a cover story called Crime Scene Staging and Alterations: The CSI Effect on Criminal Investigations. charged with eight counts of. Hargon received life in prison in the third slaying. Christopher Vaughn wanted to live in perfect freedom in the Canadian wilderness, prosecutors said, but instead he will spend the rest of his life in prison after a Will County judge sentenced him to four consecutive life terms Tuesday for the murders of Vaughn's wife and three children. Police investigators used this in their affidavit for probable cause, concluding that his statement of having looked down at his leg and then exiting the vehicle to summon help was inconsistent with the evidence of his wifes blood on the back of his jacket. After pulling over, the motorist phoned 911, and the man was rushed to hospital. Five years later, a jury found Chris guilty of murdering his family; today, he is incarcerated for four lifetimes. Forensic evidence emerges throughout the podcast series. We have many SHARE Judge overturns Utah death row inmate Von Lester Taylor's double murder conviction. Im fully aware it wont make a difference, but it felt like therapy so why not? They also pointed to FDA warnings that drugs Kimberly took Topamax and Nortriptyline could lead to suicide a stain! And Fish Fry Special, NL VFW Top List Karaoke with Cheryl the! Kimberlys family declined to speak to the lead detective several days before he took the grand jury witness stand June. 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