Wednesday, November 28, 2012
Christopher Vaughn got separate life sentences for the murders his wife and three children.
Right before a Will County judge dropped four life sentences on Christopher Vaughn, his grief-stricken mother-in-law wondered aloud why he couldn't have abandoned his wife and three children instead of killing them all. "What a coward," said Susan Phillips, the mother of Vaughn's slain wife, Kimberly Vaughn. "If you do not want your family, divorce is always the first option, or even just walking away," Phillips said from the witness stand during Christopher Vaughn's sentencing hearing Tuesday morning. Christopher Vaughn, 38, wanted to shed his family so he could start a new life in the Yukon wilderness with an unwitting stripper. In June 2007, Vaughn, a former St. Peters resident and graduate of Francis Howell High School, packed his 34-…
Monday, November 26, 2012
Christopher Vaughn, a former St. Peters resident and graduate of Francis Howell High School, killed his wife and three kids in 2007 and was found guilty in September.
Christopher Vaughn, who was convicted in September of killing his wife and three kids, will be sentenced Monday at a Will County, IL, courtroom. Vaughn, a former St. Peters resident and graduate of Francis Howell High School, was found guilty of murdering his wife and three children in a desperate effort to free himself of his obligations for a new life in the Canadian wilderness. Kimberly Vaughn, Christopher's wife and a St. Charles West High School graduate, was shot in the head by Christopher Vaughn before he turned the weapon on his kids, Abigayle, 12, Cassandra, 11, and Blake, 8, shooting each child in the head and torso. The mass execution was carried out in the pre-dawn hours of June 14, 2007, on a gravel driveway off an desolate …
Friday, September 21, 2012
A Will County jury needed less than an hour to find the Oswego man guilty of murdering his family so he could pursue his dream of living in the Canadian wilderness
A Will County jury needed less than an hour to declare Christopher Vaughn, a former St. Peters resident and graduate of Francis Howell High School, guilty of murdering his wife and three children in a desperate effort to free himself of his obligations for a new life in the Canadian wilderness. Vaughn, dressed in his daily court attire of cowboy boots, sports coat and white shirt, showed no emotion when the verdict was read or as he was led from the courtroom. Kimberly Vaughn's family members were emotional, several crying in response to the ruling. The jury's ruling means members believed Vaughn intentionally put a gun below the chin of his wife Kimberly, 34, a St. Charles West High School graduate, and shot her in the head before …
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
Christopher Vaughn, a former St. Peters resident, was driving to an Illinois waterpark with his wife, a St. Charles West graduate, and children in June 2007 when authorities say he gunned down his family in their minivan.
Lawyers are set to make closing statements in the Christopher Vaughn murder trial on Thursday. Vaughn, a former St. Peters resident and graduate of Francis Howell High School, has been locked up in an Illinois jail since June 2007 on charges he murdered his wife, a St. Charles West High School graduate, and children. Vaughn, his wife Kimberly, 34, and children Blake, 8, Cassandra, 11, and Abigayle, 12, were heading from their Oswego, IL, home to a Springfield, IL, waterpark when he pulled off Interstate 55 and stopped on the frontage road. Christopher Vaughn then gunned down his wife and children as they sat in the family's minivan, according to police and prosecutors. But Vaughn told detectives it was actually his wife who shot their …
Monday, September 17, 2012
Backpacks stuffed with survival gear were found in Christopher Vaughn's bedroom closet a month after his entire family was killed.
Cops armed with a search warrant found a pair of backpacks stuffed with survival gear in the bedroom closet of accused quadruple-killer Christopher Vaughn, a former St. Peters resident who graduated from Francis Howell High School. Vaughn's entire family was wiped out in a mass execution-style shooting less than a month before agents with the Illinois State Police made the bedroom closet discovery while conducting their second search of his house, according to testimony at Vaughn's murder trial Friday. Prosecutors contend Vaughn, 37, planned to live the life of a survivalist in the Yukon wilderness after shedding the responsibilities associated with his wife and three children by murdering them all in June 2007. State police Special Agent …
Thursday, September 13, 2012
The ball's now in the court of alleged quadruple-killer Christopher Vaughn and his team of defense lawyers.
JOLIET, IL—Prosecutors piled up 88 witnesses in 17 days to make their case against alleged quadruple-killer Christopher Vaughn, a former St. Peters resident who graduated from Francis Howell High School, finishing things off Wednesday with the words of a detective. Illinois State Police Investigator Chris Linares read credit card receipts from Vaughn's trips to a Stone Park strip club and a Plainfield, IL, shooting range in the days before his wife and three children were shot to death in June 2004. Linares also read from email messages between Vaughn and his slain wife, Kimberly Vaughn, 34, a 1991 graduate from St. Charles West High School who resided, with her husband in St. Peters for several years before moving to Washington. In the …
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
Another expert witness told the jury how he found some serious flaws in the story Christopher Vaughn, a graduate of Francis Howell High School and former St. Peters resident, told the police about how his wife and three children ended up dead.
JOLIET, IL—Alleged quadruple-killer Christopher Vaughn's story about how his wife gunned down their three children before taking her own life was disputed by yet another expert witness Tuesday. Bloodstain pattern expert witness Paul Kish said Vaughn's wife, Kimberly Vaughn, 34, must have been killed before Vaughn bled on her. Kish was so adamant in his assessment of the blood evidence that he prompted defense attorney George Lenard to demand a mistrial. Kish said the blood evidence and the "facts of the case" showed that Christopher Vaughn, 37, a former St. Peters resident who graduated from Francis Howell High School, was shot and wounded after someone stuck a gun under his wife's chin and pulled the trigger. Kimberly Vaughn was a 1991 …
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Powder burns on the faces of Christopher Vaughn's children show they were shot from only a foot away, an expert witness said.
The children of Christopher Vaughn, the former St. Peters resident, pushed back into the seat of a Ford Excursion as their killer stuck a pistol in their faces and shot them one after the other, a ballistics expert testified Monday. "Each child had about a two- or three-inch-diameter stippling pattern" on their faces, ballistics expert and St. Charles police officer Matthew Lee Noedel said. The size of the powder burns on the faces of the children showed they had been shot from about a foot away, he said. Noedel was called in by Will County prosecutors in 2010 to figure out the circumstances surrounding the shooting deaths of Vaughn's children—Blake, 8, Cassandra, 11, and Abigayle, 12— and wife, Kimberly, a 1991 graduate from St. Charles …
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
The accused quadruple murderer didn't bat an eye when gruesome photos of his slain wife and children were repeatedly shown on a big-screen TV.
While prosecutors flashed grisly photos of his wife and three young children slumped dead and bleeding in the family SUV, Christopher Vaughn, the former St. Peters resident, sat expressionless, calmly jotting notes. But that's just the kind of guy Vaughn is, the Oswego, IL, man's lawyer said Monday on the first day of his murder trial. "Mr. Vaughn does not show his feelings or emotions to anyone under any circumstances," said attorney George Lenard. "He's monotone. That's the way Christopher Vaughn is." And Vaughn, a Francis Howell High School graduate, certainly did not betray his feelings or emotions as prosecutors repeatedly projected ghastly images of Vaughn's wife, 34-year-old Kimberly, a 1991 graduate from St. Charles West High …
Friday, August 17, 2012
Eight men and four women to decide if Christopher Vaughn, an Oswego, IL, resident and Francis Howell High School graduate, murdered of his wife and three children in 2007.
JOLIET, IL--On the first day of jury selection, eight men and four women were chosen to decide whether Christopher Vaughn, a graduate from Francis Howell High School, walks free or spends the rest of his life behind bars. Vaughn has been locked up in the Will County jail since June 2007 on charges he murdered his wife and children. Vaughn, his wife Kimberly, 34, a 1991 graduate from St. Charles West High School and children Blake, 8, Cassandra, 11, and Abigayle, 12 were heading from their Oswego home to a Springfield waterpark when he pulled off Interstate 55 and stopped on the frontage road outside Channahon. Christopher Vaughn then gunned down his wife and children as they sat in the family's minivan, according to police and prosecutors…
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10:24 pm on Wednesday, September 12, 2012
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