The Vaughn Murders: Was There Any Doubt?

I still shudder when I think of what happened recently to Kimberly Vaughn, and her three children, Abigayle, Cassandra, and Blake. The fact that the murders took place in nearby Channahon forced me to pay attention a little more than I normally would.

As a father of two young girls, it's hard to imagine what kind of situation would lead a dad to do something so horrific. It seemed pretty apparent from the beginning that Christopher Vaughn -- the father of the children, and husband to Kimberly -- was the killer. It just seemed too fishy that he somehow survived what he claimed to be his wife's attack, only suffering a shot in the thigh. Maybe he went for the fleshy part of the thigh, like Bobby Bacala tried to do in a season six episode of The Sopranos.

All anyone had to do to know who committed the murders was to know who was driving the van. Look at the picture above. This is where the van came to rest, and the murders took place. Looks like the driver/shooter wanted to hide a little, don't you think? If you need to adjust luggage on top of your car -- Christopher Vaughn's reason for stopping -- you usually don't need to go driving well off the interstate to find a driveway that just happens to be surrounded by some trees that will keep your vehicle out of sight to everyone not in a helicopter.

Maybe now that the Mancow look-alike has been arrested, he'll tell investigators why he did what he did. Let's hope there's more to this story than just "dad goes berserk for no reason whatsoever and kills his family."

Maybe he never loved these people, felt trapped, and this was his only way out. Possibly there was another woman. Maybe the guy had mental problems, was depressed, had been in a huge ongoing fight with his wife. Something.

What does he have to lose? The evidence is in, it wasn't the wife, or the kids, or some random drive-by. They've got him. So, go ahead and tell us the story of why you did what you did. If nothing else, maybe it would help establish some kind of pattern of events that can be applied to other people that might be going through similar feelings, so hopefully something like this doesn't happen again.

Then, after you've told us the story, the cops can sit you in a car and drive you to all of the other wonderful places to hide along I-55 frontage roads in and around Channahon, and give you much more than a thigh wound to worry about.