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CBS 2's Kristyn Hartman, Mike Puccinelli and Joanie Lum; WBBM 780 and the STNG Wire contributed to this report.
CHANNAHON, Ill. (CBS) ― Authorities have identified the mother and three children found shot to death early Thursday morning in an SUV in far southwest suburban Channahon Township.

Kimberly Ellen Vaughn, 34, and her three children, Abigayle Elizabeth Vaughn, 12; Cassandra Ellen Vaughn, 11; and Blake Philip Vaughn, 8; all of Oswego, were found shot to death shortly before 5:30 a.m. Thursday. The children had been shot multiple times.

Illinois State Police found the bodies inside a 2004 Ford Expedition when they came to Bluff Road near Interstate Highway 55 in Channahon Township after a 911 call from a passerby.

Kimberly Vaughn's husband, Christopher Vaughn, suffered a gunshot wound to the thigh and was treated and released from a Joliet Hospital.

Vaughn stood with the caller until police arrived, Illinois State Police Capt. Carl Dobrich said. A handgun was found at the scene, but officials declined to say who the suspected shooter was, other than it was an apparent domestic dispute.

"We certainly believe it is a domestic issue,'' said Channahon Mayor Joe Cook.

Dobrich said Christopher Vaughn was being questioned, but was not under arrest and was free to go whenever he pleased. If he does choose to leave, police said they did not plan to keep him under surveillance.

"He's being talked to," Dobrich said. "He's free to go, he has not asked to leave, he's answering questions and he's assisting us greatly."

Earlier, reporters specifically asked if Kimberly Vaughn was murdered and pointed out that, since officials said the incident was contained to the five people shot, only she or Christopher Vaughn likely could have been the shooter. But authorities would not say who they suspected fired the gun.

However late Thursday night, half a dozen states attorneys and state police investigators arrived at state police headquarters. No one was talking about it, but a likely explanation was that they could be closer to filing charges in the case.

The only one left to charge was Christopher Vaughn, the sole survivor.

A few hours before, a tow truck carrying the family's SUV arrived as authorities searched for evidence either to confirm or refute the father's story.

Sources told CBS 2 that Christopher Vaughn initially claimed to be a victim of a drive-by shooting and then tried to shift the blame to his wife, but investigators wouldn't confirm that.

The family left their Oswego home before dawn Thursday on a "social trip," Dobrich said, but added he didn't know their intended destination.

Dobrich said police believed nobody else was involved in the shootings.

"This event we believe is concentrated to what we have at the scene," he said. "We are just trying to get down to the truth as to what actually happened."

The Will County coroner's office, state's attorney's office, and sheriff's office, as well as Channahon police, were assisting in the investigation, Dobrich said.

Authorities continued to monitor the scene, which is surrounded by corn and bean fields, Dobrich said.

"We have deployed canines and state police aircraft to search the area; to cover that base to make sure that we haven't missed anything," Dobrich said.

Law enforcement says the sight of the woman and her children was hard to take. "I have kids that age and it affected people there immensely and it was a very sad scene," Dobrich said. So sad, police Chaplin was brought out to provide counseling.

No concrete timeline has been established for the deaths. But a woman who lives near where the bodies were found said she heard several loud cracking sounds -- which she now believes were gunshots -- shortly before 10 p.m. Wednesday and again about five minutes later.

"I was in bed and I thought it was in my backyard it was so loud," said Debra Walick, who lives less than half a mile from where the bodies were found.

After the second sound, Walick said she got out of bed to investigate, but later returned to bed. Thursday morning she saw police in the area.

"I am still a little shaken," Walick said. "I wish I had reacted differently. I don't think I could have prevented what happened. But perhaps they would have been found earlier."

The Vaughn family moved to Oswego recently and was settling into a dream home there. Neighbors were stunned by the police investigation.

A neighbor helped police remove two dogs from the Vaughn house on Mansfield Court in Oswego, where the family lived for more than a year.

"They was loving and would do everything for the kids," said neighbor Sarmad Faiz.

Faiz, the neighbor next door, saw and spoke to the mother and her children nearly every day.

"They were a great family," Faiz said. "I was shocked when I heard about it. You wouldn't expect something like that out here."

The family seemed so perfect, they were featured in a Chicago Sun-Times real estate article, describing their new construction home and the child-friendly Oswego neighborhood.

Residents say Kimberly Vaughn volunteered at the subdivision's clubhouse.

"She was willing to give of herself, that was a volunteer effort," said neighbor Dana Smith.

No one saw any signs of trouble in the family.

"Nothing has happened to indicate a tragedy of this magnitude," Smith said.

This is the fourth such domestic homicide case in the greater Chicago area in the past week.

On Saturday, six people were found dead inside a home in Delavan, Wis. Ambrosio Analco was believed to have shot his twin infant sons, Argenis and Isaiah Analco; his former girlfriend, Nicole Marie McAfee, 19; her sister, Ashley Huerta, 21; and Vanessa Iverson, 19, a family friend, before turning the gun on himself.

Analco and McAfee's 2-year-old daughter, Jasmine Analco, survived a gunshot wound to the chest.

On Monday, police in Griffith, Ind., found Jessica Janusas, 15, dead of four gunshots in her bedroom, and her stepfather Robert Gordon, 42, was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot in the basement of their home. Police said Gordon had a confrontation with Janusas before committing the murder-suicide.

The third incident happened in Chicago on Tuesday, when Gail Bullock allegedly shot and killed his ex-wife, Jacqueline Bullock-Williams, and shot and wounded his 14-year-old stepson at a home in the 8000 block of South Francisco Avenue. Bullock then held a standoff with police before being arrested. He has been charged with one count each of murder and attempted murder.

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