Jun 19, 2007 11:41 pm US/Central
Key Forensic Evidence Expected In Vaughn Murders
Investigators Hope Ballistics And Other Evidence Will Lead To Killer
CBS 2's Mike Puccinelli and Jay Levine contributed to this report.
OSWEGO, Ill. (CBS) ―
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Vaughn Family
Courtesy: Chicago Sun-Times
People are still talking about the Vaughn family tragedy and the puzzling questions.
Tuesday night CBS 2 has learned that investigators are waiting for key forensic evidence in the family tragedy which left a mother and her three children dead.
CBS 2 Chief Correspondent Jay Levine has exclusive details on the status of the case, and the questions investigators are trying to answer.
The key to the Vaughn family murders is in an unmarked and nondescript building near old Joliet Prison. It's the state police crime lab, where the blood and DNA evidence collected from the car and the victims is still being processed.
Sources tell CBS 2 it may take several more days for the results to come in, and those results should tell them who last held the murder weapon, and whose blood was where.
The evidence will tell whether Chris Vaughn's blood was also in the car, where he claims he was shot by his wife. Her body was found in the front passenger's seat and the three children still belted in the back.
In trying to explain why his wife would commit such a horrendous crime, CBS 2 learned Vaughn allegedly told police she was angered by a confession he'd just made to her.
The exact spot of the shootings continues to puzzle investigators. Just off busy I-55, but on a frontage road with no way back on. And instead of pulling over to the side of the road to fix what he claimed was a loose luggage strap, Chris Vaughn pulled into the only driveway between trees that blocked whatever he was doing from passersby.
That's where the buddy of a man CBS 2 spoke came upon Vaughn that morning. The two are employees at a nearby gravel hauling firm. Vaughn was allegedly staggering along the road, bleeding and muttering "shot my kids." Others who spoke to the man tell CBS 2 Vaughn told him his wife shot him and the kids.
But one investigator reportedly told a friend he was skeptical of the claim given the angle of Vaughn's bullet wound.
Several of the man's associates said the Bolingbrook man told them he thought Vaughn was drunk when he spotted him stumbling in the roadway.
But the caller stopped his vehicle anyway and let Vaughn in. That's when the 32-year-old Oswego man showed his wounded thigh.
The 911 caller then walked over to the Ford Expedition, saw the blood spatter on the window and stopped in his tracks. It's an image his associates say he's still trying to forget.
The people CBS 2 spoke with wouldn't say whether the 911 caller believed Vaughn's story.
Vaughn, CBS 2 has learned, has now left the state, and returned to his parents' home near St. Louis, where his wife and three children will be buried this weekend.
This story was the result of conversations with six different sources, most with direct contact with key witnesses in the case.
Earlier Tuesday CBS 2 West Suburban Bureau Chief Mike Puccinelli set out to find the 911 caller.
The caller wasn't home and his wife declined a request for an interview.
It's been five days since Kimberly, Blake, Abigayle and Cassandra Vaughn were found shot to death inside a 2004 Ford Expedition.
The four victims will be waked on Friday, and laid to rest together on Saturday in St. Charles, Missouri.
(© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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