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I discovered this podcast when it came out last summer, and I was absolutely hooked!!! I gave it a second listen this week so the details would be fresh in my mind and I could write about it.
Have you ever heard about the Vaughn Family? They were a family of 5 - Chris, Kimberly, and their 3 children. In June of 2007, Kimberly and the 3 children were found dead by gun shot wounds in their family SUV, pulled off on the side of the road in a service drive. Chris had also been shot (twice) but claimed he could not remember anything about what happened. Tunnel vision caused the police to zero in on him and arrest him for the 4 murders. However, forensics, blood spatter evidence, and ballistics told a different story! Was it a cold, heartless murder or was it a murder/suicide? Which theory do you believe??
Lauren Bright Pacheco does an amazing job of researching and narrating this podcast. She says that the reason she decided to do the podcast and question Chris's guilt/innocence was because when she saw his photo, she didn't think his eyes were evil or those of a killer. His eyes are what enticed her to explore further. What do you think his eyes say?
This podcast is biased towards Chris's side, which is the only thing I didn't like about it. But Kimberly's family refused to participate, so Lauren only had Chris's family to speak to their side of things. I would like to hear Kimberly's family's side, but I'm sure it will be biased towards her because her family believes Chris is the killer. The family interviews and childhood characteristics revealed are very interesting, though, and can help you paint your own picture.
The podcast dives into Chris's personality, his marriage dynamics with Kimberly, thoughts on Kimberly's upbringing and family dynamics, and a lot of disturbing truths about Chris that were revealed in the year leading up to the murders.
There seemed to be a lot of character judgement and character assassination in Chris's trial. This reminded me of Scott Peterson and how the media was so quick to judge and blame him based on his actions. For instance, Chris had visited strip clubs prior to the murders and dropped $5000+ in one night. But the stripper claims that all they did was have a heart to heart talk - he needed someone to talk to. Chris had also been unfaithful to his wife (one time, according to him) while on a business trip in Mexico. And one of the big red flags was that Chris was corresponding with another male in a chatroom about going to live in the Canadian wilderness (Chris was an avid hiker/camper and loved the outdoors). He also had a storage unit full of camping and hiking gear that he had been "accumulating" since their move to Illinois. None of this made Chris look good in the eyes of the media and jury.
And the fact that Chris had, what experts called, dissociative amnesia, did not help him either. He steadfastly claimed he had no memory of what happened - he maintained this claim for years. He was even evaluated by a medical professional who gave him the diagnosis. Of course, this claim made him look guilty - because if it was a murder/suicide and Kimberly is the one that did the shooting, why wouldn't he come out and say that? But he didn't. He even went as far as saying he didn't think Kimberly could EVER do something like that and it absolutely was not in her character. So that leaves one other person to do it - Chris.
Listening to this story, it is easy to think that Chris is the bad person and the murderer. But when you learn about all the forensic evidence and the crime scene reconstructions, it makes you think. I believe the evidence. I think it speaks for itself - due to blood transfers on Kimberly's seatbelt, other blood transfers in the SUV, and ballistics of the bullet trajectories, everything points to Kimberly committing a murder/suicide. But Chris and her family adamantly deny that.
HOWEVER, and this is a spoiler alert if you are listening to the podcast and don't know the story...
While Lauren was working on this podcast, she was in communication with Chris (who is incarcerated) and his parents. Over half way through the podcast episodes, Chris wrote a 5 page letter to his parents that was like dropping a bombshell.
In this letter, he claims he remembered EVERYTHING - he never had amnesia - he just didn't want to relive, remember, or talk about that day ever again. WHAT?????!!!! That sounds crazy! He wrote in the letter that it was a murder/suicide and he walked his parents through the timeline of what happened that fateful morning. He didn't want to have to go through another trial where he MIGHT be found innocent because it was all too painful, so he was fine blaming himself for everything and paying the price by sitting in prison for the rest of his life. Does this sound logical or reasonable?
Maybe this really messed Chris up and he really was trying to push it out of his memory, so he didn't want to talk about it. He was also in disbelief that Kimberly would even do this. He felt guilty because he was not able to protect his wife or children, so he felt he deserved to be blamed, even though he thought the evidence would show the truth in the courtroom. He wanted the evidence to speak for him rather than he having to speak for himself.
I think back to all of the family interviews and what was said about his childhood and marriage dynamics on the podcast. I think that psychologically, he suffered some sort of abuse from Kimberly in his marriage which caused him to walk on eggshells around her, put her on a pedestal, and please her in every way possible. And he suffered so much from this mental abuse that it has lasted for years to where he takes the blame and doesn't want Kimberly to be blamed for it. He's still trying to protect her. WTF?
It is frustrating and makes me angry because why couldn't he have just told the truth from the very beginning? Would that have changed anything?
This letter and confession to remembering everything really throws a kink into this story and is what makes it so compelling. Is he telling the truth now? How are we supposed to believe him NOW?
I think he is telling the truth and was wrongfully convicted. That is my opinion, and I would be very interested to know what everyone else thinks of this bizarre story. I would love someone with a psychology background to give their opinion!
Give this podcast a listen, and let me know what you think! Is he guilty or innocent?
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