Christopher Vaughn Murder Trial Finally Slated to Start

A Will County judge set a trial date for the Oswego man charged with gunning down his wife and three children as they sat in the family minivan in the early morning darkness on the Interstate 55 frontage road.

During a Thursday morning hearing, the murder trial for Christopher Vaughn, 37, was set to start on Aug. 13.

Charles B. Pelkie, a spokesman for the Will County State's Attorney's Office, said the trial is expected to last as long as a month and a half.

By the time Vaughn's trial starts in August — if it starts in August — he will have been locked up in the Will County jail without a bond for more than five years.

Vaughn was taken into custody nine days after his family was slain in June 2007.

Vaughn, his wife Kimberly Vaughn, 34, and their children — Blake, 8, Cassandra, 11, and Abigayle, 12 — were on their way to a Springfield water park but pulled off the interstate and stopped on the frontage road outside Channahon and near Shorewood. It was there Christopher Vaughn murdered his wife and children, according to police and prosecutors.

Vaughn told detectives it was actually his wife who shot down their children, put a bullet in his leg as he fled for his life, then turned the gun on herself and committed suicide.

Christopher Vaughn reportedly explained to detectives that he had confessed to his wife about an extramarital dalliance, and that was what led to the unhinged Kimberly Vaughn's killing spree. Medication for migraine headaches also contributed to her becoming both homicidal and suicidal, officials said Christopher Vaughn told detectives.