Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / NEIGHBOR'S YARD DUG UP After Tot Boy Michael Vaughn Vanishes

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NEIGHBOR'S YARD DUG UP After Tot Boy Michael Vaughn Vanishes · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:06
Speaker 1: A five year old little boy seemingly drops off the
0:11
Speaker 1: face of the earth wearing nothing but boxer shorts and
0:15
Speaker 1: a blue Minecraft T shirt. In the last days, is
0:21
Speaker 1: there a break in the case of missing taught Michael Vaughan.
0:27
Speaker 1: I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for
0:30
Speaker 1: being with us here at Fox Nation in Sirius XM
0:32
Speaker 1: one eleven. First of all, take a listen to our
0:35
Speaker 1: friends at KATVB. We are in the fifth day of
0:39
Speaker 1: law enforcement in search and rescue crews excavating the backyard
0:42
Speaker 1: of that house behind me, the address eleven O two
0:45
Speaker 1: Red Wing Street in the town of Fruitland, just four
0:48
Speaker 1: minutes away from the Vaughan family home. Today, however, was
0:51
Speaker 1: much calmer than it's been. We've had heavy machinery here
0:55
Speaker 1: the last few days. Today mostly people here with shovels,
0:58
Speaker 1: and already it's four pm and crews are done. Chief
1:01
Speaker 1: Huff though, saying they could be out here for another
1:04
Speaker 1: week as they continue to process that backyard. They're not
1:07
Speaker 1: done yet. They're taking the dirt from that backyard and
1:09
Speaker 1: they're bringing it to a location offsite and they're analyzing
1:12
Speaker 1: that dirt. Okay, that's never a good sign. When the
1:16
Speaker 1: people are searching for your child and they bring in
1:20
Speaker 1: an excavation crew. Now you may ask, why are they
1:24
Speaker 1: taking soil samples from the backyard, taking it away from
1:29
Speaker 1: this home several homes down from Michael Vaughan's family home.
1:34
Speaker 1: Why are they taking dirt to the crime weab We've
1:38
Speaker 1: got an all star panel to make sense of what
1:39
Speaker 1: we know right now in the recent development in the
1:43
Speaker 1: case of missing taught Michael Vaughan. But first let me
1:46
Speaker 1: go to Joseph Scott Morgan, Professor Forensics, Jacksonville State University
1:51
Speaker 1: and author of Blood Beneath My Feet on Amazon, Starving
1:54
Speaker 1: you Hit series Bodybags with Joe Scott Morgan. Joe Scott,
1:58
Speaker 1: please explain regular people taught Joe Scott why they are
2:04
Speaker 1: taking soil samples. And I want you to harken back
2:08
Speaker 1: to the case of Kristen's Smart. Remember remember the killer's
2:14
Speaker 1: backyard had a deck and cops went under the deck
2:21
Speaker 1: with ground penetrating sonar and found a disturbance of the
2:28
Speaker 1: dirt and they went in and actually took soil samples.
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Speaker 1: So this is similar to the Christen's Smart case in
2:36
Speaker 1: that respect. Explain, Yeah, it is in the sense that
2:40
Speaker 1: you're looking for elements that would be connected to human
2:46
Speaker 1: remains and human decomposition. Excuse me, are you trying to
2:50
Speaker 1: say they're looking for blood in the dirt. Well, no,
2:53
Speaker 1: it's not just blood. You're not just looking you're looking
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Speaker 1: for any kind of biological sample that monument decomposition, anything
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Speaker 1: we'll later decomposition. Certainly blood is part of that, you know,
3:03
Speaker 1: as part of that. But you have to consider all
3:05
Speaker 1: elements and the fact the fact that they've brought in
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Speaker 1: an excavator. This is not delicate work like Kristen Smart.
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Speaker 1: They're taking huge, huge samples of earth and they're going
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Speaker 1: to sift through every bit of that, but they're having
3:21
Speaker 1: to be very very careful. Nancy, let's talk about ground
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Speaker 1: penetrating radar. UM. I guess Robert Crispin joining me, private investigator,
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Speaker 1: former Federal Task Force officer, US Partment in Justice d
3:33
Speaker 1: e A. It goes on and on and on. You
3:36
Speaker 1: can find them at crispins Special Investigations dot com. That's
3:39
Speaker 1: Crispin Investigations dot com. Robert Um, you and I have
3:43
Speaker 1: both worked with ground penetrating sonar. It's just like sonar
3:49
Speaker 1: on a fishing boat, right because the sonar on a
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Speaker 1: fishing boat, you can actually look kind of looks like
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Speaker 1: a sonogram. Get it sonar sonogram ec black a black
4:00
Speaker 1: area and then you see gray waves. When you do
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Speaker 1: a sonogram on a mom you see the baby in
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Speaker 1: a gray shadow. When you do sonar with a fishing boat,
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Speaker 1: you can actually see the fish gray figures swimming under
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Speaker 1: or around your boat. Ground penetrating radar sonar which show
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Speaker 1: the earth where you're looking is black or gray, but
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Speaker 1: then you see waves in it. You can see where
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Speaker 1: dirt has been disturbed that should not have been disturbed.
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Speaker 1: And it's done with something that looks like a metal detector.
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Speaker 1: Have you ever seen that done? Robert Well? I have,
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Speaker 1: and it brings to it brings to light a couple
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Speaker 1: of things. And it's only been a year since they've
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Speaker 1: actually start to dig and have a lead to do
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Speaker 1: something like this, and they're hoping that because it's only
4:56
Speaker 1: been a year that when they put this sonar out there,
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Speaker 1: that they're going to see something that is either there
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Speaker 1: and not decomposed already, or a picture of a body
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Speaker 1: that's still somewhat intact, or dirt that hasn't been rained
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Speaker 1: on so much that it's kind of filtered its way
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Speaker 1: and gone back to its normal setting of how it
5:16
Speaker 1: was in the beginning. So this is a very very
5:20
Speaker 1: amazing technique that they use. But there's some very specific
5:25
Speaker 1: things that are coming to light about how much they're
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Speaker 1: digging after they're doing this sonar. You know, they're saying
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Speaker 1: they're going three and four feet. That's very specific. That
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Speaker 1: came from somewhere. You're right, they're going down three to
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Speaker 1: four feet and that's a very specific dig You know,
5:42
Speaker 1: you said it's amazing technology, and I agree with you.
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Speaker 1: But Robert and Christmas, it's not in ain't rocket science, Okay,
5:50
Speaker 1: it ain't grain surgery. It's like a metal detector. Haven't
5:54
Speaker 1: you been to the beach? Doctor Bethany Marshall joining me
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Speaker 1: Psychoalans to the stars at doctor Bethany marsh dot com.
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Speaker 1: Doctor Bethany, have you ever been to the beach and
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Speaker 1: you're enjoying the waves and the sand and the seagulllls,
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Speaker 1: and you're like, for one minute, you're not working. Yeah, yeah,
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Speaker 1: And you say somebody, some guy is usually either kids
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Speaker 1: or an old white male with something a metal detector,
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Speaker 1: blipping along trying to find somebody's where they've dropped money
6:24
Speaker 1: or a watch or a ring. That's what this looks like.
6:27
Speaker 1: You ever seen that. I have definitely see that. Or
6:30
Speaker 1: they're looking for a wedding ring, a diamond, you know,
6:33
Speaker 1: some treasure there. And that's exactly what this looks like. Guys,
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Speaker 1: we are learning that down the street from this taught
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Speaker 1: boys home. The backyard is dug up. But where did
6:46
Speaker 1: the whole thing start? Take a listen now to our
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Speaker 1: friends at Idaho New six fruit when police are searching
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Speaker 1: for a missing and endangered five year old. The boy,
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Speaker 1: Michael Vaughan, was last seen in the area of West
7:00
Speaker 1: ninth in Arizona in Fruitland late Tuesday. He was wearing
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Speaker 1: a light blue minecraft shirt and dark blue boxer briefs
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Speaker 1: with sandals. Anyone with information should call nine one one,
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Speaker 1: the paid County Sheriff's office or Fruitland Police. Yancy, if
7:14
Speaker 1: I could jump in, you know, wasn't there a description
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Speaker 1: of what he was wearing on the day he wouldn't missing? Yeah,
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Speaker 1: we just heard that and I said it earlier. Right,
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Speaker 1: sandals go ahead, Well, they wouldn't just be looking for decomposition,
7:27
Speaker 1: they would be looking for that clothing, right, it's been
7:30
Speaker 1: a year. Clothing doesn't completely degrade in a year. The
7:34
Speaker 1: body would not be degraded in one year. It would
7:36
Speaker 1: always be skeletal remains at the very very least. But
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Speaker 1: I would suggest that there would still be It's hard
7:43
Speaker 1: for me to talk about connecting it to this little boy,
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Speaker 1: Michael Vaughan, but there would be a substantial amount of
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Speaker 1: his body left if it had been buried, at the
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Speaker 1: very least skeletonized remains. But what they're looking for right
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Speaker 1: now and this person's backyard, for Pete's sake, is any
8:04
Speaker 1: disturbance in the ground. Sydney Summer joining me crime online
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Speaker 1: dot com and was to get a reporter, Sydney. Thank
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Speaker 1: you for being with us. Let's just go back to
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Speaker 1: the day that Michael Vaughan seemingly disappears. Who, what, where? When? Why?
8:18
Speaker 1: Just hit me? Gotcha? July twenty seventh of twenty twenty
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Speaker 1: one is the last time anyone saw Michael Lane. He
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Speaker 1: was at home with his father and his baby sister,
8:28
Speaker 1: and while his father stepped out of the room to
8:30
Speaker 1: change the baby siaper, Michael must have left. His mom
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Speaker 1: suggests that he left through the garage, thinking that they
8:38
Speaker 1: would have heard him. Had he left through the front door,
8:40
Speaker 1: and there's reports that he was going around to several
8:43
Speaker 1: neighbors homes to try to find a child to play
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Speaker 1: with outside. Okay, let me just drink in what Sydney
8:49
Speaker 1: Summer has just told me. Okay, let's go to high
8:52
Speaker 1: profile lawyer out of Jacksonville, former FBI agent, former cop,
8:56
Speaker 1: author of Arrest Proof Yourself. You can find him at
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Speaker 1: Deale Carson Law dot com. Dale, Let's analyze what Sydney
9:02
Speaker 1: Summer and just sold. Listen, everybody, remember this is not
9:05
Speaker 1: high tea at Windsor Castle Jump in Dale. So Dad
9:11
Speaker 1: changes baby daughter's diaper, and in that time, Michael Vaughan,
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Speaker 1: five year old taught boy wearing sandals. I think they're
9:22
Speaker 1: strap on sandals like you know, Birkenstocks boxers and a
9:28
Speaker 1: light blue Minecraft T shirt leaves the home purportedly to
9:33
Speaker 1: find somebody to play with. I find that troubling but believable.
9:40
Speaker 1: I think I told you the story, Dale Carson. My
9:44
Speaker 1: longtime friend Joy Jones lives across the street from us,
9:48
Speaker 1: growing up very rural area. Four brothers and sisters in
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Speaker 1: her home, three in our home. The first time we
9:56
Speaker 1: ever met, I was about I don't know four, and
10:00
Speaker 1: I wandered over there, knocked on the door and ask
10:04
Speaker 1: for a cookie. It can happen, So that is not
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Speaker 1: many people are arguing, deal Carson, Well wait, why didn't
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Speaker 1: he notice how long did it take to change a diaper?
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Speaker 1: It can happen. It's not beyond the realm of possibility.
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Speaker 1: Del Carson, No, not at all. In fact, you know,
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Speaker 1: children have a way of being curious, particularly the boys.
10:25
Speaker 1: Perhaps I don't know why you're saying that, you're stereotyping,
10:27
Speaker 1: but okay, go ahead. Well see if I can dig
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Speaker 1: a colonel of Rationelle out of what you're saying. Yeah,
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Speaker 1: women aren't curious. Did you hear that, doctor Bethany? Forget
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Speaker 1: all the questions you've ever had in life, because girls
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Speaker 1: aren't curious, doctor Bethany? Remember that? Okay, go ahead, Carson.
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Speaker 1: Oh dear, I don't wait. Think this personal experience. I'm
10:47
Speaker 1: five years old, I run away from the house on
10:49
Speaker 1: a tricycle. I'm naked, running around the damned neighborhood. Finally
10:53
Speaker 1: someone finds me and brings me home. I mean, that's
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Speaker 1: certainly possible that the child simply wandered off. But of
11:01
Speaker 1: course those individuals with the last connection with the child
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Speaker 1: are the most likely suspects in general basis, well, what
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Speaker 1: do we know, Jacky, can you find out about that?
11:09
Speaker 1: Because I bet somebody has suggested mom and dad take
11:13
Speaker 1: a polly and again, let me remind everybody, it's not
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Speaker 1: mommy and daddy's backyard. That's a big dug up right now.
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Speaker 1: It's a neighbor down the street, a female neighbor down
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Speaker 1: the street. Nancy, if I could jump in just for
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Speaker 1: a moment, remember the case we covered about four years ago.
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Speaker 1: There was a family the back of the house backed
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Speaker 1: up to like a national forest, and the mother turned
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Speaker 1: her head for a moment and the little boy, I
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Speaker 1: think he was three or four, and he was on
11:40
Speaker 1: the spectrum of autism, and he wandered out into the
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Speaker 1: forest and he was just like Joe, course Carson said,
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Speaker 1: a little boy curious. And I think that what would
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Speaker 1: be very important in this case is to look at
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Speaker 1: the culture of that neighborhood and the culture of the family.
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Speaker 1: Was a common for children to gather or in the streets,
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Speaker 1: or to go door to door, or to like want
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Speaker 1: to play with each other without parental supervision. Because in
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Speaker 1: some neighborhoods. That does happen. Although five years old is
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Speaker 1: awfully little just to go out into the streets without supervision.
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Speaker 1: Time stories with Nancy Grace. Anybody jump in on this.
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Speaker 1: Once the dad changes the diapete of the little sister,
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Speaker 1: does he not notice the child is missing? I mean,
12:40
Speaker 1: it doesn't take an hour to change a diaper. Max
12:44
Speaker 1: Jack jump in. You plant change plenty of diapers. I
12:47
Speaker 1: would say max ten minutes for a dad that may
12:51
Speaker 1: not always change diapers, maybe fifteen minutes. But what if
12:55
Speaker 1: he suddenly had to bathe the little girl? But nothing
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Speaker 1: over thirty minutes? So while was the alarm not raised
13:03
Speaker 1: anyone on the panel? How quickly did dad call nine
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Speaker 1: one one? That's a question. In the meantime, take a
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Speaker 1: listen to our France at Idaho News six. The search
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Speaker 1: for a missing Treasure Valley boy escalates as it goes
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Speaker 1: into a second day. Police officers in Fruitland need the
13:19
Speaker 1: community's help and locating that little boy. Five year old
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Speaker 1: Michael Joseph Vaughan is considered endangered and was last seen
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Speaker 1: at his home near Southwest ninth in Arizona in Fruitland,
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Speaker 1: who was around six thirty Tuesday evening and search efforts
13:34
Speaker 1: they begin immediately to find him, with teams walking through
13:36
Speaker 1: nearby neighborhoods, searching by air with drones and even a helicopter.
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Speaker 1: The Idaho Mountain Search and Rescue Team brought their search
13:44
Speaker 1: dog to help with the effort. Vaughn is about three
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Speaker 1: and a half feet tom his blonde hair and blue eyes.
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Speaker 1: He also goes by the nickname Monkey. And what do
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Speaker 1: we know about the actual search? Take a listen to
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Speaker 1: Chief j D Today. The Fruitland Police Department, in conjunction
14:02
Speaker 1: with the State Police, multiple Treasure Valley law enforcement agencies,
14:07
Speaker 1: and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, we continue to search
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Speaker 1: for missing and endangered five year old Michael Joseph Vaughan
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Speaker 1: MJ to his family and friends. Michael was last seen
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Speaker 1: near his residence on Southwest ninth Street in Fruitland at
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Speaker 1: approximately six thirty pm on July twenty seventh, twenty twenty one.
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Speaker 1: Operations to date include the methodical search of the area
14:35
Speaker 1: near Michael's residence, which included two irrigation runoff ditches which
14:39
Speaker 1: were drained by the Fruitland Public Works Department, and an
14:42
Speaker 1: extensive search and rescue effort, including the use of canines,
14:47
Speaker 1: aeriel and marine and land support. Idaho Fish and Game
14:51
Speaker 1: officers are continuing to search the river by boat for
14:54
Speaker 1: four to five miles down river and backup and in
14:58
Speaker 1: the slews of the Snake River as well. Another thing
15:01
Speaker 1: that police have let slip is that this is really
15:04
Speaker 1: no longer a search for a live taught boy. They're
15:09
Speaker 1: no longer looking for a live five year old Michael
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Speaker 1: Vaughan because they stated they have reason to believe more
15:17
Speaker 1: people know about the abduction and death of this little boy.
15:23
Speaker 1: Who are they talking about? Who knows more than they're
15:27
Speaker 1: telling about the kidnap and murder of a five year
15:31
Speaker 1: old little boy allegedly wandering the neighborhood looking for somebody
15:35
Speaker 1: to play with. Well, what are police saying about Michael
15:40
Speaker 1: Vaughan's family? What do we know about that? To Sydney
15:43
Speaker 1: Summer or Crime online dot Com investigative reporter, what if
15:47
Speaker 1: anything are they saying? Police have actually said that the
15:50
Speaker 1: parents are cooperating much more. Tyler and Brandy are Michael's
15:56
Speaker 1: parents and they are both being extremely cooperative with the
15:58
Speaker 1: investigation and seem to just want their stime home. Interesting.
16:03
Speaker 1: Interesting because you know, Dale Carson, high profile lawyer joining
16:06
Speaker 1: me out of Jacksonville. A lot of times the family
16:10
Speaker 1: is not entirely cooperative, all right. Remember in the johmin
16:17
Speaker 1: A Ramsey case, at a certain point the family stopped
16:20
Speaker 1: talking to police without a lawyer go ahead. That's our
16:23
Speaker 1: first clue is that when people are not cooperative, there's
16:27
Speaker 1: a region that they're not cooperative, particularly in a situation
16:30
Speaker 1: where you have a child without yours that's missing. According
16:34
Speaker 1: to what the dad told police at the time, he
16:37
Speaker 1: was out of Michael side for ten to fifteen minutes.
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Speaker 1: What does that mean in the real world, Robert Crispin,
16:45
Speaker 1: that the boy had to leave the home and get
16:50
Speaker 1: kidnapped in fifteen minutes. Is how far could he have
16:56
Speaker 1: gotten on foot in fifteen minutes? I mean clearly the
17:00
Speaker 1: window to get out if dad's distracted and he doesn't
17:02
Speaker 1: really have to go that far. These kids get abducted
17:05
Speaker 1: right off their front lawn. Sometimes you're right, that is
17:07
Speaker 1: exactly what happened in the case of Samantha running with
17:10
Speaker 1: her grandmother looking through the window at her playing with
17:13
Speaker 1: other children in the front yard, and a guy pulls
17:16
Speaker 1: up in a car grabs Samantha, who is two or
17:20
Speaker 1: three years old at the time and leaves and within
17:22
Speaker 1: a couple of hours she's been raped and murdered. I
17:25
Speaker 1: just have a huge issue with and correctly if I'm wrong,
17:28
Speaker 1: But he starts to look, but then doesn't he called
17:31
Speaker 1: a mother rather than nine one one first, Yes, you're
17:34
Speaker 1: right about that. Guys, take a listen now to me.
17:36
Speaker 1: He's Channel seven. Huff says that it has been a
17:38
Speaker 1: thorough search. They have looked at two hundred homes. They
17:41
Speaker 1: have interviewed the residents, they have drained a septic tank,
17:44
Speaker 1: they have drained nearby canals. That search is up to
17:47
Speaker 1: three thousand acres. Huff also says they've looked at twenty
17:51
Speaker 1: nine miles along the river bank, and Huff added there
17:54
Speaker 1: are sixty different security camera footage tapes they need to
17:57
Speaker 1: look through. They are continuing to look through a hundred
18:00
Speaker 1: and sixty three tips. They continue to ask people to
18:03
Speaker 1: come forward with any information. Huff is making it clear
18:07
Speaker 1: the department is committed to this search because my childhood neighborhood,
18:12
Speaker 1: that's where I spent my childhood years, my children are
18:16
Speaker 1: growing up here, and my law enforcement partners or mother's father's, aunt's,
18:22
Speaker 1: uncles and friends of children that are just like Michael.
18:26
Speaker 1: So you need to believe me when I tell you
18:28
Speaker 1: that we are all in. You know, I'm comparing just
18:32
Speaker 1: Got Morgan to the Killey Anthony case better known as
18:38
Speaker 1: Totmom Casey Anthony Case the Killer. But a huge search
18:44
Speaker 1: was conducted to find Keilly when she was about ten
18:49
Speaker 1: houses down from the Anthony home the entire time. And
18:53
Speaker 1: you just heard our friends at news Channel seven talking
18:55
Speaker 1: about the thousands of acres that have been searched, Miley
18:59
Speaker 1: in my air, searching in the water, hundreds of tips.
19:05
Speaker 1: But now they're digging within a half a mile right
19:10
Speaker 1: there in the neighborhood. They're digging up a woman's backyard. Yeah,
19:15
Speaker 1: that goes to specific information. You know, why why would
19:18
Speaker 1: you initiate that as a law enforcement organization, you know,
19:22
Speaker 1: to put those resources toward that specific area. It's not
19:25
Speaker 1: like that it's a wide swath. You're talking about a
19:28
Speaker 1: location that approximates where this child's last seen. And they're
19:33
Speaker 1: going to great efforts. And trust me, you know, you
19:36
Speaker 1: gotta think they know that the media is going to
19:38
Speaker 1: be watching them as they're doing this, so they're really
19:41
Speaker 1: sticking their neck out on this. Why would you go
19:43
Speaker 1: this deep into this Literally you're talking about a depth
19:47
Speaker 1: here of three to four feet. That's pretty deep. We
19:50
Speaker 1: refer to that as layering through the strata of the
19:54
Speaker 1: of the of the backyard of this place. They're looking
19:58
Speaker 1: for disturbed soil that's back there. They would have to
20:01
Speaker 1: have a targeted area to go into to see if
20:05
Speaker 1: the soil has been displaced in any way whatsoever. But
20:08
Speaker 1: now now it sounds like they're just kind of going
20:11
Speaker 1: through the entire backyard. So again, from an investigative standpoint,
20:15
Speaker 1: that's very very specific. Man, it's wrong because when you
20:19
Speaker 1: look for a body buried in the soil, you want
20:22
Speaker 1: to layer it out very specifically so you can find
20:25
Speaker 1: evidence that might indicate who buried the child. And so
20:28
Speaker 1: to go into a backyard and simply take it all
20:31
Speaker 1: and put it in a dumpster is none of the
20:33
Speaker 1: way it's supposed to be done. It. Yeah, it's kind
20:35
Speaker 1: of it's kind of non scientific. You know, you're not
20:38
Speaker 1: being very methodical about it, you know, and again you
20:42
Speaker 1: have to measure what's being said at this point in time.
20:45
Speaker 1: We also we don't know exactly what they did. They
20:48
Speaker 1: could have done the ground penetrating sonar and looked and
20:52
Speaker 1: then start taking the dirt. Yes, I would agree it
20:55
Speaker 1: should have been dirt taken in specific samples. We don't
20:59
Speaker 1: know that they didn't do that. Here's the other point.
21:01
Speaker 1: Here's the other point. It's been a year, there's been
21:04
Speaker 1: no progress whatsoever, and was responding to the case from
21:09
Speaker 1: a criminal perspective. What do we know and why are
21:13
Speaker 1: police digging in this woman's back yard? Take a listen
21:17
Speaker 1: our forsic crime a line. Fruitland Police have fielded more
21:20
Speaker 1: than fifteen hundred leads and tips since Michael Vaughan disappeared,
21:24
Speaker 1: and one of those tips considered credible, leads investigators to
21:28
Speaker 1: the home of Casey and Sandra Wandra. The Wanderers are
21:32
Speaker 1: neighbors of the Vaughan's, living just four minutes from where
21:35
Speaker 1: Michael Vaughan went missing. The tipster says Michael's remains may
21:39
Speaker 1: be behind the home. Sandra Wonder has posted TikTok videos
21:43
Speaker 1: where Vaughan's missing poster can be seen hanging on her refrigerator.
21:47
Speaker 1: Police are conducting an extensive search of the property using
21:51
Speaker 1: excavating equipment and two cadaver dogs in their investigation. Fruitland
21:56
Speaker 1: Police Chief Jad Huff says the intent is to dig
21:59
Speaker 1: three or four beat deep. Cruse place what has been
22:02
Speaker 1: dug up in dumpsters, says Cruz will not stop until
22:06
Speaker 1: the entire backyard is excavated. Jill Carson, what were you
22:09
Speaker 1: saying about this woman? Well, she has made a confession,
22:13
Speaker 1: but there's no I don't know that I would call
22:15
Speaker 1: that a confession. What exactly did she say? He said,
22:19
Speaker 1: God on High told me that my husband killed the
22:24
Speaker 1: child and buried him out back near a shit. But
22:26
Speaker 1: interestingly we don't see the husband arrested. Well, because she's
22:31
Speaker 1: not right mentally, I don't know about that, and so
22:34
Speaker 1: they have to charge her with something. Well, I mean
22:36
Speaker 1: she's in analysis right now. I mean she's in therapy
22:40
Speaker 1: right now to determine whether it's huge competent to stand
22:42
Speaker 1: From Jill Carson, you know the game better than anybody
22:46
Speaker 1: putting someone. Having someone analyzed or tested from mental defect
22:51
Speaker 1: does not mean that they have a mental defect. Look
22:55
Speaker 1: at Lorie Vallen. They've been analyzing her for a couple
22:59
Speaker 1: of year years now, and now they've decided she's fit
23:02
Speaker 1: to stand trial. I mean, defense attorney's always as a
23:07
Speaker 1: last resort argue, they're mainly unfit. Now sometimes you actually
23:11
Speaker 1: do have a mentally unfit defendant, but that's just a
23:16
Speaker 1: card that's always thrown out by the defense when they
23:19
Speaker 1: don't know what to do, they declare mental incompetence. But
23:23
Speaker 1: when you say she gave a confession, what she did
23:29
Speaker 1: was that she said she had a vision from heaven
23:34
Speaker 1: that her husband was a killer and had buried the
23:37
Speaker 1: baby in the back yard. What more do we know?
23:40
Speaker 1: Take a listen to our friend Abbie Davis Katie VB.
23:44
Speaker 1: A grieving community reeling from the disappearance of the five
23:47
Speaker 1: year old at Michael Vaughan last July, now potentially one
23:50
Speaker 1: step closer to find enclosure. We are all very emotionally
23:54
Speaker 1: tied to this case, just as our community is. I
23:58
Speaker 1: would sell you probably the country. Freulim Police Chief JD.
24:02
Speaker 1: Huff spoke with us Sunday afternoon about a credible tip.
24:05
Speaker 1: He says a lot authorities and rescue crews to dig
24:07
Speaker 1: up the backyard of a house in connection with Michael's death.
24:10
Speaker 1: Huff said on Monday that credible tip came from someone
24:13
Speaker 1: inside of the house. We received a search warrant and
24:18
Speaker 1: we started excavating the back yard of this residence due
24:23
Speaker 1: to the fact that there's potential for Michael's remains to
24:26
Speaker 1: be in this backyard. Shouted out to well known private
24:29
Speaker 1: investigator Robert Crispin. What do you make of that they
24:32
Speaker 1: got a serious, credible tip because you hear how these
24:36
Speaker 1: cases have fifteen hundred tips came in, But how many
24:39
Speaker 1: times you hear a credible tip came in? What let's
24:42
Speaker 1: talk about a credible tip. What is that? That's something
24:44
Speaker 1: that could be independently verified by law enforcement that they're
24:48
Speaker 1: going to run with. And I believe that this is
24:51
Speaker 1: probably why the APPI davit is still sealed, because I
24:54
Speaker 1: think they're onto something. And I think that credible tip
24:57
Speaker 1: from the person that came inside from that inside that
25:00
Speaker 1: house is not the lady who was arrested. Well, that's
25:03
Speaker 1: my concern. They say the tip came from inside the house,
25:07
Speaker 1: is that her? I mean, is she the one that
25:10
Speaker 1: made the tip? I don't think so. I honestly don't
25:13
Speaker 1: think so. And if they think that she's mentally crazy,
25:16
Speaker 1: then they should have her baker acted. You know, why
25:18
Speaker 1: do we have an arrest. We have a very specific
25:21
Speaker 1: arrest with a very specific crime. So I mean, if
25:26
Speaker 1: she's confessed to doing that crime. No, she hasn't. Don't
25:30
Speaker 1: don't say that. She did not confess that she did
25:32
Speaker 1: the crime. She said she had a vision that her
25:36
Speaker 1: husband did it and buried the body in the back yard.
25:41
Speaker 1: I mean that is not a confession. But she didn't
25:44
Speaker 1: report it. That's the crime. She's charged with, report of death.
25:48
Speaker 1: I know that that's a laid down the road charge.
25:50
Speaker 1: That's what she's charged with. Right now. She's being held
25:53
Speaker 1: on failure to report a death at five hundred thousand
25:56
Speaker 1: dollar balling. Does that mean she's the one that committed
25:59
Speaker 1: the crime? Not necessarily And that's the hang up right here, guys,
26:02
Speaker 1: take a listen again to Abye Davis Katie VB. Chiefhuff
26:06
Speaker 1: told me they finished processing the yard and house that
26:09
Speaker 1: Sarah Wandra lived in. Wandra has been charged with failure
26:13
Speaker 1: to report a death, but her status conference was reset
26:17
Speaker 1: rescheduled to December twenty third because a judge ruled that
26:20
Speaker 1: she is mentally unfit to assist in her own defense
26:22
Speaker 1: and she needs treatment. Just to clarify, Wandra was the
26:25
Speaker 1: person who lived in the house that they have been
26:28
Speaker 1: digging up the backyard and searching the house for so,
26:31
Speaker 1: Huff told me that they're not quite sure that he
26:35
Speaker 1: said that. They're looking to provide more information about what
26:38
Speaker 1: actually came out of that search. Another thing I would
26:40
Speaker 1: be interested in is whether or the husband that she's
26:44
Speaker 1: pointing the finger at, whether he also lives with her
26:47
Speaker 1: or is he long gone, because we don't see him
26:50
Speaker 1: implicated in any way. This after fifteen hundred tips in
26:56
Speaker 1: the search for five year old Michael Vaughan. Now we
26:59
Speaker 1: also understand that she is about half a mile from
27:04
Speaker 1: where Vaughan. Vaughan's father said he last saw the boy.
27:09
Speaker 1: What do you make of that, Joe Scott Morgan, This
27:12
Speaker 1: is basically right under the family's nose. Yeah, it is.
27:15
Speaker 1: But you know, for all we know, she's whipped up
27:18
Speaker 1: into a frenzy, you know, emotionally, and you know, she
27:22
Speaker 1: thinks she's vested in this. She thinks that she's a
27:24
Speaker 1: junior investigator. And suddenly she starts getting visions from God
27:29
Speaker 1: where she's telling them that God told them that her husband,
27:33
Speaker 1: whatever his status is at this point in time, killed
27:36
Speaker 1: this poor baby and buried them in their backyard. You know,
27:39
Speaker 1: how does she not have an awareness of this? Already?
27:41
Speaker 1: It took God. It took God on High to give
27:44
Speaker 1: her this message that her backyard had been dug up
27:47
Speaker 1: and a little boy's remains have been placed there. I'm
27:51
Speaker 1: just that Joe Scott Morgan is absolutely correct, and I'll
27:55
Speaker 1: put clinical language to it. She's what four minutes from
27:59
Speaker 1: the family home, has the flyer on a refrigerator. Perhaps
28:02
Speaker 1: she has what we call involutional psychosis, meaning she goes
28:06
Speaker 1: in and out of psychotic states. Because the language I
28:10
Speaker 1: got a vision from on High has kind of a
28:13
Speaker 1: psychotic quality to it. Joe Scott Morgan said she was
28:16
Speaker 1: whipped up into a frenzy. Absolutely, people who are psychotic
28:20
Speaker 1: will incorporate into their psychotic episodes whatever the heck is
28:24
Speaker 1: going on around them. And what's going on around her,
28:27
Speaker 1: a little voice and missing for the last year. What's
28:29
Speaker 1: going to get incorporated into her psychosis? The fact that
28:33
Speaker 1: her husband killed him? Why? Who knows? Maybe she's mad
28:36
Speaker 1: at him that day, Maybe he threw his dental floss
28:38
Speaker 1: on the counter and she's pissed off of him because
28:40
Speaker 1: he didn't put it in the trash, and you know,
28:42
Speaker 1: she incorporates this anger into a psychotic episode. Psychotic people
28:47
Speaker 1: do this all the time. But another thing we know
28:50
Speaker 1: about missing children, psychosis and all of that is usually
28:53
Speaker 1: the body is found within less of a spin a
28:56
Speaker 1: third of a mile from the family home. Right, we've
28:59
Speaker 1: covered these cases again and again. Stereotypical abduction where a
29:03
Speaker 1: stranger takes the child, transports them overnight more than twenty
29:09
Speaker 1: four hours away or to another state is less than
29:12
Speaker 1: one percent. Look at Kaylee Anthony. Everybody's searching, search and
29:17
Speaker 1: search where was she near the house? So it's always
29:21
Speaker 1: in close proximity to the house almost always. But I
29:24
Speaker 1: would say that most certainly this woman has some kind
29:27
Speaker 1: of I don't use the word mental illness. I would
29:30
Speaker 1: say loss of contact with reality. And people like that
29:33
Speaker 1: become very preoccupied about the phenomena of people that just
29:37
Speaker 1: want desperately to be involved in a case. Now, earlier
29:41
Speaker 1: I was talking about the husband. I do know that
29:44
Speaker 1: the husband, Stacy Wanda, does share the home with her,
29:50
Speaker 1: So that lays me the choice of her for him
29:54
Speaker 1: that called in this tip. I'd been willing to put
29:57
Speaker 1: money on it. Jos Goot Morgan that it was Fruitland
30:01
Speaker 1: literally sits literally sits immediately adjacent to a major interstate highway.
30:07
Speaker 1: If there's a predator out there. They could be in
30:11
Speaker 1: that neighborhood and back on I think it's I eighty
30:14
Speaker 1: four headed towards Portland and headed up the western seaboard
30:18
Speaker 1: into Canada if they so wished in the blink of
30:21
Speaker 1: an eye, and no one would be any of the
30:23
Speaker 1: wiser at that point in time. If you just take
30:26
Speaker 1: a look at this place on the map. That's one
30:28
Speaker 1: of the things I'm thinking about. This child. This child,
30:31
Speaker 1: to some predator out there, has much more value a
30:35
Speaker 1: live than he does deceives time stories with Nancy Grace.
30:53
Speaker 1: We know that this woman appears in court, Sarah Wander,
30:57
Speaker 1: charged with failure to report a death in cops came
31:00
Speaker 1: to affect the search warrant and the arrest. She was
31:03
Speaker 1: standing there in her living room, not trying to get away.
31:06
Speaker 1: Although she has pointed the finger at her husband, who
31:09
Speaker 1: was the main player in her heavenly vision. He has
31:13
Speaker 1: not been arrested. Stacy Stacy Wandra has not been arrested.
31:18
Speaker 1: She's aged thirty five. Apparently we haven't heard anything about
31:23
Speaker 1: children living in the home. What does that mean that
31:27
Speaker 1: this five year old boy goes missing in her neighborhood
31:31
Speaker 1: and now she's had a heavenly vision. Did she take
31:33
Speaker 1: the boy and kill the boy? Did she want to
31:36
Speaker 1: have a child? Did she never have children? All questions
31:39
Speaker 1: to be answered by a shrink. I think, I hear
31:42
Speaker 1: you Del Carson jump in, yeah, yeah, that she has
31:45
Speaker 1: no children. She may have wanted that child for her
31:48
Speaker 1: own purposes, but it's all unlikely because certainly indignity up
31:53
Speaker 1: to backyard as they have. If that were true, they
31:56
Speaker 1: would already have found at a post fat some sort
31:59
Speaker 1: of evidence of the child. You're right, And not only
32:02
Speaker 1: did they did get up, Del Carson, they also brought
32:05
Speaker 1: out cadaver dogs and you just got Morgan or to you,
32:10
Speaker 1: Robert Crispin, wouldn't cadaver dogs have hit on that earth
32:15
Speaker 1: where the body was buried? I think absolutely, of course, sure, yeah,
32:21
Speaker 1: and not just that. Even further, I think one point
32:25
Speaker 1: was made by bethany earlier, Nancy, any kind of clothing
32:29
Speaker 1: this child would have had on, if the child, assuming
32:31
Speaker 1: that the child would have been still clothes when buried,
32:34
Speaker 1: If there's any synthetic blends in there, this clothing is
32:37
Speaker 1: not going to degrade to any great degree. You would
32:40
Speaker 1: see evidence of that, and would it would really pop
32:42
Speaker 1: out against that you could see it with the unaided
32:44
Speaker 1: high Essentially, you know, once you stuck a spade to
32:48
Speaker 1: show a spade to dirt, at that point time started
32:50
Speaker 1: turning the dirt, you would see it. It would be there,
32:53
Speaker 1: and not to mention the remains that had been left
32:56
Speaker 1: behind us. But what about this the specificity in her state?
33:00
Speaker 1: When cops questioned her, I said, where in the backyard,
33:04
Speaker 1: and she pointed to shape places and one of them
33:07
Speaker 1: was the backyard by a shed. She was very specific. Now,
33:13
Speaker 1: when you have specificity and a statement that lends to
33:16
Speaker 1: its credibility, it makes it more believable. But let me
33:19
Speaker 1: also point out she pointed to a spot near the
33:23
Speaker 1: entry of her residence. Psychotic people can be very very
33:27
Speaker 1: specific depending on the nature of the psychotic episode they're having.
33:31
Speaker 1: So let's say she's obsessed with this case. The family
33:35
Speaker 1: lives four minutes down the road, She has the flyer
33:38
Speaker 1: on her refrigerator, she has an empty life, probably doesn't
33:41
Speaker 1: work or have much of a life. If she has
33:43
Speaker 1: a severe mental illness, she's trapped in the home all
33:45
Speaker 1: the time. What's she going to do. She's going to
33:47
Speaker 1: think and think and think about this case. Pretty soon
33:50
Speaker 1: she has a whole psychotic delusion about it. I'm just
33:52
Speaker 1: dating just based upon what I know about mental illness.
33:55
Speaker 1: And pretty soon she decides in her own mind where
33:58
Speaker 1: the body is and she calls the police. And you know,
34:00
Speaker 1: this may be the biggest happening in her life this
34:03
Speaker 1: past year, that she was able to call the police,
34:05
Speaker 1: that she was able to share her psychotic episode of
34:09
Speaker 1: other people. Well, now she's sharing it with a sealemate. Guys,
34:13
Speaker 1: take a listen now to our cut three. This is
34:16
Speaker 1: Joe Martin from KMTV. Appearing took place today for a
34:20
Speaker 1: woman arrested in connection with a disappearance of five year
34:23
Speaker 1: old Michael Vaughan. Sarah Wandra is charged with failing to
34:26
Speaker 1: report a death to the corner. Her next appearance is
34:30
Speaker 1: scheduled for December twenty third, after the court holds a
34:33
Speaker 1: competency check. Six year old Michael Vaughan has been missing
34:36
Speaker 1: for over a year. Police in Fruitland spent most of
34:39
Speaker 1: last week digging in the backyard at the house where
34:43
Speaker 1: Wandro lives, but they haven't released any new information on what,
34:47
Speaker 1: if anything has been found so far. Not from our
34:50
Speaker 1: friends at km VT. We also know police are asking
34:54
Speaker 1: for help they're asking for help identify a white vehicle
34:58
Speaker 1: they believe to be a white Honda Pilot year twenty
35:03
Speaker 1: sixteen to twenty twenty that was spotted around Southwest eighth
35:09
Speaker 1: Street six forty seven pm on July twenty seven. They're
35:14
Speaker 1: looking for the driver of that, and they're also looking
35:16
Speaker 1: for a blue Dodge Avenger. Now, why any car could
35:22
Speaker 1: have driven through that neighborhood. What would it be about
35:24
Speaker 1: those two cars that have piqued their interest. You were
35:28
Speaker 1: just hearing from our France at KMVT. Now take a
35:33
Speaker 1: listen to this Lavon family has no connection to anyone
35:36
Speaker 1: that has lived inside the home that is currently being searched,
35:40
Speaker 1: but they do live just a few minutes away and
35:42
Speaker 1: their street is completely blocked off, and police say that
35:45
Speaker 1: is to protect them during this investigation. Since Michael has
35:48
Speaker 1: gone to missing, the entire town of Fruitland still has
35:51
Speaker 1: signs posted looking for Michael, and the community wants answers.
35:55
Speaker 1: I find that critical. Let me throw that out to you,
35:59
Speaker 1: Robert Crispin. They're making it clear that this woman, Sarah Wandra,
36:04
Speaker 1: now under arrest for failure to report a death, had
36:09
Speaker 1: no connection to the Vaughan family. Why is that important. Well,
36:14
Speaker 1: it could be for a number of reasons to disconnect
36:18
Speaker 1: and do two separate investigations. And this is a great
36:21
Speaker 1: example of why law enforcement never releases the cause of
36:26
Speaker 1: death on appending homicide just for this exact reason. They'll
36:30
Speaker 1: say that they have a homicide, but they won't say
36:33
Speaker 1: the cause of the homicide stabbing, a shooting, a strangulation, decapitation,
36:38
Speaker 1: and why because you have people like this. I'm not
36:43
Speaker 1: saying she's guilty or not, but will come forward and
36:46
Speaker 1: they will say that I killed that little boy. Okay, Well,
36:49
Speaker 1: as an investigator walked me through how you did it? Well, yeah,
36:53
Speaker 1: I conducted him and I pulled him and I strangled
36:55
Speaker 1: them and then I shot him in the head. And
36:57
Speaker 1: then the next thing, you know, when we unearthed the child,
36:59
Speaker 1: we find out that the child's round. It's a completely
37:03
Speaker 1: different cause of death. But if somebody hears on TV
37:07
Speaker 1: like out of Idaho with these four girls, which is
37:10
Speaker 1: just beyond me, how they release the cause of death
37:15
Speaker 1: being a stabbing. I mean, if somebody gets taken into
37:20
Speaker 1: custody and they're a suspect in any homicide, only the
37:24
Speaker 1: person who committed the homicide is going to know the
37:26
Speaker 1: facts of the crime scene and then the mad and goal.
37:31
Speaker 1: All police departments, this is always a problem because everybody
37:35
Speaker 1: knows everybody else, and everybody loves a secret. Listen, Nancy,
37:40
Speaker 1: I had a guy confessed to a crime to me
37:43
Speaker 1: who didn't do it, and he confessed to everything that
37:46
Speaker 1: was on TV. And I dissected his statement and it
37:49
Speaker 1: was everything that was released. And this is exactly why
37:52
Speaker 1: law enforcement stays tight. Let well, I had it happened
37:55
Speaker 1: to my best friend in the DA's office. He prosecuted
38:00
Speaker 1: a person for a murder based on a confession, and
38:05
Speaker 1: the person matched the description. About a year later, it
38:08
Speaker 1: turns out the killer was wearing a wig and the
38:12
Speaker 1: real killer was apprehended. Thankfully, A very brief time went
38:16
Speaker 1: by based on a false confession. Is that what we
38:20
Speaker 1: have here? Take a listen to our cut twenty eight
38:23
Speaker 1: every Day, Miss Katie VB. Police arrested thirty five year
38:26
Speaker 1: old Sarah Wandra over the weekend, who lived in the
38:28
Speaker 1: house being searched. She's charged with failure to report at death.
38:32
Speaker 1: Wandra appeared via zoom for an arrangement Monday afternoon in
38:35
Speaker 1: pat County. It is alleged that you did honor about
38:38
Speaker 1: on the twelfth day of November of this year. Here
38:42
Speaker 1: in this day of Ioo, veil to notify the corner
38:45
Speaker 1: of a debt, the death of Michael Lawn with the
38:49
Speaker 1: intense to for van the discovery of the manner of
38:52
Speaker 1: debt as a failing here in the state of Iobo.
38:55
Speaker 1: Do you understand the allegation has been made against you
39:02
Speaker 1: as you hear her state in court. I understand what
39:04
Speaker 1: you're saying, but it's not correct. And in the last
39:09
Speaker 1: hours a critical police pressor the home search has been completed.
39:16
Speaker 1: During that excavation process, the Idaho Mountain Search and Rescue
39:20
Speaker 1: Mountain States Detection Dogs deployed multiple certified human remains detection
39:26
Speaker 1: dogs on the property, all of them alerting to the
39:30
Speaker 1: presence of human remains. Ground penetrating radar was also used
39:35
Speaker 1: and deployed detecting anomalies in the backyard. We completed the
39:40
Speaker 1: excavation of the entire backyard and removed over two hundred
39:44
Speaker 1: and fifty yards of dirt. Prior to backfilling the yard.
39:48
Speaker 1: The dirt was meticulously sifted for any potential human remains.
39:53
Speaker 1: We did not find Michael's remains, although the remains of
39:58
Speaker 1: Michael Vaughan were not recovered. We strongly believe, based on evidence,
40:03
Speaker 1: that Michael was abducted and is deceased, and that his
40:06
Speaker 1: remains were buried and later moved from the property. As
40:12
Speaker 1: of today, the whereabouts of his remains are unknown. Take
40:15
Speaker 1: a listen to our friends a kt VB. Sarah and
40:18
Speaker 1: her husband Stacy both lived in the home that Cruz
40:22
Speaker 1: excavated and searched. This is Stacy Wandra. Once again, they
40:25
Speaker 1: are a married couple. He is currently in the Washington
40:28
Speaker 1: County Jail on unrelated charges. So we already knew that
40:32
Speaker 1: the Wanderers lived in the home being excavated. What we
40:35
Speaker 1: didn't know in what Huff told us was that these
40:38
Speaker 1: two other men, they believe, also had some sort of
40:41
Speaker 1: knowledge about what happened to Michael. They are not in
40:43
Speaker 1: the state of Idaho right now. They believe they are
40:45
Speaker 1: in other states right now. One of them was actually
40:49
Speaker 1: visiting the wanders at that house, and the other one
40:51
Speaker 1: actually lived with the Wandras. This is Brandon Shirtliff, thirty
40:55
Speaker 1: years old of Cuna, Idaho. Brandon was living with Sarah
40:58
Speaker 1: and Stacy Wandra at eleven o' two Red Wing Street,
41:01
Speaker 1: at the time of Michael's disappearance, and we believe Brandon
41:05
Speaker 1: has firsthand knowledge of Michael's abduction. Brandon is currently believed
41:09
Speaker 1: to be in North Dakota. Adrian Lucien thirty two, thirty
41:14
Speaker 1: two year old male out of Toledo, Ohio. Adrian was
41:18
Speaker 1: staying with Sarah and Stacy Wander at eleven o't two
41:21
Speaker 1: Red Wing Street at the time of Michael's disappearance, and
41:24
Speaker 1: we believe that Adrian has firsthand knowledge of Michael's abduction.
41:28
Speaker 1: Adrian's currently believed to be in Toledo, but floats between
41:31
Speaker 1: Ohio and California. So once again they believe that these
41:35
Speaker 1: four people have some sort of knowledge about what happened
41:37
Speaker 1: to Michael. Tip line two zero eight three four three
41:42
Speaker 1: Cops two zero eight three four three two six seven seven.
41:48
Speaker 1: We have not forgotten the kidnapped and murder a five
41:52
Speaker 1: year old Michael Vaughan. Goodbye friend,