Vaughn at Plainfield Shooting Range Night Before His Wife, Kids Were Slain

The Oswego man accused of staging the deaths of his wife and children to look like a murder-suicide spent an hour at a Plainfield shooting range the night before the murders, Will County court records show.

Newly released documents show Christopher Vaughn spent a half-hour at , a gun store and shooting range on U.S. 30 near Renwick Road, according to story published by the Sun-Times Media. The gun he allegedly used to shoot targets at the range was the same one found beneath his wife's feet on the day of the shooting, June 14, 2007, the story said.

Vaughn, 36, also had a magazine article in his home about staging a crime scene to make a murder look like a suicide, the records show.

Prosecutors charge that Vaughn killed his wife, Kimberly, and his three children, Abigayle, 12, Cassandra, 11, and Blake, 8, in the family's SUV, which was parked in a spot just off Interstate 55 in Channahon. However, Vaughn maintains it was his wife who did the shooting before turning the gun on himself.

The new documents released last week by Will County Judge Daniel Rozak show that the children were each shot twice and Kimberly Vaughn was shot once under the chin. Vaughn was also shot twice in the leg.

The family was en route to a water park in Springfield, a trip planned the night before the murders after Vaughn’s wife accused him of spending too little time with their kids, the Sun-Times story said. Vaughn was the only survivor, and ran to flag down help on a nearby road.

The documents also show that Vaughn had contact with an exotic dancer, who told police he had written her a poem about “ancient souls” and bad timing.

The story said there is also information in the reports on someone who used Vaughn's e-mail address to set up an online blog under the name "dewoodsman” and was sometimes identified as "Flint," the story said.

“I hear you about not fitting into society, I am the same way," a May 2007 blog entry reads. "I’d rather follow a set of tracks through a river in the rain than have spend time on a paved road or under a roof. I am working on wrapping up a few last things and then I am headed out for the long walk. I’ve been taking continually longer and more remote trips figuring that when the time comes I’ll be ready.”

That would jibe with the prosecution's theory that Vaughn wanted to escape family life and live in the Canadian wilderness, the story said.

Prosecutors have not yet presented a motive, but the documents show that Kimberly Vaughn had a $1 million life insurance policy in which he was the beneficiary and that Christopher Vaughn had told his wife about an affair he had in December 2006, the Sun-Times story said.