Oswego family tragedy: June 2007 Archives

HEATHER EIDSON / BEACON NEWS
New memorial crosses have been placed
on the Vaughn family lawn in Oswego.

BY DENISE CROSBY

The crosses go up; the crosses come down ... and the debate goes on and on about just how long a community should mourn when tragedy strikes. In the Oswego cul-de-sac where Kimberly Vaughn and her children once lived before being brutally murdered, that issue is even more sensitive because the privacy of neighbors has been trampled on by nosey media, police investigators and curiosity seekers drawn to the home where the so-called perfect family once lived. Can you blame the folks next door for getting a little cranky?

JOHN J. KIM / SUN-TIMES
Reporters surround a car as it exits the Baue
Funeral and Memorial Center on Friday after
the wake of Kimberly Vaughn and her three
children in St. Charles, Mo.

BY DENISE CROSBY

What the heck. Isn't our local murder as newsworthy as the one in Ohio? While the national media has dabbled with the story of the Oswego family murder, it's been overshadowed by the blanket of attention given to the slaying of 26-year-old Jessie Davis.

BY MIKE CETERA

They seemed like such nice people.

How many times have we heard these or similar words when tragedy strikes? It's a common refrain that expresses our disbelief that bad things can happen. But does such a simple comment also betray something about ourselves, that we really don't know who lives next door?

BY MIKE CETERA

Did he do it? Did she do it? It was the watercooler question of the week.

The mystery apparently is solved. That won't, however, keep all the rubberneckers from continuing the speculation.

SUBMITTED PHOTO
Kimberly Vaughn and her three
children were found shot to death
June 14 in their SUV.

BY MIKE CETERA

The Chicago Sun-Times and other media are reporting that police are looking into a possible connection between the deaths of an Oswego woman and her three children and a recent episode of "Law & Order."