By: Mark Fitzgerald Last month, the five members of the Vaughn family smiled out from a photo in the section front of the Chicago Sun-Times Real Estate/HomeLife section.
Friday, the same photo was on the front page of the Sun-Times -- alongside a story reporting that mom Kimberly Vaughn, 34, and children Abigayle, 12; Cassandra, 11; and Blake, 8; had been found shot to death in their sports utility vehicle in Channahon, about 45 miles southwest of Chicago.
Dad Christopher Vaughn, 32, was found nearby in a another SUV, with a gunshot wound in his thigh.
News accounts said he told investigators the family had stopped their vehicles along the road to secure some luggage, and that his wife suddenly began firing a handgun. Christopher Vaughn said he fled, and that when he returned, he found Kimberly and the children shot to death.
Friday, authorities said Christopher Vaughn's wound had been treated and he was allowed to leave Illinois State Police headquarters in Lockport at about 1:40 a.m. No other information was going to be released Friday morning, authorities told the media.
The deaths shocked relatives and neighbors, who portrayed the Vaughns as a happy and loving family.
And in the Sun-Times real estate feature last month, the family said they had arrived at a very good place when they bought a $340,000 home in the Spring Gate at Southbury development in far suburban Oswego.
"We really liked the small-town atmosphere of Oswego," Kimberly Vaughn told the Sun-Times. "We also checked on the schools our three children would be attending and found them to be highly rated. We looked tat the models, and we were very impressed."
A spokeswoman for the development's builder, Orleans Homebuilders, told the Sun-Times Friday, in an article by Bill Cunniff, that the couple was "very, very enthusiastic about moving into the community, the (four-bedroom, 3,373-square-foot) house, the whole family life."
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