Neighbor Arrested in Brutal Kidnap and Murder of Michael Vaughn

Summary

Episode Summary: Neighbor Arrested in Brutal Kidnap and Murder of Michael Vaughn

Podcast: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace
Date: May 3, 2026
Host: Nancy Grace | iHeartPodcasts and CrimeOnline

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Overview

In this gripping episode, Nancy Grace and an expert panel dissect the tragic case of five-year-old Michael Vaughn, who vanished while playing outside his rural Fruitland, Idaho, home. The episode explores the years-long investigation, the recent arrest of neighbor Stacy Wandra, and the complex search for justice. Grace and her guests analyze the timeline, community response, and forensic efforts, unraveling the troubling developments—including disturbing allegations, a bizarre confession, and the agonizing search for closure.

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Main Discussion Points & Insights

The Disappearance and Immediate Aftermath

• Incident Background

  • Michael Vaughn, affectionately called "Monkey," disappeared (07/27/2021) while playing outside around 6:30 PM.
  • Fruitland is a small, tight-knit town (~6,500 people) whose police force numbered only twelve officers, stretching resources during the investigation.

    “His disappearance shattered the small community...” — Nancy Grace (00:24)

• Area Description

  • The neighborhood borders vast farm fields, an interstate, and canals—a landscape that complicated search efforts.

    “...residential community...then the interstate right from there and then the Snake River. All that means potential locations for this five-year-old little boy.” — Nancy Grace (03:43)

  • Fruitland is about an hour from Boise and near the Idaho-Oregon border.

    “...small communities with maybe five six thousand people...residential community...surrounded by farm fields.” — Eric Grossarth (10:01)

• Timeline Gaps

  • Michael was last seen at home at 6:30 PM; a neighborhood alert was sent at 8:20 PM.
  • Uncertainty remains about who last saw Michael outside and whether he simply wandered off or was targeted.

    “I don’t know who saw him out in that field. I know that the missing, endangered child alert goes out at 8:20 PM but who saw him last at 6:30?” — Nancy Grace (17:35)

Search Efforts

• Enormity of the Search
  • Hundreds of volunteers, dozens of agencies, state police, and the FBI were involved.
  • Over 3,000 acres searched, including draining irrigation ditches, septic tanks, and 29 miles of the Snake River shoreline.
  • Canines, helicopters, drones, and marine patrols deployed.

    “...methodical search of the area near Michael’s residence...included two irrigation runoff ditches which were drained...including the use of canines, aerial and marine, and land support.” — Chief JD Huff (11:14; 31:32)

  • Calls for public tips (over 1,500 received), review of security camera footage (over 60 tapes).

Questions of Supervision

• Discussion Around Parental Vigilance

  • Nancy Grace repeatedly presses the point of how Michael could disappear so quickly without parental notice.

    “If the twins at age five were at home at 6:30...I don’t know how they would have gotten out of the house and wandered away without anybody noticing.” — Nancy Grace (05:40)

  • Panel considers whether parents’ trusting rural mentality, siblings’ whereabouts, and everyday routines played a role.

    “There’s a very, very low crime rate, and people think they can let their children go play outside without watching them because nothing has ever happened in the neighborhood before.” — Nancy Grace (15:35)

• Emerging Timeline Details

  • According to reporter Sydney Sumner, Michael was home with his father and baby sister; he left the house while the father changed a diaper and may have been looking for a friend to play with.

    “His father stepped out of the room to change the baby’s diaper. Michael must have left...” — Sydney Sumner (27:49)

  • Some find this troubling yet believable based on their own experiences with children.

    “Children have a way of being curious, particularly boys perhaps...” — Dale Carson (29:50)

The Forensic Investigation and Arrest

• Break in the Case

  • Fruitland police dug up a neighbor’s backyard (at 1102 Redwing Street), only four minutes from Michael’s home, after a credible tip.
  • Heavy machinery used; dirt sifted offsite for evidence.

    “...excavating the backyard of a house in connection with Michael’s death...taking the dirt from that backyard and bringing it to a location off-site and analyzing that dirt.” — Abby Davis, KTVB (20:22)

• Role of Ground-Penetrating Radar and Cadaver Dogs

  • High-tech search tools (radar and dogs) used to identify burial spots and scent, revealing signs of disturbed soil and alerts to human remains.

    “Ground-penetrating radar...you can see where dirt has been disturbed that should not have been disturbed.” — Nancy Grace (22:54) “All of them alerting to the presence of human remains...dirt was meticulously sifted for any potential human remains.” — Chief JD Huff (49:25)

• Neighbor Arrested

  • Stacy Wandra, who lived at the property, charged with kidnapping and murder, following a three-day preliminary hearing and testimony from nearly a dozen witnesses.

    “A neighbor, Stacy Wandra, a man who lived just blocks away...now facing trial.” — Narrator (19:19)

• Disturbing Allegations (Content Warning)

  • According to prosecutors, Michael was taken to Wandra’s home, bound, sexually assaulted (by Wandra, his former wife, and two roommates), then suffocated and hidden. The body was subsequently moved.

    “They claim Wandra, his former wife, and two roommates raped, taped Michael’s hands, legs, and mouth before stuffing him in a duffel bag.” — Narrator (48:15) “According to court documents...the boy died of suffocation...body was hidden and then moved to conceal the evidence.” — Narrator (50:21)

The Bizarre “Confession” and Legal Proceedings

• The Confession and Charges

  • Sandra Wandra, the suspect’s wife, implicated her husband, allegedly stating she had a “vision from God” about his guilt. She was not directly charged with murder but for failure to report a death.

    “She said she had a vision from heaven that her husband was the killer and had buried the baby in the backyard.” — Nancy Grace (40:02) “She’s being held on failure to report a death at $500,000 bond...” — Nancy Grace and Robert Crispin (43:21)

• Mental Competency Questions

  • Sandra is being evaluated for mental fitness to stand trial. Panelists debate whether her “confession” stems from instability or involvement.

    “She needs treatment just to clarify Wandra was the person who lived in the house that they have been digging up...” — Abby Davis, KTVB (43:37) “She has what we call involutional psychosis – goes in and out of psychotic states...” — Dr. Bethany Marshall (45:23)

Notable Quotes / Memorable Moments

On the Community’s Pain

• “We are all very emotionally tied to this case just as our community is—I would say probably the country.”
  — Chief JD Huff (41:24)

On the Search’s Scope

• “We’re talking about thousands of acres by land, by air, searching the water, hundreds of tips. But now they’re digging within a half a mile...in the neighborhood.”
  — Nancy Grace (36:02)

On Parental Guilt and Community Trust

• “That’s part of the culture...people think they can let their children play outside without watching them because nothing has ever happened in the neighborhood before.”
  — Nancy Grace (15:35)

On Forensic Challenges

• “They're looking for anything kind of biological sample ... anything related to decomposition. Certainly blood is part of that...but you have to consider all elements.”
  — Joe Scott Morgan (22:24)

On the Critical Tip and Arrests

• “They got a serious credible tip...that's something that can be independently verified by law enforcement that they're going to run with...”
  — Robert Crispin (42:03)

On the Aftermath and Waiting for Closure

• “Although the remains of Michael Vaughn were not recovered, we strongly believe based on evidence that Michael was abducted and is deceased and that his remains were buried and later moved from the property.”
  — Chief JD Huff (49:25)

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Timestamps for Major Segments

• 00:00–03:22: Case set-up; Michael Vaughn’s disappearance, introduction of expert panel.
• 03:22–07:01: Reconstruction of the last moments Michael was seen; local geography and timeline confusion.
• 08:05–11:05: Details of the search efforts; role of the FBI.
• 13:23–17:35: The public’s anxiety over supervision and the family's activities.
• 19:19–20:43: News of the neighbor (Stacy Wandra) being charged and the excavation of the backyard.
• 22:09–25:08: Ground-penetrating radar and forensic technology explained; connection to prior high-profile cases.
• 27:49–29:50: Timeline refinement: Michael's father left the room to change a diaper—Michael left during this brief interval.
• 31:08–36:02: Scale of search; comparison to other cases of missing children.
• 38:32–44:10: Analysis of tipster, confession from Sandra Wandra; debate over mental competency.
• 47:33–50:21: Details from prosecutors on what allegedly happened to Michael including how body was moved, evidence, canine hits.
• 49:25–End: Police announcement—no remains found but belief Michael was kidnapped and murdered; community reaction and closing.

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Conclusion

Nancy Grace’s episode untangles the confusing, heartbreaking disappearance of Michael Vaughn. Through fastidious questioning, community context, and forensic breakdowns, listeners get a clear sense of the investigative challenges—and the heartbreak—of a family and town desperate for answers. The episode ends with the tense wait for justice as the accused neighbor heads to trial and the search for Michael’s remains—and closure—continues.

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For more info or to provide tips: Fruitland Police tip line [phone]

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(This summary omits advertisement segments, musical intros/outros, and focuses on the core investigative discussion as requested.)

Transcript

[Nancy Grace]

this is an i heart podcast guaranteed human crime stories with nancy grace five

[Narrator/Reporter]

year old michael vaughn five years old playing in his front yard when he was taken according to prosecutors in the last hours a judge brings down the the hammer paving the way for a neighbor man stacy wandra to go to trial for murder i'm nancy grace this is crime stories i want to thank you for being with us that's right michael vaughn a beautiful five year old little boy last seen playing outside his family home in a rural and tight knit town fruitland idaho that's about fifty miles from boise the five year old todd's disappearance shattered the small community at the time less than six thousand five hundred people lived there and its police department the entire department had a total of of twelve officers well the search for michael stretched the police force but with the help of dozens of local police agencies plus the fbi and volunteers over three thousand acres of land including twenty nine miles on the snake river were searched but years went by no sign of michael for over four years his mother brandy tirelessly seeking answers working with police trying to locate her little boy that she called monkey but in the last months a neighbor who lived just blocks away is charged with murder kidnap and destruction of evidence what do we know about the disappearance of little

[Nancy Grace]

michael michael vaughn was last seen in

[Joe Scott Morgan]

the area of southwest ninth in arizona

[Eric Grossarth]

in fruitland he was wearing a light blue minecraft shirt and dark blue boxer

[Nancy Grace]

briefs with sandals officers have scoured through three thousand acres of farmland drained irrigation ditches searched through garbage cans and a septic tank i've got a lot of questions let's introduce an all star panel to break it down and put it back together again first of all joining me twenty seven years metro major case including swat now lawyer james shellnutt at shellnutlawfirm dot com doctor angela arnold renowned psychiatrist joining us out of the atlanta jurisdiction karen l smith forensic expert lecturer university florida and host of a hit series shattered souls partner podcast eric grossarth now joining us from the area with the east idaho news dot com and you can find him on instagram twitter at eric grossarth eric i don't understand how this little five year old boy just goes missing who was supposed to

[Eric Grossarth]

be watching him you know that's something that investigators haven't necessarily told us yet we do know that he was in his neighborhood it is a neighborhood in a small small community but those streets end up right there on farm fields so you got acres and acres of farm fields and then the interstate right from there and then the snake river

[Nancy Grace]

so okay wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait that was a lot of information eric gross are eric gross are joining me from east idaho news dot com let me take that one line at a time because i'm hearing open field then i heard you say all the streets converge at this location and very small community but you're leading me to believe it is a residential community like a suburban community and near an interstate and near the snake river all of that means potential locations for this five year old little boy we're talking about michael vaughn what happened derek let's just start at the beginning yeah

[Eric Grossarth]

so michael was last seen around his house around six thirty pm that day and at some point his family or

[Nancy Grace]

who eric do you have children eric just curious i do okay so then you know six thirty for children this young it's getting about suppertime if they haven't already you know they like to eat at four thirty or five o' clock in the afternoon so at this point i would assume the parents are home from work i'm just speculating here i don't know this you got to help me and the child is there at six thirty then what in the hey is he doing out in a

[Eric Grossarth]

field after that and you know that's the the million dollar question there associated with this case somebody just said that they saw him walking along that street in in the clothes that minecraft t shirt that they saw and he vanished a lot of these details had been released yet just because there is a lot of unknowns but he did at some point walk wander away from the house and we all know with kids how easy it is they can walk long distance very quickly no actually i

[Nancy Grace]

don't i don't i know that other people say that but i can tell you this if the twins at age five were at home at six thirty i don't know how they would have gotten out of the house and wander away without anybody noticing anything i will tell you this eric grossarth on our back door we had of course the door handle would you could lock it and then we put a yeah thank you jackie a side bar slide bar well listen to this eric there were some steps going upstairs right beside that back door i mean we could stand on the step and open the door the doorknob it's right there together john david lynch and lucy lynch by the time they were eighteen months two years old could go up two steps and reach up and change the slide bar so we had to put something even higher up so they couldn't reach it like little monkeys so i'm not saying he can't get out because they could do that at two years old and this michael is five but how does he how has he gone that long and nobody noticed eric and why aren't police telling us what happened you know

[Eric Grossarth]

this is one of those that they're still trying to piece together everything that happened there's a lot of information including the search there is several investigators that have been called in to talk to people there's been witness after witness hundreds of them that have been coming in with different tips and they need to come in and talk with all of these people search these homes talk to different investigators so there's a lot they have said that michael's parents have been cooperative with investigators but they still have a lot to talk about and there's still a lot of unknowns in a case like this especially where you still have this person missing michael is one of the few people that would probably know exactly what happened at that moment when he walked away that would tell them what happened to me yeah i

[Nancy Grace]

mean i know the child knows what happens if the child is still alive you were earlier hearing our friends at idaho news six now take a listen to our cut two this is kristin scurriva idaho news the search for a

[Abby Davis]

missing treasure valley boy escalates as it goes into a second day police officers in fruitland need the community's help in locating that little boy five year old michael joseph vaughn is considered endangered and was last seen at his home near southwest ninth and arizona in fruitland it was around six thirty tuesday evening and search efforts have begun immediately to find him with teams walking through nearby neighborhoods searching by air with drones and even a helicopter the idaho mountain search and rescue team brought their search dog to help with the effort vaughn is about three and a half feet tall he has blonde hair and blue eyes he also goes by the nickname monkey just

[Nancy Grace]

thinking about that just three and a half feet tall he's a little bitty thing goes by the nickname monkey

[Abby Davis]

i'm

[Nancy Grace]

looking at him right now big beautiful smile he's very very tiny allegedly goes missing from a field near his home now i'm looking at the field right now and i notice that people going through the field are with the fbi now i'm very curious as to why the idaho state police has called in the fbi to help find michael but something about this story is not hanging together for me now tell me about the area that's one of my problems here at gross arth joining me from eastidahonews dot com you're saying it is a residential community i'm looking at the field that i think this is the one where he was last seen i don't see anything in the distance i see what i think to be a structure with a few outhouses around it but it looks like a farming structure and so is this a residential neighborhood

[Eric Grossarth]

or what yeah so this is kind of common out here in idaho you'll have these small communities with maybe five six thousand people and there'll be a residential community and then it's surrounded by farm fields i'm in a larger town my parents house is here but their backyard is farm fields and it goes on for miles and miles so there are these residential communities in these farm fields but something else to point out that this is only about an hour from idaho's largest city of boise you hop on interstate eighty four there in between idaho and oregon so you're near larger communities but there's still lots of these farm fields and when we talk farm fields that's another thing that investigators have been searching is canals they got to bring the water into these fields so there are lots of canals and different waterways throughout all of this the maze of little waterways and fields in these small communities in idaho so yes there is that residential aspect but it's right next to the western farming communities

[Nancy Grace]

take a listen now to our friend at the fruitland police department this is chief jd huff listen today the fruitland

[Chief JD Huff]

police department in conjunction with the state police multiple treasure valley law enforcement agencies and the federal bureau of investigation we continue to search for missing and endangered five year old michael joseph vaughn mj to his family and friends michael was last seen near his residence on southwest ninth street in fruitland at approximately six thirty pm on july twenty seventh twenty twenty one operations to date include the methodical search of the area near michael's residence which included two irrigation runoff ditches which were drained by the fruitland public works department in an extensive search and rescue effort including the use of canines aerial and marine and land support idaho fish and game officers are continuing to search the river by boat for four to five miles downriver and back up and in the sloughs of the snake

[Nancy Grace]

river as well joining me in all star panel let's go straight up to james shelnutt twenty seven years metro major case including swat now lawyer at shelnutlawfirm dot com james why typically would the fbi be called in on a case

[Robert Crispin]

like this well so the fbi has

[Eric Grossarth]

a policy nancy that says that if a child is of tender years then the fbi will get involved in the investigation of a missing child and tender years to the fbi means a child is under twelve years old so if

[Robert Crispin]

a child is under twelve all that

[Eric Grossarth]

has to be done is a call place to the local fbi office and they will send fbi agents to come out there typically the fbi does not get involved in adult cases unless there's some indication that there's some type of interstate crime going on but with a child that young the fbi's policy is to get involved and provide assistance anytime

[Nancy Grace]

it's requested let me understand something else eric gross sars joining us from east idaho news dot com michael was last seen wearing a light blue minecraft shirt dark blue boxer briefs and size eleven blue flip flops child eleven does that mean he had on his underwear that's

[Eric Grossarth]

what they're saying is that he had his t shirt and then his boxer brief underwear and then his shoes so he was running around that day in

[Nancy Grace]

his underwear and it's my understanding that he has two siblings and i'm curious about their ages for those of you just joining us the tip line is two zero eight six four two six six zero zero six that's the fruitland police repeat two zero eight six four two six zero zero six joining me forensic expert karen l smith so he's home at six thirty how did he get out and who saw him in

[Eric Grossarth]

the field good question you know he's

[Karen L Smith]

fine he's little you said that your kids were able to unslide the lock

[Eric Grossarth]

when they were two so i don't know about if he was out there and nobody knew the reporter mentioned somebody seeing him on the street do we

[Karen L Smith]

have any more information about that who

[Eric Grossarth]

was the last person to see this

[Karen L Smith]

child which direction was he going was

[Eric Grossarth]

he running was he playing was he walking was he lost did he lose track of which house was his these are all questions that should have been asked and answered already

[Nancy Grace]

the frantic search goes on for a five year old little boy who goes missing seemingly right under his parents nose who is this little missing boy michael vaughn again if you could describe for me eric grossarth

[Eric Grossarth]

what he was wearing yeah so michael was last seen wearing this blue minecraft t shirt it's been plastered all over the missing persons report there he also was wearing i guess a black boxer briefs with the lime green stitching and then size eleven flip flops so he was in his t shirt in his boxer briefs and flip flops last seen on his street running around the neighborhood and that neighborhood again is surrounded by fields and canals and all of all of that farm community that we talked about a minute ago you know part

[Nancy Grace]

of it to doctor angela arnold our renowned psychiatrist joining us out of the atlanta jurisdiction is that much like where i grew up there's a very very low crime rate and people think they can let their children go play outside without watching them because nothing has ever happened in the neighborhood before so under those circumstances the parents probably thought there was no problem letting him go outside

[Karen L Smith]

i'll tell you the burning question that i'm having inside is this a typical behavior like do the kids typically run around outside at night after dinner and as you also pointed out nancy where were his siblings like if everybody runs around outside at night that's one thing

[Eric Grossarth]

isn't it but why was this the

[Karen L Smith]

only kid and are his siblings older

[Eric Grossarth]

or younger than him but why was

[Karen L Smith]

he the only one that was outside

[Eric Grossarth]

playing at this time of night now

[Nancy Grace]

i understand eric grossart that the parents i want to follow up on what doctor angela arnold just said the parents saw him in the home at six thirty and you still can't tell me who saw him out in the field

[Eric Grossarth]

what i can tell you is that the investigators are keeping that close to them during this investigation they've been talking to a lot of the neighbors going from home to home looking through surveillance video but he was seen last seen near his house at six thirty pm on july twenty seventh so they were searching okay shortly after that that time that he disappeared the first alert for the neighborhood like a reverse nine hundred eleven call was around eight twenty pm so a couple hours later and investigators were searching through that neighborhood so it wasn't like he was missing for days when he was reported missing it was just moments after he was last seen in that neighborhood that investigators were called out and they began their extensive search

[Nancy Grace]

you know what the search has been extensive but i'm still we've still got a big gaping hole in the timeline because i don't know who saw him out in that field i know that the missing endangered child alert goes out at eight twenty pm but who saw him last at six thirty was that in the home or was that out in the field how far away is the field from his home eric so

[Eric Grossarth]

what we do know all investigators have said again is that a person we don't know who that person is but they said that somebody saw him near his home on this southwest ninth street which dead ends into a farm field at six thirty so investigators haven't released to us who last saw him but somebody saw him on the street which again goes towards a field guys take

[Nancy Grace]

a listen to more from the fruitland police chief jd huff we also want

[Chief JD Huff]

to emphasize that michael's family continues to be one hundred percent cooperative with our investigation and we're asking you to be extremely respectful of their privacy during this situation and we would appreciate that super difficult time as you would know so michael was last seen wearing a light blue minecraft t shirt over here on my left dark blue blocks or briefs child size eleven sandal and he stands three foot seven inches tall he's fifty pounds he's got blonde hair blue eyes and he answers to the nickname monkey

[Nancy Grace]

crime stories with nancy grace

[Narrator/Reporter]

a neighbor stacy wandra a man who lived just blocks away from michael vaughn now to stan child the five year old little boy last seen playing in his front yard when he was kidnapped according to prosecutors now we know a neighbor's yard was dug up in the search for michael vaughn stacy wandra now facing trial why because an idaho judge has ruled there is enough evidence for wandra to stand trial in the death of little michael after a three day preliminary hearing district magistrate judge brian lee says there is pc to move forward with the case presenting the case to a jury the prosecutors put up testimony from nearly a dozen witnesses making out what they believe happened to little michael this is

[Nancy Grace]

what we know take a listen to our friends at ktvb we are in

[Abby Davis]

the fifth day of law enforcement and search and rescue crews excavating the backyard of that house eleven oh two red wing street in the town of fruitland just four minutes away from the vaughan family home we've had heavy machinery here the last few days today mostly people here with shovels they're taking the dirt from that backyard and they're bringing it to a location off site and they're

[Nancy Grace]

analyzing that dirt okay that's never a good sign when people are searching for your child and they bring in an excavation crew now you may ask why are they taking soil samples from the backyard taking it away from this home several several homes down from michael vaughn's family home why are they taking dirt to the crime lab we've got an all star panel to make sense of what we know right now in the recent development in the case of missing tot michael vaughn but first let me go to joseph scott morgan professor of forensics jacksonville state university and author of blood beneath my feet on amazon starving youg hit series body bags with joe scott morgan joe scott please explain in regular people talk joe scott why they are taking soil samples and i want you to hearken back to the case of kristen smart remember remember the killer's backyard had a deck and cops went under the deck with ground penetrating sonar found a disturbance of the dirt and they went in and actually took soil samples so this is similar to the kristen smart case in that respect explain

[Joe Scott Morgan]

yeah it is in the sense that you're looking for elements that would be connected to human remains and human decomposition

[Nancy Grace]

excuse me are you trying to say they're looking for blood in the dirt

[Joe Scott Morgan]

well no it's not just blood you're not just looking you're looking for anything kind of biological sample that might decomposition anything related to decomposition certainly blood is part of that you know is part of that but you have to consider all elements and the fact the fact that they've brought in an excavator this is not delicate work like kristen smart they're taking huge huge samples of earth and they're going to sift through every bit of that but they're having to be very very careful nancy let's talk

[Nancy Grace]

about ground penetrating radar i guess robert crispin joining me private investigator former federal task force officer us department of justice dea it goes on and on and on you can find him at crispin special investigations dot com that's crispin investigations dot com robert you and i have both worked with ground penetrating sonar it's just like sonar on a fishing boat right because the sonar on a fishing boat you can actually look kind of looks like a sonogram get it sonar sonogram you see black a black area and then you see gray waves when you do a sonogram on a mom you see the baby in a gray shadow when you do sonar with a fishing boat you can actually see the fish gray figures swimming under or around your boat ground penetrating radar sonar which shows the earth where you're looking is black or gray but then you see waves in it you can see where dirt has been disturbed that should not have been disturbed and it's done with something that looks like a metal detector have you ever seen that done robert

[Robert Crispin]

oh i have and it brings to light a couple things and it's only been a year since they've actually start to dig and have a lead to do something like this and they're hoping that because it's only been a year that when they put this sonar out there that they're going to see something that is either there and not decomposed already or a picture of a body that's still somewhat intact or dirt that hasn't been rained on so much that it's kind of filtered its way and gone back to its normal setting of how it was in the beginning so this is a very very amazing technique that they use but there's some very specific things that are coming to light about how much they're digging after they're doing the sonar you know they're saying they're going three and four feet that's very specific that came from somewhere you're

[Nancy Grace]

right they're going down three to four feet and that's a very specific dig you know you said it's amazing technology and i agree with you but robert and crispeth it's not it ain't rocket science okay it ain't brain surgery it's like a metal detector haven't you been to the beach doctor bethany marshall joining me psychoanalynce to the stars at dr bethanymarshall dot com doctor bethany have you ever been to the beach and you're enjoying the waves and the sand and the seagulls and like for one minute you're not working yeah yeah and you see somebody some guy is usually either kids or an old white male with something a metal detector blipping along trying to find somebody's where they've dropped money or a watch or a ring that's what this looks like you ever seen

[Karen L Smith]

that i have definitely seen that or they're looking for a wedding ring a diamond you know some treasure there and

[Nancy Grace]

that's exactly what this looks like guys we are learning that down the street from this tot boy's home the backyard is dug up but where did the whole thing start take a listen now to our friends at idaho news six

[Joe Scott Morgan]

fruitland police are searching for a missing and endangered five year old the boy michael vaughn was last seen in the area of southwest ninth in arizona in fruitland late tuesday he was wearing a

[Nancy Grace]

light blue minecraft shirt and dark blue

[Joe Scott Morgan]

boxer briefs with sandals anyone with information should call nine hundred eleven the payette county sheriff's office or fruitland police nancy

[Karen L Smith]

if i could jump in you know wasn't there a description of what he was wearing on the day he went

[Nancy Grace]

missing yeah we just heard that and i said it earlier right sandals go

[Karen L Smith]

ahead well they wouldn't just be looking for decomposition they would be looking for that clothing right it's been a year clothing doesn't completely degrade in a year

[Nancy Grace]

the body would not be degraded in one year there would at least be skeletal remains at the very very least but i would suggest that there would still be it's hard for me to talk about connecting it to this little boy michael vaughn but there would be a substantial amount of his body left if it had been buried at the very least skeletonized remains but what they're looking for right now in this person's backyard for pete's sake is any disturbance in the ground sydney summer joining me crimeonline dot com investigative reporter sydney thank you for being with us let's just go back to the day that michael vaughn seemingly disappears who what where when

[Karen L Smith]

why just hit me gotcha july twenty seventh of twenty twenty one is the last time anyone saw michael vaughn he was at home with his father and his baby sister and while his father stepped out of the room to change the baby's diaper michael must have left his mom suggests that he left through the garage thinking that they would have heard him had he left through the front door and there's reports that he was going around to several neighbors homes to try to find a child to

[Nancy Grace]

play with outside okay let me just drink in what sidney sumner has just told me okay let's go to high profile lawyer out of jacksonville former fbi agent former cop author of arrest proof yourself you can find him at dalecarsenlaw dot com dale let's analyze what sydney sumner just told us and everybody remember this is not high tea at windsor castle jump in dale so dad changes baby daughter's diaper and in that time michael vaughn five year old tot boy wearing sandals i think they're strap on sandals like you know birkenstocks boxers and a light blue minecraft t shirt leaves the home purportedly to find somebody to play with i find that troubling but believable i think i told you this story dale carson my longtime friend joy jones lives across the street from us growing up very rural area four brothers and sisters in her home three in our home the first time we ever met i was about i don't know four and i wandered over there knocked on the door and asked for a cookie it can happen so that is not many people are arguing dale carson well wait why didn't he notice how long did it take to change a diaper it can happen it's not beyond the realm of possibility gil carson no

[Robert Crispin]

not at all in fact you know children have a way of being curious particularly the boys perhaps i don't know

[Nancy Grace]

why you're saying that you're stereotyping but okay go ahead well i'm let's see if i can dig a kernel of rationale out of what you're saying yet women aren't curious did you hear that doctor bethany forget all the questions you've ever had in life because girls aren't curious doctor bethany remember that okay go

[Karen L Smith]

ahead carson i did hear that this

[Robert Crispin]

is personal experience i'm five years old i run away from the house on a tricycle i'm naked running around the damn neighborhood finally someone finds me and brings me home i mean that's certainly possible that the child simply wandered off but of course those individuals with the last connection with the child are the most likely suspects in general cases well

[Nancy Grace]

what do we know jackie can you find out about that because i bet somebody has suggested mom and dad take a polly and again let me remind everybody it's not mommy and daddy's backyard that's being dug up right now it's a neighbor down the street a female neighbor down the street crime stories with nancy grace

[Narrator/Reporter]

five year old michael vaughn's remains have never been found despite years of law enforcement searching volunteers other police agencies you name it twenty nine miles searched along the snake river and what

[Nancy Grace]

do we know about the actual search take a listen to chief jd huff

[Chief JD Huff]

today the fruitland police department in conjunction with the state police multiple treasure valley law enforcement agencies and the federal bureau of investigation we continue to search for missing and endangered five year old michael joseph vaughn mj to his family and friends michael was last seen near his residence on southwest ninth street in fruitland at approximately six thirty pm on july twenty seventh twenty twenty one operation to date include the methodical search of the area near michael's residence which included two irrigation runoff ditches which were drained by the fruitland public works department in an extensive search and rescue effort including the use of canines aerial and marine and land support idaho fish and game officers are continuing to search the river by boat for four to five miles down river and back up and in the sloughs of the snake river as well

[Nancy Grace]

another thing that police have let slip is that this is really no longer a search for a live tot boy they're no longer looking for a live five year old michael vaughn because they stated they have reason to believe more people know about the abduction and death of this little boy who who are they talking about who knows more than they're telling about the kidnap and murder of a five year old little boy allegedly wandering the neighborhood looking for somebody to play with well what are police saying about michael vaughn's family what do we know about that to sydney sumner crimeonline dot com investigative reporter what if anything are they saying police have actually

[Karen L Smith]

said that the parents are cooperating much more tyler and brandy are michael's parents and they are both being extremely cooperative with the investigation and seem to just

[Nancy Grace]

want their son home interesting interesting because you know dale carson high profile lawyer joining me out of jacksonville a lot of times the family is not entirely cooperative all right remember in the jominee ramsey case at a certain point the family stopped talking to police without a lawyer go ahead that's our first clue

[Robert Crispin]

is that when people are not cooperative there's a reason that they're not cooperative particularly in a situation where you have a child of yours that's missing according

[Nancy Grace]

to what the dad told police at the time he was out of michael's sight for ten to fifteen minutes what does that mean in the real world robert crispin that the boy had to leave the home and get kidnapped in fifteen minutes how far could he have gotten on foot in fifteen minutes i

[Robert Crispin]

mean clearly gives him the window to get out if dad's distracted he doesn't really have to go that far these kids get abducted right off their front

[Nancy Grace]

lawn sometimes you're right that is exactly what happened in the case of samantha runyon with her grandmother looking through the window at her playing with other children in the front yard and a guy pulls up in a car grabs samantha who is two or three years old at the time and leaves and within a couple hours she's been raped and

[Robert Crispin]

murdered i just have a huge issue with and correct me if i'm wrong but he starts to look but then doesn't he call the mother rather than

[Eric Grossarth]

nine one one first yes you're right

[Nancy Grace]

about that guys take a listen now to news channel seven huff says that

[Eric Grossarth]

it has been a thorough search they have looked at two hundred homes they have interviewed the residents they have drained a septic tank they have drained nearby canals that search is up to three thousand acres huff also says they've looked at twenty nine miles along the riverbank

[Nancy Grace]

and huff added there are sixty different security camera footage tapes they need to look through they are continuing to look through and one hundred sixty three tips

[Eric Grossarth]

they continue to ask people to come

[Nancy Grace]

forward with any information huff is making

[Eric Grossarth]

it clear the department is committed to

[Chief JD Huff]

the this search is my childhood neighborhood that's where i spent my childhood years my children are growing up here and my law enforcement partners are mothers fathers aunts uncles and friends of children that are just like michael so you need to believe me when i tell you that we are all in you know

[Nancy Grace]

i'm comparing joe scott morgan to the kelly anthony case better known as tot mom casey anthony case the killer but a huge search was conducted to find kelly when she was about ten houses down from the anthony home the entire time and you just heard our friends at news channel seven talking about the thousands of acres that had been searched by land by air searching in the water hundreds of tips but now they're digging within a half a mile right there in the neighborhood they're digging up

[Robert Crispin]

a woman's backyard yeah that goes to

[Joe Scott Morgan]

specific information you know why would you initiate that as a law enforcement organization you know to put those resources toward that specific area it's not like it's a wide swath you're talking about a location that approximates where this child was last seen and they're going to great efforts and trust me you know you got to think they know that the media is going to be watching them as they're doing this so they're really sticking their neck out on this why would you go this deep into this literally you're talking about a depth here of three to four feet that's pretty deep we refer to that as layering through the strata of the of the of the backyard of this place they're looking for disturbed soil that's back there they would have to have a targeted area to go into to see if the soil has been displaced in any way whatsoever but now now it sounds like they're just kind of going through the entire backyard so again from an investigative standpoint that's very very specific it's

[Robert Crispin]

wrong because when you look for a body buried in the soil you want to layer it out very specifically so you can find evidence that might indicate who buried the child and so to go into a backyard and simply take it all and put it in a dumpster is not the way it's supposed

[Joe Scott Morgan]

to be done yeah it's kind of it's kind of non scientific you know you're not being very methodical about it you know and again you have to measure what's being said at this point

[Nancy Grace]

in time well also we don't know exactly what they did they could have done the ground penetrating sonar and looked and then start taking the dirt yes i would agree it should have been dirt taken in specific samples we don't know that they didn't do that here's

[Robert Crispin]

the other point here's the other point it's been a year there's been no progress whatsoever in responding to the case from a criminal perspective what do we

[Nancy Grace]

know and why are police digging in this woman's backyard take a listen to our forensic crime online fruitland police have fielded more than two fifteen hundred leads and tips since michael vaughn disappeared and one of those tips considered credible leads investigators to the home of casey and sandra wondra the wandras are neighbors of the vaughn's living just four minutes from where michael vaughn went missing the tipster says michael's remains may be behind the home sandra wonder has posted tiktok videos where vaughn's missing poster can be seen hanging on her refrigerator police are conducting an extensive search of the property using excavating equipment and two cadaver dogs in their investigation fruitland police chief jd huff says the intent is to dig three or four feet deep crews place what has been dug up in dumpsters huff says crews will not stop until the entire backyard is excavated joe carson what were you saying about this woman well

[Robert Crispin]

look she has made a confession but

[Nancy Grace]

there's no i don't know that i would call that a confession what exactly

[Eric Grossarth]

did she say he said god on

[Robert Crispin]

high told me that my husband killed the child and buried him out back

[Nancy Grace]

near a shed but interestingly we don't see the husband arrested well because she's

[Robert Crispin]

not right mentally i don't know about that and so they have to charge her with something well i mean she's in analysis right now i mean she's in therapy right now to determine whether she's competent to stand prior dale carson

[Nancy Grace]

you know the game better than anybody putting someone having someone analyzed or tested for mental defect does not mean that they have a mental defect look at lori valet they've been analyzing her for a couple of years now and now they've decided she's fit to stand trial i mean defense attorneys always as a last resort argue they're mentally unfit now sometimes you actually do have a mentally unfit defendant but that's just a card that's always thrown out by the defense when they don't know what to do they declare mental incompetence but when you say she gave a confession what she did was that she said she had a vision from heaven that her husband was the killer and had buried the baby in the backyard what more do we know take a listen to our friend abby davis ktvb a grieving community

[Abby Davis]

reeling from the disappearance of the five year old michael vaughn last july now potentially one step closer to finding closure

[Chief JD Huff]

we are all very emotionally tied to this case just as our community is i would say probably the country fruitland

[Abby Davis]

police chief jd huff spoke with us sunday afternoon about a credible tip he says led authorities and rescue crews to dig up the backyard of a house in connection with michael's death hough said on monday that credible tip came from someone inside of the house we received

[Chief JD Huff]

a search warrant and we started excavating the backyard of this residence due to the fact that there's potential for michael's remains to be in this backyard straight

[Nancy Grace]

out to well known private investigator robert crispin what do you make of that

[Robert Crispin]

they got a serious credible tip because you hear how these cases have fifteen hundred tips came in but how many times do you hear a credible tip came in what what let's talk about a credible tip what is that that's something that can be independently verified by law enforcement that they're going to run with and i believe that this is probably why the affidavit is still sealed because i think they're onto something and i think that credible tip from the person that came inside from that inside that house is not the lady who

[Nancy Grace]

was arrested well that that's my concern they say the tip came from inside the house is that her i mean is she the one that made the

[Robert Crispin]

tip i don't think so i honestly don't think so and if they think that she's mentally crazy then they should have had her baker acted you know why do we have an arrest we have a very specific arrest with a very specific crime so i mean if we she's confessed to doing that crime

[Nancy Grace]

no she hasn't don't don't say that she did not confess that she did the crime she said she had a vision that her husband did it and buried the body in the backyard i mean that is not a confession but

[Robert Crispin]

she didn't report it that's the crime she's charged with failure to report a

[Nancy Grace]

death i know that that's a later

[Eric Grossarth]

down the road charge that's what she's

[Nancy Grace]

charged with right now she's being held on failure to report a death at

[Robert Crispin]

five hundred thousand dollars bond yeah does

[Nancy Grace]

that mean she's the one that committed the crime not necessarily and that's the hang up right here guys take a listen again to abby davis ktvb chief

[Abby Davis]

huff told me they finished processing the yard and house that sarah wandra lived in wandra had has been charged with failure to report a death but her status conference was reset rescheduled to december twenty third because a judge ruled that she is mentally unfit to assist in her own defense and she needs treatment just to clarify wandra was the person who lived in the house that they have been digging up the backyard and searching the house for so hough told me that they're not quite sure that he said that they're looking to provide more information about what actually came out

[Nancy Grace]

of that search another thing i would be interested in is whether the husband that she's pointing the finger at whether he also lives with her or is he long gone because we don't see him implicated in in any way this after fifteen hundred tips in the search for five year old michael vaughn now we also understand that she is about a half a mile from where vaughn vaughn's father said he last saw the boy what do you make of that jo scott morgan this is basically right under the family's nose yeah it is

[Joe Scott Morgan]

but you know for all we know she's whipped up into a frenzy you know emotionally and you know she thinks she's vested in this she thinks that she's a junior investigator and suddenly she starts getting visions from god where she's telling them that god told them that her husband whatever his status is at this point in time killed this poor baby and buried him in their backyard you know how does she not have an awareness of this already it took god it took god on high to give her this message that her backyard had been dug up and a little boy's remains have been placed there i'm

[Nancy Grace]

just can i jump in on that

[Karen L Smith]

jo scott morgan is absolutely correct and i'll put clinical language to it she's what four minutes from the family home she has the flyer on a refrigerator perhaps she has what we call involutional psychosis meaning she goes in and out of psychotic states because the the language i got a vision from on high has kind of a psychotic quality to it jo scott morgan said she was whipped up into a frenzy absolutely people who are psychotic incorporate into their psychotic episodes whatever the heck is going on around them and what's going on around her a little boy's been missing for the last year what's going to get incorporated into her psychosis the fact that her husband killed him why who knows maybe she's mad at him that day maybe he threw his dental floss on the counter and she's pissed off at him because she didn't put it in the trash and you know she incorporates this anger into a psychotic episode psychotic people do this all the time but another thing we know about missing children psychosis and all of that is usually the body is found within less of a third of the mile from the family home right we've covered these cases again and again stereotypical abduction where a stranger takes the child transports them overnight more than twenty four hours away or to another state is less than one look at kaylee anthony everybody searched and searched and searched where was she near the house so it's always in close proximity to the house almost always but i would say that most certainly this woman has some kind of a i don't use the word mental illness i would say loss of contact with reality and people like that become very preoccupied

[Nancy Grace]

what about the phenomena of people that just want desperately to be involved in a case now earlier i was talking about the husband i do know that the husband stacy wanda does share the home with her so that leaves me the choice of her or him that called in this tip i'd be willing to put money on it jo scott morgan that it was her fruitland literally

[Joe Scott Morgan]

sits literally sits immediately adjacent to a major interstate highway if there's a predator out there they could be in that neighborhood and back on i think it's i eighty four headed toward portland and headed up the western seaboard into canada if they so wish in in the blink of an eye and no one would be any of the wiser at

[Narrator/Reporter]

that point in time prosecutors claim little michael was kidnapped from outside of his fruitland idaho home in july while out there playing in the yard they say wandra who lived a few blocks away brought the boy to his home

[Nancy Grace]

where

[Narrator/Reporter]

they claim wandra his former wife and two roommates raped taped michael's hands legs and mouth before stuffing him in a

[Nancy Grace]

duffel bag and to you joe scott morgan or to you robert crispin wouldn't cadaver dogs have hit on that earth where the body was buried i think

[Robert Crispin]

absolutely of course sure yeah and not

[Joe Scott Morgan]

not just that even further i think one point was made by bethany earlier nancy any kind of clothing this child would have had on if the child assuming that the child would have been still clothed when buried if there's any synthetic blends in there this clothing is not going to degrade to any great degree you would see evidence of that and it would it would really pop out against that you could see it with the unaided eye essentially you know once you stuck spade to show a spade to dirt at that point in time and started turning the dirt you would see it it would be there and not to mention the remains that

[Nancy Grace]

had been left behind a critical police presser the home search has been completed

[Chief JD Huff]

during that excavation process the idaho mountain search and rescue mountain state's detection dogs deployed multiple certified human remains detection dogs on the property all of them alerting to the presence of human remains ground penetrating radar was also used and deployed detecting anomalies in the backyard we completed the excavation of the entire backyard and removed over two hundred fifty yards of dirt prior to backfilling the yard the dirt was meticulously sifted for any potential human remains we did not find michael's remains although the remains of michael vaughn were not recovered we strongly believe based on evidence that michael was abducted and is deceased and that his remains were buried and later moved from the property

[Narrator/Reporter]

according to court documents the wonders in one roommate took michael to another home and left him there overnight the boy died of suffocation prosecutors say the body was hidden and then moved to conceal the evidence police also say surveillance video statements and interviews helped crack the case leading to the arrest of wandra and the confiscation of his vehicle cadaver dogs track the boy's scent to the wander property and a nearby heavily wooded area we wait as justice unfolds and baby michael vaughn rest in peace nancy grace signing off goodbye friend

[Nancy Grace]

this is an i heart podcast guaranteed human