On June 14, 2007, 11-year-old Cassandra Ellen Sandi Vaughn was found dead in the back seat of her family’s red Ford Expedition on a secluded service road near Bluff Road and Interstate 55 in Channahon Township, Illinois. Cassandra suffered fatal gunshot wounds; her mother Kimberly Vaughn, 34, and siblings Abigayle, 12, and Blake, 8, were also found shot to death in the vehicle. The family’s vehicle was discovered after a passerby was flagged down by Christopher Vaughn, who had a gunshot wound to his thigh and survived.

Christopher Vaughn was initially not considered a suspect, but investigators later said inconsistencies and forensic evidence led them to focus on him. He was arrested on June 23, 2007, charged and later indicted on first-degree murder counts. A jury convicted him in 2012 and he was sentenced to life without parole. Cassandra was remembered by family as energetic and caring, nicknamed Commander Sander, fond of frogs, planning a dog-walking business, and looking forward to playing clarinet at Thompson Middle School in Oswego.