In December 2017 a friend checked on 23-year-old Kyanna Howes Vaughn and her 25-year-old husband, Robert Aaron Vaughn, at their Johnson City, Tennessee mobile home after not hearing from them for a couple of days. Both adults were found deceased in their bedroom from gunshot wounds. Kyanna was six to seven months pregnant; authorities treated the case as a triple homicide because the unborn child also died. Their two young children, ages three and six, were found unharmed inside the home.

Investigators identified 33-year-old Derrick Benjamin Sells of Fall Branch as a suspect; he was known to be an acquaintance of Robert Vaughn and had communicated with him the evening of the killings. Sells had a criminal record and was on probation at the time. He was arrested on December 9, 2017, and charged with multiple counts including first-degree murder, felony murder, unlawful possession of a weapon, aggravated robbery, and aggravated child neglect after a handgun was found in his vehicle.

The case raises painful questions about what led to the confrontation that night and how a family with small children ended up targeted inside their home; anyone with information about Kyanna, Robert, or the events in Johnson City in December 2017 is asked to come forward.