Khalil Said Pugh was 28 when he disappeared from Clinton, Iowa, after an apparent shooting on February 23, 2021. Police were alerted the next day and, after obtaining a search warrant for an apartment at the Gateway Apartments, found what they described as a violent crime scene and a single 9mm shell casing. Pugh’s car and cell phone were recovered in the parking lot but he was not at the scene; family and friends said they had not heard from him since February 23.

An 18-month investigation, assisted by the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, traced the shooting to an altercation inside the apartment. Investigators say Lewis Vaughn, Sr., then 44 and a maintenance worker for the building, shot Pugh twice, killing him. Authorities allege that Vaughn called his wife, 35-year-old Jessica Vaughn, who helped move Pugh’s body into Vaughn’s truck and later helped dispose of it in a dumpster that was emptied before police could search it.

Forensic testing reportedly identified Pugh’s blood in the apartment, in Vaughn’s truck, and in the dumpster. In August 2022 police arrested Lewis Vaughn, Sr., on a charge of first-degree murder and arrested Jessica Vaughn on a charge of abuse of a corpse. Does anyone have information about Pugh’s whereabouts before February 23 or about activity at the Gateway Apartments that night?