Edward Vaughn

Edward Vaughn was a 46-year-old Black man known by loved ones as a devoted father. He and his wife, 35-year-old Surrenda Davis Vaughn, had been married for at least a decade and shared a home on Lakeside Drive in Vicksburg, Mississippi. Together they were raising four children, who ranged in age from two to seventeen. Surrenda was a beloved and popular school teacher in the Vicksburg-Warren School District. Friends and family described the couple as having their struggles, like any married couple, but they were always known to work through their differences. The events that transpired in the summer of 2016, however, would leave their family and the Vicksburg community in a state of shock and profound grief.

On the evening of Saturday, June 18, 2016, a day before Father's Day, a horrific discovery was made inside the Vaughn family home. One of the couple's children, a teenage son, found his parents unresponsive in their bed and immediately alerted the authorities. When deputies from the Warren County Sheriff’s Office arrived at the residence at 211 Lakeside Drive, they found both Edward and Surrenda deceased from gunshot wounds. A handgun was recovered at the scene. The children were not present in the house at the time of the shooting.

Warren County Sheriff Martin Pace and Deputy Coroner Kelda Bailess oversaw the initial investigation. Both bodies were transported to the State Medical Examiner's office for autopsies. From the outset, investigators treated the case as an apparent murder-suicide. Sheriff Pace stated that evidence at the scene suggested that Surrenda was the victim of a homicide and that Edward had died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. As a matter of standard procedure, investigators conducted a thorough review of any prior law enforcement contact with the couple or at their address.

The investigation confirmed the initial theory. Authorities concluded that Edward Vaughn shot and killed his wife, Surrenda, before turning the gun on himself. With the primary suspect in Surrenda's murder also deceased, the case was considered closed. The motive behind the devastating act remained a painful mystery to those who knew the couple. Their daughter, Princess Promise, expressed her confusion and sorrow, stating she didn't know what made her father do what he did, but remembered him as a good person. "They had their differences, every couple has their differences, every marriage has their struggle but they always worked through it," she said. "They always overcame everything, and I don't know what went wrong this time."

While the violence seemed to come without warning to many, Surrenda’s father, Charles Davis, later revealed there had been recent signs of trouble. He recalled his daughter calling him about two weeks before her death, telling him she wanted to move back home and that she and Edward were planning to separate. When he tried to ask what the problem was, she wouldn't elaborate. The news of his "baby girl's" death, which he received on the road from his hysterical grandson, was the worst news a father could receive on Father's Day. "My heart bleeds," he said, fighting back tears.

The sudden loss of both parents left four children orphaned and a community in mourning. On social media, friends, colleagues, and neighbors expressed their heartbreak over the tragedy. One friend remembered seeing Surrenda just the last time she was taking her daughter to daycare, and they had a brief conversation. The news of her death stopped her in her tracks, she wrote, expressing deep sorrow for the children who lost both their mother and father in an instant. The community grieved not only for the loss of a respected teacher and a father but for the violent end to a family's life. As of the latest reports in June 2016, the investigation was concluded, leaving a family to navigate a future forever altered by the events of that tragic night.