For more than 550 days,
a family has faced agonizing pain
searching for their little boy,
searching for answers.
Michael Vaughn went missing in
the summer of 2021. The case
heated up late last year, with police
digging up a home close to the Vons and
naming people they
believe are involved in
Michael's abduction. But we still
don't know where the little boy is.
There's a hole.
July 27th, 2021 but we
keep moving on every day and we don't give up
the day the world stopped
turning for one Idaho family.
I always write everyday.
What day it is and it says,
be strong, be brave, be fearless.
You were never alone.
The day a little sister couldn't
play with her Big Brother.
She picks up his pictures.
I leave this one here.
She'll walk up and she'll start
talking to him. She'll get sad
and she says I miss monkey.
I miss him too.
A day forever imprinted on the memories of
everyone who lives in the family's small,
close knit community of Fruitland ID.
5 year old Michael Vaughn
went missing from this neighborhood behind
me, the search for Michael Vaughn continues.
We just want our monkey home,
Fruitland police say.
Then five year old Michael
Vaughan disappeared between 6:40
and 7:00 PM on July 27th, 2021.
His family says he was last
seen down the road from where
they live on SW 9th St.
in Fruitland and he spoke
to multiple neighbors.
Every minute counts in these investigations.
When searching for a missing child by
fall, police said Michael
was likely abducted.
I wanna hear him say I love you, mom.
Was the last thing I got here.
That was the last thing he said to you.
You don't wanna be home to tuck him in.
Multiple agencies, from Fruitland
Police and Idaho State Police to Idaho
Mountain search and rescue and the
National Center for Missing and Exploited
Children scoured the area searching
for Michael on the ground in the water
from the sky. People from all
around the treasure valley also
helped search for the little
blonde hair, blue eyed boy.
Lovingly nicknamed monkey.
Michael still missing.
He's not home and we don't have answers.
So we keep going.
Monkeys 6th birthday came and went last June.
That one up top is from
Monkey's 6th birthday. And
all of the Fruitland Police Department.
Sign the ribbon. And brought that.
What do you miss most about him?
Is.
Hugs, his jumping on me.
His kisses Mama when we do this.
His inquisitiveness about everything.
Just wanting to see the whole world.
You wanna take him to catch more
frogs with each passing day?
Michael's mom, Brandy Neal, holds out
hope they can make more memories.
She and his dad, Tyler Vaughn, speak
to Fruitland police constantly,
darn near daily, and know they're
using every resource they can.
Their hearts are broken too.
Just weeks after Michael's 6th birthday,
we perceive some recent leads that
have put us out in the area again.
Searching more acreage,
Fruitland Police Chief JD Hoff announced.
A tip in a sea of more than
1000 tips LED them back to the
area where Michael disappeared.
Michael's case fell quiet again
for a few months until it got
very loud on November 11th,
2022, a major break in the case
at a home just across the road,
just half a mile away from this
neighborhood where the van family lives.
Police say they were looking
for Michael's possible remains
at a home on Red Wing St.
so close, Brady says she walked
there and knocked on the door
early on in her search for Michael.
No one answered when she knocked.
Huff said a quote very credible tip from
someone living in the home led them
to believe Michael was buried there.
Search and rescue crews used heavy
machinery to dig up the backyard
of this home on Red Wing St.
honestly, I didn't really believe
it at first. Like it could,
it couldn't have been this close.
I will literally worn my feet to the bone.
We are all very emotionally
tied to this case, Brandy
says. Police told them to hunker down
and to stay away from the excavation.
I saw that the end of the road.
I watched the trucks
leaving with the dirt.
But I promised my family,
I promised law enforcement,
promised everybody that it
wouldn't go over there.
It was like day one again.
First weeks, months. Not
being able to drive, not being able to
think, not being able to do anything.
Pour yourself into a shower. The next day,
after more than a year and a half,
police arrested someone they believe
was involved in Michael's abduction.
Even without finding a body,
they charged one of the
people living in the home,
35 year old Sarah Wandra,
with failure to report a death.
Police for the first time saying
they believe Michael is dead.
Do you understand the allegation
that's been made against you?
I understand what they've said, not correct.
But how could they arrest
her without finding a body?
Chief could only tell me
they had probable cause for
prosecutors to charge her beyond just
statements made. You're confident
that they have more?
They can't tell us, but.
I'm confident in them.
The judge sealed the probable
cause affidavit and other records,
not wanting to jeopardize
the high profile case.
The Payette County prosecutor said.
Wandra was on pretrial release at the time,
charged with unlawful possession
of a gun by a felon.
She lives with her partner, Stacy,
who's been in the Washington
County Jail since May of 2022,
accused of the same gun charge.
Never seen them, never met them.
Left Flyers in the door.
In December, Sarah was committed
to the state psychiatric hospital
after she was found mentally unfit
to assist in her own defense.
It's disheartening.
It's upsetting. Proceedings
are paused until her
competency can be restored.
But I understand.
I understand the process.
According to Chief Huff,
she isn't cooperating.
I want answers. I need answers,
but I'd like to sit and have
a conversation with her,
face to face with me.
But you can't yet. No, not yet.
There will be a time. Crews
spent days digging up the Red Wing St.
property. They brought human
remains, detection dogs,
all of them, alerting to the
presence of human remains.
Although the remains of Michael
Vaughan 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.
In that same December news conference
Chief Huff announced they believe two
more people have first hand knowledge
about Michael's disappearance.
He said Brandon Shirtliff and Adrian
Lucian lived out or visited the Wanderers
home when Michael was abducted.
We also believe that there are
others associated with the Wanderers.
Shirt, lift and Lucy. Who may have
knowledge of Michael's abduction?
Police believe Lucian is bouncing
between Ohio and California.
Public records show he has a lengthy
criminal record in multiple states.
Shirtliff also has a long rap sheet.
In fact, court records show he has a
warrant out for his arrest in Canyon
County for violating probation,
which Chief Huff knows about from CUNA.
Shirtliff's mom told us he now lives
in North Dakota via Facebook Messenger.
She also told us in early December
investigators and cadaver dogs
were at her house for days.
He is not running,
he has nothing to hide and we have
all been cooperating, his mom wrote.
A week after releasing their names,
Fruitland police said they made
contact with Lucian and Shirtliff.
However, they haven't charged the
men or issued any arrest warrants.
While Huff wouldn't comment on why,
he says he's confident arrests will
be made in this case, that's not.
Fair if you have information
about my goal and you've watched
us for this past 545 days and
you haven't said a damn word.
And we have to wait and wait and wait
and still take care of our family.
In our lives.
Somebody needs to say something.
And they need to start talking.
As investigators press on, Chief Hoff
says they continue working closely
with the Payette County prosecutor.
You can't take one of our most precious
citizens from us and ever expect us to stop.
These words.
But we will bring him
home one way or another.
We'll never give up.
While they wait for answers,
these are every single card kind note.
It has been said to our family support
from their community and from all over
the world. New Zealand Little Kiwi
for Michael when he comes
home helps their world slowly turn again.
Michael is still missing.
We do not have answers to
where he is. Please.
Please keep sharing his beautiful
smile, his beautiful face.
He's out there somewhere
and we need him home.
Don't forget about him.
Multiple status hearings have
been set for Sarah Wandra,
with another scheduled for February 6,
which we will of course be covering.
Meantime, Chief Hoff believes
they'll be doing more searches.
A week ago, he posted on Facebook saying
they are following up on new information.
While searching the home on Red Wing St.
He said investigators recovered
several pieces of evidence.
Some were sent to a private DNA
lab for analysis, which takes time,
as everything has with this ongoing
active investigation have told me.
Quote I'll continue to ask for patience as
we continue to seek justice for Michael.
This is the toughest thing for
families of missing children.
It's the not knowing, right?
Because they can't ever move on.
No matter what police say,
no matter what the you know guesses are,
the suspicions are it doesn't matter.
This family wants answers.
They want Michael back no matter what.
And they need to know that they're
going to get those answers.
Since the beginning of this case,
the National Center for Missing
and Exploited Children,
as I mentioned earlier,
has supported the Vaughn family
and law enforcement.
The Center's communications director,
Angeline Hartman,
always encourages families to speak
out and bring attention to the case
advocate for their kids, just as Brandy,
Neal and the vans have done, Hartman says.
Every missing child case is different,
but in 90% of them, the child is found,
whether it happens quickly.
Or takes a long time.
Even if a child is not found in the
first couple days, keep looking.
Every minute counts,
Hartman says it's important to take
the case seriously right off the bat.
Those are critical times.
It's the responsibility of everyone in
the community to help bring that child Home,
Hartman says.
Children leaving on their own
make up the majority of cases,
followed by family abductions.
So so-called custodial cases,
what police say happened to Michael,
a stranger abduction with no
connection to the family, is extremely.
Rare Hartman doesn't want to scare families,
but she does want to remind them to
always be careful despite where they live.
It only takes a second, right?
And we don't know what happened.
Did it take a second?
Did it take 10 minutes?
And that was 10 minutes that,
you know,
just nobody was paying attention.
I mean,
this is a community where children
and all children should be able
to play outside in any community.
And this is so heartbreaking to think,
to just imagine that he was out
there playing, searching for,
for playmates.
Hartman says they're so impressed by
the way Fruitland community banded
together and wrapped their arms around
the Vons, and continues to do so.
She encourages everyone to keep supporting
the family as they wait for answers,
because it's easy for them to feel alone.