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Idaho prosecutors are filing murder charges four years after the disappearance of a Fruitland 5-year-old who is believed to have been abducted and killed in his own neighborhood.
“My office is moving forward with charges against the individuals involved in the disappearance and murder of 5-year-old Michael Vaughan, which occurred in the summer of 2021,” Payette County Prosecutor Michael Duke said in a statement late Friday morning.
He stopped short of explaining who or how many suspects were being charged, and a woman who answered his office phone said she could not share anything beyond Duke’s statement.
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Michael “Monkey” Vaughan pictured in a pair of photos released by Fruitland police. The 5-year-old vanished under suspicious circumstances in July 2021. (City of Fruitland Police)
However, a felon who had previously been suspected in the case and lived near the victim when he vanished has been named in an arrest warrant, according to KTVB-7, a local outlet.
Stacey Wondra, 33, will reportedly be charged with first-degree murder, second-degree kidnapping and destruction of evidence, the outlet reported, citing an interview with a local law enforcement source.
Read the prosecutor’s statement:
The county sheriff’s office declined to comment. Fruitland Police Chief JD Huff deferred all questions to the prosecutor’s office.
Wondra and his wife, Sarah Wondra, 38, were both arrested on lesser charges in 2022 in connection with the investigation into Michael’s disappearance. Her charges of failing to report a death were dropped, and he was sent to federal prison in Arizona for being a felon in possession of a firearm.
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Left: Police were previously asking for information about a white Honda Pilot seen in Michael Vaughan’s neighborhood around the time he vanished. Right: Michael in an undated family photo. (National Center for Missing and Exploited Children)
Stacey Wondra, whose sentence ended Thursday, had petitioned a federal judge for early release in a handwritten motion filed on Oct. 7, claiming that he “has demonstrated exceptionally good conduct while incarcerated.” He is reportedly expected to be extradited back to Idaho.
Police had named the Wondras along with two other potential suspects back in 2022.
She is also being held in an Idaho prison for an unrelated assault case.
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Sarah Wondra previously drew scrutiny with social media posts about the case, some of which showed her standing in front of a missing person flyer about Michael’s case. More recently, police released bodycam video showing Stacey Wondra blaming his wife for the crime when police were searching their property, according to KIVI-TV.
Duke said that while prosecutors had hoped to find Michael’s remains before upgrading the charges, he was moving forward with the case in part to reduce further harm to the victim’s family.
Vaughan, who answers to his nickname “Monkey,” went missing near his home in Fruitland, Idaho, on July 27. (Fruitland Police Department)
Michael’s mother, Brandi Vaughan, praised Fruitland police and Duke’s office in response to the news.
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“Your sheer determination and strength during this whole process as of today has been nothing short of incredible,” she wrote on Facebook, along with a copy of Duke’s statement.
Fruitland police did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Michael disappeared from his family home in July 2021.
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The Wondra and Vaughan families lived within a few minutes by foot, Fox News Digital reported previously, and police and volunteer K-9 units had searched hundreds of acres in the area, including around Wondra’s home. Fruitland police had also previously floated two other names as potential suspects in the case, Adrien Lucienne and Brandon Shurtliff.
“The charges are only possible as a result of Fruitland [Police Department]’s unyielding tenacity and perseverance,” Duke said in his statement. “They have not ceased to work the case since the crime occurred, and they are continuing to search and investigate so they can bring Michael’s body home.”
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Anyone with information in the case is asked to email findmichael@fruitland.org or contact the Fruitland Police Department at (208) 452-3110.