Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Arrest Just Made in Disappearance of 5-Year-Old Boy

Episode Date: November 4, 2025

A warrant has been issued for the arrest of Stacey Wondra for the murder and kidnapping of 5-year-old Michael Vaughan. Michael vanished from his parents' home in Fruitland, Idaho in July 2021. Police have searched tirelessly for Michael have not found his remains. In November 2022, police searched the yard of Stacey and Sarah Wondra looking for Michael's remains but came up empty. Now, Stacey Wondra faces charges. Law&Crime's Angenette Levy goes through the heartbreaking case in this episode of Crime Fix — a daily show covering the biggest stories in crime.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: If you’re ever injured in an accident, you can check out Morgan & Morgan. You can submit a claim in 8 clicks or less without having to leave your couch. To start your claim, visit: https://www.forthepeople.com/CrimeFixHost:Angenette Levy  https://twitter.com/Angenette5Guest: Will Svilar https://www.facebook.com/will.svilarProducer:Jordan ChaconCRIME FIX PRODUCTION:Head of Social Media, YouTube - Bobby SzokeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinVideo Editing - Daniel CamachoGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. You all who are involved will be held accountable. For the pure evil, you all are. After years of pleas for answers in her five-year-old son's disappearance, a man is being charged with kidnapping and murdering Michael Monkey Vaughn. We believe that Stacey has firsthand. knowledge and is involved in the abduction of Michael Vaughn.

I go through the sad case of Michael Vaughn and how the prosecutor decided to move forward with filing a murder charge in Michael's death. I'm Anjanette Levy, and this is Crime Fix. There's a reason that Morgan and Morgan is the country's largest personal injury law firm. It's because the firm wins a lot. firm has more than a thousand lawyers who have recovered $25 billion for more than 500,000 clients. In the last few months, a client in Florida got $12 million when insurance offered just $350,000. In Pennsylvania, another client was awarded $26 million that was 40 times the insurer's offer.

Morgan and Morgan makes it truly so easy to fight for what you deserve. You can even start a claim from your phones. So if you are ever injured, you can start a claim at for the people.com. slash crime fix, click the link below or scan that QR code that you see right there on your screen. The last time that Michael Vaughn's mom saw him, it was July 27, 2021. Michael, whose mom and other family members called him Monkey, was just five years old. He was at his home with his father and younger sibling in Fruitland, Idaho, when he vanished. Fruitland is a small town about an hour's drive from Boise.

It sits near the Oregon State line. What happened to Michael, or monkey, that's what his family called him, is every parent's worst nightmare, a child being kidnapped, taken, and police say that's what happened here. That worst fear turned into Brandy and Tyler Vaughn's worst nightmare. Who would want to take Michael from his home and why? Police began searching for him immediately. Michael's parents cooperated with the investigation from the very, very beginning. Here's Fruitland Police Chief J.D. Huff at a press conference in November 2021.

The search for Michael will not stop until he's found, and the search remains very active. As I've said to the public, the effort may look a little bit different from time to time, but those of us in law enforcement leading the search and the investigation, Michael's on the top of our mind. He's our top priority, and finding him is an intense, daily part of our lives. Now, police didn't know exactly how or why Michael disappeared in 2021, but it was suspicious for sure. So they treated his case as both a criminal investigation while also looking at the possibility that he simply wandered off. So our ground searches are based on the highest probability that Michael may have wandered off, potentially gotten hurt, stuck in an irrigation ditch, a swimming pool, an outbuilding, an old appliance, junk vehicle.

anywhere a 50-pound curious boy could hide himself. We wanted to make sure that all the ground within a one to two-mile radius from Southwest Knight Street where Michael lives has been searched by residential homeowners, professional searchers, law enforcement, and specifically trained canines. And not just one of these groups,

but by all of these groups. Police realized that Michael was most certainly kidnapped the victim of someone with nefarious intentions, At that same press conference in November 2021, nearly four months after Michael disappeared, his mother, Brandy, begged for help. I am here to ask you to please keep Michael's face, his name and his story in every one of your hearts,

your eyes, and your minds. It has been 115 days. 115 days he has not been home and we need every one of you I need you I need your help

to bring my baby home I need you to see his beautiful smile. I need you to see how happy he is. That smile was one of our most favorite camping trips. Brandy Vaughn went on to talk about how happy little Michael was on that trip, hoping that someone listening with information would be touched by the story. He got to see his first Beaver Dam, and he got to catch so many frogs that day. And he was so excited. His beautiful blue eyes.

He was so happy that day because I promised we would go get ice cream cones. And he laughed so hard because his baby sister got to have her first ice cream cone and it was everywhere. We got to play at the park that whole day. It was warm. It was sunny. And we played catch and played football until it got dark. I need you. I need your help. Please.

Despite those police for help in November 2021, no one seemed to come forward with information that led to Michael's whereabouts. Nearly a year would pass. And then police got information from someone who lived in the home with the Wanderas, which was half a mile from the Vaughn's home that led them to dig up the Wondra's yard. Sarah Wondra lived at the home and she was taken into custody on suspicion that she knew details about Michael's death and didn't report them. Police Chief Huff said the yard was searched. During that excavation process, the Idaho Mountain Search and Rescue, Mountain State's

detection dogs deployed multiple certified human remains detection dogs on the property. all of them alerting to the presence of human remains. Ground penetrating radar was also used and deployed, detecting anomalies in the backyard. We completed the excavation of the entire backyard and removed over 250 yards of dirt. Prior to backfilling the yard, the dirt was meticulously sifted for any potential human remains. We did not find Michael's remains. although the remains of Michael Vaughn 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. Sarah Wondra and Stacey Wondra had lived at the house near Michael's home. At the time, the search occurred. Stacey Wondra was actually in jail in Washington County, Idaho. Police Chief Huff said he believed two other people also knew what happened to Michael. in addition to the Wondras. Body-worn camera footage of Stacey Wondra being questioned about the location of Michael's body was released by mistake. And he told investigators where Michael was buried in the yard. He said Michael had been wrapped in a trash bag and Sarah dug a hole about four to five feet deep where she buried him. Chief Huff named Adrian Lucian and Brandon Shirtleff as the two other people who had information about Michael's abduction. Lucian was living with the Wondress at the time. Now, two days after the Wander's yard was searched, four University of Idaho students were murdered in Moscow to the north. That case took over the news cycle for weeks as the search for a killer unfolded. The charge related to Sarah Wondra having knowledge of Michael's death was later dropped. She's serving time right now in an Idaho prison on charges of aggravated assault with a

deadly weapon and destruction and alteration or concealment of evidence. Those charges are not related to Michael's disappearance in death. Stacey Wondra, he's been in a federal prison serving time on a gun possession charge since 2023. Brandy Neal Vaughn has had a lot of health problems since Michael's disappearance and was even put on the liver transplant list for a time. In March, she posted that video on YouTube. Hello, everybody. It is Monkey Monday. usually on days like this I write something down or I post something publicly but for some reason today I was feeling that I needed to do this publicly in my voice to be heard today is March 3rd 2025

Michael was abducted on July 27th, 2021. It was a Tuesday. It was hot. It was 112 degrees that day. Usually I don't share what I write in this book. Sometimes I share bits and pieces, but this is just usually for me. It has been three years of emptiness and broken hearts without Michael. Seven months of sleepless nights, wondering and worrying if you are safe or if you were warm or hungry. it has been 187 weeks of your baggie asking to go to your house

to come play with her her making wishes for you to come home it's been 1,315 days of Papa fighting tooth and nail for you for answers. Brandy Vaughn directly addressed the people that police said knew about Michael's kidnapping and disappearance. Stacey, Sarah, and Brandon, Adrian. You have sat back and watched the torture of Michael's mom. His dad, his sisters, his big brother. All of monkeys' loved ones, his friends and community.

I do honestly do not understand how you're mothers. could condone the heartache that their child has and continues to cause Michael. I think to myself a lot, I wonder what memories your mothers have of you when you were five, six, seven, eight. Do you, any of you, any of you, or your family members, or loved ones, remember those Christmases, Halloween's, any holidays, when you were all together as a family as a family. While Michael was robbed at those times, we do not get to be whole as a family anymore because of your actions. We do not get to have those memories. We do

not get to have those memories. We do not get the memory of his first day of school. His first missing tooth, his first report card. Your families get to cherish all of those memories of you when you were little. And you stole them from Michael. Now back in March, when Brandy Neal posted this video. She said she was confident that justice was coming for her son, and she had some strong words for those who police say were involved. I pinky promise, monkey, we will never give up. None of us here have or ever will.

Sarah, Stacey. Brandon. Adrian. When are you going to help us bring Michael home? The charges for all of you are drawn. Be the one to help Michael come home. I have had a few more conversations recently with the DA's office. I am very, very confident in the team.

at Mike Duke's office, as well as the additional experts that have been assisting in Michael's case, the amount of information that fruit in the police department, other agencies, and the DA's office has gathered, gives our family solid reassurance that justice will be served for Michael. Months passed, and then on Halloween, Payett County Prosecutor Mike Duke put out a statement saying his office was moving forward with criminal charges. Duke wrote, after a robust investigation by the Fruitland Police Department and countless assisting agencies, we have unfortunately been unable to locate Michael to recover his remains. Our foremost hope has always been to recover Michael, but delays now risk further harm to his loved ones. We believe we know the

individuals involved and are committed to pursuing justice with or without Michael's recovery. The charges are only possible as a result of Fruitland's unyielding tenacity and perseverance. 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. As Chief Huff has previously stated, it would be foolish to believe Fruitland PD will ever stop in their pursuit of recovering one of the most cherished members of our community, a child. A warrant was issued for Stacey Wander's arrest on charges of murder kidnapping and destroying evidence. Brandy Vaughn posted on Facebook. Thank you Fruitland

Police Department. Your sheer determination and strength during this whole process as of today has been nothing short of incredible. We stand with the Fruitland Police Department, Michael Duke, and the prosecuting office. They have worked tirelessly and continue to do so. Please keep these wonderful dedicated people and your thoughts and prayers. Stacey Wondra appeared in court in Maricopa County, Arizona over the weekend for a hearing to determine whether he would waive extradition to Idaho. Thank you. All right, sir, you are here this evening because the, uh, Idaho issued a warrant for your arrest. Correct. All right. John, so I have a couple of questions relating. So I don't, I don't, I have to had no way to

contact any, any relatives or anybody. or any legal counsel to ask a recommendation of what I should do on this. Okay. So we'll go, we have information, and then you can make a choice or you can choose not to make a choice. Okay. So we'll get there. All right. I understand at this time you do want to sign the waiver of extradition.

I need to ask you some questions as I am making a record of this proceeding. Did you leave the waiver of extradition paperwork? Okay. Do you understand that you do not have to sign the paperwork? Yes. Do you understand that you have the right to an extradition hearing? Yes. Do you understand that you have the right to hire a lawyer at your own expense?

Yes. Do you understand that you have the right to demand that a governor's warrant be signed by the governors of both states before you are returned? Yes. Do you understand that you have the right to bail? Yes. Do you want to give up those rights and sign the paperwork? Yes. Has anyone threatened you or promised you anything to get you to sign the paperwork? No.

Have you had any drugs, alcohol, or medication within the last 24 hours? No. You've got to say it out loud. No, I have not. Okay. So Stacey Wondra has waived extradition to Idaho, and he will be picked up and taken back to the state to face charges. So to discuss this horrific, horrific case, I want to bring in Will Svilar. He is a retired police commander with the Chicago Police Department.

Will, this case really upsets me as a mom. My heart is with Brandy Neal Vaughn. I just can't imagine what she has been through. this case is every parent's worst nightmare. It's like the boogeyman came and kidnapped your child. Why do you think, you know, besides them wanting to find Michael's remains, but they couldn't, they haven't been able to so far. Why do you think they waited so long to charge this case out? I think that they try to use every bit of due diligence they had. They try to run out every single lead they had to find Michael. And the reason that is, other than the fact that you want to,

to find this little boy, return him to his family so they can do a proper burial and have some, I hate to use the word closure, but some closure in his disappearance. But it's very difficult to prosecute a murder case without a victim. So they probably did every single thing they could investigatively to try to find Michael before they brought these charges. Obviously, they've been looking for Michael from day one. You know, they have been looking and searching and searching and we know that they dug up the Wondra's yard back in fall of 2022. They had information from somebody living in that house. That's what Chief Huff said back in late 2022. Come to find out, there's this body camera footage of Stacey Wondra in the jail where it gets released by mistake

and the cops are like, tell us where he was buried. Like so literally Stacey Wondra, the person now facing the murder and kidnapping charge is telling the cops, hey, go out that way. He was wrapped in a trash bag. Sarah dug a hole four to feet, five feet deep, which I'm like, I can't even imagine how long it would take to dig a hole like that. I dig a hole to plant flowers and I'm worn out. You know, it's just crazy to me. So there's this body camera footage of him floating around out there where he's talking about

all of this. And he's like trying to be so helpful. And he's pinning it on, really pinning it on Sarah, his former wife. But now he's the one facing the charges. Well, you know, a lot of times in investigations when you have something like this, the person that's providing you with the most information, trying to be the most helpful, is trying to detract attention from themselves because they're the ones that did it. Now, when you see the charges against him and not her, it tells you that, you know,

he gave enough information to make himself complicit in it, in the bare minimum. And maybe Sarah doesn't say anything. So it's difficult to say, and again, before you go to trial, you can't use a co-defendant statement against the other defendant until that other defendant's case is adjudicated. So there has to be a finding in the case of the person you want to use as a witness before you can put them on the stand. So if Sarah doesn't say anything to implicate herself, it looks like most of the evidence comes from Stacey, who is quite obviously complicit to the point where they've satisfied probable cause and they feel confident enough that they can move forward. Chief Huff, the police chief in Fruitland, has said

they believe that Michael's body was buried in the wondrous yard, but then they believe he was moved. If he was moved, somebody knows where his remains ultimately are. Somebody knows. And he said that there were two other people involved who they believe have not. of what happened to Michael. So we have four people, four people, according to the police chief, who have knowledge of what happened, including this Adrian Lucian who was living in the house, according to the chief, at the time that this happened. So Michael would have, you know, I guess, been in the house at some point according to what the chief believes. So where is, I mean, they're trying to find this Adrian Lucian guy. I saw that he was arrested for like a traffic violation

in South Bend last month, and then he gets out. And he's like, yeah, I promise I'll show up to court. Like, why are they not putting the screws to these people, this Adrian guy and this Brandon shirtlift? Good question. My answer to that would be is they don't have PC enough to get a warrant on them or else they would have it. And that way with a warrant in place, a felony warrant in place, wherever they get stopped,

if it's in Leeds, it'll get back to the agency and they'll make a determination if there's going to be extradition. But it sounds like they don't have enough. probable cause to do that yet. Do you think that there's a strategy here? Do you think that the prosecutor has a strategy? Since Sarah is serving time in the Idaho Department of Corrections right now, she's in custody, serving time on charges unrelated to this case. So do you think that they're thinking, okay, we're going to charge Stacey? Maybe they believe they have enough to get a conviction against Stacey. And then they believe maybe he'll roll on Sarah, even though it

sounds like he already has rolled on Sarah because he's provided this information on the body camera footage. You know, a lot of this is he's in federal prison down in Arizona, but he's about to get out. So he's no longer going to be in pocket. You know what I mean? He's going to be getting out. So maybe now you bring charges so you have him. And it's not the trial's not going to happen next week. You have probable cause to arrest him, take him into custody in Idaho. Sarah's already in jail. You know where she is. You got to find these other. two people and hopefully they'll come around and say what happened and maybe then you can bolster your case. But like the case is not going to happen overnight. There's going to be, you know, a year

probably before it goes to trial. And in that time, I'm confident this police department has continue working to find these other two and make their case stronger. But he was about to get out in Arizona. And you don't know where he's going to go. It doesn't sound like the other two have any incentive, though, to cooperate unless the Stacey provides some information that implicates them, other than them having knowledge. I just don't know what the incentive is for them to cooperate unless they're fearing that they, too, could be charged with some type of, you know, having a knowledge of a murder, accessory. You know, I would have to look at the in Idaho to see what they could be charged. Exactly. Exactly. I don't know what the rule.

are out there, but I know they charged her initially with a failure to report a death, which obviously wasn't going anywhere because they dropped it. But maybe they have that. They're looking at that. You knew this. You didn't do it. Or how about this? Maybe they hope that these people have a shred of common decency where they can come forward and say what happened to help this family out and to give some kind of closure or justice to this little innocent boy who was abducted and murdered. there's some common decency in one of these two that they're looking for one thing that i find interesting about this uh sarah wonder who you know they lived a half a mile from the home of you know michael vaughn where he was living with his parents back in 2021 she was posting on facebook she posted the missing

poster please help find this little boy um she's made some other posts that were kind of interesting um about evil and things of that nature. I mean, what do you make of that? A simple smoke screen. It's a smoke screen to get the attention away from her. Look, I'm doing all I can to help find this little boy. This is a horrible thing that happened. Just absolutely anything she can do to make herself look better or look less like a suspect. And in a lot of the cases that I've worked like this, it just makes you more of a suspect. Interesting. You know, what do you foresee happening here? Will, what do you think is going to happen with this case? Because he, Stacey appeared in court for an extradition hearing.

He waived extradition and, I mean, he didn't seem, he seemed very articulate, did not seem concerned, just asked some questions about getting a lawyer and things of that nature. It was just, I mean, I'm just looking at him at this simple Zoom hearing. He didn't seem, you know, totally bothered by this. All that concerned about what was going on. And I'll tell you what, the prosecutors in this case have an uphill battle to prove a murder without a body. Very, very difficult.

I've been involved in a couple of them, but they were not easy to do. You have to have such an airtight circumstantial case, provided with some physical evidence. Like, you know, you had the dead avar dogs had hit in the backyard for human remains. That's part of the case, but whose human remains? The prosecutors have a very, very difficult road ahead of them to prove this murder. and I'm confident that they're trying to bolster their case as it gets ready to go to trial. They've got to find these other two. The other two got to do the right thing.

What about Stacey's own words, though, on that body camera footage where he's like, yeah, he was in the backyard. Yeah, she dug the hole, that type of thing. I mean, obviously, those are not admissions. He's making saying he did it, but he's saying that he had knowledge. Right. He's implicated himself. He makes himself complicit. And we don't know everything that they have yet.

I mean, it'll come out in trial. I'm a trial. You have to disclose everything to defense, obviously. So anybody that's talking, you know, the people that gave the information about the yard, all those people that are talking, it's all going to come to the surface. He's given the police just enough to say, you know, I saw somebody else do it. I didn't do it. I'm trying to help you people here.

But I saw who did it. And that, you know, it's almost like an admission of at least he's being complicit and he has knowledge. So that's enough to move forward. for the prosecutor, but they have a long road to hold. Yeah, I think they do. And I'll be interested to see what happens. And maybe charging him, maybe charging Stacey, maybe that's going to put fear into the other potential co-defendants where they're like, okay, now they've they've charged somebody. Now we've got to like start talking because they could be coming for me next.

Hopefully. And again, I really pray with everything I have that these prosecutors can get some information that they need to make this a successful prosecution and certainly to find this little boy. Yeah, it's just horrific. Will Sveolar, thank you so much. I really appreciate your time. Anytime. Thank you. And that's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Ginnett Levy. Thanks so much for being with me. I'll see you back here next time. Thank you.