The Misery Machine - The Case of Dennis Vaughan

Starting point is 00:00:00 Dennis J. Vaughn Jr. was born on June 11th, 2014 in Laconia, New Hampshire. His mother, Danielle Vaughn, called him Boo from the moment he was born. She recalled his birth saying, When they put him in my arms, I looked at him, and he had this birthmark on his head, and it was the only place that grew hair. Boo developed into an adorable little boy with brown eyes and bright blonde hair, accented by his unique birthmark that grew brown hair. Pictures from his childhood showed that he was.

Starting point is 00:00:30 was a fun-loving kid, whether he was splashing in the pool or playing in the snow. Boo enjoyed the Wonky Donkey Picture Book, Thomas the Tank Engine, and especially loved Barney the purple dinosaur. Boo's mother, Danielle, had a rough start to life. She remembers her mother, Sherry Connor, as being prone to violent outbursts and acting erratically. Daniel was 15 years old. She was left in the care of her mother's friend, a nearly 50-year-old man named Dennis Vaughn. The two developed a romantic relationship despite their age difference in the fact that he was already married.

Starting point is 00:01:05 Within three years, Daniel became pregnant and gave birth to their first child. Dennis and Danielle got married and had a total of four children. Their youngest was Dennis Boon Jr. was born in 2014. Unfortunately, Dennis Sr. became a controlling and violent husband. Both of them began using drugs and Dennis was arrested multiple times for drug offenses. Lees raided the family home in 2016, arresting Dennis and Daniel lost custody of her four children. According to Danielle, that was the beginning of four horrible years. However, she was determined to regain custody of her children who had been placed in foster care.

Starting point is 00:01:43 She quit drugs, went to her appointments, and found stable housing away from her husband. In 2017, when Boo was just three years old, the court gave custody of the four Vaughn children to Danielle's mother, Sherry, who lived in apartment 67 at Wingate Village, a townhouse complex located at 103 Blueberry Lane in Laconia, New Hampshire. Danielle was leery of these arrangements after her own upbringing. She said, I knew my mom had that mean bone in her body. However, she hoped that Sherry would show love and care toward her grandchildren, so she consented to the arrangement. Unfortunately, though, during her visits to see her children,

Starting point is 00:02:22 Daniel began noticing that they sometimes had bruises on their wrists or their wrists, or their ears. One of the children even went to the hospital with a concussion, but Sherry always had a reasonable explanation for the injuries. During one particular visit, Daniel noticed finger-shaped bruises around her children's chins. She said, I knew those bruises. I knew what they were from. Daniel said her mother used to grab her by the chin so forcefully that she was almost lifted off the floor while Sherry yelled at her, now you look at me. Daniel noted that her children always seemed too skinny, and when she visited them for Christmas of 2018, she saw how deplorable the living conditions had gotten in Sherry's home. Or into Danielle, the home was absolutely vile with dog and

Starting point is 00:03:07 human fecese on the floor. The cabinets and refrigerator were kept locked so none of the four children could get food for themselves. When they were thirsty, they drank water out of the toilet despite being punished for doing so. They used a bucket to go to the bathroom. Danielle says she started calling the New Hampshire Division of Children, Youth, and Families, or DCYF nearly every day to report her concerns. However, according to Danielle, her reports were screened out or closed as unfounded. Danielle recalled that one day she received a voicemail from her mother, which seems to have been left by mistake. In the recording, Daniel heard what sounded like a hand smacking flesh. Her third oldest child was screaming and her mother yelling at the

Starting point is 00:03:48 eight-year-old, I hate you, you dirty dog, I can't wait for someone to take you away. Daniel made another report, but nothing ever came of it. She said that in July of 2019, Sherry duct taped the eight-year-old to a chair and left him overnight in a campground in Epsom. Other people in the campground contacted the police and DCYF petitioned the court to have the eight-year-old boy removed from Sherry's custody on an emergency basis. He was returned to Danielle, her other three children remained with Sherry, however. Daniel says she doesn't know why DCYF only removed the one's son without returning her other three children to her. She said, by this time, she was calling various agencies multiple times a day to seek help. She said, I was begging to put them anywhere else

Starting point is 00:04:32 but her house. On the morning of Christmas Eve 2019, police were called to 103 Blueberry Lane in Laconia after five-year-old Dennis Boo Vaughn Jr. was found unresponsive. He was rushed to Lake's Region General Hospital where he sadly was pronounced dead. authorities initially reported that the death was suspicious. The New Hampshire State Police Major Crimes Unit was seen going in and out of the home for much of the day, removing bags of evidence. Neighbors who lived next door to Sherry and her grandchildren told the news that they had been concerned for some time about events that occurred in Apartment 67. Joyce Hendrickson, who lived next door, said that there were three brothers, a sister, and two dogs that lived there with Sherry. She said that in the two years that she lived next to Sherry,

Starting point is 00:05:20 She heard a lot of shouting, banging, and other sounds coming from that apartment. According to police logs, Laconia police had responded to the apartment several times in the months leading up to Boo's death. Joyce's son Phil said that he was concerned about the children next door for about the past year. In February, he noticed one of the children standing outside barefoot. In June, he noticed other concerning activity. He recorded a video and filed a complaint with the Laconia police. Police went to the apartment on June 20th for a juvenile matter, and again two days later to assist another agency. A few days later, they returned in an attempt to locate someone that we don't know for sure if this was related to the neighbor's complaint.

Starting point is 00:06:01 In August and October, the police also responded to animal complaints at the apartment. According to the neighbor, on the morning of Christmas Eve, he saw Boo's sister standing outside around 8 in the morning talking to 911 on a cell phone. He saw Sherry rush outside and heard her say, he's not breathing. A Laconia Fire Department ambulance arrived on scene and the neighbors saw an EMT hurry outside holding the little boy. It was placed in the ambulance and sped away to the hospital. Danielle remembered the moment she found out that her little boy was dead. She went to work early that Christmas Eve for her cleaning job at Elliott Hospital. She hadn't even been there for an hour when a state police sergeant arrived and asked to speak to her.

Starting point is 00:06:44 She said she felt a knot in her stomach as they went to an empty room to talk. She remembers, he looks at me and says, Dennis is dead. An autopsy was conducted on Little Boo, but authorities declined to release details to the public. According to the assistant attorney general, the cause and manner of death are pending further studies and investigation. At times, the medical examiner does need to get additional information in order to determine the cause and death of a person. This simply is one of those cases. Immediately after Boo's death, DCYF removed his other siblings from Sherry's home and told the court that the significant bruising found on Boo's body was grounds to terminate Sherry's guardianship. According to a court document, the court found that continuation in Sherry Connor's home was contrary to the children's welfare because, in part, there is an ongoing investigation as to whether Sherry Connor physically abused Dennis von Jr., sibling of the children, causing his death.

Starting point is 00:07:41 The agency told the court that Sherry was the primary suspect in an investigation of whether she had caused his death by physically assaulting boo. It took five months before the AG's office publicly released a cause of death for Little Boo. His death was officially ruled a homicide and he had died of blunt forced trauma to the head and neck. No suspects were named and no one had been charged with his death. Unfortunately, that update was the last that anyone heard about the case for a very long time. In February of 2022, more than two years after his death, his mother, Danielle, was interviewed by the local news about how she was still waiting for any update in her son's case. After Boo's death, she had regained custody of her other children, checked in often with the Attorney General's office for any news, and believed an arrest would come soon, but it never did. Daniel said, I really thought that there was going to be justice for my son, especially after the autopsy came out.

Starting point is 00:08:37 I thought there was going to be an arrest made because it was finally out in black and white that my son was murdered. In December of 2022, Danielle filed a wrongful death lawsuit against DCYF just before the statute of limitations ran out. She feared that the lawsuit would be the only way to even hold the state accountable. The seven-count lawsuit alleged that negligence by the DCYF led to the death of her little boy. The lawsuit was also filed on behalf of Danielle's other three children who had been living with Sherry. No charges had yet been filed in the homicide case, and still no suspect had been publicly identified. The 85-page lawsuit outlined Danielle's heartache and frustration as she tried to get help for her children. It also included 27 reports of suspected family violence to

Starting point is 00:09:26 DCYF, beginning in 2017. Most of these reports were from professional reporters. including teachers, nurses, and the police. According to the lawsuit in August of 2017, just two months after Sherry first got custody of the Vaughn Children, DCYF received the first of 27 reports of suspected family violence. In this first report, a New Hampton police sergeant told DCYF that witnesses at a campground had reported seeing Sherry yell at boo, grab him by the neck and face, hit his face,

Starting point is 00:09:58 throw a cup of liquid in his face, and grab his arm and drag him to the gun. the tent. The sergeant's report quoted witnesses saying the screams they heard coming from the tent left them concerned that the child may need medical attention. However, DCYF deemed the report unfounded seven months later. According to the lawsuit, the agency did not interview the sergeant or the witnesses. And when the children were questioned, it was in Sherry's presence. This is against agency policy. In early 2018, DCYF had received multiple reports about Boo's older brother being beaten, according the lawsuit. Two of these reports came from Elliott Hospital where a nurse had taken

Starting point is 00:10:36 90 photos of the child's extensive bruising. In April of 2018, Daniel had called police asking for an officer to check on her children because her mother was not letting her see the kids. In a police report, the responding officer wrote, I made contact with Connor and saw all the children were happy, healthy, clothed, and just about to eat a dinner of hamburgers. Nine reports were made from September 2019 to Boo's death in December of 2019. These included reports of vomiting, scabs on his head, and bruises to his head, neck, and arms. According to the lawsuit, callers consistently reported that the Vaughn children had significant bruising on their faces and bodies. DCYF was also told that Sherry was kicking and slapping the kids, locking them in the basement to sleep with no light and no bathroom,

Starting point is 00:11:22 making them defecate in a five-gallon bucket in the living room and take cold baths, them up with duct tape, handcuffing them, forcing them to run up and down the stairs for punishment, sometimes while wearing a diaper. Boo's sister was made to sleep in a laundry basket. According to the lawsuit, Boo was forced to stay in a high chair day and night, despite being four years old at the time, that Sherry would feed him rotten canned food without heating it up. In January of 2019, one neighbor called police to report yelling and banging in Sherry's apartment. She said, Yeah, can I get an officer at a 103, Blueberry Lane apartment 67? I don't know if the lady is beating the crap out of her kids.

Starting point is 00:12:03 I have, like, it's 11 at night, and there is so much banging or whatever. I tried banging back. It is so profusely, and all that you can hear is her screaming on her kids. I have videos of them outside barefoot for an hour, literally, over the wintertime. It happens every other day. I don't know if she's a-in-the-heel of her kids or something. but she will not be quiet, and all that you can hear is like kids screaming. I told her I was reporting her, but you might want to come here for safety, and I have proof.

Starting point is 00:12:34 All right. And I am following it up with DC YF, just to let you know. The officer who responded filed the call as a noise complaint. After Sherry simply told them she had been making one of the children run up and down the stairs 10 times as a punishment for urinating on the wall. According to his report, after the child confirmed Sherry's account, The officer told Sherry it was late and to be mindful of the neighbors. In another report, a school social worker had reported that the boys came to school of bruises

Starting point is 00:13:01 quite often, that Sherry had a history of substance use and that Sherry might have undiagnosed mental health issues. She also reported that Sherry had made a number of alarming statements, indicating that she was intent on ridding the boys of both their father and the devil, as she referred to it. The reporter stated that Sherry said she had found God and that the boys were taught to follow the devil by their father who was in a cult. The reporter also stated that Sherry said she did not know what else to do with the boys aside from having the pastor come to the house to get the devil out of the boys and that she's going to have to have someone come to the house to get the devil out.

Starting point is 00:13:38 According to the lawsuit, other neighbors also reported the sound of screaming children coming from Sherry's apartment. A DCYF case worker asked for backup before she went to Sherry's home. Others reported evidence of drug use in Sherry's home. Danielle said of her children, every single time I saw them, they were covered in bruises, and they were unexplainable bruises. An internal email from the school about DCYF was written so that everything was fully documented, as the person writing was concerned that DCYF was not taking reports and calls seriously.

Starting point is 00:14:11 Nine days after the internal email, Boo was dead. Now, according to the lawsuit, Sherry told Danielle that leading up to Boo's death, he was hallucinating and could not eat or drink. The lawsuit also stated that Sherry told Danielle that Boo knew he was going to die and that Boo said the devil was there to take him. The lawsuit also reported that shortly after Boo's death on Christmas Eve, a DCYF worker noted that Sherry began shouting that the police department in DCYF don't care about the kids and are ruining Christmas.

Starting point is 00:14:46 Danielle expressed frustration for losing custody of her children. only to have them end up in a worse situation. She said, here these people are saying that you're not fit enough to take care of your kids and we're going to take them from you, but we're going to protect them, and we're going to do what you should have done. How can this organization that takes kids away from people for the very same thing put them in a situation that's even worse than what they ever encountered before? The community continued to show support for boo by posting flyers,

Starting point is 00:15:19 around town that said, don't forget Dennis. And one woman even marched to the mayor's office holding a picture of Boo to remind the mayor that Boo's case had never been solved. Many expressed frustration that the AG's office had stopped asking the public for tips about the case, that the Laconia Police Department had never mentioned the investigation or asked for tips on its Twitter and Facebook pages. Governor Chris Sununu was criticized for how he had not drawn attention to the homicide case the way he recently had three other New Hampshire cases involving children. In these previous cases, he asked for a review of the state's handling of the situation, but he did not make a similar call in Boo's case.

Starting point is 00:15:59 One news article referred to Boo as the five-year-old homicide victim that no one was talking about. Reading about this hits close to home, as New Hampshire borders Maine, I can't help but think of every time the Attorney General's office here has blocked outside help for our missing persons cases. or the fact that it's been 13 years. Still, nobody has been held responsible for the death of Ayla Reynolds when she was only 19 months old. Sherry, who was living in Maine by this time, agreed to be interviewed by the New Hampshire Bulletin via Facebook Messenger. She said that she had only talked to the investigators one time.

Starting point is 00:16:35 She wrote, The way they were treating me after my interview with the detective, I decided I weren't talking to anybody. They were really mean to me. I did not trust anybody. She said that she didn't know that there was. were more than 25 reports of suspected family violence, and that DCYF hadn't given her enough food, money, or help to care for the four children. When asked how Boo had died, Sherry provided

Starting point is 00:16:58 a medical record from 2016, the year before she got custody of the children. The record showed that Boo had been seen for concerns of dehydration that year. Sherry wrote, I've taken him to the doctors many times because of his drinking problem. He drank out of the toilet. He drank the dog's water. He used to soak his pajamas in water so when he went to bed he could suck the water out of his pajamas. Jerry also said that Boo had been sick in the hours before he had died, but didn't say what his symptoms were. Instead, she questioned whether mold in her apartment had killed him. She also said the bruising discovered on Boo's head after his death was caused by the EMT that responded the day that he died. She wrote, The authorities didn't write down when the ambulance man took the baby out of the

Starting point is 00:17:40 house and used his foot to open the door. He smacked the baby's head. Why was that not mentioned? After being shown Boo's death certificate that stated the cause of death as blunt force trauma, she insisted that he had actually died of natural causes. She wrote, that is bullshit. Do you honestly believe if he was hurt like that, they wouldn't have arrested me? Sherry also said she had provided the children more support than they'd ever had. She wrote, you should really learn a little more about the story before you start posting things about me.

Starting point is 00:18:13 I am not the person you are reading about. In December of 2023, candlelit vigils were held every Friday to mark the four-year anniversary of Boo's homicide. Attendees hoped to bring attention back to the case, as well as to show support for Boo and his family. Finally, this year, on Friday, August 16th, 2024, New Hampshire State Police and the Laconia Police Department

Starting point is 00:18:38 announced that Sherry Connor, age 61, have been arrested after a traffic stop and indicated on charges of manslaughter and negligent homicide, as well as six counts of first-degree assault, one of second-degree assault, and four of witness tampering. The statement did not specify a victim, only that the charges were in relation to the death of a juvenile, but it was easy enough to read between the lines to know that Sherry was finally being charged the death for five-year-old grandson, boo. Sherry was set to appear in Belknap County Superior Court at an unspecified date. With the indictment came new details about Boo's death.

Starting point is 00:19:15 During Sherry's arraignment on the following Monday, Belknap County attorney Keith Cormier stated that the autopsy determined that Boo had 60 contusions and abrasions on his body, including 18 contusions and nine abrasions just on his head alone. The medical examiner also noted that many of the injuries appeared to be new and fresh and occurred just hours before Boo died. According to attorney Cormier, on the day that Boo had died, Sherry had been angry at Boo for leaving clothes on the floor.

Starting point is 00:19:43 She made Boo put on all of the clothes that he hadn't picked up and then forced Boo to run in place as a punishment. After he fell to the floor in exhaustion, she kicked Boo and struck him with a broom in the head and the neck. When the broom broke, Sherry stomped on Boo and then covered him with a blanket and left him alone for hours. Later that day, she did not seek medical law. help when the boy lost control of his bladder and bowels spiked a 104 degree fever and was unable to eat or drink.

Starting point is 00:20:12 He also began hallucinating and thought that a white plastic bag was a Christmas present. This last detail is particularly heartbreaking because it was Christmas Eve when this happened. Cheerful thought that the little boy may have been clinging to while he lay there suffering. Instead of getting boo medical help, Sherry told the little boy that the devil was coming to take him away. We died several hours later, according to the indictment. Attorney Cormier said that Boo's siblings could corroborate the treatment of them by Sherry. He said that the surviving children painted a very dark picture of life with her. The children went through torture, including being forced to lie on the floor with their legs up in the air,

Starting point is 00:20:52 with Sherry stomping on them if their legs dropped down. Attorney Cormier said Sherry would make the grandchildren take cold baths, had them run naked up and down the stairs for hours, and would put hot sauce on her grandson's genitals. She also held their heads underwater during baths, smothered them with pillows, and regularly denied them food. Attorney Cormier said that one witness told how Sherry liked to straddle the children and press a pillow over their faces,

Starting point is 00:21:18 a punishment she preferred because it left no telltale marks. When they went out of the house, the children would be required to wear long-sleeved shirts in order to conceal their bruises. At one point, according to Attorney Cormier, who removed a sweatshirt while in view of a. teacher who reported seeing bruises everywhere she could see skin on him. A man who lived in the apartment for a time described how the children were forced to run up and down the stairs and Sherry would strike the children if they stopped. This witness who ended up moving out of the

Starting point is 00:21:45 apartment after the family violence he saw said that he also saw Sherry's stomp on boo. Sherry's public defender, Justin Littlefield, asked the judge to release her on bail. He said that Sherry had no prior criminal record, is dealing with cancer, and is worried about her dog, which has been home alone since her arrest on Friday. He also questioned why the state waited five years to bring charges against Sherry if they were so concerned about the danger that she posed. Despite this, the judge denied the initial bail request. In October 2024, Sherry had another bail hearing.

Starting point is 00:22:18 She was in tears at the hearing while her defense argued that since December 24, 2019, she's been in the community safely without one allegation that she's done anything to the general public that would constantly, constitute a danger. As at the date of this recording in November of 2024, no trial date has been set for Sherry. We should remind our viewers that all suspects are considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. We are also unable to find any updates regarding the detailed lawsuit that Danielle filed against DCYF so that may still be pending as well. Whenever the trial does happen, we can expect to learn even more harrowing details about the violence that Boo and his siblings suffered through. Like Danielle, we'll also be interested to learn more about the investigation process and why it took authorities five years to finally arrest someone for Boo's death when it seems like there was a clear, documented history of violence leading up to that fateful Christmas Eve. We'd like to give a shout out to a wicked world, who was the first channel to tell Boo's story before the charges were even brought against Sherry. It means a lot to us that Boo's story be told, given the lack of coverages cases in New England tend to receive. For now, let's try not to focus on the vicious perpetrator in the story, and instead, remember the smiling little boy who loved Barney.

Starting point is 00:23:42 Boo would have been 10 years old this year, a grinning kid proudly holding open both hands to show off that he'd officially reach the double digits. He'd probably be in fifth grade right now, getting ready for a fun holiday. in a snowy New Hampshire winter playing with his big brothers and sister. He might have enjoyed visits to fun spotter, Weir's Beach, splashing around in Lake Winipasaki. Remember that happy kid, while we wait to find out if there will ever be justice for boo.

The Misery Machine - The Case of Dennis Vaughan

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