ID MICHAEL VAUGHAN: Missing from Fruitland, ID - 27 July 2021 - Age 5

Search continues for missing and endangered 5-year-old in Fruitland, Idaho

Michael Vaughan was last seen near SW 9th Street and S. Arizona Ave. in Fruitland on Tuesday evening. Crews and neighbors were out all day looking for the boy.

www.ktvb.com

Search continues for missing and endangered 5-year-old in Fruitland, Idaho​

Michael Vaughn was last seen near SW 9th Street and S. Arizona Ave. in Fruitland on Tuesday evening. Crews and neighbors were out all day looking for the boy.

The search for a missing 5-year-old-year-old boy intensified Wednesday as it entered its second day.

Michael Vaughn was last seen near SW 9th Street and S. Arizona Avenue in Fruitland around 6:30 p.m. Tuesday.

The Fruitland Police Department said Michael is considered missing and endangered.

Michael is about three feet, seven-inches tall and weighs 50 pounds. He has blonde hair and blue eyes. He answers to the nickname "Monkey."

Michael was wearing a light blue shirt with a Minecraft picture on it, dark blue boxer briefs and sandals.

Idaho Mountain Rescue brought in highly-trained and rescue personnel to assist in the search.

Crews from multiple agencies searched the area near Michael's home by ground and air by drone and helicopter. They also went door to door, talking with neighbors.

Right next to the boy's home is a field where crews spent much of the day searching for him.

Neighbors say they learned about his disappearance about an hour after he was reported missing. They say Michael is a happy kid who lives with his parents and grandfather.

Cynthia Walker was walking her dog as the search was happening.

"At five years old, I don't know that he would wander too far without one us seeing him by now," she said. "There are volunteers, many, many volunteers out searching, scanning the fields and we just want to have Michael back, we just want him home safe."





MEDIA - MICHAEL VAUGHN: Missing from Fruitland, ID since 27 July 2021 - Age 5

 

[SheWhoMustNotBeNamed]

'It's been a daily operation': Fruitland Police working tirelessly in Michael Vaughan case

The then-five-year-old went missing from his Fruitland home in July 2021.

www.ktvb.com

'It's been a daily operation': Fruitland Police working tirelessly in Michael Vaughan case​

The Fruitland Police Department wants Idahoans to know it has not stopped looking for Michael Vaughan, and the case is not cold, even as the four-year anniversary of his disappearance approaches.

"This is one of the worst-case scenarios for any small city," Chief JD Huff said. "When I stated that at the beginning of this case, we wouldn't stop and that we're working on it daily, I can honestly tell you that that has happened."

The then-five-year-old, often known as Monkey, disappeared from his home in July 2021. The department is still sifting through tips and conducting searches.
To date, the department has received more than 2,000 tips about Michael — Brandi Neal's second youngest child.


Huff said it soon became clear this case was different.

"In those places where we would commonly see or find those children that were lost for a little while, all of those areas had been checked, and Michael was not there," he said. "We started looking at it from the criminal aspect at that point."

Neal said those weeks "melt together."

"The searching, the questions, the worry," she said. "It felt like the whole world just stopped."

Huff said the department has not stopped digging. The last breakthrough in the case was more than two years ago when crews dug up suspects Stacey and Sarah Wondra's backyard, which sits just a few blocks from Michael's home.

Police said they had credible information from someone living in the Wondra's house the young boy's body was there. Cadaver detection dogs alerted to human remains, but none were found.

Huff said he still believes Michael was buried in the Wondra's backyard and later moved.

Stacey and Sarah are still suspects. So are Adrien Lucienne and Brandon Shurtliff, who lived with the couple at their Redwing Street house.


Sarah is in prison until at least 2026 on charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and destruction, alteration or concealment of evidence unrelated to Michael's disappearance, according to Idaho Department of Correction records.

Huff said he knows where Lucienne and Shurtliff are but would not elaborate further on any of the suspects since the investigation is ongoing.

He had a hard time putting into words just how much the case has affected him.

"I believe that at the end of this, there will be accountability for those who perpetrated the crime," he said. "It's been said in the past ... no body, no crime type ... and I would just tell you that I don't believe that holds water. And the only reason I say that is because [of] the volumes of circumstantial evidence that you can obtain."

Huff believes there are people who know what happened to Michael or have information about his disappearance. The chief urges them to call or text 208-343-COPS or email findmichael@fruitland.org.

"We need that one piece, that ... one little place to tell us where Michael is," Neal said. "Tell me where my son is because I'm not going to stop. Nobody is."

She said she is hopeful law enforcement will bring Michael home one way or another.

 

[SheWhoMustNotBeNamed]

Michael Vaughan's mom tells KTVB she released video showing suspect confessing to knowing where body was buried

In the video, Stacey Wondra claims he watched the burial happen, and his wife Sarah is the one who dug the hole.

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Michael Vaughan's mom tells KTVB she released video showing suspect confessing to knowing where body was buried​

More than an hour’s worth of footage was posted to YouTube this week, showing one suspect in the disappearance of Michael “Monkey” Vaughan confessing to knowing where Monkey’s body was buried.

Michael's mom, Brandi Neal, told KTVB Wednesday afternoon she and a family friend had posted the two-part video on two separate accounts.

The video shows the suspect, Stacey Wondra, guiding detectives on a FaceTime call to where he said he saw his wife, Sarah, bury the body.
Sarah is another suspect in the case.

“Keep going out a little further… right under the mound, right to the right of the trees,” Stacey said to detectives in the video. “He should be wrapped in a garbage bag, white or black, we only have two colors.”

Neal said they unexpectedly got the video last spring through a public records request. She asked the friend to file the request on her behalf.

She said she posted the video because she is angry, tired and sick about not having any answers and wanted to take the situation into her own hands. She does not want her decision to post the video to discredit any of the work the Fruitland Police Department has done.

She said the department has worked tirelessly to bring Michael home. Neal declined an on-camera interview because of her poor health.

In the video, Stacey claims he watched the burial, but his wife Sarah is the one who did it.

“I don’t know how far she dug, to be honest with you,” Stacey said.

Stacey also gave details on how his wife buried the body.

“She was using a pointed shovel,” Stacey said.

Stacey said Adrian Lucienne – who was another suspect in the case – was also at the burial.

“I mean Adrian was helping her too,” Stacey said. “Brandon wasn’t anywhere around. Adrian is pretty decent skinny dude, so his abilities are a little more wide open.”

Brandon Shurtliff is the fourth suspect in the case. While Stacey said Shurtliff was not at the burial, he said the body might also be in Shurtliff’s yard.

“If he's not in that backyard, go to Kuna, to Brandon's house and check in the backyard by the tree area,” Stacey said.

Stacey said he wanted Michael to be found – continuing to claim he was not involved.


On Wednesday, he told KTVB one of the suspects reached out to the department in the morning, and said he hopes that person provides them with the details necessary to close the case.

Huff reiterated Fruitland PD and the Payette County Prosecutor's Office had nothing to do with the video being disclosed. He said the department would never have released it since it is part of the case file.

"In response to the video footage released on January 16, 2025, we want to clarify that the video was inadvertently made public in 2023 following a public records request to the Washington County Sheriff's Office, where Stacey Wondra was being held at the time. The Fruitland Police Department and the Payette County Prosecutors Office are not responsible for the release of the footage.

 

[noZme]

WARNING
I was watching the video above and a triple X scene popped up!

 

[Guess Who]

WARNING
I was watching the video above and a triple X scene popped up!

 

[SheWhoMustNotBeNamed]

Oh! Yikes! I had no idea. I will put a disclaimer in the post. Thank you!!!
Was it an advertisement or part of the interview?

 

[noZme]

@SheWhoMustNotBeNamed
I do not know how to answer. I left the room and when I returned, I saw what I saw, turned computer off and bleached my eyes. The sound was still on the video.

 

[GrandmaBear]

They would probably prefer she had not released it but it's pretty hard to fault a parent who is at wit's end with no arrests nor answers, I mean it's understandable.

What is with the triple x thing, why would something obtained from LE with a FOIA request have such a thing on it? Don't understand.

 

[SheWhoMustNotBeNamed]

@SheWhoMustNotBeNamed
I do not know how to answer. I left the room and when I returned, I saw what I saw, turned computer off and bleached my eyes. The sound was still on the video.

Thanks. I'll watch it when I get home and find a better link if necessary.

 

[SheWhoMustNotBeNamed]

FWIW, I played the video and found nothing explicit. It's hosted on YouTube which doesn't allow explicit content. So I'm not sure what happened. But I was able to watch it with no issue or anything explicit.

 

[Guess Who]

FWIW, I played the video and found nothing explicit. It's hosted on YouTube which doesn't allow explicit content. So I'm not sure what happened. But I was able to watch it with no issue or anything explicit.

What's noze been watching???

 

[noZme]

FWIW, I played the video and found nothing explicit. It's hosted on YouTube which doesn't allow explicit content. So I'm not sure what happened. But I was able to watch it with no issue or anything explicit.

What's noze been watching???

I'm glad it went smoothly for you.
My computer was hacked last month, perhaps the nasty video was related to that.

 

[Guess Who]

I'm glad it went smoothly for you.
My computer was hacked last month, perhaps the nasty video was related to that.

I haven't had a chance to watch it yet but sure got a chuckle when after you said it did that and shewho said hers was fine.

 

[Tresir]

FWIW, I played the video and found nothing explicit. It's hosted on YouTube which doesn't allow explicit content. So I'm not sure what happened. But I was able to watch it with no issue or anything explicit.

I watched it for quite a while but didn't get to the end. Nothing untoward happened in approx the 30 minutes i managed to watch.