Vanishing Hope: The Enigma of Michael Vaughan's Disappearance in Fruitland, Idaho

In this episode of Rocky Mountain Cold Cases, we delve into the heartbreaking disappearance of 5-year-old Michael Vaughan from Fruitland, Idaho, in July 2021. Despite extensive efforts by law enforcement and search teams, Michael remained missing for months. However, a crucial tip received by police in November 2022 led to a significant development: the arrest of Sarah Wondra for failure to report a death, with suspicions surrounding Michael's disappearance. Yet, even with this arrest, Michael's body has yet to be recovered. Join us as we explore the intricate details of this haunting case and the ongoing quest for answers in the search for young Michael.

Transcript

This is Rocky Mountain cold cases. I'm Rachel, and that's Adam. I'm Adam, and that is Rachel.

What flavor energy drink do you have today? Oh, it's a rocket. You told me. What is it? What it tasted like? Yeah, it reminded me of, like, lip smackers chapstick.

Oh, yeah. It's a rocket pop. Not the worst one I've tasted.

But have you heard this drink called. I'm just kidding. Oh, no, please don't.

There's no ad yet. Okay. But if you'd like to sponsor the podcast.

My cats. Cats can't spawn to the podcast. I'm allergic.

But anyways, so earlier this week, you brought home a treat. Do you remember what it was? Oh, yeah. Twinkies.

Yeah. Banana flavored. Banana flavored Twinkies.

Yeah. Because they. Oh, don't steal my fun fact.

Don't you steal my fun fact. See, this one is a little different in that for once, Adam knows my fun fact. Yeah.

I didn't know until you started going into it. But I'm like, oh, yeah, don't tell my fun fact. I'm not gonna.

But Adam knows my fun fact because I got this fun fact from, again, one of the greatest shows of all time. The food that built America. Yeah.

Oh, my gosh. By the way, they're coming off a new season at the end of February. Oh, no.

Oh, my gosh. Oh, that'll be good. I won't be around.

Okay, well, anyways, so Adam has heard this fact before, because when I binged the food that built America, this is one of the facts that I regurgitated to his face. So Twinkies. Yeah.

Let's do a quick little history herstory. American sieve. Yes.

Food America sieve one. We're going to do a little herstery of Twinkies. American food sieve one.

Oh, my gosh. I would teach that class. Yes, sir.

And I would bring in the food that we're talking about. So it would be Twinkies today in class. You know, that they would probably also, in that history class, american sieve food one.

Or whatever it is. Yeah. They would definitely talk about the prohibition.

I will bring in virgin daiquiris and all that jazz. Anyway, all right, so I got this information from the food that built America, season three, episode five. I also got it from historynut.com

just for some cross referencing there. And then I also took a little gander at the hostess brands website for a short minute, a shot minute. Okay, so according to these sources, in the way back when.

Oh, my gosh. I just realized my mom is almost as old as twinkies. Anyways, what year? We'll get into it.

Okay, so Continental is still a company. Their continental baking company, they acquired Wonder bread. Okay, what's in a wonder ball? Not a wonder ball, but a wonder bread.

Yeah, but they do have balls on the. On a loaf of bread. You're right.

They do. So anyway, so in 1947. This is right after World War dose two.

Yeah. World War II. Yeah.

W-W-I. Somebody call IXi. I don't know what that is a reference to, but it's on Hercules.

An IxI is 911 in roman numerals. It's like, my favorite joke in the whole show. Somebody call Ixi.

Okay, back to twinkies. My God. So in 1947, after the war.

Yeah. Continental was looking to bring back a line of sweet products because lots of rationing happened during the war. You may or may not know.

Lots of rationing happened. Many people don't. I'm starting to learn that people were born after 2000, okay? So lots of rationing was happening.

And so after the war, a lot of those rations had been lifted, including a lot of the baking items, like sugars and stuff like that. All that stuff. So they were like, yo, we should bring back our line of sweets.

They had, like, a line. It was smaller during war, and they want to bring it back, especially because they were getting some more competition because other companies were starting to develop the box cakes. Mixes.

Cakes, mix cakes. That sounds wrong in my mouth, the box cake mixes. So, like, Betty Crocker was like, yeah, have this cake, that type of stuff.

So they were like, man, we really need to, like, cake rocks mix. Sorry. Meanwhile, I'm in my head going math from, like, World War II to now.

Anyway. Cool. So a manager at the Continental baking company factory in Chicago named James Duar approached Lee Marshall, who was running continental at the time, about a snack cake idea he had.

Sir, the math is not necessary. We're learning about snack cakes, okay? I can't do fun facts that you already know the fact because you. I'm sorry.

Leave us. I'm here. I'm here.

You leave us. I'm sorry. Okay.

So he approached Lee Marshall, who runs Continental, and was like, sup, dude? Have an idea for a snack cake? And he was like, we have these molds right now for cakes that we're using for sponge cakes, for strawberries and cream snack cakes, but we only use them during the strawberry season, so we have these molds just to hang it out in my factory. Do nothing for strawberry ones. Listen to my story.

So they have, like, a strawberries and cream type of snack cake. I don't know what it looked like. I don't know.

They didn't delve into that in any of these sources. Anyways, he was like, well, before the war, we were using those same molds and putting a sponge cake in it, and we were filling it with a bananas and cream filling. But during the war, bananas became rationed and we couldn't get those freaking bananas.

We couldn't get enough. So then to compensate for that, they started filling it with, like, duar was messing around with filling it with a vanilla cream instead. And so he went to Lee Marshall and was like, try this one that's filled with vanilla cream.

And Lee Marshall was like, this is amazing. And was like, make these things. So because the banana filled ones were not having great cells to begin with, it was kind of like, let's move forward with these vanilla ones because they're better anyways.

And then they had great success for it. He loved them. They had great success for it, advertised it everywhere.

Called him a Twinkie. There we have it now. Yeah.

Okay. But twinkies that got their name when that duo dude saw a sign for Twinkle toe shoes. What? Yeah.

He saw an advertisement for Twinkle toe shoes and was like, twinkies? That's the name of this thing I'm making. Oh, no, that's weird. You brought home the banana filled ones.

I did. This is not the first time they have brought back a banana filled Twinkie. What? Yeah, I noticed them in the store.

So then we tasted the banana ones. And then earlier this week, I was like, I don't like these. You just weren't sure about it.

Yeah, I was just like, I don't think I like these. They're not bad. I don't like them.

The banana is incredibly artificial. So. Artificial? Well, it makes you wonder if they're not using real bananas in this second one.

There is no way they're using real bananas right now. It is insanely artificial. I did not like it.

But then I was like, I don't know that I really enjoy a Twinkie to begin with. Yeah. So I went to the store and I got the regular Twinkies and was, like, doing a super duper scientific comparison.

Did you take two of the different ones this morning? No, but I ate two days ago. Yesterday. Two days ago, I ate a vanilla filled Twinkie, and I was like, I don't like this.

Yeah, I don't like Twinkies officially. I don't like Twinkies. And I especially don't like the banana ones.

Which one do you like better? I didn't try the other one yet. Oh, my gosh. Okay.

I don't know. No, the banana ones that they showed or introduced or whatever that I picked up. Yeah.

They didn't taste amazing. They weren't horrible. They'd be a fun snack.

If you had a snack, I don't like them. Like, if you had to choose a snack, it would be all right, but if I had to choose a snack, it would not be on my list. I'm going to say it.

Little Debbie does better than hostess. Okay. But I said it, and I meant what I said.

What's the other one? Edmunds? Intimids. Intimids. Also from the food that built America.

Anyway, I don't think I've ever had an intimids. What? I don't think I have. No.

I picked one up the other day. Did you? Yeah. Oh, my gosh.

I keep seeing them anyway. And then I'm like, oh, that's. Who has.

Because I saw them. I don't know. Anyway, that doesn't matter.

I guess what I'm saying is if someone was like, hey, we have these snacks and do you want a Twinkie? I don't know that I'd turn one down. I would. I would.

I'd be like, nah, I'm good. I would. And then I'd be like, you out any little Debbie's? No, but if that's all they had.

No, I would turn it down. Unless I was super hungry. I would turn it down.

I mean snacky. I would turn it down. Okay, but I have a little bit more information for you.

How long is a Twinkie good for? Like, how long is its shelf life? Twelve years. The rumor is forever, right? What? Well, the rumor is they're so processed that they're forever. No.

You think twelve years? No. How long do you think? I don't know. Well, the hostess website says it's only have a shelf life of 45 days.

Really? That's what they said on their website. They also said that they have other flavors besides vanilla and banana, which I've never seen. The mixed berry flavor.

They claim they have it. There's a chocolate one, right? And the chocolate one. Yeah.

They should do Nutella and that would be fire. Oh, my gosh. I would try a Nutella one.

I don't think I would like it because I don't like the sponge cake. I patent that idea already. It's trademarked TMTM.

TM and then the website also said that they produce a million Twinkies a day. Did I really trademark that by saying that? Anyway, no. Dang it.

Also, if anybody is interested, there is an old episode of unwrapped where they give you a very brief explanation of the Twinkie's history. But you do also get to see how a Twinkie is made. It's pretty old.

I don't know this season or anything. I found it on YouTube. Well, thanks for joining us.

Yeah. Can I go back to math and the World War II? No. So here's what we don't need to.

Math. No. Okay.

All right. Okay. So I had a thought, and this was wild.

I was born in 1988. So I was just thinking, like, from 1980 to World War I, how many years was the different? Several. Right.

So it was like 1917. Right? Or something like that. Anyway, so the whole point is we're getting close.

People are very removed from the idea of what the country was back in 1945. I read a thing. I did not cross reference it, but I read a thing that said that Cleopatra is closer to our day and age than to when the pyramids were first built.

What, because the pyramids are so freaking old? Yeah. That she's closer to our day and age than to the production of the pyramids. Wow.

Anyways, shall we get to our case? Guess the state? And since we don't necessarily stay in the Rocky Mountains, we technically have all of the 50 states and Canada. Since we went to Canada, we're in Missouri, probably. We're not.

Oh, we are in Utah. Why would she say that? We're going to go. We could be in any of the 50 states and then bring us right back to the rocky Mountains.

Throw you off. Oh, my gosh. We're not in Utah.

We're in Idaho. Whoops. We're in Idaho.

See, she lied to us. Where did I go? Idaho. All right.

Michael Vaughn. Michael Vaughn. He was just five years old when he went missing from his neighborhood in fruitland, Idaho, on July 27 of 2021.

On that day, Michael's father, Tyler, was at home watching Michael and his little sister. When Tyler got up to check on his daughter in her room, Michael was sitting on the couch playing Nintendo. After checking on his daughter, Tyler then ordered a pizza, which, according to the Idaho press, took 15 to 20 minutes and returned to the living room where Michael was playing.

However, when he returned, Michael was gone. Remind me the span of time between the two. So 15 to 20 minutes.

So Tyler got up, went to his daughter's room to see, make sure she was all good playing there. Went to the phone, started ordering a pizza. Took him about 1520 minutes, then went back to the room where he last saw Michael playing Nintendo.

And Michael was not there. What? Neighbors said they had seen Michael in those few minutes before he disappeared in his front yard, attempting to talk to neighbors. However, no one saw what happened to Michael or where he went.

Five year old Michael just walked outside front door. Yep. Tried to talk to people.

Middle of the day. What's wrong with a Nintendo? Boom. He's gone.

Well, maybe he couldn't pass a level. The Nintendo died. I don't know.

Dad didn't pay the power bill. He said it died ordering a pizza. Just joking around.

Searches for Michael were conducted on the following days and weeks, according to KTVB.com. Quote, fruitland police, the national. What part of Idaho? Fruitland.

Oh, Fruitland. Sorry. I was like, I paired that with, like, in their fruit vineyard or mean, we have a fruit heights here.

Yeah, that's fair. All right, so, quote, fruitland police, the national Guard, Idaho mountain Search and Rescue, even other law enforcement agencies united to spread their resources across the rural town of Fruitland, unquote. Later, this list would grow to include Idaho state police and the FBI.

So everybody's looking for Michael. Yeah. Where did Michael go? So this happened in July.

By December of 2021, police had received 738 tips on the case. Police also begin searching. Police also begin branching their search efforts out to an area of wiser, Idaho, which is about 20 miles north of fruitland.

I don't know where any of these places are, and I have been to Idaho more than once. They sound rural. Northwest ish, east ish.

So originally, it was thought that Michael had wandered off and gotten lost. However, by November of 2021, Fruitland police began to believe he was actually looking it up. Are we going to ever get to google maps? I'm just going to just keep going.

It's easy to look up. Yeah, but you're not going to pay attention to my story. No, I am.

It's easy to spell. Fruitland. F-R-U-I-T-L-A-N-D.

Idaho. It already showed up. It's 5 hours and 17 minutes from here.

It's up by nampa. It's right on the border of Oregon. Oregon.

Oh, it's way up there. Caldwell, boise. It's like, probably, what would that be like? Fruitland is probably a 20 to 30 minutes drive from Boise.

West of west of Boise. Yeah. We just want to take a moment to thank our awesome listeners for being here, for being a listener, and if you've been here for a little bit and would like to show your support for our podcast.

Please give us a rating on Apple podcasts or Spotify or wherever you're listening. Somehow, some way, show your support. With that said, if you would not mind giving and sharing this out with a friend or family member, we would be super grateful.

With that said, let's get back to the episode. Fruitland is probably a 20 to 30 minutes drive from Boise west to west of Boise. Yeah.

All right. In November 2021, Fruitland police began to believe he was actually abducted as there was no sign of Michael and canine dogs traced. Michael sent to the end of a road.

The canine dogs just dead end, which usually means they got in a vehicle. Usually, yeah. So though news of Michael's disappearance was widespread, an Amber alert was not issued due to it not meeting Idaho's criteria.

What? In an article from the Idaho press in December of 2021, quote, the highest probability at the time of notification was that he wandered off, unquote. Okay. Still put an alert out because hey, boy wandered off and we need people looking.

We don't have a license plate. You have to meet criteria. Remember, we did a whole Amber alert episode.

I know. So the fruitland police chief. Sorry.

Said in an email in the Idaho press, quote, as a result, we did not meet several of the criteria necessary for the Amber alert. I'm sorry to report that we still do not meet the criteria, unquote. So he said that in December, let's make an exception.

Okay. All right. So I went to the Internet and I looked up the criteria in Idaho for an amber alert, because, again, by state, it can vary a little bit.

Okay, so first, a child is known by law enforcement officials to have been abducted, and the child is not simply missing, run away, or lost. The abduction must be known. So we've already not met criteria one.

We don't know at the time that he was abducted. I'm sorry, but, like, he went from playing Nintendo to not being. So.

I think by December, it'd probably be safe to say he was abducted. But I could understand those first few hours being like, maybe he wandered away. I don't know.

Yeah. Well, so criteria number two, the abduction occurred within 12 hours of initial activation of the Amber Alert. Number three, the child must be 17 years or younger or with a proven mental or physical disability.

And police must believe that the child has been abducted or unwillingly taken from his or her environment without permission from the child's parent or a guardian. It's highly possible. Number four, law enforcement must believe the child is in imminent danger or serious bodily harm or death.

That's right. I mean, I would cross that t dot that I. And number five, there must be enough descriptive information to believe that an Amber alert will assist in the recovery of the child.

Must include as much of the following information as possible. Where the abduction took place. A specific physical description of the child that can include clothing worn when last seen, height, weight, age, hair and eye color, hair length, any additional distinguishing physical characteristics.

A physical description of the abductor can include approximate height, weight, hair color, length, eye and skin color and clothing, and any distinguishing physical characteristics. And last, no second to last, the place, last seen, and direction of travel, if known. And the description of the vehicle should include the color, year, make, body model, license plate, and state.

So even though they have all this other information about what he looks like and all that, because they don't have the license plate or the car or anything, they don't have any evidence to show that he was abducted. They don't have any evidence to prove that he's in imminent danger. In those first hour or two, I would say they don't have three of the five criteria to do an amber alert.

But he's never been found. Well, TBD. I'm just saying, in those first few hours.

Okay, so by December, clearly something is up. However, by December, they still don't have proof he was abducted. It's a huge suspicion.

But even then, they don't have any descriptive information about the abductor or the vehicle or anything like that. So how are you still going to do an Amber alert? Yeah. Okay.

In November of 2022. So a year later, police receive a tip that said where Michael's remains could be found. The police made an arrest based on that tip, which is very crazy, because how can you make an arrest based off of just one tip? But anyways, the tip involved Sarah and Stacey Wondra.

Are they neighbors? According to KTVB.com, they live just. I hope I meant two because I spelled it t o instead of tw o.

They lived just two minutes from Michael's home near a farm field that had been previously searched several times. So, yes, they're neighbors. Cadaver dogs alerted to the presence of human remains on the Wondra property.

And according to. Oh, my gosh. Kfyrtv.com.

Come on, people, pick better news station titles. Quote, maybe that's what we should rename the podcast. I'm just going to name it a bunch of letters.

I was going to say R-O-D-E because that's what you're staring at, microphone Stan. Anyway, quote, ground penetrating radar was also deployed, detecting anomalies in the yard, unquote. So this is on the Wandra property.

Anomaly. Wow. Anomaly.

Crazy. They have that kind of stuff. What radar, would you say? Ground ground penetrating radar? Yeah.

That can detect anomalies. Like, what is an anomaly? I guess that's where you make it sound so super sciency. Well, it is super sciency.

I don't know about super, super sciency. You've never watched Skinwalker ranch? Oh, yeah. There's so many anomalies in that ground.

But what was crazy when I did watch it, I did know. I did watch it. All of it, or just like an episode.

Remember when I lost it with their. They were trying to film. Listen.

Yeah, I'm listening. And I know, I guess, where my mind is going, there's going to be people and listeners that are going, that's so real. Yeah, I've seen it.

And it's not because they were flying a drone and filming a drone flying. There was two drones in order to get the footage here. Two drones, everybody.

Two drones. Okay. I'm a photographer and videographer, also by trade, so anyway, two drones, career wise, anyway.

But they were going to fly this drone that had, like, this super whatever, x ray whatever vision ir whatever, and they were flying another drone, the second drone, to grab aerial footage of the first drone, of their setup and everything. And it was just like they were complaining. They're like, oh, shoot.

We're having some crazy, weird technical issues because of this thing. And I'm going, but the other drone's fine. I'm like, how's the other drone? Like, there's no issue with the first drone, so get over yourselves.

Look, I don't know that I believe a whole lot of skinwalker ranch, but it was a fun watch. I did not like dragon. That's a whole nother issue.

This is not a rate the show. Show. So we'll go back to Michael Vaughn.

But anyway, so they found anomalies in the yard. Anomalies? Yeah. So the wanderer's backyard was searched with cadaver dogs and machinery to dig and haul the dirt away to be evaluated for remains.

The wonder home is close enough that Michael's mother, brandy Neil, quote, sat out in the street for hours watching the truck go by with dirt, come back without it, and then leave again. She wanted so badly to just go over to the excavation site, unquote. So it'd be like if we were sitting in our front yard and we're watching, like, five houses down them excavate someone else's yard, and you're going, is my kid's body in that yard? That's what she was doing.

Yeah. That'd be rough to watch the whole excavation from your front yard. Well, I'd fly my drone over there.

Oh, my gosh. Sorry. Anyway, get out.

All right. Unfortunately, I probably have anomalies happen. It would fall down to the sky.

Dude, there is anomaly in my yard. That hole that I covered up with, like, a paving stone. The hole to who knows where.

I don't know where that's yet. Anyway, I told you about it, though. Yeah, you did.

Yeah. It's a weird hole. Okay.

Anyway, it's a weird hole. Not as weird as she thinks it is. Okay.

I don't know. I even asked the city people, and they were like, I don't know what that is. I was like, neat.

Cool. I'm just going to cover this sucker back up. Okay.

Unfortunately, Michael's remains were not found. In a press conference in December of 2022, police chief J. D.

Huff stated that he does believe Michael was buried in the backyard, but that his remains were later moved. After the search of the backyard was complete, police searched the Wandra home. They collected some items and sent them to be tested for DNA.

Sarah Wandra was arrested in November 11, 2022. She is being charged with failure to report a death, and police believe Sarah knew of Michael's death and did not report it. Her husband, Stacy, is not being charged with Michael's disappearance.

In the December 2022 press conference, police chief Huff announced that there were two people living at the Wandra home when Michael disappeared, who he believes has more knowledge on what happened. The ktvB.com article does mention police have had contact with these two people, but nothing more was said.

Sarah's preliminary hearing is scheduled for April 11, 2023. When I researched this, there was no new information on charges or anything, and Michael has still not been found. Waterboard them.

Waterboard them. Just joking. They'll speak.

Just kidding all they want. Wow. Maybe just get your drones.

Yeah, maybe just fly around them all the time. No, I think. No, I'm totally joking about the waterboarding thing because I watched something.

I think it was about the CIA, and it was like. And this isn't a fun fact, but it kind of falls into a fun fact line of stuff. Is it fun, though? We'll listen.

So they talked about the way that the US interrogated people back in the early start of, like, after 911 and how there was things that were done that were not kosher or. Right. And that there's, like, a list of things that wouldn't necessarily.

Waterboarding would say waterboarding was one of them, but there were just things that were like, oh, this will help someone speak up and tell us what we want to hear. But it was like, based on what evidence? Does that actually work? Sounds awful. Yeah.

Well, I'm not saying it's anything great. What I'm getting at is it's just interesting. Yeah.

So I got my information from ktvbay.com, kfyrtv.com, and the Idaho press and da da da da da, da da.