8-year-old says mom killed dad
Staff writer jwallace@oklahoman.com
DEL CITY — An 8-yearold boy told investigators Saturday that his mother stabbed his father and where the knife could be found.
About 8:15 p.m. Saturday, Del City police responded to a home in the 2500 block of Becker Place, where they found Neil Vaughn in the home’s driveway suffering from a stab wound to his chest. He was taken to OU Medical Center, where he later died.
At the home, investigators questioned Vaughn’s wife, Amber McMurtrey, who was uncooperative and would only tell officers that her husband was stabbed outside and not in the house, according to a court affidavit.
A Del City officer said she smelled of alcohol, had bloodshot eyes and that he could smell burned marijuana coming from inside the home.
Through the front door, the officer said he could see blood on the living room floor and asked McMurtrey if he could search the house. After she said no, she was taken into custody and the officer called for a caseworker to take custody of the boy, according to the affidavit.
After obtaining a search warrant, police found a trail of blood leading from a bedroom down a hallway to the driveway. Officers also found drug paraphernalia and what they identified as a burned “marijuana cigarette” inside the home.
Witnesses told investigators they had seen Vaughn running in the front yard and driveway before collapsing. One witness told police that McMurtrey claimed she had seen someone stab her husband and run away, but none of the other witnesses reported seeing anybody run or drive from the house.
A witness also told police that he’d seen McMurtrey assault Vaughn “multiple times while she was intoxicated.”
Police later interviewed the boy, who initially said a “masked person came in and stabbed my daddy and then left.” But, after being instructed by his grandmother to “not tell any stories,” the boy said McMurtrey stabbed Vaughn and hid the “reindeer knife” above the toilet, according to the affidavit.
Investigators returned to the home and found the knife where the boy indicated.
McMurtrey was being held without bail in the Oklahoma County jail on complaints of murder, child neglect and possession of drugs and paraphernalia.