PAYETTE, Idaho (Scripps News Group/Court TV) — Nearly five years after 5-year-old Michael “Monkey” Vaughan disappeared from outside his Fruitland home in July 2021, the man charged with kidnapping and killing him, Stacey Wondra, is back in a Payette County courtroom on Tuesday as preliminary hearings get underway.
Stacey Wondra appears in court for his preliminary hearing on March 3, 2026. (Court TV)
Stacey Wondra is the only person currently charged in the death of Michael Vaughan, although Fruitland Police publicly named four people as suspects in the case in 2022, including Stacey’s then-wife, Sarah. Sarah Wondra was arrested in 2022 and charged with failing to report Michael’s death, but she was later released when prosecutors dropped those charges. Michael’s body was never found during an extensive search of the Wondras’ home and backyard.
Stacey appeared in court on Tuesday in civilian clothes and shackles.
The prosecution began their arguments by laying out the probable cause they say would prove he committed murder and then destroyed evidence to obstruct the investigation.
The state argued that Stacey confessed to law enforcement, telling police Michael was abducted and taken to his Fruitland home in July 2021, before being put in a duffel bag and taken to another location in Kuna. Prosecutors say Stacey saw Michael buried in his backyard, but the boy’s body was never located.
At the time in 2022, law enforcement shared their theory that Michael was buried at the Wondra home, then later moved to a new location. His body has never been recovered.
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The defense offered brief opening remarks, stating, “Our client confesses to nothing.”
FILE – Michael Vaughan (Fruitland Police Department)
The state called Michael’s father, Tyler Vaughan, to the stand. Tyler Vaughan is the person who noticed Michael was missing on the evening of July 27, 2021, and called 911.
Tyler told prosecutors at the time of Michael’s disappearance he was not familiar with the Wondras or anyone in their home, which is about a half mile away from the Vaughan’s family home in Fruitland.
Tyler laid out what was happening at the family’s home the day Michael went missing: His wife, Brandi, was at work. He had the day off and was home with the family’s children. Tyler recalled spending time playing monster trucks with Michael that day. He testified that he saw Michael playing in the family’s living room when he went to wake up their then-two-year-old around 6:15 p.m. “She can be hard to wake up,” he explained, so it took a few minutes. He then changed her diaper, ordered pizza for dinner, and then realized Michael wasn’t in the home around 7:00 p.m.
He looked all over the house and called Brandi, who thought maybe Michael was hiding. After he was unable to locate Michael quickly, he says he called police around 7:20 p.m.
The defense team questioned Tyler’s use of marijuana at the time of Michael’s disappearance. Tyler said he usually smoked a couple of joints a day outside their home. Tyler testified that he smoked a joint between the time he woke up their sleeping toddler and when he noticed Michael was missing.
Tyler told the defense that once police arrived at their Fruitland home that night, he and Brandi stayed in close proximity to the home, searching for Michael in the neighborhood.
As Michael’s mother, Brandi, began her testimony, members in the courtroom gallery were visibly emotional, wiping tears.
Brandi recalled the July day Michael went missing. She was working at Albertsons when she received a phone call from her husband, Tyler, who could not find Michael. She told him to look under their bed in his favorite hiding spot, but Michael wasn’t there.
Brandi testified that she immediately left work and called her older daughter on her way home, instructing her to get home right away to help look for Michael.
Brandi appeared visibly emotional when prosecutors asked her if she ever located Michael or saw him again. “No,” Vaughan stated sadly while grabbing a tissue.
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Brandi told prosecutors she gave police several items to assist in the investigation that may include Michael’s scent or DNA, including a shoe, his pillow, his favorite blanket, and a stuffed animal.
The prosecution called Dustin Witt to the stand, who at the time of Michael Vaughan’s disappearance worked in law enforcement in California. Witt has experience with SWAT and K-9 investigations and testified that the FBI requested his assistance in the Michael Vaughan case.
Witt and his K-9 were flown to Fruitland in August 2021, in the days following Michael’s disappearance.
Witt testified his bloodhound is trained to follow a scent. Police used items collected from the family to allow the dog to smell Michael’s scent.
Witt testified his certified bloodhound lead officers to a location near Redwing Street, which is about a half mile from the Vaughan’s family home. Witt says the K-9 was “on trail” and cut across a frontyard to lead detectives to a house on the corner or Meadowlark and Redwing, where we’ve previously reported Stacey and Sarah Wondra lived at the time.
Witt testified that his K-9 showed interest in the corner of the property near the fence to the backyard. He lead the dog away from the home and took her off the leash, when he says the dog turned back around and went directly back to the fenceline.
Past that home, the dog “did not have trailing behavior.”
On another search, the K-9 also appeared to “show good trailing behavior” along 8th Street, at a bluff nearby, down a dirt road, and lead officers to an area of thick vegetation, where Witt says he stopped the dog from entering the thorny brush.
Scripps News Group of Boise contributed to this report.
