ELDORADO—The death of a well-known Eldorado woman has taken some twists since it was first reported in mid-July.
Johnna Vaughn, 54, died in her home on July 16 under what appears to be natural causes.
Those investigating the death, which occurred at her residence on Elder Street in Eldorado, learned from others in the home that Vaughn appeared to have been in the process of fixing herself a bowl of oatmeal, then sat down and lit a cigarette, put the cigarette down in an ashtray, sat back in a chair, and died peacefully.
However, the curious part comes in with the fact that the two who were also staying in the residence with her, a man and a woman, told those investigating the incident that “they were asleep” at the time it happened, and didn’t know a thing about it until much later—about 4:30 in the afternoon, presumably when they got up and found Vaughn in the chair. She had been deceased long enough that rigor mortis had set in. This was also supported by the appearance that she’d been in the process of fixing herself a breakfast food when she died. Time of death, however, hasn’t yet been established.
To make the situation even more bizarre, the two who were crashing with Vaughn in her house were the same two who found Mike Talkington dead in his brother’s home in Eldorado back in May, after Talkington committed suicide by hanging.
What the two deaths had in common, other than being discovered by the same couple, is a matter of speculation, and some say that it involves drugs of some sort.
While relatives of Johnna Vaughn’s state that if she had such a problem in the past, she’s cleaned up her act in recent years, the other aspect of it is that she’d recently had neck surgery, and had a full supply of Fentanyl pain patches as a result of the follow-up treatment.
It’s been reported to Disclosure that when investigators conducted the typical search of the home following the discovery of her death (as all deaths are treated as crime scenes until it’s determined definitively what the cause was), there were no Fentanyl patches to be found, even though Vaughn had just had the prescription filled.
Whether this aspect of the case is being investigated as a crime or not is unknown at this time.
Vaughn has associations in the drug realm: Her son, Tim, is in the federal penitentiary in Pekin on meth charges; Tim’s wife, Heather has most recently been involved with the crazed Josh Ragan (see July Special Edition), and their son, Ricky, was sentenced July 9 to a stint in DOC over a meth charge.
In fact, friends and family have reported that Johnna Vaughn was “counting down the days” until her son was released from federal prison, this to occur in December.
Tim Vaughn had to be notified via phone by family members in Eldorado of his mother’s death.
The investigation continues into the death, as well as the disappearance of the Fentanyl patches.