She Made Them Use Buckets As Toilets The Story of Dennis “Boo” Vaughan Jr

The Tragic Story of Dennis “Boo” Vaughan Jr.: A System’s Fatal Failure

This is the heartbreaking story of a little boy who lost his life not only to the hands of an abuser but to the profound negligence of the very system designed to protect him. Occurring in Laconia, New Hampshire, this case has received alarmingly little media attention compared to similar tragedies.

A Cycle of Abuse and a Mother’s Fight

Dennis Vaughan Jr. was born on July 11, 2014, in Laconia, New Hampshire. Lovingly nicknamed “Boo,” he was a silly, smart, and happy little boy who loved eating pizza, watching Barney the Dinosaur, and dreamed of becoming a firefighter.

Boo’s mother, Danielle Vaughan, had a deeply traumatic childhood. Her mother, Sherry Connor, was highly abusive. When Danielle was just 15 years old, Sherry abandoned her to start a new life, leaving the teenage girl in the care of a 48-year-old man named Dennis Vaughan Sr. Predictably, this led to a predatory romantic relationship. By age 18, Danielle was a mother. She eventually married Dennis Sr., and they had four children together, including Boo.

Over the years, Dennis Sr. became increasingly controlling and abusive, and both he and Danielle fell into heroin addiction. In 2016, following a police raid on their home, Dennis Sr. was sent to jail on drug charges, and all four children—including three-year-old Boo—were removed from Danielle’s care by the Division for Children, Youth and Families (DCYF) and placed into foster care.

Losing her children was a brutal wake-up call for Danielle. Determined to get them back, she left her abusive husband, successfully kicked her heroin addiction, passed all state-mandated drug tests, secured stable housing, and completed multiple substance abuse and mental health counseling programs.

Placed in a House of Horrors

Despite doing everything required by the state, Danielle faced constant hurdles. Her children’s foster family frequently refused to allow her mandated calls and visits, preventing her from completing the final steps to regain custody. When she begged the court for help in 2017, the court urged DCYF to place the children with Danielle’s mother, Sherry Connor, while monitoring the situation closely.

This decision proved fatal. During a preliminary evaluation, DCYF actually deemed Sherry unfit. They received reports that she associated with known drug dealers, drank heavily, hit Danielle, and even sexually abused one of the children. Shockingly, despite these massive red flags, DCYF still placed Boo and his three siblings in Sherry’s guardianship.

27 Reports of Abuse Ignored

From July 2017 until Boo’s death in December 2019, DCYF received at least 27 credible reports of severe abuse from police, school nurses, teachers, neighbors, and hospital staff. The horror those children endured was unimaginable:

• The Campground Incident: In 2017, police were called to a campground after witnesses saw Sherry screaming at 4-year-old Boo, grabbing him by the neck, striking him repeatedly, and throwing him into a tent. DCYF investigated but closed the case 8 months later as “unfounded.”

• The School Nurse & ER Visit: In April 2018, a school nurse noted severe bruising, scratches, and a head contusion on Boo’s brother. Sherry took the boy to an emergency room an hour away to avoid local doctors, but the ER staff still flagged the abuse. They took 90 photographs documenting non-accidental injuries, including marks from the child being confined in handcuffs for hours. DCYF ignored the report, telling Danielle there was “not enough information” to remove the children.

• Deplorable Living Conditions: During a Christmas visit in 2018, Danielle discovered the house was covered in human and dog feces. Sherry kept locks on the refrigerator and cabinets, intentionally starving the children. When they resorted to drinking out of the toilet, they were punished and subsequently forced to use buckets as toilets.

• Torture Tactics: Reports indicated the children were duct-taped to chairs and left outside in the freezing winter overnight, forced to take ice-cold baths, suffocated, and forced to run up and down stairs as punishment.

Neighbors frequently called the Laconia Police reporting screams and banging, but officers routinely dismissed them as simple “noise complaints.” Danielle called authorities daily, absolutely frantic and begging anyone to intervene. Her pleas were entirely ignored.

A Preventable Tragedy

On the morning of December 24, 2019—Christmas Eve—Danielle was at work when a state police officer arrived to deliver the devastating news: 5-year-old Boo was dead.

First responders had been called to Sherry’s apartment regarding an unresponsive child. Boo was pronounced dead at the hospital. A later autopsy confirmed his cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head and neck, and it was officially ruled a homicide.

Sherry, the only adult in the home, offered bizarre and conflicting stories. She first claimed First Responders accidentally slammed Boo’s head into the ambulance. Later, she blamed mold in the apartment, and even claimed the 5-year-old had a “drinking problem” causing dehydration. Prior to his death, she had chillingly told Danielle that Boo was hallucinating and that “the devil was there to take him.”

The Fight for Justice

Despite the autopsy ruling Boo’s death a homicide and the mountain of evidence regarding the abuse, no arrests have ever been made. Sherry Connor was only interviewed by police for about an hour after the boy’s death. She has since moved out of state to Maine and claims she is a victim of harassment.

In 2020, Danielle finally won back full custody of her three surviving children. Desperate for answers and justice for her murdered son, she filed a lawsuit against the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services (DCYF) in 2023, just before the statute of limitations ran out. The 75-page lawsuit meticulously details the 27 ignored reports and the agency’s catastrophic failure to follow their own protocols.

While the Laconia Police Chief claims the case remains active and on his mind daily, the department has never publicly announced Boo’s homicide or sought public assistance, unlike other high-profile local cases (such as Harmony Montgomery).

Today, Danielle and supporters continue to fight tirelessly. She did everything right to save her family, but the system handed her children over to a monster, refusing to act until it was far too late.