Family's torment over mystery death of Kidderminster son
The tragic death of teenager Chris Vaughan – whose sweetheart found him shivering waist high in the harbour waters of a seaside town – remains a mystery, his grieving mother said today.
Doctors battled for two hours to save 18-year-old Chris, from Kidderminster, after hypothermia set in and he suffered a cardiac arrest.
But he was later certified dead at Dorset County Hospital.
As she paid tribute to her 'loving, caring, mischievous' and 'genius son', Chris's mother, Julia Vaughan, of Yellowhammer Court, Kidderminster, said it was not known how he came to be in the sea at Weymouth.
It was a 15ft drop from the harbourside, protected by 4ft high railings.
Mrs Vaughan said her son's girlfriend, Tara Neels, also 18, went searching for him after he failed to return home by 2am after a night playing pool in a local pub on January 9.
"She heard noises as she walked across the footbridge over the harbour and realised there was a person in the water," said Mrs Vaughan, who runs her own clerk service for barristers at Foregate Chambers.
"She shone her phone torch and saw Chris waist high in the water.
"She called the emergency services and they got him out but found him deeply hypothermic." Mrs Vaughan added: "We don't know how he got there or how long he had been in the water.
"There is an investigation going on."
Chris, a former pupil at Kidderminster's King Charles I High School, who was placed in the year above his age group, had been described by teachers as a 'genius', excelling in maths.
He met Tara through an online gaming community and moved to Weymouth to live with her last summer.
He was working at a Londis store but planned to go to college to finish studying and apply to university, in the hope of starting a career in computer game design.
Mrs Vaughan and her partner, Keith Irons, were awoken at 4.30am on January 9 by police, who informed them of the harbour incident.
As she prepared to set off to Weymouth, a doctor called to say her son had not survived.
She said: "It was shock, disbelief, surreal. It felt like we were going to wake up in a minute."
Chris had called his father, Nicholas Vaughan, a bank manager from Harborne, a few hours earlier and had been 'upbeat' and happy to be living with Tara.
Cardiff-born Chris moved to Kidderminster with his parents and sister, Sarah, now aged 21, when he was aged four.
His funeral will be held tomorrow at St Augustine's Church, in Edgbaston.
