BULLHEAD CITY – Court records indicate a Bullhead City man stabbed his mom in the chest so hard that the knife pierced through her chest. Details of the Sunday murder in the Colorado River community are laid out in a probable cause statement filed in Bullhead City Justice Court.
The affidavit said that Bette Jean Vaughn, 74, was seated at the kitchen table in her Jasper Avenue home and was using a laptop computer when she was attacked by Travers Wesley Proulx, 43, at 4:15 a.m. Proulx reportedly used a large butcher knife, stabbing her in the chest two or three times.
“One stab wound went completely through Bette Vaughn’s chest causing an exit wound on her back,” the document said. It said Proulx’s brother was sleeping nearby and witnessed the stabbing when awakened by his mother’s screams.
The brother and the victim’s husband told police that Proulx said he would have them killed by the Aryan Brotherhood if they called authorities. The affidavit said Proulx fled and was denied entry at a nearby residence where the knife was located in the backyard.
The document said Proulx ended up at a Gemstone Avenue home, where a woman let him in. The woman told police Proulx spoke of the murder of his mother and laughed about it.
“I just killed that bitch,” he said, according to the woman who told police she asked whom did he kill. “My mom, I stabbed her three times.”
The woman told police Proulx said he killed Vaughn because she was molesting his daughter, according to the affidavit. It said his brother and the victim’s husband confirmed Proulx called his mother a child molester and that they argued frequently after she posted bond to gain his release from the Mohave County Adult Detention Center earlier this summer.
Bullhead City Police spokesman Emily Fromelt said Proulx is well known to local law enforcement. Court records indicate local assault and other convictions last year and pending charges in current cases involving alleged forgery, fraud, identity theft and theft of means of transportation. Arizona Department of Corrections records show Proulx served 18 months in prison for Apache County drug convictions in the mid-90’s, and a history of disciplinary infractions during his period of incarceration. Proulx is held on $2-million bond with a preliminary hearing in Bullhead City Justice Court set next Monday.
