New details emerge in Bullhead City woman’s stabbing death

KINGMAN, Ariz. — A Bullhead City woman killed on Sunday was stabbed so hard in the chest that the knife pierced through her back, court records show.

A probable cause affidavit filed in Justice Court said 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. He is accused of using a large butcher knife to stab 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 states.

Proulx fled and was denied entry at a nearby residence where the knife was located in the backyard, according to the affidavit. The document said Proulx ended up at a Gemstone Avenue home, where a woman let him in. The woman told police Proulx spoke of killing his mother and laughed about it.

The woman told police that 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 that 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.

Proulx was booked into the Mohave County Jail on one count of first-degree murder and two counts of threatening and intimidating. He is being held on $2 million bond with a preliminary hearing in Bullhead City Justice Court set for Monday.

Bullhead City police spokesman Emily Fromelt said Proulx is well known to local law enforcement. Court records indicate that he had local assault and other convictions last year, and that he has pending cases involving charges of forgery, fraud, identity theft and theft of means of transportation.

Arizona Department of Corrections records show that Proulx served 18 months in prison for Apache County drug convictions in the mid-1990s, and that he had a history of disciplinary infractions during his incarceration.