A 26-year-old Des Moines man has been charged with murdering the Michigan man whose body was found Tuesday dumped in ditch in a remote area of the capital city. Des Moines police Sergeant Todd Dykstra says Donald Antonio Vaughn of Des Moines was charged with first degree murder late this (Wednesday) afternoon. Cops got a break on the case this morning when an S-U-V they believe was involved in the murder was found in Newton.
The white Chevy Tahoe was taken to Des Moines, where it was processed for evidence. Investigators were able to “piece together what happened” according to Dykstra. The family of 25-year-old Matthew Glover of Southfield, Michigan, reported him missing about a week ago.
Dykstra says Des Moines police got a call from a tipster earlier this week. “We believe that he is someone who had knowledge of this incident and then with his information we were able to locate the body of Mr. Glover,” Dykstra says. “With the new information that we received from the vehicle and piecing together all the facts and the evidence, that is how we ultimately charged Mr. Vaughn.”
Dykstra says investigators believe the motive for the slaying was drugs, and Glover came to Des Moines to make a drug deal. Neither Glover, the dead man, nor Vaughn have a “lengthy criminal history” according to Dykstra. Dykstra says the two men knew one another, but they don’t know how long their acquaintance was, or how well they knew one another. Vaughn was in jail on a charge of pot possession, then police pieced together the murder and added the murder charge to his rap sheet.