Deputies: Loaded gun found in children’s toy box, mother indicted

CORBIN, Ky. (WTVQ) – A Knox County mother was indicted Friday after deputies say she threatened to kill her five children multiple times and stored a loaded gun in her children’s toy box, according to the News Journal.

The newspaper reports on January 1, Knox County troopers were sent to a home on Elaine Court to conduct a welfare check and found that a 9-year-old child had run away from the home.

Deputies say the child told them she ran away because she was afraid her mother, 32-year-old Nina Vaughn, was going to hurt her.

According to the newspaper, deputies say they found evidence of abuse on the 9-year-old’s face and bruises on her 6-year-old sibling. They say all five children told them Vaughn is abusive and had assaulted them in the past.

The newspaper reports the indictment says a loaded 9mm pistol was found in the toy box, which was accessible by the children ages 2, 6, 9 and 12.

Social Services removed the children from the home, according to the newspaper.

Vaughn is charged with wanton endangerment, terroristic threatening, assault and endangering the welfare of a minor.