These Kennewick families won’t let a murder divide them

The families of Annieka Vaughan and Zachary Petersen could hate each other.

Police say Petersen, 23, shot and killed Annieka, 15, and then himself in a Portland park after the two ran away together earlier this month.

They’d had a relationship since August, one that both sides tried to stop, said Petersen’s aunt, Abby Kinchen of Kennewick.

Instead, the two families — who live in the same Kennewick cul-de-sac — are trying to help each other heal.

Kids of both families play with each other. Annieka’s mom and Petersen’s mom have talked.

“There’s no quarrel between us,” Kinchen told the Herald at her home. “They’re both grieving right now.”

The one thing they want is to show who their loved ones were.

‘Trying to fix everyone else’

Petersen, who attended Pasco High and still lived in Pasco, was the kind of guy who always was thinking of others.

Kinchen, who is in her late 20s, said that she or other relatives would invite him to dinner. He’d dutifully show up, but he’d bring dinner with him — for everyone.

A single father by the time he was 21, he quit his job to help his grandfather, who was stricken with cancer, run his fence-posting business.

He was “the mom and the dad” of his son Hayden, 2.

Anything he could do to help someone, he would do, Kinchen said.

In part, it was a way to work his anxiety, which he’d had since he was a child, said Sandy Petersen, his grandmother.

But it also tied back to problems with self-esteem, said Wendy Rich, Kinchen’s sister. Helping others made him feel better.

“No one bothered to ask if he was doing OK,” Kinchen said. “He was trying to fix everyone else.”

That included Annieka, who everyone knew as “Annie.”

Her dad, Rick Vaughan, an assistant basketball coach for Warner Pacific College in Portland, described his daughter as beautiful and highly artistic — teaching herself guitar, animation and acting.

‘We couldn’t force him’

Annieka had her share of problems, though. But they were problems that drew Petersen to her.

“He knew she’d been through so much, as a 15-year-old,” Kinchen said. “He felt like she was not 15 at heart.”

It didn’t justify what they did. Even so, the two started seeing each other in August, according to the family and investigators.

They grew close, talking with each other in the cul-de-sac when she was visiting the Tri-Cities as the younger kids from each family played.

But the families saw how Petersen and Annieka were starting to get too close. They knew it wasn’t right, and they tried to stop it.

Kinchen said that for awhile, Petersen wasn’t allowed to visit. They told him, over and over, that the law would tear them apart if he kept it up.

“We couldn’t force him,” Kinchen said.

The family said Annieka, who was from Aloha, Ore., was sent away for mental health counseling, though they didn’t say why. That’s when they finally got through to Petersen, and he broke it off.

However, it didn’t take long for it to go sideways.

‘I’m pretty much dead already’

While she was away, Annieka called Petersen. Kinchen said Annieka called over and over, trying to get in touch with him.

But Petersen didn’t call her back. And Annieka got more desperate, Kinchen believed.

Eventually, she said she’d call the police if he didn’t return her calls, Kinchen said. The family turned her voicemails over to Pasco police when the two disappeared.

Petersen still didn’t call her.

The Benton County Sheriff’s Office said that investigators were looking into Petersen for child rape after the couple reportedly was found having sex in a car south of Kennewick in early October.

Petersen started to fear being labeled a rapist. “I’m pretty much dead already,” he told his aunt.

Wendy Rich, Kinchen’s sister, said, “That’s not who he really was.”

Petersen had talked in the past about his depression, but he always masked it with his helpful attitude and smile.

Kinchen, Sandy Petersen and Rich said Petersen was to report to Lourdes Medical Center in Pasco so he could get treatment.

They’d told him that “time can fix things,” Rich said. “This was fixable.”

He never showed up.

The next day, Oct. 30, he and Annieka were gone.

‘We have to show them empathy too

The family couldn’t be certain what happened in the Portland park.

None of Petersen’s family believes that he wanted to shoot Annieka. He’d talked about marrying her, Kinchen said, and Anieka had too.

The family is still dwelling on the circumstances leading up to the pair disappearing.

However, they believe there wasn’t much anyone could have done to stop them.

The families still live next to each other, on the same cul-de-sac in Kennewick. Their kids are still friends and still want to play together.

Petersen’s mom, Jenny, spoke with Annieka’s stepdad, then Annieka’s mom.

The two mothers especially are comforting each other back and forth, Rich said.

“(Jenny) said it actually helps to talk to her, more than any of us, because the two of them understand the same thing.”

This story was originally published November 23, 2017 at 2:15 PM with the headline "These Kennewick families won’t let a murder divide them."