This teen tried for days to lure a student to his death, prosecutors claim. Now she’s on trial

Fe Hadley’s first messages to Ryan Vaughn through Facebook started on a Monday evening in November two years ago.

She promised in a series of instant messages to talk to him and let him do what he wanted with her if only he would go with her behind the Ki-Be Market.

Prosecutors say it was part of Hadley’s plan to lure the teen to where a classmate was waiting with a knife.

Vaughn took the stand Wednesday on the first day of Hadley’s trial.

He told jurors about his short-lived relationship with Hadley and how the relationship soured, in part, because of her over-protective, eccentric friend, Jeremiah Cunningham.

He also described the two days of Facebook messages urging him to meet her behind the market.

Hadley, now 18, is charged in Benton County Superior Court with conspiracy to commit first-degree murder.

Cunningham, the mastermind of the plot, pleaded guilty to the same charge in April, and is serving a 10-year prison sentence.

Hadley reportedly told a friend earlier in the day that her boyfriend was going to murder Vaughn for her birthday.

Vaughn was 18 at the time and a senior at Kiona-Benton High School. He had known Hadley, then 16, for two years.

He told the jury they dated for two to three weeks before their relationship ended because “she tried to kill me.”

Though he later corrected himself to say he broke it off with Hadley just before the Nov. 15, 2017, plot.

They were broken up when she first started sending him the Facebook messages with the same question over and over.

“She asked if I would meet behind the market on Wednesday,” he said. “I just asked, ‘Why?’”

At first, she said she just wanted to hang out, but he already had been the subject of other rumors that were circulating at the school. While the rumors weren’t true, they did hurt his relationship with Hadley.

He initially refused to go with her, but she kept insisting. Her next set of messages began sounding sexual, Vaughn said. This time she asked for a “little fun.”

“I just want to hang out. We can do what you want,” Vaughn read on the stand.

Her insistence, caused Vaughn to wonder if someone else was using her account. But he said a phone call and a conversation at school made him believe it was her.

“She was not normally this persistent,” he testified.

He eventually agreed to meet and go to the market.

Defense attorney Nicholas Blount challenged whether he knew for certain that it was Hadley at the other end of the conversation, and Vaughn said he couldn’t know for certain.

Going to the market

When the two went to the market the next day, Vaughn said they walked inside and he bought an iced tea, and she didn’t buy anything.

Then as they began walking around the side of the building, he noticed two freshmen on scooters going back and forth, and a pair of seniors yelling at the someone in a field.

As he got closer, he noticed someone in a mask hiding behind a bush. The masked man, who was Cunningham, stood up and beckoned him into the field.

Vaughn told the jury he didn’t go, because he decided following a stranger wearing a mask into a field was a bad idea.

He walked away and returned to class.

Vaughn during the questioning from Hadley’s attorney admitted she never mentioned going behind the market once they were there, and didn’t try to get him to follow the man into the field.

Testimony is scheduled to continue this week.

This story was originally published October 23, 2019 at 7:52 PM with the headline "This teen tried for days to lure a student to his death, prosecutors claim. Now she’s on trial."