Lori Vallow (center).Photo: Lisa Cheney of Boise, Idaho
Content warning: This story contains disturbing details.
As police searchedChad Daybell’s property for the remains ofLori Vallow Daybell’s children, the Idaho couple now accused ofkilling those children spokeon the phone — and their conversation was recorded and played at Lori’s murder trial on Wednesday.
During the call,Loriasked Chad if he was okay.
“They are searching the property,” Chad told her. “There was a search warrant.”
Later in the call, Lori asked if investigators were inside Chad’s home.
“No, they are out on the property,” Chad responded.
“Are they seizing stuff again?' Lori asked.
Chad responded: “They are searching… We’ll see what transpires.”
Lori asks if she can do anything for her husband.
“I’m feeling pretty calm,” responded Chad, who then told Lori that he loved her.
At one point, Lori asked if she should try to call later.
“I don’t know,” said Chad. “I will answer if I can. I love you and we’ll talk soon.”
Lori, 49, is charged with murder in the deaths of her two children as well as conspiracy to commit first-degree murder in the death of Chad’s first wife Tammy Daybell.
On Tuesday, Rexburg, Idaho, police detective Ray Hermosillo provideda graphic accountof how authorities discovered the remains of Lori’s childrenJ.J. Vallow, 7, and Tylee Ryan, who was last seen alive when she was 16.
Joshua “J.J.” Vallow, at left, and his sister Tylee Ryan.
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“A few of us got on our hands and knees and began digging around this moist section of dirt,” Hermosillo testified, adding that investigators began to smell a decomposing body.
“We eventually uncovered bits and pieces of Tylee — whom we assumed it was Tylee — that had been burned. There were pieces of bone, charred flesh, just globs of flesh that were falling apart,” Hermosillo continued.
After Hermosillo’s account, Lori’s attorney, Jim Archibald, requested that Lori be absent during the remainder of Hermosillo’s testimony and said that Lori’s mental health is fragile. But prosecutors argued the state of Idaho deserves to have her be present. The judge denied the defense’s motion, andLori remained in the courtroom.
Lisa Cheney of Boise, Idaho
Lori has pleaded not guilty to the charges against her. Chad is also charged, but will have a trial at a different time.
J.J. and Tylee werereported missingafter J.J.’s grandparents, Kay and Larry Woodcock, called authorities in Rexburg, Idaho, in November of 2019 and asked them to conduct a welfare check on the children. Once they did, they realized that J.J. and Tylee hadn’t been seen since September of that year.
J.J., who had an autism diagnosis, was last seen Sept. 23, 2019, at his Rexburg school before Lori withdrew him and told the principal she was considering home-schooling. The last known image of Tylee was taken Sept. 8, 2019, while she was on a day trip to Yellowstone National Park with her mother, brother and Lori’s brother Alex Cox, according to a court filing.
Lori Vallow.Dennis Fujimoto/AP/Shutterstock
Judge Steven Boyceruledin March that Lori, who spent time in a psychiatric treatment facility before being deemed fit for trial, would not face the death penalty in the slayings. Lori’s trial is ongoing. She faces life in prison if convicted.
In addition to the charges for which she is on trial in Idaho, Lori has also been indicted in Arizona on one count of conspiracy to commit first degree murder in connection with the death of her fourth husband, Charles Vallow, who was shot to death in 2019. Lori and Cox — who died of a heart attack in December of that year — said the shooting was in self-defense, and Lori has pleaded not guilty.
If you suspect child abuse, call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child or 1-800-422-4453, or go to www.childhelp.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.
source: people.com
