Tylee Ashlyn Ryan, who was 16 years old, and Joshua Jaxon “J. J.” Vallow, who was 7 years old, were two children of Lori Vallow Daybell from the.
The two children disappeared in September 2019 and their remains were later found on June 9, 2020, buried in shallow graves in Rexburg, Idaho, in their stepfather, Chad Daybell’s backyard. Chad Daybell was Lori Vallow’s fifth husband.
Lori married her fourth husband, Charles Vallow on February 24, 2006. The couple adopted Joshua Jaxon in 2013. Tylee was Lori’s daughter from her husband before Charles Vallow.
Chad was a member of the Church of the Firstborn, a fundamentalist Mormon group that is often identified as a doomsday cult.
As of September 23, 2019, the last known sighting of J.J. was at Kennedy Elementary School in Rexburg. Lori contacted the school on September 24, 2019, to inform them that she was withdrawing J.J. from classes and would be homeschooling him.
Chad and Lori were married in Hawaii on November 5, 2019, two weeks after the death of Chad’s first wife, Tammy Daybell. There they told others that Tylee had died in 2017 and that Lori had no minor children. Meanwhile Back in Rexburg, on November 26, police visited Lori’s townhouse at the request of J.J.’s grandmother, Kay Woodcock, to conduct a welfare check on J.J.
The police questioned the children’s mother, Lori, about the children’s whereabouts and welfare. Lori and her new husband, Chad Daybell, claimed that J.J. was staying with family friend Melanie Gibb in Arizona, where they had lived before moving to Idaho in early September 2019, which Gibb later denied.
More than a week later, Gibb called the police saying that both Lori and Chad had asked her to lie to the police about J.J.’s whereabouts but she refused. Police efforts to locate J.J. led to the discovery that Tylee was also missing.
CIRCUMSTANCES SURROUNDING THE DEATH OF THE CHILDREN.
A string of suspicious deaths complicated the circumstances surrounding the children’s disappearances. Charles Vallow, Lori’s fourth husband, was shot and killed in July 2019 by Lori’s brother, Alexander Cox, who claimed self-defense; Cox later died of a blood clot on December 12, 2019.
Brandon Boudreaux, the ex-husband of Lori’s friend, Melanie Gibb, was shot in the driveway of his Gilbert, Arizona, home in early October 2019 by a vehicle registered to the deceased Charles Vallow.
Tammy Daybell, Chad’s wife, was attacked in her driveway in October 2019 by what she thought was someone shooting a defective paintball gun. She died in her sleep a few weeks later, on October 19, from what was initially listed as “natural causes.” Initially, no post-mortem or autopsy was performed. Law enforcement became suspicious after Chad and Lori’s marriage two weeks after Tammy’s death and exhumed Tammy’s body for an autopsy. The autopsy result in February 2021 revealed that she had been asphyxiated by someone else.
LORI VALLOW DAYBELL IS ACCOSTED TO PAY FOR HER SINS
On February 20, 2020, Lori was detained in Kauai, Hawaii, and charged with abandoning her dependent children and failing to provide for them, she was later brought to Idaho. Police executed a search warrant at Chad’s residence on June 9, 2020, and there they found J.J. and Tylee’s remains.
Vallow Daybell has been accused of grand theft for collecting Social Security benefits intended for her children, including Tylee, who was receiving them due to her father’s passing.
In court, evidence was presented to the jury that showed Vallow’s disturbing internet searches, including searches for life insurance policies for her children in July 2019, two months before they were killed. It is also alleged that Vallow conspired to murder her fourth husband, Charles Vallow, during the same month.
According to the prosecution, Daybell and Lori Vallow planned to strangle Tammy, Daybell’s first wife, in order to receive life insurance and social security benefit.
After the couple allegedly killed the two kids in September 2019 and buried them in Daybell’s Idaho backyard, Tammy passed about a month later. The couple eloped to Hawaii and got married on November 19, 2019, a few days after Tammy’s funeral.
These murders were motivated by the couple’s end-of-the-world religious beliefs. Friends claimed that Vallow Daybell was becoming more and more certain that Doomsday is around the corner. According to her, JJ, Tylee, and Charles Vallow were among those whose bodies were possessed by evil spirits and transformed into “zombies,”. Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell are currently facing separate charges and trials, and both have pleaded not guilty to charges of murder, conspiracy, and grand theft.
Updated( 12/05/2023)
After a six-week trial, a jury has found Idaho mom Lori Vallow guilty in the murders of her two children, 7-year-old J.J. and 17-year-old Tylee. She was also found guilty of conspiring to kill her husband’s ex-wife.
Vallow faces life in prison when sentenced.
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