Day 18: Witness says Chad Daybell told her Lori Vallow Daybell had no children

The jury in the Lori Vallow Daybell trial — who will decide whether the 49-year-old Rexburg mother is guilty of murder — heard for the first time from a member of Tammy Daybell’s family Thursday.

Tammy Daybell was married to Chad Daybell for nearly 30 years, and they had five children together. But quickly after her death, Chad Daybell married Vallow Daybell. Chad and Vallow Daybell are charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of two of Vallow Daybell’s children: 7-year-old Joshua “JJ” Vallow and 16-year-old Tylee Ryan. They’re also accused of conspiring to murder the two children as well as Tammy Daybell.

Samantha Gwilliam in emotional testimony Thursday described her sister, Tammy Daybell, as an animal-loving introvert who loved her large family.

Chad and Lori Daybell — who had a months-long affair — got married on a Hawaii beach two weeks after Tammy Daybell’s body was buried in a Utah cemetery, according to witnesses throughout the trial.

To be convicted of the first-degree murder charges, the jury will need to conclude that they killed, encouraged or commanded someone else to kill Vallow Daybell’s children.

READ MORE: Lori Vallow Daybell’s case spans 3 states, 4 deaths. Here are all the key people involved.

Lori Vallow Daybell’s trial began early this month and could last another four weeks. Chad has a hearing scheduled for May 4.

Authorities said they believe Vallow Daybell’s brother Alex Cox also conspired to kill JJ, Tylee and Tammy Daybell, according to the indictment filed by prosecution teams from Madison and Fremont counties. Cox died of natural causes in 2019.

Vallow Daybell also faces a felony charge for allegedly conspiring to kill her fourth husband, Charles Vallow, with her brother.

Tammy Daybell would have been 53 next week. Gwilliam continued testifying Friday morning.

12:45 p.m. — Tammy Daybell was ‘very healthy,’ witness says

Tammy Daybell’s co-worker Shanna Miller said during her testimony Friday afternoon that Tammy Daybell was “very healthy” and in “great shape.”

Miller said she and Tammy Daybell together attended a fitness class where they’d do high-interval exercises, like burpees and jumping jacks. Miller added that Tammy was preparing to run a 5K with her daughter.

Kelsey Harris also testified Friday and said she instructed a clogging class that Tammy Daybell attended. Harris said Tammy Daybell was attending the class in the weeks before her death.

The day before Tammy Daybell died, Miller said Tammy was “happy” and “jovial” at school. Miller said she didn’t observe Tammy cough, and that she didn’t appear sick.

“Friday I see her at school — things are great — then the next I hear she’s passed,” Miller said.

12:30 a.m. — Tammy Daybell blocked Charles Vallow’s email account

Sugar Salem School District Technology Director Spencer Cook during his testimony said Tammy Daybell, who worked as an assistant librarian at the school, blocked an email account.

Cook said the email came from an account belonging to Charles Vallow on June 29, 2019.

Detective Nathan Duncan, from the Chandler Police Department in Arizona, previously testified and presented evidence that Charles Vallow emailed Tammy Daybell to inform her about the affair between Chad and Lori Vallow Daybell. In the email on June 29, 2019, Charles Vallow said he had some “vital and disturbing information regarding” their spouses.

10 a.m. — Witnesses testify about Tammy Daybell’s death

Several witnesses — including Fremont County Coroner Brenda Dye — in testimony late Friday morning said Tammy Daybell had woken up with a “coughing fight” on Oct. 18, 2019, according to their conversations with Chad Daybell.

Chad Daybell told Dye, along with then-Fremont County Deputy Coroner Cammy Willmore, that he woke up around 5:40 a.m. after he felt Tammy Daybell partially fall out of bed. Police arrived at the house by 6 a.m., according to Rexburg Police Officer Alyssa Greenhalgh.

Photos of the Daybells’ bedroom showed her lying diagonally on the bed. Chad told police he and his son moved Tammy’s body back onto the bed before authorities arrived.

Greenhalgh said Chad Daybell told her that after he felt Tammy Daybell fall out of bed, he told her to wake up and called his son into the room. All of the witnesses — Dye, Willmore and Greenhalgh — said Chad Daybell told them Tammy Daybell hadn’t been feeling well in the days surrounding her death.

Dye said she estimated Tammy Daybell’s time of death around midnight to 2 a.m. based on rigor mortis, which is the stiffening of an individual’s joints and muscles after they’ve died. She added that Tammy Daybell’s abdomen was cold to the touch, which Dye said is the “last place that stays warm.”

“I asked Chad how she could fall out of bed if she was already deceased,” Dye said.

Dye said Chad Daybell told her he must have pulled the top sheet off of Tammy Daybell and released her body.

There was also a pink-reddish foam, which was a mixture of blood and fluids, surrounding Tammy Daybell’s mouth, according to the witnesses and autopsy photos presented in court. Willmore called the foam around Tammy Daybell’s mouth “odd.”

Dye said she didn’t decide to do an autopsy and initially ruled that Tammy Daybell died from a pulmonary edema because of a seizure-like episode. She added that part of her conclusion was based on information that Chad Daybell and his daughter gave him.

Tammy Daybell died by asphyxiation in October 2019, Fremont County Prosecutor Lindsey Blake said during opening statements.

The court broke for a lunch break at 11:30 a.m.

9:30 a.m. — ‘We just found my mom.’ Daybell family calls 911

In roughly 30 minutes the prosecution called several witnesses to testify about the attempted shooting of Tammy Daybell.

On Oct. 9, 2019 — 10 days before Tammy Daybell died — someone attempted to shoot at her with a paintball gun, said Colter Cannon, a Fremont County sheriff’s deputy. He said that Tammy Daybell told him she saw someone point a paintball gun at her. She heard “two pops” and then “screamed for Chad.”

Cannon said that police weren’t able to find any bullets or marks from a paintball gun, and in January 2020, they searched the area for evidence but weren’t able to find anything.

Prosecutors in the indictment alleged that Vallow Daybell’s brother attempted to shoot Tammy Daybell.

In a brief 911 call on Oct. 19, 2019, one of Chad Daybell’s sons called dispatch to report the death of his mother, Tammy Daybell. Christina West, who worked as a dispatcher at the Fremont County Sheriff’s Office, received the call and testified about the recording.

“We just found my mom,” the Daybells’ son told West. He then said through tears that she was on the ground, and he didn’t know what was wrong.

Then Chad Daybell took over the phone call.

“Hi I’m Chad, the husband,” he said in the 911 recording, sounding distraught. “She’s clearly dead.”

8:30 a.m. — Chad Daybell told Tammy Daybell’s sister that Vallow Daybell had a lot of money

Gwilliam wrapped up her testimony Friday morning and provided an inside look into Tammy and Chad Daybell’s publishing company, Springcreek Books.

Chad Daybell, who was a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, authored several fictional books about the end-times and the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.

Gwilliam said that the Daybells’ company published books written by Chad Daybell as well as other authors.

“A lot was probably based on what he thought would happen in the future, but it was still a fictional story,” Gwilliam said about Chad Daybell’s books.

Witnesses told the jury Chad and Lori Vallow Daybell, who was also a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, believed that the world was going to end in July 2020. They also had fringe beliefs that people could be possessed by dark spirits, witnesses said in testimony, and that the spirits would need to be cast out.

Chad Daybell in one of his books, an autobiography, wrote about two near-death experiences.

“When people talk about their spiritual experiences, we don’t write that down,” Gwilliam said.

When asked by Vallow Daybell’s defense attorney Jim Archibald whether Chad Daybell was “trying to make money” off his spiritual experiences, Gwilliam said the answer is “complicated.”

Archibald also asked Gwilliam whether Tammy Daybell ever mentioned that Chad Daybell had a vision she would die. Several witnesses have said in testimony that Chad Daybell believed Tammy Daybell would die young.

“No, she never mentioned that to me,” Gwilliam responded.

Gwilliam said she called Chad Daybell after her sister died and questioned him about his new marriage with Lori Valllow Daybell. In November 2019, around two months after the children were last seen, Chad told her that Vallow Daybell didn’t have any children, and that they “were going to be empty nesters.” Gwilliam added that Chad Daybell mentioned Vallow Daybell had “lots of money.”

“I had no reason to suspect Chad, I had no reason to suspect anything,” Gwilliam said.

But she added that as a spiritual person, she was concerned that something happened to her sister.