Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell charged with murder of Vallow’s 2 children and Daybell’s first wife
Lori Vallow and her husband, Chad Daybell, were charged Tuesday with murdering Vallow’s two children and Daybell’s first wife — and could face the death penalty if convicted.
Tylee Ryan, 17, and JJ Vallow, 7, disappeared in September 2019, and their bodies were discovered buried on Daybell’s Idaho ranch in June 2020.
Vallow and Daybell were previously charged with desertion of children and destruction of evidence, but were formally indicted Tuesday and accused of killing the two children.
The timeline of mysterious deaths surrounding Lori Vallow
The couple is also accused of murdering Tammy Daybell, Chad’s first wife, who was found dead in October 2019. Her cause of death was originally ruled natural causes, but her body was later exhumed as police expanded their investigation into Vallow and her fifth husband.
The murder charges were anticipated after a local prosecutor asked for help from the Idaho Attorney General in April 2021 and labeled the investigation “Conspiracy, Murder, Attempted Murder.” No other suspects have been reported in the deaths of Tylee and JJ.
Vallow and Daybell, however, are tied to several unusual deaths and are rumored members of a Doomsday cult.
Divorce documents between Vallow and her fourth husband, Charles Vallow, claim Lori told Charles “she was a God assigned to carry out the work of the 144,000 at Christ’s second coming in July 2020 and that if [Charles] got in her way of her mission she would murder him.”
After Tylee and JJ were discovered on Chad Daybell’s property in Rexburg, Idaho, he was charged with felony desertion of children and concealment of evidence. He pleaded not guilty in August.
Vallow had been arrested in February 2020 in Hawaii and remained behind bars in Idaho as authorities untangled the bizarre case. She has also pleaded not guilty to all prior charges.
Vallow and Daybell were each formally charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of Tylee and JJ. Daybell was charged with murdering his ex-wife, Tammy, and Vallow was charged with conspiracy in that case. Daybell was charged with two counts of insurance fraud in relation to Tammy’s life insurance policy.
Tammy and Chad had been married for almost 30 years before her Oct. 19, 2019, death. Chad married Lori about two weeks later, and more than a month after Tylee and JJ were last seen.
Police deemed Tammy’s death “suspicious” in December 2019 and exhumed her body. An autopsy was completed earlier this year, but investigators have not revealed the results.
In a separate but also suspicious encounter, Lori Vallow’s brother, Alex Cox, fatally shot her fourth husband, Charles Vallow, in June 2019. Cox claimed self-defense and was never charged in the case before dying of a blood clot in December 2019.
Tylee Ryan was the daughter of Vallow and her third husband, Joseph Ryan. The two were married in 2001 and divorced in 2005.
