Cult Couple Lori Vallow And Chad Daybell Both Hit With New Felony Charges

Grisly new details emerge in the deaths of the Idaho mom’s two children.

July 01, 2020

Lori Vallow at an earlier court appearance in March in Rexburg, Idaho [John Roark/The Idaho Post-Register via AP, Pool]

By: Aaron Rasmussen

Chad Daybell and Lori Vallow face new charges related to the deaths of her son, J.J. Vallow, and daughter, Tylee Ryan.

Weeks after the discovery of the burned and buried remains of the two kids on Daybell’s property in rural Salem, Idaho, the husband and wife both have been charged with two felony counts of conspiracy to destroy, alter or conceal evidence, according to Salt Lake City’s KUTV.

Tylee, 17, was last seen alive on a trip to Yellowstone National Park on Sept. 8, 2019, with her brother, mother and now-deceased uncle. J.J., 7, disappeared after Vallow withdrew him from his school in Rexburg, Idaho, fifteen days later.

On Wednesday, July 1, Daybell, 51, appeared before Judge Faren Eddins to answer the newly amended charges via video from the Fremont County Jail, where the doomsday author is currently being held on $1 million bond.

The day before, Vallow, 47, made her initial appearance on the same charges. East Idaho News reported Vallow appeared to cry when Judge Eddins mentioned Tylee at one point during the 15-minute hearing via video conference.

The burned remains of J.J. and Tylee were discovered on property belonging to Daybell on June 9.

In an affidavit of probable cause released Tuesday and obtained by East Idaho News, Rexburg Police detective Lt. Ron Ball wrote that “it was not possible to identify [Tylee’s] remains by simply looking at them as they were too damaged by fire and dismemberment and no longer had any recognizable features.”

Ball noted in the documents that an orthodontist identified the remains “by matching an irregular jawline with an X-ray of Tylee when she was alive.”

Ball wrote that J.J.’s “well preserved” body was found wrapped in plastic and easily identifiable.

Both Vallow and Daybell’s next court hearings are scheduled for August.

Vallow has not yet entered a plea on previously filed felony charges of desertion and nonsupport of dependent children, resisting or obstructing officers, criminal solicitation to commit a crime, contempt of court and willful disobedience of court process or order for failing to produce the children.

Daybell previously pleaded not guilty to two counts of concealing or destroying his stepchildren’s bodies, according to Boise’s KBOI-TV.

Neither have been charged with the children’s deaths.