The case of Lori Vallow, Chad Daybell, and the role they played in their children’s disappearance and subsequent deaths is a confusing one. So this is a complete timeline of everything that is known publicly.
How Did Authorities Know J.J. and Tylee Were Missing?
The last time Lori Vallow’s 7-year-old son J.J. Vallow and 17-year-old daughter Tylee Ryan were seen was in September 2019. As Mamas Uncut previously reported, J.J. was last seen on September 23, 2019, after Vallow reportedly pulled him out of school saying she was preparing to homeschool him, and Tylee was last seen of September 8, 2019 while on a trip to Yellowstone.
The following month, on October 19, Daybell’s first wife passed away suspiciously. The former gravedigger turned religious author remains a suspect in her unexpected passing. According to The Cut, roughly two weeks after Daybell’s first wife’s passing, he and Vallow wed in Hawaii.
Daybell is a gravedigger, who authored religion-based books about “prophecy and the end of the world.” Vallow reportedly believed she was the reincarnation of God and that her children were Zombies.
According to a close friend of Vallow’s, Melanie Gibb, per an affidavit obtained People, the mom allegedly told her friend that she believed J.J. and Tylee had become “zombies.” In this context, zombies reportedly “refers to an individual whose mortal spirit has left their body and that their body is now the host of another spirit.”
The next month, November 2019, the authorities returned to the Idaho home Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell shared after J.J.’s grandparents contacted local police requesting a welfare check on the children, according to AZCentral. When asked where her children were, police said Vallow told them J.J. was with family in Arizona. However, to this day, it isn’t known if she clarified where Tylee was. It’s alleged that Vallow used to tell people that Tylee “died years ago,” according to police.
Both J.J.’s father and Tylee’s father are deceased. According to East Idaho News, Tylee’s father passed away in April 2018 as a result of a heart attack, while J.J. was reportedly present for the shooting death of his father. J.J.’s father was shot by Vallow’s brother Alex Cox two months before J.J. and Tylee were last seen, on July 11, 2019.
Lori Vallow and Charles Vallow’s Marriage
As East Idaho News reports, in December 2018, Lori started a podcast about her role “as a god preparing for the second coming of Christ.” The next month, January 2019, it is documented that Charles attempted to get his wife psychiatric help, but she was medically cleared. Then in February 2019, five months before his death, Charles filed for divorce citing that Lori threatened to kill him if he got in the way of her mission.
In August 2019, one month after Charles was killed, Lori moved from Arizona to Idaho with J.J., Tylee, and her niece Melani Boudreaux, who divorced her husband in June 2019 for having similar beliefs as Lori. It remains unclear if Lori new of Daybell prior to their move to Idaho or when exactly Vallow and Daybell became a couple.
The Events That Took Place After the Welfare Check Was Executed
After J.J.’s grandparents requested a welfare check and police were unable to locate the two children, the world began to learn more and more about this particularly bizarre missing persons case in December 2019. On December 12, Alex Cox, Vallow’s brother who shot and killed her fourth husband, J.J.’s father, had died of blood clots in the lungs.
By January 2020, Vallow was issued a court date in which she was to present her children to the police. She missed that deadline and in February 2020, she was arrested in Hawaii where she and Daybell had flown to nearly a month earlier. Nonetheless, despite her arrests, Vallow and Daybell have refused to aid police in their investigation and search for J.J. and Tylee.
Vallow was charged with two felony counts of desertion and nonsupport of dependent children, as well as, arrests and seizures – resisting or obstructing officers, criminal solicitation to commit a crime, and contempt of court – willful disobedience of court process or order. In March she was extradited back to Idaho.
J.J. and Tylee’s Bodies Are Found at Daybell’s Idaho Property.
In June, three months after Vallow was brought back to Idaho and held on $1 million bail, authorities executing a search warrant for Daybell’s property discover human remains. Forensics later revealed that the bones they recovered belong to J.J. and Tylee. Daybell is then arrested.
He was charged with two counts of destruction, alteration, and concealment of evidence. Both he and Vallow have pleaded not guilty to the charges against them.
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