Deaths of Tylee Ryan and J. J. Vallow


Tylee Ashlyn Ryan and Joshua Jaxon "J. J." Vallow were two American children from Rexburg, Idaho, who were missing since September 2019 and subsequently found deceased in June 2020. Tylee Ryan was last seen alive at Yellowstone National Park on September 8, 2019. J.J. was last seen alive on September 23, 2019, at Rexburg's Kennedy Elementary School. Prompted by relatives concerned not only about the children they hadn't heard from in weeks, but also about other suspicious incidents, in November 2019 police questioned their mother, Lori Vallow Daybell, about the children's whereabouts and welfare.
Vallow and her new husband, Chad Guy Daybell, falsely told the police that J.J. was staying with family friend Melanie Gibb in Arizona, where they had lived before moving to Idaho in early September 2019. When police reached Gibb by phone, she told police that Joshua was not with her and had not been there for several months. More than a week later, Gibb called police saying that both Lori and her husband, Chad Daybell, had asked her to lie to police about J.J.'s whereabouts but she refused. Police efforts to locate J.J. led them to discover that his older sister, Tylee Ryan, was also missing.
Further complicating the children's disappearances and lack of cooperation from the mother was a string of suspicious deaths and a shooting. In July 2019, Vallow's estranged husband, Charles Vallow, was shot and killed in Chandler, Arizona, by Lori's brother, Alex Cox, who claimed self-defense, which was accepted by the police. Alex Pastenes died of a blood clot in December 2019. In early-October 2019, Brandon Boudreaux, the then-estranged husband of Lori Vallow's niece, Melani Boudreaux, was shot at in the driveway of his Gilbert, Arizona home from a vehicle still registered to the deceased Charles Vallow. This shooting prompted Boudreaux to hire a private detective to investigate the suspicious incidents.
Other private investigators hired by Boudreaux in Idaho noticed the children missing. Also in October 2019, Chad Daybell's wife, Tammy Daybell, was attacked in her driveway by what she believed was someone shooting a defective paintball gun. A few weeks later, on October 19, she died in her sleep from what was initially recorded as "natural causes". No post-mortem or autopsy was performed. After Chad and Lori married just two weeks after Tammy's death, law enforcement became suspicious and began investigating Tammy's cause of death.
On February 20, 2020, Lori Daybell was arrested in Kauai and charged with desertion and nonsupport of her dependent children. She was extradited to Idaho and traveled there on Thursday, March 5, 2020. She appeared in court on Friday, March 6 where the judge reduced the bail from $5 million to $1 million; as of July 2020, she remains in jail.
On June 9, 2020, police executed a search warrant at Chad Daybell’s home and discovered the human remains of J.J. and Tylee. Chad Daybell was arrested later that day on charges of destruction or concealment of evidence.

Background

Chad Daybell

Chad Guy Daybell married Tamara "Tammy" Douglas in Manti, Utah on March 9, 1990. He graduated from Brigham Young University in 1992 with a B.A. in journalism, and worked, among others jobs, as a cemetery sexton. In 2004, he founded Spring Creek Book Company, devoted to his end times fiction and other religious books, with a man identified in media only by the name Douglas, a graphic artist and manager. Chad and Tammy had five children: Garth, Emma, Seth, Leah, and Mark.
In 2015, Daybell claimed he heard a voice telling him to relocate to Rexburg, Idaho. He and Tammy moved there from Springville, Utah that June.
On October 9, 2019, Tammy Daybell reported on Facebook and to police that she was shot at, in her driveway, by a masked man with what she believed was a defective paintball marker. The Fremont County sheriff's office did not find the perpetrator. Ten days later she was found dead in her home, purportedly from natural causes. Chad Daybell claimed that she had retired the night before "with a terrible cough" and died in her sleep. No post-mortem or autopsy was performed at the time as Chad Daybell declined and the county coroner did not overrule his decision. Two months later, Tammy Daybell's body was exhumed and autopsied but the results have not been made public.
On June 9, 2020, police executed a search warrant at Chad Daybell's Salem, Madison County, Idaho home where they discovered human remains. Daybell was booked into jail later that day on charges of obstruction or concealment of evidence. On June 10, 2020, Chad's bail was set at $1 million.
Another factor contributing to the mystery is the well-documented obsession of Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell with certain "end of times" beliefs, about which Chad Daybell has written a number of books, and together they have discussed in podcasts. Reportedly Vallow's niece, Melani Boudreaux, shares these beliefs.

Lori Daybell

Lori Norene Daybell, also referred to as Lori Vallow Daybell, was born Lori Norene Cox on June 26, 1973 in San Bernardino, California. At the age of 19, she married high school sweetheart Nelson Yanes in 1992 and the marriage ended in divorce shortly afterwards. At age 22, she married 23-year-old William Lagioia in Travis County, Texas, on October 22, 1995. She and Lagioia had a son, Colby, in 1996, before divorcing on February 25, 1998.
In 2001, Lori married Joseph Anthony Ryan Jr. Ryan legally adopted Colby before the couple had a daughter, Tylee, born in 2002. Ryan filed for divorce on August 13, 2004; the divorce was finalized on May 18, 2005. In 2007, in Travis County, Texas, Ryan was attacked by Lori's brother, Alexander Lamar "Alex" Cox, who tasered him and threatened to murder him. Cox pled guilty and was sentenced to 90 days in jail, which he served in Austin, Texas. Joseph Ryan died eleven years later, on April 3, 2018, from a myocardial infarction. Towards the end of his own life, Alex Cox used the surname Pastenes, having apparently legally adopted the surname of his fiancée, Zulema Pastenes, whom he married in Las Vegas on November 29, 2019, roughly two weeks before his own death on December 12, 2019, which was attributed to blood clots and high blood pressure. Cox died one day after the exhumation of Tammy Daybell's remains before he could be questioned by the police. Lori was known to the Ryan family as "Lolo".
On February 24, 2006 — 282 days after her previous divorce — Lori Ryan married Leland Anthony Vallow, known as Charles Vallow, in Las Vegas, who had converted to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Charles Vallow and his former wife, Cheryl Wheeler, had two sons, Nicholas Vallow and Zachary Chase Vallow.In 2013, the couple adopted Vallow's grandnephew, Joshua Jaxon "J.J." Vallow, before moving to Kauai in late 2014.
Around 2015, Lori Vallow read Daybell's Standing in Holy Places series of books, becoming "obsessed" with them, according to a friend. After about two and a half years in Hawaii, the Vallow family moved to Arizona. On December 5, 2018, she first joined Daybell on the podcast Preparing a People, and would continue to do so. In February 2019, according to Charles Vallow, Lori said "she no longer cared about him or J.J.", and that she was the reincarnated wife of Joseph Smith, before vanishing for 58 days. That same month, Charles Vallow filed for divorce, saying that his wife had to murder him", taken from their joint bank accounts, and stolen his truck. However, Charles Vallow withdrew the petition one month later, in March 2019, saying he "wanted to try to make the marriage work".
In March 2020, an email written by police in Arizona revealed that Lori Vallow could soon be indicted in relation to the death of her ex-husband, Charles Vallow. A wedding ring was purchased on Amazon from the deceased Charles Vallow's account for $35.99 on October 2, 2019, 17 days before Chad Daybell's first wife, Tammy, aged 49, died of undisclosed causes, purportedly in her sleep. Her husband declined a post-mortem or autopsy and the county coroner did not overrule this decision. Lori Vallow paid for the ring on her deceased husband's Amazon account. The ring was delivered to a Rexburg townhouse and was in the name of the now-deceased Charles Vallow. Lori Vallow continued to use her late husband's account after his death.

Disappearance

, a doorbell video of J.J. Vallow playing with a friend is the last video of him taken. Rexburg's Kennedy Elementary School is the last confirmed place he was seen. On September 24, 2019, Lori Vallow contacted J.J.'s school to tell them that she was withdrawing him, claiming she would be homeschooling him. Tylee Ryan was last seen September 8, 2019 at Yellowstone National Park with her brother J.J., her mother Lori Vallow, and her uncle Alex Cox, Lori's brother. Chad Daybell had become incommunicado, last speaking with filmmaker Devin K. Hansen via text messaging.
In October, two Venmo payments were made from Tylee's account to her older half-brother, Colby Ryan. One payment was sent on October 10, 2019 with a message that read "we love you", and the second payment was sent on October 16, 2019, with a heart emoji. Colby has said he had not heard from Tylee since the October texts. After text-messaging Tylee indicating he was worried, he received responses from Tylee's cell phone that indicated she was safe, but too busy to talk. After repeated calls to Tylee went unanswered, Colby Ryan became more worried.

Vallow and Daybell

Vallow and Daybell were married in Hawaii on November 5, 2019, two weeks after the death of Tamara Daybell. Also in November, they both told people that Tylee had died in 2017 and/or that Lori had no minor children. At the request of J.J.'s grandmother, Kay Woodcock, the police visited Lori Daybell's Rexburg, Idaho townhouse on November 26 to conduct a welfare check on J.J., but Vallow told police that J.J. was in Arizona with family. That night, a neighbor saw Lori Vallow Daybell and her brother packing a truck outside her home. When the police and Federal Bureau of Investigation arrived the next day to search the home, it was abandoned. Chad Daybell's home was also searched by investigators.
From December 2019–January 2020, the Rexburg police, Fremont County sheriff's office, and FBI increased the investigation into the disappearance of the two children, as well as Tamara Daybell's death, and the flight of Chad and Lori Daybell from Idaho. Evidence was collected, and Tamara Daybell's body was exhumed for autopsy. Colby Ryan and J.J. Vallow's grandparents pleaded with the Daybells to return the children, with the latter offering a reward of. Investigators contended that Joshua and Tylee's lives are in danger.', the children are not with Chad and Lori. knows where they are or what has happened to them, but has 'completely refused to assist this investigation, choosing instead to leave the state with her new husband. Through their lawyer, the Daybells said, "Chad Daybell was [a loving husband and has the support of his children in this matter. Lori Daybell is a devoted mother and resents assertions to the contrary. We look forward to addressing the allegations once they have moved beyond speculation and rumor."

Storage locker

The day after being questioned, Vallow and Daybell left Rexburg, abandoning a storage locker full of children's items and photos, and were not seen until they were found in Kauai, Hawaii on Sunday, January 26, 2020. A search warrant was issued to search their rental car. They found items belonging to the missing children. Police also gave Vallow a court order demanding she produce the children by January 30. The children were not produced as ordered.
A storage locker rented by Lori Vallow in October 2019 which contained items belonging to, or related to, her children, such as clothing, bikes, and photographs, was abandoned by her when she suddenly left Rexburg, Idaho, at the end of November 2019. Video footage shows her and her brother, Alex Cox, moving items in and out of the locker.

Arrests and criminal charges

On February 20, 2020, Lori Vallow was arrested by the Kauai Police Department in Princeville, Hawaii and charged with two felony counts of desertion and nonsupport of dependent children by prosecutors in Madison County, Idaho. She was also charged with three misdemeanors: resisting or obstructing officers, criminal solicitation to commit a crime, and contempt of court. She was being held on $5 million bail. She later agreed to be extradited back to Idaho to fight the charges. The judge lowered her bail from $5 million to $1 million. On May 1, 2020, Lori appeared for a court hearing in Rexburg to request a reduction of her $1 million bail. The judge denied her request. At least two local bond companies are reportedly unwilling to work with her.
In a March 24, 2020 report, official court documents noted that Lori and Chad Daybell had reportedly become convinced that Tylee and J.J. had been "possessed" and become "zombies."
On June 9, 2020, police executed a search warrant at Chad Daybell’s home where they discovered human remains. Daybell was booked into jail later that day on obstruction or concealment of evidence. On June 10, 2020, his bail was set at $1 million. On July 2, prosecutors dropped two charges against Lori Daybell, two felony counts of desertion and nonsupport of dependent children and instead charged her with obstruction or concealment of evidence after her children's human remains were found.
On July 17, 2020, in light of the two felony counts against Lori Daybell being dropped, her bond was lowered by Magistrate Judge Michelle Mallard in Madison County. Judge Mallard decided to decrease bond to $50,000 on each charge totaling $150,000 but noted Daybell would still need to post $1 million in neighboring Fremont County to get out of jail. All female inmates from both jurisdictions are housed in Madison County as Fremont County does not have a detention facility for women. In addition to the bond reduction, a jury trial for the Madison County charges against Lori Vallow was set for January 25-29, 2021.

Deaths

On June 10, 2020, the Woodcock and Ryan families confirmed that the human remains found in Daybell’s property were that of Tylee and J.J. On June 13, the Rexburg Police Department officially announced that the remains were that of the children. Since the children were found, they are no longer considered missing and the investigation is now focused on the cause of and the motive for the children's death.

Timeline

Notable early developments