Lori Vallow Daybell triple murder trial begins: The victims and the alleged motive
The trial of Lori Vallow Daybell in three murders — those of two of her children and her husband’s previous wife — got underway Monday with jury selection in Boise, Idaho.
The children — Joshua “JJ” Vallow, 7, and Tylee Ryan, 16 — were last seen in September 2019, within three weeks of moving with their mother from Arizona to Rexburg, Idaho. Their bodies would be found months later at property owned by Chad Daybell.
On Oct. 19, 2019, Daybell’s wife, Tammy, was found dead at age 49 at the couple’s home near Rexburg. Lori Vallow married Daybell less than three weeks later.
After police began looking for the missing children in November 2019, the newlywed couple suddenly moved to Hawaii. They were still living there in February 2020 when Lori Daybell was arrested for defying a court order to reveal where the children were. Chad Daybell was arrested in June 2020 after the discovery of the bodies.
Prosecutors say the Daybells espoused extreme doomsday-focused beliefs and killed the kids and Tammy Daybell to collect life insurance money and Social Security benefits. Besides murder, the charges include conspiracy and grand theft.
The trial of Chad Daybell, 54, has been severed from his wife’s; she did not waive her right to a speedy trial, and his attorneys wanted more time to prepare.
Lori Daybell, 49, does not face the death penalty in the case, but her husband does.
Related: Timeline in the case of the missing Idaho children
Other people associated with Lori Vallow Daybell have also died suddenly or been attacked. Here is what is known of those cases:
Charles Vallow. Lori Vallow’s estranged husband was fatally shot at her Arizona home on July 11, 2019, by her brother, Alex Cox, who told police it was self-defense. In June 2021, a grand jury in Arizona indicted Lori Vallow for conspiracy to commit murder. The prosecution is on hold until after the Idaho trial. Prosecutors declined to charge Chad Daybell in the case.
Brandon Boudreaux. The estranged husband of Lori Vallow’s niece, Melani, reported that he was shot at by someone outside his home in Arizona on Oct. 2, 2019. Police confirmed the shooter was in a car that was registered to Charles Vallow, and Boudreaux believes the shooter was Alex Cox. Boudreaux said Melani, the mother of their four children, suddenly wanted out of the marriage in June 2019 and moved to Idaho after becoming involved with a group that has extreme religious beliefs. Arizona prosecutors announced in 2022 that Chad Daybell would not be charged in this shooting; no decision has been announced concerning Lori Vallow Daybell.
Alex Cox. Lori Vallow’s brother, who was allegedly involved in the deaths of Charles Vallow and the children, died at age 51 on Dec. 12, 2019, at the home he shared with a woman he had married two weeks earlier. An autopsy determined he died of natural causes.
Joseph Ryan. The third of Lori Vallow’s five husbands and the father of Tylee, he was found dead in his home at age 59, in 2018. After the arrests in the Idaho case, investigators looked into Ryan’s death and determined the cause to be natural.