Chad Daybell, a 55-year-old father, is accused of murder and conspiracy to commit murder in the deaths of two of Lori Vallow Daybell’s children, 7-year-old JJ Vallow and 16-year-old Tylee Ryan, along with his then-wife Tammy Daybell. He’s also charged with two counts of insurance fraud. He has pleaded not guilty to eight felonies in all.

Opening statements began Wednesday.

3:30 p.m.: Rexburg detective testimony mirrors Vallow Daybell’s trial

Rexburg Police Department Det. Ray Hermosillo, the first witness called by the prosecution, said the scope of his agency’s investigation expanded beyond JJ’s whereabouts after speaking with the children’s brother, Colby Ryan.

At that point, law enforcement also began looking for Tylee.

On Dec. 11, 2019, the Rexburg Police Department declared both Tylee and JJ as “missing” and “endangered,” Hermosillo said, adding that the kids were entered into the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

The FBI, along with several other neighboring local law enforcement agencies, was involved in the search at this point. Hermosillo said they weren’t able to get a hold of the Daybells during their search.

After police publicized the children’s disappearance in late December 2019, they began to receive tips from the community. Hermosillo said while those tips didn’t help them find the children, they did help police locate the Daybells in Hawaii.

Chad and Lori Vallow Daybell got married on a Hawaii beach right after Tammy Daybell died, and around the time police were searching for the kids were staying in a multi-million-dollar gated community on Kauai, Hawaii, according to East Idaho News.

The Rexburg detective went to Hawaii to give Vallow Daybell an order asking her to “produce her children,” Hermosillo said. While Hermosillo was in Hawaii, he said, he observed local authorities search the Daybells’ residence, adding that he didn’t see anything that’d point toward children living there.

Just before the court broke for the day, Hermosillo began detailing law enforcement’s June 2020 search on Daybell’s Salem, Idaho, property. Hermosillo said police located a human head buried in the backyard.

“It revealed what appeared to be a small body wrapped in plastic with duct tape around it,” Hermosillo said, referencing JJ’s body.

During Vallow Daybell’s trial, Hermosillo testified for over six hours, outlining his agency’s role in the months-long investigation into the missing children. The majority of Wednesday’s testimony echoed statements made by Hermosillo last year.

Hermosillo will continue testifying Thursday. He took the witness stand at 11 a.m. Wednesday.

12:45 p.m.: Rexburg detective called as first witness

The prosecution called Rexburg Police Department Det. Ray Hermosillo as its first witness. Before police were aware of the missing children, Hermosillo began surveillance on Lori Vallow Daybell’s Rexburg apartment on Nov. 1, 2019, at the request of the Chandler Police Department in Arizona, Hermosillo said. Chandler police believed the family’s Jeep Wrangler may have been involved in a crime.

Brandon Boudreaux, the husband of Vallow Daybell’s niece, previously alleged that Vallow Daybell’s brother Alex Cox tried to shoot him from the back of that Jeep, East Idaho News reported.

Hermosillo saw Chad Daybell and Vallow Daybell at the apartment, but did not see any children. He said police seized the Jeep and Chandler police flew in to analyze its GPS data.

Hermosillo testified that he went to conduct a welfare check on JJ on Nov. 26, 2019, at the request of Gilbert, Arizona, police and JJ’s grandmother, Kay Woodcock. At Vallow Daybell’s apartment, he saw Daybell and Cox.

Cox looked “surprised” and “frightened” when the detective asked if JJ was home, Hermosillo said. At first, Cox said JJ was at Woodcock’s home, which Hermosillo said he knew was unlikely since Woodcock had requested the check. Hermosillo said when he asked for Vallow Daybell’s cell phone number, Cox said he didn’t have it.

Hermosillo said Cox’s “deception” made him call more detectives to the scene.

Hermosillo said he became more concerned when Daybell told him he had only met Lori Vallow Daybell “a couple of times,” because the detective knew the couple had gotten married two weeks earlier.

Rexburg detectives eventually got ahold of Vallow Daybell, who told them that JJ was with family friend Melanie Gibb, but Gibb told police that was not true, Hermosillo said.

Detectives obtained warrants to search several Rexburg apartments used by the family. Hermosillo said they found items that indicated JJ may have been there at one time, including a Star Wars suitcase, one of JJ’s prescription bottles, scooters and a child’s bike.

Police also found weapons, including handguns, rifles and army knives, as well as a large amount of cash, according to Hermosillo.

12 p.m.: Lori was ‘very manipulative,’ defense says

Chad Daybell’s defense attorney John Prior opened by warning jurors not to be distracted by guesses, assumptions or hunches.

“It all comes down to facts and evidence,” Prior said.

Much of his opening statement was spent casting suspicion on Lori Vallow Daybell and her brother, Alex Cox.

Authorities said they believe Cox — who medical experts previously reported died from natural causes in December 2019 — also conspired to kill JJ, Tylee and Tammy Daybell, according to the indictment filed by prosecution teams from Madison and Fremont counties. Experts testified in last year’s Lori Vallow Daybell case that Cox’s cellphone location data showed that his phone was in Chad Daybell’s backyard the night that law enforcement believe the children were killed.

Prior said Cox would “do anything” to help his sister.

“Alex Cox would run, without even a question, to do whatever was necessary to solve Lori Vallow’s problems,” Prior said.

When it came to Vallow Daybell, Prior described her in one sentence as “beautiful, vivacious” and “very sexual and very manipulative.” She “pursued” and “encouraged” Daybell’s attention, Prior said.

Before their romantic affair began, Chad Daybell met Lori at an event where he had spoken about the religious books he authored, according to Prior. The defense attorney said Vallow Daybell stepped into Daybell’s booth and started helping him sell books.

“This beautifully stunning woman named Lori Vallow comes up and she starts giving him a lot of attention,” Prior said.

Prior said he would be calling experts in DNA, phone records and forensics to provide evidence as witnesses.

Perhaps most surprisingly, Prior said “three or four” of the five Daybell children — who were not involved in last year’s trial — would also testify on Chad Daybell’s behalf.

Their testimony would focus on their mother’s health, according to Prior. They would testify that Tammy Daybell was “suffering from a number of maladies, and that she refused to go see a doctor” before she died.

10:30 a.m.: Chad Daybell ‘craved significance,’ prosecutor says

Madison County Prosecuting Attorney Rob Wood described Chad Daybell as a once “seemingly ordinary man” who authored fiction books about the end of times. But, Wood said, the jury will hear a story that’s much more troubling and “real.”

Chad Daybell “craved significance,” Wood said, adding that the nearly 30-year life Chad Daybell had created with Tammy Daybell and their five children wasn’t enough.

“When he had a chance at what he considered his rightful destiny, he made sure that no person and no law could stand in his way,” Wood said. “His desire for sex, money and power led him to pursue those ambitions, and this pursuit led to the deaths of his wife and Lori’s two innocent children.”

In a roughly 25-minute opening statement, Wood laid out the prosecution’s case against Daybell, paralleling his co-counsel’s opening statement last year in Vallow Daybell’s trial. The “pivotal day” for this case was when the Daybells — who were still married to their respective spouses — met in October 2018, Wood said.

“That introduction set in motion the reality you’re going to hear about,” Wood said.

The pair began having an affair, and according to Wood created an “alternative reality” where they believed they knew each other from past lives. He added that text messages between the Daybells “revealed their story of lust and their plan for a future together.”

The Daybells identified people who “stood in the way of their dreams” as “dark,” Wood said. This included their spouses, along with Vallow Daybell’s children JJ and Tylee. Wood called it a “convenient narrative” used to dehumanize people.

A member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Daybell believed he received personal revelations from God that told him certain people — including Vallow Daybell’s children and Tammy Daybell — were possessed by dark spirits and would need to be “cast out,” or killed, according to witness testimony during Vallow Daybell’s trial.

To do so, the witnesses testified that a dark spirit could be kept out by “binding or burning the body.”

The investigation revealed the “horrifying truth” that Tylee’s remains were found charred and dismembered on Daybell’s property, Wood said. JJ’s body was also found on the property, bound in duct tape.

Tammy Daybell, a “vivacious, healthy” mother, was found dead in her “marital bed,” Wood said. He added that Tammy Daybell’s death happened just after her life insurance policy had been increased.

“Chad’s obsession with Lori was rooted in her adoration for him,” Wood said. “She was the mirror reflecting the grandeur he saw in himself.”

9:40 a.m.

One year ago — to the day — an 18-person jury was picked and seated at the Ada County Courthouse to decide the fate of Lori Vallow Daybell, accused of murdering two of her children. Within six weeks, Vallow Daybell was convicted on all counts and subsequently sentenced to life in prison.

Now, another 18-person jury will decide the fate of her husband, Chad Daybell. The 55-year-old father is accused of murdering and conspiring to murder two of Vallow Daybell’s children, 7-year-old JJ Vallow and 16-year-old Tylee Ryan, along with his then-wife Tammy Daybell. He’s also charged with two counts of insurance fraud.

He has pleaded not guilty to all eight felonies.

The Daybells, who had a months-long affair before getting married, were expected to be tried together last year, but 7th District Judge Steven Boyce severed their cases because of new DNA evidence.

Vallow Daybell moved to Rexburg from Arizona just months after her fourth husband, Charles Vallow, was shot and killed. Her children went missing less than a month later. The kids were found dead in shallow graves on Chad Daybell’s property in Salem, Idaho, nine months later in June 2020.

The potential eight-week trial is expected to mirror Vallow Daybell’s trial, which saw roughly 60 witnesses, including investigators who presented a trail of messages, recordings and accounts that revealed the couple believed JJ and Tylee were “demons” who needed to be killed, according to witness testimony.

If convicted, Daybell could face the death penalty.

After over a week of jury selection, where possible jurors were excluded over concerns about exposure to media coverage, their views on the death penalty and time constraints, the jury was selected. The 18-person jury is made up of 12 jurors and six alternates.

Prosecutors and Daybell’s attorney began opening statements this morning, where they’ll lay out their dueling narratives.

The Idaho Statesman will have a reporter covering the trial at the Ada County Courthouse providing live, daily updates at idahostatesman.com. You can also follow criminal justice reporter Alex Brizee on X, formerly known as Twitter, at @alex_brizee or breaking news reporter Sally Krutzig at @sallykrutzig.

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