An Idaho doomsday author who prosecutors say became obsessed with the idea of the end of the world, leading him to refer to people as “zombies” and “dark spirits,” was convicted Thursday of participating in the deaths of his ex-wife and his current wife’s two youngest children.
The verdict brings to a close a nearly two-month trial in the deaths of Chad Daybell’s ex-wife, Tammy Daybell, 7-year-old Joshua “JJ” Vallow and 16-year-old Tylee Ryan.
Daybell, wearing a blue-collared shirt and yellow tie, stood calmly as the jury returned its guilty verdict on all charges, including insurance fraud.
The children’s bodies were discovered on Daybell’s property in Fremont County, Idaho, in June 2020. Police said they believe Daybell hid the bodies between September 2019 and June 2020.
Tammy Daybell died just weeks before Chad Daybell and Lori Vallow were set to get married in 2019. It was initially thought that she had died of natural causes, but her body was later exhumed and an autopsy determined that she had died from asphyxiation.
Daybell, along with Vallow, was indicted in 2021 on charges of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and theft by deception resulting in the death of a child.
They were also charged with insurance fraud and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder in connection with Tammy’s death. Additionally, Chad Daybell was charged with first-degree murder in connection with Tammy’s death.
Vallow was convicted in May and received multiple sentences of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Zombies, dark spirits, and mysterious deaths
The case began in 2019 when several concerned family members called Rexburg police to say they had not seen or spoken to Joshua and Tyree. Police officially began searching for the children in November of that year.
Authorities had accused Daybell and Vallow of not cooperating with the investigation into their children’s disappearance and of lying to police about their whereabouts – they initially told police that Joshua, an adopted boy with special needs, was in Arizona with a family friend, but police determined that was a lie.
The couple abruptly left Rexburg for Hawaii, where Vallow was detained by Hawaii police in February 2020 after failing to surrender her children to Idaho authorities.
As the investigation into the children’s whereabouts continues, police have uncovered a string of suspicious deaths linked to the couple.
Vallow’s fourth husband, Charles Vallow, was shot and killed by her brother, Alex Cox, in July 2019. Five months later, Cox died of a pulmonary embolism, a condition in which one or more arteries become blocked by a blood clot. (Lori Vallow and her brother initially claimed that Charles Vallow had been shot in self-defense. Lori Vallow was later charged with conspiracy to first-degree murder in Arizona, where she and Charles lived; Cox was not charged.)
In October 2019, Daybell’s ex-wife, Tammy Daybell, was found dead in what was believed to be a natural death at the time.
Chad Daybell and Vallow married two weeks after Tammy’s funeral, Salt Lake City NBC affiliate KSL reported. In December 2019, investigators exhumed Tammy’s body, performed an autopsy and ruled her death a homicide.
In opening statements at Chad Daybell’s murder trial, prosecutors said Daybell and Lori Vallow, who has self-published more than 20 books about the end of the world and near-death experiences, were obsessed with apocalyptic beliefs and referred to people who interfered with their dreams as “zombies” and “dark spirits.”
“In the world that Chad and Lori planned for themselves, they viewed anyone who stood in the way of their dreams as a dark presence,” Madison County Prosecutor Rob Wood said.
“Their spouses, Lori’s own children and anyone who disagreed with them were sometimes called demons or even zombies,” he added.
Vallow’s niece, Melani Pawlowski, testified that the couple believed people could be possessed by evil spirits and that “zombies” would eventually be controlled by dark spirits and die.
Prosecutor Lindsay Blake echoed Wood’s comments during closing arguments Wednesday, suggesting Daybell was the mastermind behind the couple’s scheme and decided who was the “mastermind.”
“Chad has the answers, Chad has the knowledge, Chad has a special talent,” she said.
Once he determined someone was a dark person, she said, they had to be killed.
Child’s body discovered at pet cemetery and crematorium
Rexburg police Detective Ray Hermosillo testified at Daybell’s trial about the moment officers discovered the children’s bodies.
Joshua was buried in a pet cemetery on the property, while Tyree was dismembered and cremated, according to court documents.
“There were some tall bushes, it looked like a six-by-six block with just a little bit of grass in the middle,” Hermosillo said, describing when police found Joshua’s body underneath the tree.
“The ERT team began excavating the site. They removed the top layer of soil. … At that point, you could see what looked like three large white rocks,” he told jurors. “The moment they did that, you started to smell the odor of a rotting corpse, which is what I would expect from my training experience.”
The detective said authorities found a “small body wrapped in black plastic and wrapped in duct tape.”
Hermosillo told the court that Daybell tried to flee “as soon as it was discovered.”
“Tyree was placed in multiple body bags,” Dr. Garth Warren of the Ada County Coroner’s Office testified.
One of the body bags contained a smaller bag that contained “multiple pieces of soft tissue, bone, dirt and rocks and other debris,” he said. The second contained pieces of “melted green bucket” and “a collection of human remains” and organs including the heart, lungs and more, he told the jury.
“The heart and lungs are not normally in this condition,” he said, showing the jury photos, “and they’re obviously charred, some parts have been burned away and they’ve been significantly shrunken.”
Warren said the third bag contained a “blackened” portion of a skull and a “partially charred” jaw with teeth. The remains were identified as Tyree’s through dental x-rays.
Daybell’s children defend him
Daybell’s son and daughter testified in his defence, telling the court his client “cared deeply about” his mother, Tammy Daybell, and was heartbroken by her death.
“My father was the saddest I’d ever seen him in my life,” his daughter Emma Murray told the court. “I was so used to my parents being in charge and controlling things that it was terrifying to see him so sad and out of control. I never questioned his grief.”
Murray said his mother had health problems and bruised easily, and that before she died, she had been working on getting stronger.
At the trial, Murray was questioned about Joshua and Tyree, she told the court that when she asked the father where the children were, he replied that they were in a “safe place.”
Garth Daybell said his mother would “collapse” when she came home from work, struggle to move heavy items and would sometimes “pass out.” He said he heard no sounds of fighting or arguing the day his mother died.
