Warning: This story contains some graphic descriptions
The morning authorities descended on Chad Daybell’s Idaho farm in search of his new wife’s missing children, the doomsday author’s son answered the door holding a bowl of cereal.
Rexburg Police told the man they needed to chat with Daybell immediately—and walked up to his room, where he was sleeping, to inform him they had a search warrant to search his property, Detective Ray Hermosillo testified Tuesday.
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The June 9, 2020, wake-up call came nearly nine months into authorities' search for Daybell’s new wife Lori Vallow’s two children: 7-year-old JJ and 17-year-old Tylee Ryan. In that time, Hermosillo told Ada County jurors on Tuesday, authorities learned that the couple had gotten married just weeks after Daybell’s first wife had died and had fled to Hawaii without cooperating in the search for Vallow’s two children.
Hermosillo said that Daybell seemed calm as he read over the search warrant, asking authorities if he and his children needed to leave. As FBI agents arrived and began to mark out different search areas in the expansive backyard, Daybell sat in his car in the driveway on the phone.
Several times, Hermosillo said, Daybell looked over his shoulder to eye a tree and pond area on his property. It was in that same area, he said, that authorities ultimately found JJ in a shallow grave tightly wrapped in plastic. A few feet away, authorities would later discover a burned mass they believed to be JJ’s half-sister Tylee.
The new details came during the second day of Vallow’s trial in Idaho, where the 49-year-old mother is facing charges for the murders of her children and for plotting to kill her husband’s first wife, Tammy Daybell, in October 2019. Vallow has pleaded not guilty to several charges, including murder and conspiracy, and faces a maximum sentence of life in prison. Her husband, whose trial will be scheduled after Vallow’s is complete, may still face the death penalty.
On Tuesday afternoon, Vallow's legal team asked if the mother-of-two could be excused from the courtroom after the graphic and emotional testimony. Judge Steven Boyce denied the request after prosecutors’ objected, prompting a visibly upset Vallow to lean back in her seat and stare down at the defense table.
As the third witness on the stand, Hermosillo described to jurors the harrowing months-long investigation to find JJ and Tylee after they were officially declared missing in December 2019. Authorities, however, believe they were murdered sometime around Sept. 22, 2019, before their bodies were disposed of in Daybell’s backyard.
During the investigation, Hermosillo said, investigators searched the apartments of Vallow and two of her family members. In the November 2019 search of Vallow’s, Hermosillo said that investigators found dishes still in the sink in the furnished apartment—but no clothing in the closet.
“Normally when people go on trips and plan to come home, they don’t take all their belongings with them,” Hermosillo said. “This caught our attention because there was nothing in the closet other than empty hangers.”
He said several toys and items belonging to JJ were still in the home, as well as several guns, army-type knives, and empty magazines in the garage. Other items found in the three apartments, Hermosillo said, included Hazmat suits and preparedness bags with guns and silencers.
Prosecutors say that at the time, Daybell and Vallow had been married for weeks after meeting at a religious conference in 2018. Daybell, a former gravedigger, was the author of apocalyptic novels aimed at Mormons—and Vallow had been a long devoted fan of his work.
Hermosillo said that after the search, which occurred months after several family members had raised concerns about the whereabouts of JJ and Tylee, his team called in the FBI for help. He said that Vallow initially claimed that the children were living with relatives in Arizona. The pair then refused to leave Hawaii, cooperate with authorities, or explain the whereabouts of the missing children.
Eventually, he said, the search brought his team to Daybell’s property in June 2020. He said that initially he was stationed to sift through the fire pit, but was quickly called over to the pond area after investigators noticed a shorter section of grass.
“As they began to remove the top layer of soil, it exposed three large rocks,” Hermosillo said. “At that point, there was a strong odor that through my training I knew was a decomposing body.”
Under the rocks were large pieces of wood that were on top of a large black object that “appeared to be the crown of a head.” Once the body was discovered, Hermosillo said he was informed that Daybell had quickly driven off the property, prompting authorities to pull him over and take him into custody.
Later, Hermosillo said, authorities found burnt flesh and charred bones near the property’s “pet cemetery.” He told jurors that the smell was so awful that his team had to take shifts digging through the area.
“Eventually we uncovered bits and pieces of …whom we assumed was Tylee, that had been burned,” Hermosillo said, adding that other pieces of flesh were found in a melted green bucket. “There were pieces of bone, charred flesh, just globs of flesh that were falling apart.”
Prosecutors allege that Vallow was driven to murder because of religious fanaticism and “money, power, and sex.” Defense lawyers, however, insist there is little evidence to prove Vallow was involved in the three deaths.
“She believes in life after death and that she will see her deceased family again,” Vallow’s lawyer Jim Archibald said.
