ADA COUNTY, Idaho (Court TV) — The trial of a so-called “Doomsday Prophet” facing charges he killed his first wife and the two youngest children of his second wife is underway in Idaho.
Chad Daybell is charged with conspiracy and first-degree murder in the Oct. 2019 death of Tammy Daybell. He’s facing those same charges in the deaths of 7-year-old JJ Vallow and 16-year-old Tylee Ryan, children of Lori Vallow. Daybell is also charged with one count of grand theft and two counts of insurance fraud.
This March 21, 2024 booking photo provided by the Ada County Sheriff’s Office shows Chad Daybell. (Ada County Sheriff’s Office)
Last year, a jury convicted Lori Vallow on conspiracy and first-degree murder charges in the deaths of her children and conspiracy to commit murder in the death of Tammy Daybell. She was sentenced to three consecutive life sentences without parole.
An indictment accuses the couple of espousing religious beliefs to justify the murders. The remains of Vallow’s children were found on Daybell’s property in June 2020, nine months after they were last seen alive. By then, Vallow was sitting in an Idaho jail on charges stemming from the children’s disappearance. She was arrested in Hawaii in Feb. 2020, where she and Daybell had relocated amid a cloud of suspicion.
DAILY TRIAL UPDATES
DAY 12 – 4/26/24
- Jurors heard from former neighbors and co-workers of Chad and Tammy Daybell on Friday, who were all “shocked” to learn of Tammy’s passing.
- Steven Schultz, a neighbor and former co-worker of Chad Daybell, testified that Chad contacted him about transporting Tammy’s body to Springville, Utah, for burial.
- WATCH: Friend Testifies About ‘Red Flags’ Surrounding Tammy Daybell’s Funeral
- Schultz questioned Daybell whether he wanted an autopsy before burial, to which he said, “he did not want an autopsy done.” Schultz was concerned about Tammy dying so young. He checked Tammy’s body for broken bones and bruising and found nothing.
- Rich Garner, the principal at Central Elementary School, where Tammy Daybell worked as a librarian, testified that he congratulated Tammy after she finished a 5k race, and she seemed active and healthy. He also testified that Tammy did not call out sick in the almost two years she worked at the school.
- Garner had to convince Chad Daybell and other family members to have a memorial because Tammy’s co-workers would not be able to travel to Utah for the funeral. A memorial was scheduled for the day after the funeral at Central Elementary School. Chad Daybell did not help plan the memorial.
- Chad Daybell told Ron Arnold, his neighbor in Rexburg, that he was going to live with a friend in Rexburg following Tammy’s death because he did not “feel comfortable” in the home. Daybell planned to move to Hawaii to help a friend with a biography.
- Arnold told jurors that he asked Chad Daybell about the missing children, to which he responded, “When everything comes out, things would be fine.”
- Ron Arnold, a real estate agent, met with Chad about splitting his property and adding a home for him and Lori. The parcel of land was too small.
- When questioned on cross-examination, Arnold mentioned that John Prior, the defense attorney, owns Chad Daybell’s home.
- WATCH: Doomsday Prophet Murder Trial: Day 12 Recap
DAY 11 – 4/25/24
- Tammy Daybell regularly emailed her youngest son, Mark, about unusual events at her Rexburg home, and she often wrote about her health. Other emails described Chad Daybell shooting a raccoon and burying it in the compost heap, trapping another raccoon in a trap. She told her son about tripping over a duck gate, injuring her wrist, and being sick in bed the month before she passed away.
- WATCH: Battle Of The Experts: How Did Tammy Daybell Die?
- On the night of the “paintball incident,” Tammy Daybell searched the internet for paintball and airsoft guns. She did not search for rifles or shotguns.
- The day after the “paintball incident,” Tammy Daybell told her son, Mark, that she “did not go to Zumba because she did not want to be out after dark.”
- The State and Defense were both determined to prove whether Tammy Daybell described the weapon during her 911 call as a paintball gun, a gun or rifle.
- Alex Cox was near Daybell’s home on October 9, 2019, four hours before a man wearing all black and a ski mask was in the Daybell driveway. An additional search showed that a phone connected to the alias Homerjmaximus was near the Daybell home on October 18, 2019, from 10:07 p.m. to 10:47 p.m. The phone was turned off and turned back on at 11:53 p.m., seven miles away.
- Garth Daybell was the last to see his mother on October 18, 2019.
- Chad Daybell told police he was home on the evening of October 18. However, cell phone records did not show his cell phone at home.
- Jurors heard Alex Cox’s web search history under the alias Homerjmaximus. He searched “How to prep your AR for the cold” and “What caliber would penetrate a windshield?”
- Alex Cox visited a gun range five times between October 7 and October 15, 2019. The paintball incident involving Tammy Daybell occurred on October 9. She died ten days later, on October 19, 2019.
- WATCH: Doomsday Prophet Murder Trial: Day 11 Recap
DAY 10 – 4/24/24
- Fremont County Coroner Brenda Dye testified why she changed Tammy Daybell’s death certificate from natural causes to a homicide.
- Chad Daybell filled out a life insurance beneficiary form stating that his wife’s health problems began on October 18, 2019, the day before her death, contradicting his claims that his wife has always had health issues.
- On October 20, 2019, Dye signed the death certificate that Tammy Daybell died of pulmonary edema due to a cardiac event. The death certificate was changed two months later after an autopsy. Tammy’s death was caused by asphyxiation by suffocation, and the manner of death was ruled a homicide.
- Brenda Dye was contacted by law enforcement in Arizona that Chad Daybell’s name was connected to a homicide and attempted murder they were investigating. If she had the information at the time of Tammy Daybell’s death, “it may have changed her decision regarding an autopsy.”
- Dye described how she observed Tammy Daybell’s body once on scene. Tammy’s body was cold with rigor mortis. There were “old” bruises, pink foam on the side of the mouth and levidity to the back of her arms, lower back, and thighs. There were no other signs that suggested anything of concern.
- Dye said at the time she believed Chad Daybell’s explanation that he could have caused Tammy to fall off the bed by blankets, but “looking back, if someone’s dead, it would have required more force than that to roll a body out of bed.”
- Chad Daybell told responding officers and the coroner that Tammy had been up with a “coughing fit” and had thrown up. He helped her back to bed just after midnight. Daybell said he woke up five hours later because Tammy fell off the bed and pulled the blankets off him. She was dead.
- Chad Daybell had no opinion about an autopsy performed on his wife, but their daughter, Emma Murray, did not want one performed.
- Coworkers of Tammy Daybell testified that they were shocked by her death and that Tammy seemed healthy when interacting with them at work.
- Tammy Daybell owned a Fitbit, which was in one of the evidence photos, and she was seen wearing it in many of her Facebook posts. Police never recovered the device, but business records show that Tammy was very active on her device. Law enforcement were hoping to get heart rate and sleep data to show what happened to her on the night she died.
- WATCH: Doomsday Prophet Murder Trial: Day 10 Recap
DAY 9 – 4/23/24
- Chad Daybell became emotional for the first time during the trial when Prosecutors played his 911 call from October 2019 when Daybell called to report his wife’s death. Chad was wiping his eyes and shaking his head. John Prior patted Daybell on the back and slid him the tissue box.
- Bradon Boudreaux, Lori Vallow Daybell’s former nephew-in-law, testified about the events leading up to Charles Vallow’s death and an incident where someone shot out his driver-side window while he was driving back home from the gym.
- Boudreaux told jurors that his then-wife Melanie stopped going to church, but her religious beliefs changed after a “spiritual awakening.”
- Lori Vallow thought Brandon Boudreaux had hacked into her computer. He said he had never done that when asked about it on the stand.
- Boudreaux tried to attend one of the “alternative firesides,” which was not affiliated with the LDS church, but was told that “he was not welcomed to any of them.”
- Boudreaux became emotional when asked the last time he saw Charles and JJ Vallow.
- Following Charles Vallow’s death, Brandon Boudreaux said he went back to read all of Vallow’s emails sent to the family stating Lori Vallow was not mentally well and shared documents that identified which family members were “light or dark.”
- On cross-examination, David Warwick was asked if he and his wife, Melanie Gibb, married so they would not have to testify against one another, to which he responded, “No.”
- WATCH: Doomsday Prophet Murder Trial: Day 9 Recap
DAY 8 – 4/22/24
- Colby Ryan, Lori Vallow Daybell’s oldest son, testified Monday. Ryan became emotional when he identified the photographs of his half-sister Tylee Ryan and adoptive brother JJ Vallow.
- Ryan said that he believes his mother was “influenced” by Chad Daybell.
- Colby Ryan told jurors he last saw his siblings on August 30, 2019, when they visited him outside his work in Mesa, Arizona. He said his mother was vague and said they were leaving but would return in a few weeks. Tylee was crying but did not say anything.
- Ryan recounted the moment he found out his stepfather, Charles Vallow, died. Lori Vallow told him that he suffered a heart attack. When he arrived at his mother’s home, he asked his uncle about a bandage on his head. He later learned that his stepfather had been shot to death.
- Lori Vallow’s demeanor following her fourth husband’s death was described as “calm and unrattled.”
- The last time Ryan heard from his mother before her arrest was when she sent an email telling him “Not to worry and that Jesus was on her side.”
- Now-retired Special Agent Doug Hart with the FBI described the text messages between Chad Daybell and Lori Vallow as “manipulative.”
- WATCH: Witness: Text Messages Show Chad Daybell Manipulating Lori Vallow
- Hart told jurors about a text exchange on August 8, 2019, depicting the couple’s “first fight.” Vallow was upset over a family vacation Chad Daybell was taking with his wife and other family members.
- Chad Daybell texted Lori following their argument, “I would happily join you tomorrow if it felt like heaven would not strike us down.”
- Melanie Gibb’s boyfriend at the time, David Warwick, told jurors he confronted Chad Daybell about some of his teachings that did not fit his understanding of the LDS faith.
- Warwick told jurors the affection between Chad and Lori “bothered” him because Chad Daybell was still married to Tammy.
- Chad Daybell told Warwick that Tammy Daybell was a “good wife” but said Lori would be his next wife because they had been married before in another life. Daybell had a dream Tammy was going to pass away by the time she was 50 and 51.
- WATCH: Doomsday Prophet Murder Trial: Day 8 Recap
DAY 7 – 4/19/24
- Melanie Gibb, Lori Vallow’s former best friend, returned to the witness stand for her second day of testimony.
- John Prior, Chad Daybell’s attorney, tried to show jurors that Gibb was not credible and could not remember specific facts about the timeline of Chad and Lori’s relationship.
- Gibb admitted that she spoke with investigators before recording a phone conversation between herself, Chad, and Lori.
- A text message between Gibb and Lori revealed that Gibb wanted to teach Lori about “dark and light” entities.
- Gibb told jurors that Chad Daybell determined which people were dark entities and zombies.
- After Gibb’s testimony, it was revealed that the defense subpoenaed her to come back for further testimony during the defense’s case.
- Jurors heard steamy text messages between Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell sent in 2019, but they described their romantic tryst after meeting in 2018.
- On July 13, 2019, Chad texted Lori that the “Lord” hinted to him that “she,” referring to his wife, Tammy Daybell, “would be gone by July 24, 2019. Tammy was still alive at that time of that message.”
- On July 14, 2019, Chad texted Lori, “Good morning. My most beautiful Lili! (Thanks for joining me in the shower this morning. Wow!) Getting ready to leave for my meetings. Does noon your time look like a time we could talk? I love you so immensely that the whole universe knows it, and very soon, the people on this little blue globe will know it, too.”
- On July 18, 2019, Lori texted Chad, “I just got the letter from the insurance company saying that I am not the beneficiary. It’s a spear thru my heart. Who do you think he changed it to?? Brandon?? Or probably Kay?? He left nothing for JJ.” To which Chad responded, Chad to Lori, “It seems you would have had to agree to the change. Maybe your name was forged. You should have a good paper trail to prove it.”
- On July 21, 2019, Lori texted Chad that “Ned,” referring to Charles Vallow, had changed his insurance policy to “Rhonda,” referring to Charles’ sister Kay Woodcock as the beneficiary. Chad responds that he will begin “working” to see if Woodcock and Brandon Boudreaux are “dark” entities.
- Chad Daybell told Lori he “feels like a grown-up version of Harry Potter living with the Dudleys in his little space under the stairs.”
- Lori Vallow texted Daybell to ask if he was mad or sad, to which he replied that he had “no privacy” when sending her a message.
- WATCH: Doomsday Prophet Murder Trial: Day 7 Recap
DAY 6 – 4/18/24
- The state’s star witness, Melanie Gibb, testified Wednesday.
- Gibb told jurors that in November 2019, Chad Daybell called and asked her not to speak with the police and to say that JJ Vallow, Lori’s youngest son, was with her.
- Melanie Gibb recorded a phone conversation between Lori Vallow Daybell and Chad Daybell in which she asked why they asked her to “lie” about JJ Vallow’s whereabouts.
- “It does not sound like God’s plan. I’m getting a gut feeling that this is weird and it does not feel right, and I don’t have peace about it,” Gibb told Lori Vallow Daybell during the audio recording.
- Chad Daybell told Gibb that Tammy was on a “special mission,” and any suspicions about her death were “conspiracy theories.”
- Lori Vallow Daybell told Gibb that JJ was “safe and happy” during the recorded phone conversation.
- Gibb testified about a love affair between Chad Daybell and Lori Vallow, and the two believed they had been married in their past lives.
- WATCH: Doomsday Prophet Murder Trial: Witness Served With Papers At Courthouse
- Lori Vallow changed the funding source for Tylee Ryan’s Venmo account to transfer funds from Lori’s personal bank account.
- Chad Daybell’s religious teachings included a “light and dark” scale, identifying enemies as dark spirits and zombies.
- On cross-examination, John Prior questioned Melanie Gibb about her memory and hundreds of text exchanges she had with Madison County Prosecutor Rob Wood.
- Before the trial began, Terry Ratliff, an Idaho attorney who was not involved in the trial, attempted to intervene and delay the proceedings for Chad Daybell. A furious Judge Boyce said the filing created an emergency during the Easter weekend amongst court staff, prosecutors, and the defense attorney.
- Judge Boyce said, “I was mad when this was filed, and I may be even more mad now,” speaking to Ratliff concerning the filing that contained “misspellings and typographical error” and referring to himself as Chad Daybell’s defense attorney.
- Ratliff was ordered to pay attorney fees to the prosecuting team and the defense for the “time, effort, and loss” of interrupting the proceedings. He was also ordered to pay all court costs.
- WATCH: Doomsday Prophet Murder Trial: Day 6 Recap
DAY 5 – 4/17/24
- Five days after the funeral service for his wife, Tammy Daybell, Chad Daybell booked plane tickets to Hawaii for his wedding and a family trip to California for his adult children and their spouses and Lori Vallow Daybell.
- Detective Check Kunsaitis created timelines to show that Lori Vallow Daybell was traveling without her children and had not filled her children’s prescriptions. Lori purchased travel arrangements for Chad Daybell.
- WATCH: Travel Records Show JJ Vallow Was Not On Flights With Lori
- An FBI forensic accountant testified that he reviewed close to 80 banking accounts and credit cards belonging to Lori Vallow Daybell, Chad and Tammy Daybell, Alex Cox, and Tylee Ryan.
- Following Tylee Ryan’s father’s death, Tylee began receiving monthly stipends from her social security benefits and regularly spent money using her debit card. Detective Kunsaitis testified that Tylee last used her debit card to make two purchases at McDonald’s in St. George, Utah, on September 1, 2019, while moving to Idaho.
- Lori Vallow Daybell closed and took the remaining money from her daughter’s bank account a month after Tylee Ryan was last seen alive.
- Lori Vallow Daybell called the Social Security Administration on August 16, 2019, to change the direct deposit for her daughter and son to be deposited in her bank accounts.
- After the children disappeared, Lori’s oldest son asked for money through Venmo. Lori told her son, Colby, that she had given the money to Tylee to send it, but it was Lori who had transferred the money from Tylee’s bank account.
- Lori Vallow Daybell changed her $2 million life insurance policy so that her oldest son, Colby Ryan, was the sole benefactor, and no money would be given to her two youngest children.
- Alex Cox quit his job to move to Rexburg, Idaho, with Lori Vallow and her children. No money was deposited into his account after August 2019. Before leaving his job, Cox applied for a $21,000 loan and began purchasing firearms and knives.
- WATCH: The Attempted Shootings Of Tammy Daybell And Brandon Boudreaux
- WATCH: Doomsday Prophet Murder Trial: Day 5 Recap
DAY 4 – 4/16/24
- Jurors heard Chad Daybell’s text messages and web searches in the months before JJ Vallow and Tylee Ryan disappeared.
- Chad Daybell searches included “Ned Schneider” and “Hiplos.” Daybell and Lori Vallow believed Charles Vallow, Lori’s husband, was possessed by a dark spirit or demon.
- Daybell and Lori Vallow searched for malachite jewelry, specifically wedding bands, while Tammy Daybell was still alive. Vallow Daybell searched for wedding dresses in Kauai on the day of Tammy Daybell’s funeral.
- WATCH: Google Searches Show Wedding Bands, Possession In Chad Daybell’s Trial
- Detective Nathan Duncan, Chandler Police Department in Arizona, testified about his investigation into Charles Vallow’s death.
- WATCH: Detective: Charles Vallow Was Shot While Lying Down
- Detective Duncan said that although investigators recommended criminal charges against Daybell, the Maricopa County prosecutor decided there was “no reasonable likelihood of conviction.”
- Jurors heard a recorded phone call of Chad Daybell calling an Arizona mortuary inquiring about the cost of burying his “uncle” shortly after Charles Vallow’s death.
- Charles Vallow confronted his wife about a letter that appeared to be from him inviting Chad Daybell to stay with their family a second time to help him write a book.
- Charles Vallow reached out to Tammy Daybell the week before his death, telling her he had “definitive proof” their spouses were having an affair. He then confronted Chad Daybell about the email he found on Lori’s computer.
- Chad Daybell messages Lori Vallow before Charles Vallow’s death that he “feels like Harry Potter living under the Dursley’s stairs” and that he “can escape and have amazing adventures with his goddess lover.” Adding, “I sense permanent change is coming.”
- Detective Duncan testified about a “patriarchal blessing” given by Chad Daybell to Alex Cox on November 24, 2019. Daybell tells Cox that he is a prophet and a hero. “You have already assisted us in ways that can never be repaid,” Daybell said. The blessing was given two weeks before Cox’s death in December 2019.
- WATCH: Doomsday Prophet Murder Trial: The Genesis Of Killing Spree
- WATCH: Doomsday Prophet Murder Trial: Day 4 Recap
DAY 3 – 4/15/24
- Jurors watched body camera video of Chad Daybell during the search of his property and heard a jailhouse call between Daybell and his wife, Lori Vallow Daybell.
- Daybell told his daughter, “He was not coming back” after his arrest.
- Investigators with the Fremont County Sheriff’s Office obtained an exhumation order to exhume Tammy Daybell’s body for autopsy following a phone call from detectives in Arizona.
- Patrol Sgt. Eric Wheeler testified that Chad Daybell was looking awkwardly over his right shoulder toward the pond on his property as investigators searched his property for missing children JJ Vallow and Tylee Ryan.
- READ MORE: Doomsday Cult: Who’s who in the world of Chad and Lori Vallow Daybell
- WATCH: Doomsday Prophet Murder Trial: Day 3 Recap
DAY 2 – 4/11/24
- Detective Ray Hermosillo, Rexburg Police Department, returned to the witness stand on Thursday.
- Hermosillo was initially assigned to locate a missing Jeep Wrangler in Arizona. The case evolved into a welfare check for Joshua “JJ” Vallow, which led to a larger investigation, including the search for “JJ’s” older sister, Tylee Ryan.
- Jurors heard graphic details in the manner that “JJ” Vallow and his sister, Tylee Ryan’s remains were located on the 4-acre property of Chad Daybell on June 9, 2019.
- WATCH: Detective Recalls Horrific Discovery While Excavating Daybell Property
- Tammy Daybell posted a message to her church group on social media about a man wearing a ski shot at her using a paint gun. She then searched the internet for paint guns.
- Alex Cox searched for “bullets that can go through a Dodge Dakota’s windshield” three days after Tammy Daybell was shot at with a paintball gun. Other searches were for the “best tactical knives and sharpening swords” in late October 2019.
- WATCH: Doomsday Prophet Murder Trial: Day 2 Recap
DAY 1 – 4/10/24
- Madison County Prosecutor Rob Wood told jurors that Chad Daybell was motivated by “money, power, and sex.”
- Defense attorney John Prior told jurors that they will hear from their expert witnesses that there is no evidence connecting his client, Chad Daybell, to the murders of his wife’s children, Tylee and “JJ.” Also, another expert will say that Daybell’s first wife, Tamara “Tammy” Daybell, died of natural causes.
- Jurors heard from the state’s first witness, Detective Ray Hermosillo.
- Detective Hermosillo was tasked with conducting a welfare check for seven-year-old Joshua Jackson “JJ” Vallow.
- Proof of life photos of Tylee Ryan and “JJ” Vallow were found in Lori Vallow’s iCloud account. Tylee was last photographed with her little brother, “JJ,” and her uncle, Alex Cox, at Yellowstone National Park on September 8, 2019. “JJ” Vallow was last photographed wearing red pajamas on September 22, 2019, in his mother’s apartment in Rexburg, Idaho.
- Jurors will hear more testimony Thursday on what was found on the 4-acre property of Chad Daybell.
- WATCH: Doomsday Prophet Murder Trial: Day 1 Recap
