Sins of Our Mother (2022) s01e03 Episode Script
A Mother Knows
1
At this point
in the investigation,
you know, there's indication
there's a lot more to be discovered.
Then, all of a sudden,
I get a message in my inbox.
It's a link to a folder
full of, I kid you not,
six hundred sixty-six photos.
In the photos are
Chad and Lori getting married.
Seeing Chad and Lori in all white,
dancing on the beach together
after Tammy has just died.
My jaw is to the floor.
Lori had a green malachite ring.
We know from the Amazon order
that Lori ordered this malachite ring
when Tammy was still alive.
When those photos came out, this exploded.
Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell
got married here on a beach in Kauai,
just 13 days after the memorial
of Chad's first wife Tammy.
It was so deflating
to see them together,
in Kauai of all places.
And there's no trace of the kids.
Tylee's sixteen. JJ's seven.
Where are they?
Why aren't the kids behind you?
I started having a lot of dreams.
I think I dreamed about Tylee, JJ,
Charles, my mom, or Chad every night.
Every single time I woke up,
I had this feeling
deep inside of my stomach, in my spirit,
there was something wrong.
But they have to be safe.
Well, hello.
Because my mom has
spent her whole life protecting us kids.
JJ!
I had the battling thought,
"Are they even alive?"
I'm like, "No, there's no way.
They're not alive."
Happy birthday.
How could that be possible?
I'm sitting in the courtroom,
and it feels like a movie,
like it's not real life.
She walked in like a character.
She's weirdly Has this weird makeup on,
it looked like she
I don't even know colored it on.
And she's in a jumpsuit.
She's this villain.
And she just looked at Brandon,
she looked at Kay,
and Larry, just smiled at them.
Like, why? Why Like, I remember
just thinking, what are you doing?
What are Like, I wanted to
scream it out. What are you doing?
Since this last summer,
there's been a clear and alarming
pattern in the defendant's life.
There are literally
three active investigations
of suspicious deaths
that she is related to.
And it is alarming to the state.
And the most aggravating factor
is that the children are still missing.
And the defendant
has completely and utterly
refused to aid in
any attempts to find the children,
even before charges were filed.
With that,
bail will be set at one million dollars.
We'll be in recess.
All rise.
I sat up, like,
trying to get her attention.
I wanted her to know I was there.
And I just remember
her connection to him, seeing him.
And I remember how she looked at him.
You're looking at him as like
Like there's something there.
Are you Like, you don't know him.
How do How have you had
enough time to get comfortable enough
to be in a bad situation,
look at him, and find comfort?
She just walked by.
And that's when I stood up and saw him,
and I locked eyes with him.
I was like, I just want to
come punch you in the face.
And I looked at him, and he looked scared.
I saw him cower.
I just feel like
I know there's something wrong with you.
Where are the kids, Chad?
Where are the kids?
Where are the kids, Chad?
You've already said the kids are okay.
Can you say that now?
Hey, Chad, where are the kids?
Chad
That night, I called the jail.
I'm her son. I just need to talk to her.
You know I love you.
That's why this is
the hardest conversation I could ever have
with anybody in my whole life.
You're not the same mom that I know.
You're not the one that
raised me to understand Jesus.
Really?
Really?
I hope that you turn your heart,
turn to the true Christ so you can
come back from whatever this is.
I've always trusted you my whole life.
I would have never thought you
would have ever done something like this.
What is it that
you think that I've done?
I remember
we had this conversation.
She started bringing up Abraham and Isaac.
In Abraham and Isaac,
the whole entire story,
is that Abraham is told
to sacrifice his son.
He was trying to keep his faith.
And just to trust that God had a plan.
So when he went to actually do it,
raising the knife ready to go,
God told him to stop.
It was just a test of faith.
Why would you even say that?
You know that I'm
asking you every day about my siblings.
But she reaffirmed it
to me almost every day.
"Yes. They're fine.
Everything's gonna be fine."
So it started to
build up more and more of
there's a thread of hope.
I thought there was a chance
that they could be different places.
That she had asked someone
to put the kids with them for a while.
And so the first time
that she called from the jail,
she said, "The kids are fine."
She said,
"You know what kind of mother I am."
"I would never hurt the kids."
That's what she said.
And she said,
"They're in a very safe place."
I didn't think they were missing.
I thought Lori knew where they were.
So I felt like it's important
to tell the truth about our family.
Family members
of a woman at the center of a
high-profile missing children's case
are publicly defending her
for the very first time.
There is no way she did anything to them.
There's just no way.
Yeah. We really think that
she did nothing wrong. I She
I'm just really
not sure why my grandma
and my aunt wanted to do interviews.
I remember how dumb
I thought it was to even say anything.
Why are you supporting her?
She's obvious There's something wrong.
And I just thought
that was a really bad move
to try to defend her at that point.
I have faith in her, as a mother,
that she's doing the best
she knows how for her children.
It was hard for me to watch that.
I felt like there was a lot of denial,
just not even wanting to look at the
reality that the children were missing.
Um, it's like I
couldn't understand if it was
denial or if it was damage control.
Do you think she's in a cult?
- No. No. We don't.
- No.
You don't think that Chad brainwashed her?
No!
No. He couldn't do it. It's not possible.
But they were right. We were wrong.
I I should never say "I know" again.
I don't really know.
I just think that
Who knew it would get worse?
Investigators get
access to Lori's iCloud account,
and that's where they find
a photo from September 8th, 2019.
A picture of JJ, Tylee, and Alex
at Yellowstone National Park.
The FBI and the
Rexburg Police Department
are now asking anyone
who visited Yellowstone National Park
on September 8th, 2019,
to send them photos or video that
might help them in their investigation.
Police have determined both children
were at Yellowstone that day
with Lori and Lori's brother Alex Cox.
This is the last known photo of Tylee.
The FBI says
the group was traveling
in this truck belonging to Alex Cox.
Cox has been linked to the
deaths of Charles Vallow, Tammy Daybell
But when Alex died,
a crucial piece of the puzzle
was now missing,
but FBI had his cell phone.
They used cell phone data
and the GPS pings,
and they traced his steps
to Chad Daybell's property in September,
when JJ and Tylee went missing.
On the ninth, Alex's phone locates him
in the backyard for two and a half hours.
The FBI also secured Tammy's phone,
so they learned, 14 minutes after
Alex left the Daybell residence,
Chad texted Tammy.
Finally, on June 9th, 2020,
law enforcement is once again
headed to the Daybell residence.
All right,
for those of you just tuning in,
we are about a minute away
from Chad Daybell's home,
and we, uh
The police are serving a search warrant.
Rexburg Police,
Fremont County Sheriff's Office,
the FBI, they are all here.
Here's what we can see.
Uh, there are
multiple police officers here.
There's at least one K9 dog.
They have set up
three or four blue canopy tents.
They have taped off the backyard.
That seems to be
the area of focus right now.
No word
We're not sure where
Chad Daybell is at this moment.
Chad Daybell was
watching the search very closely,
and eventually tried to leave in his SUV.
The witnesses we spoke to said
it looked like
Chad Daybell was driving very fast.
I saw his car take off
down the road and, just seconds later,
the, the marked police cars
had their lights and sirens,
and floored it to go catch him.
The FBI called me, and they said,
"Colby, they arrested Chad today."
"And they found
human remains on his property."
I could have just died right there.
My body was, like, ready to faint.
So then I started asking her questions
like, "Is it a little skeleton?"
"Is it a little person? Is it a teenager?"
"Do you know?" and she didn't know.
And they hadn't even
been able to get to that process.
An autopsy will be, uh, conducted.
Um, shortly after
the remains were discovered,
uh, Chad Daybell was taken into custody.
It was just horrible to
even know that there was human remains.
Like, I didn't wanna know
if it really was them.
A huge day, probably one of
the biggest in this case so far.
Authorities served a
search warrant on Daybell's home,
leading to the discovery
of what now police confirm
is two sets of human remains.
Near the fire pit
and pet cemetery,
they found human bones and charred tissue.
We are gonna be out here
as we slowly start learning these details.
You just try somehow, some way,
to rationalize and protect yourself
from being hurt in that moment,
but in my heart, I knew it was them.
When I got the call
from Kay Woodcock this morning,
she held back tears, telling me
one set of the human remains found
belong to her grandson, JJ.
Then, a couple of hours later,
family members confirmed
the second set of remains
are of Tylee Ryan.
Their bodies have been
unearthed from a shallow grave in Idaho.
A very emotional moment
now facing the reality of
what happened to these children.
say you find
I'm sorry. I'm sorry.
We're all with you.
It was a horrible,
awful, terrible realization.
I said I knew Lori
couldn't hurt her kids, and I was wrong.
- What?
- Hello.
Those two beautiful
Hi, my name is Tylee.
talented, loving, generous kids
Oh, my gosh.
had so much to offer
and so much to experience.
- Picture. Cheese.
- Cheese.
I can't think
about them without crying.
I was honestly, like, angry.
It was just, like,
I was angry that this was real.
Yeah.
Say hello.
- Say hello.
- Hi, JJ.
- Hi, JJ.
- Hi, Colby.
Hi, Colby.
I just I just miss JJ and Ty.
Like, it's hard to talk about them.
Yeah. It's just hard.
An inmate
at the Madison County Jail.
How are you, bubba?
I'm not good, Mom.
I'm so sorry.
You're sorry?
- Of course I am.
- You're sorry.
Are you sorry for me?
Or are you sorry for my siblings?
My brother, who's
seven years old, is dead.
And my little sister, who's 16, is dead.
What I've seen
- is that you moved away
- And you've seen it?
You were there, so you saw
everything that happened, huh?
That's interesting.
This did not just happen.
They were murdered.
And the reason I'm calling you is
because I can't even fathom what happened.
I miss my family, Mom.
I know, baby. Me too. So do I.
What do you mean you miss them?
How can you miss them, Mom?
How can I not?
How can I not?
They're my babies!
Both parents face two charges of
conspiracy to conceal or destroy evidence.
Still, nobody is facing murder charges
related to Tammy's
death or the kids' death.
Some Idaho attorneys say they hope
and believe police have more evidence
that has not been released yet.
Chad Daybell will appear
in court tomorrow beginning at 11 a.m.
Daybell's preliminary hearing
will be livestreamed from Idaho
for the next two days.
This is the case
of State of Idaho v. Chad Guy Daybell.
Mr. Wood, you may call your first witness.
Thank you.
The State calls Ray Hermosillo.
Sir, you can be seated
here at the witness stand.
If you'll give your full name as well
as your occupation, we'll get started.
Ray Dennis Hermosillo.
I'm a detective with
the Rexburg Police Department.
Detective,
have you ever had the opportunity
to meet the defendant Chad Daybell?
Yes.
I was contacted
by Gilbert Police Department.
I was asked to do a welfare
check on a seven-year-old boy
by the name of Joshua Jackson Vallow.
Myself and Detective Hope
went to Lori Vallow's residence.
We ended up making contact
with the defendant, Mr. Daybell,
and Alex Cox.
I asked Mr. Daybell
how he knew Lori Vallow,
and he stated that he had only met
her a couple of times through Alex Cox.
What did you ask him?
I asked Mr. Daybell
when's the last time he saw JJ,
and he stated that he saw JJ
in Apartment 107 in October.
I asked Mr. Daybell
for Lori Vallow's phone number,
and he stated he didn't have it.
Detective Hope had come back
to where we were speaking.
I again asked Mr. Daybell
if he had Lori's phone number,
and at that point, he gave me
Lori Vallow's phone number.
Okay, did you ask him
why he hadn't given you that number?
- I did.
- And what was his response?
He stated that he felt like
I was accusing him of something.
Did you have any contact
with Lori Vallow that day?
I did not have
any contact with Lori. No.
Okay. Were you
still with Detective Hope?
I was.
Did he Do you know if he had
contact with Lori Vallow that day?
He did.
- Hi. Are you Lori?
- Hi.
Okay. So
JJ would be where?
He's with
one of my friends in Arizona.
Her name is Melanie Gibb.
Miss Gibb, if you'll please come forward.
Be seated here at this witness chair.
Miss Gibb, I'm gonna
call your attention to
the date of November 26th, 2019.
What contact, if any, did you
have with Mr. Daybell that day?
I received a phone call from
Chad Daybell from his cell phone.
He said, "Hi, Melanie, this is Chad."
Um, "The Rexburg Police
are gonna call you. Don't pick up."
He let me know that the police were
over at Lori Vallow's home in Rexburg,
and that, um, they were
inquiring about where JJ was,
and that she was going to
tell the police that JJ was with me.
I said, "JJ's not at Kay's house?"
How did
Mr. Daybell respond to that?
He said, "No."
Was there any other
content to that conversation?
I asked him if he was nervous,
and he said, "Yes."
And approximately what time
did you hear from Lori Vallow?
I
Possibly within an hour or two.
I can't exactly recall.
I recorded the conversation.
Okay.
Could you state your name?
David Gale Warwick.
Do you recall the night
of September 22nd, 2019?
Yes.
What did you do that night?
I was doing a podcast
with Melanie Gibb and Lori Vallow.
Was JJ there when you did your podcast?
No.
Did you talk to Lori about JJ?
I did.
She said that he was, uh, being a zombie
and climbed up on the cabinets,
climbed up on top of the fridge,
smashed her picture of Christ down,
then climbed up onto the upper cabinets
and got between the
top of the cabinet and the ceiling.
JJ, because of his autism,
he says things on repeat.
That was something, when I found out,
you know, like, what was going on,
I just thought, "Oh!"
If JJ heard something,
or he got caught in some
cycle just saying something,
that would've made him a liability.
I asked to see him, and she just
said that he was out of control.
So she had Alex come and get him.
Did you see him later that night?
- Yes.
- When?
When, uh, Alex brought
him home to put him to bed.
Okay.
David Warwick,
he remembers this time
he sees JJ with Alex as a tender moment.
JJ's laying in his arms, um,
and he's got his head on Alex's shoulder.
And he's just peaceful.
That's the last time he sees him.
- Say hi!
- Hi!
I personally believe that
when Alex brought JJ in that night,
the night that they were
working on the podcast,
I believe that JJ was dead.
How long
have you worked for the FBI?
For approximately six years.
I'm an intelligence analyst.
Were you asked
to review data from any devices?
Yes, I was.
It was a cell phone.
Tammy Daybell was
the user of the cell phone.
Mr. Dean, I'm gonna hand you
the state's exhibit 31 for admission.
Exhibit 31 is
being handed to the witness.
Could you please read
aloud the messages in this exhibit,
including time stamps and contact names?
This is a copy of the messages
sent between Chad and
Tammy Daybell on September 9th.
From Chad
Can you testify, Mr. Dean, that these
messages initially caught your attention?
The thing that
caught my attention was the date.
Upon reading this text message,
in which Chad appears
to claim to have started a fire,
shot and killed a large animal
and buried it on his property,
I recognized that it was sent a day
after Tylee Ryan was last seen alive.
One of the biggest
revelations about this case
is the amount of time, effort,
man-hours put into finding JJ and Tylee.
And then you realize they were killed
within a month of moving to Idaho,
and were in Chad's
backyard the whole time.
Agent, what involvement
did you have with the search
on the Chad Daybell residence?
I was the senior team leader
for the Evidence Response
at that search of Chad Daybell's
property on those dates.
So based on a text message,
we knew that there was discussion
of a pet cemetery.
We make the determination
based on seeing a statue of a dog.
And then in front
of the statue of the dog,
there's what appears to be a grave.
The difficulty, I think, for us
was the way these
human remains were found.
So it was kind of
partially burnt human remains.
So as we continue to
excavate another burial site,
it was a little bit more complex.
Once we removed some soil,
I observed a small child
in red pajamas.
Red pajama shirt, red pajama pants.
The most heartbreaking
image from this evidence
is a picture of JJ Vallow
taken from Lori's iCloud.
It's taken the day of September 22nd,
and you can assume it's Lori's apartment.
JJ's sitting on the couch
wearing his red pajamas.
A As you, uh,
looked at this child's face,
did you recognize this child?
Yes, I did.
I recognized that to be Joshua Vallow.
It's not even human
to take your own two children that you,
like, are supposed to love and care for,
and do what they did.
It breaks you,
like, in a way you've never felt.
In a surprise
super-fast hearing,
Lori Vallow Daybell waived
her right to a preliminary hearing.
You understand that
there will be no preliminary hearing
that is currently scheduled
for Monday and Tuesday.
That will be vacated. Is Understand?
Correct.
This morning, the legal team
representing the so-called "Doomsday Mom,"
Lori Vallow, are raising concerns
about her mental competency.
Now her attorneys say
she's unfit to stand trial.
The judge
halting proceedings for now,
but has yet to make a final determination
on whether proceedings will continue.
Vallow has been committed
to an Idaho Department of Health
and Welfare mental facility for 90 days,
and when that ends,
officials will determine
whether she can proceed to trial,
or needs additional treatment
to restore her competency.
Mr. Daybell, how do you plead?
Not guilty.
We'll enter the
"not guilty" plea on count one.
On count two, how do you plead?
Not guilty.
- On count three, how do you plead?
- Not guilty.
Chad Daybell
pleaded not guilty today,
meaning the case
will go forward to a trial.
I can't
tell you the level of suffering that
I've had to go through,
and I'm talking the brink of my life,
because of your decisions.
Well, I'm
definitely sorry about that.
I never meant to cause you
any pain of any sort, of any kind.
I never wanted to.
Well, I'm not the victim.
Well, I'm sorry that you don't
really fully understand the situation.
So
Why weren't my
siblings protected if it wasn't you?
If you didn't do anything wrong,
why were they murdered?
I've done everything
to protect them,
their whole lives, as you know.
Yeah, but their
whole lives are gone now.
They were killed.
You guys decided that
that was spiritually your mission,
under the name Jesus Christ.
I love you, but you don't know.
You just don't know.
You don't know.
You need to turn your heart
to Jesus Christ to let him save you.
You will see one day.
As I speak to you right now,
you will see.
Do you hear how crazy that is?
That nothing's your fault,
you did nothing wrong,
you have no idea what happened,
and sorry you don't have
a fuller understanding.
It was just To listen to her actually
try to flip the script is unbelievable.
We've got some
breaking news out of Idaho.
A grand jury just indicted a mom
and her husband on murder charges
for the deaths of her two children.
Daybell was also charged
yesterday with the murder of his late wife
who died three months
before he married Vallow.
Our other big story tonight:
Lori Daybell indicted here in the valley,
accused of conspiring
to murder her ex-husband.
Now a grand jury believes Lori and Alex
conspired that at least one of them
was going to commit first-degree murder.
Meanwhile, Lori is currently
in a state medical facility in Idaho
undergoing restorative treatment
after being found incompetent
to under understand
the charges against her in Idaho.
I want to be
as kind to her as I can be.
I don't see any reason to pile on to
somebody that's done something so awful.
I think whatever happens will just happen.
She's in jail,
and I think she'll
be there the rest of her life.
So there is gonna be justice done.
We did have a wonderful
family before this happened.
I don't know. I don't know if it's
strong enough to stand this or not.
We'll just have to see.
We are in Kauai on Hanalei Bay.
One of our favorite places as a family.
We're gonna be doing a memorial
for Charles and JJ and Tylee.
And it's something that
we've been needing for a really long time.
It's to honor them and to
remember them, and this is the place.
I'm so grateful
that this gets to happen here.
Kauai was such a happy place.
My brother, my sister, loved being here,
and I remember the things we did here.
Charles, I just want to
I just want to
thank you for being my dad.
I know you never deserved
what happened to you,
but I wouldn't have
the life that I had without you.
JJ, I just can't tell you
how much I love you.
You're the greatest little brother
anybody could ever ask for,
and I love you so much.
Tylee, you're who
made me a big brother, and
I'll never forget how much
I immediately fell in love with you
and immediately wanted to
protect you from everything in life,
and
I love all of you,
and
I'm grateful for all of you.
It's okay.
- I love you.
- I love you.
To me, it still
kind of just doesn't feel real.
But it's been really hard on all of us.
Throughout all of this, we
Colby and I have tried to make
Riley's life as normal as possible.
We're definitely gonna
let her know what happened.
We don't really know how yet.
But she knows Tylee and JJ's faces.
We have their pictures
everywhere all over our house.
I made Colby a photo blanket
with, um, their pictures on it,
and it's hanging up in her playroom.
And she'll walk up to it
and she'll go, "Ty-Ty. JJ."
I think that's been
the main thing for us right now,
is showing her who they are,
showing her videos, and saying their names
and really helping her remember them.
We have to
live with what happened.
And what am I gonna focus on?
Am I gonna focus on their death,
or am I gonna focus on
their memory and honoring them?
They don't want us sitting here broken,
destroyed by everything
because they're gone.
JJ!
I just really feel
like I'm making it through
because of Kelsee and Riley.
If I didn't have Riley,
if I didn't have my wife,
like, I don't think I would
I'd probably would have
just died from sadness.
Like, I have a purpose besides myself.
My biggest fear is that my mom's
story becomes our family's story.
She's not going to define anything else.
I know that in my heart.
At this point
in the investigation,
you know, there's indication
there's a lot more to be discovered.
Then, all of a sudden,
I get a message in my inbox.
It's a link to a folder
full of, I kid you not,
six hundred sixty-six photos.
In the photos are
Chad and Lori getting married.
Seeing Chad and Lori in all white,
dancing on the beach together
after Tammy has just died.
My jaw is to the floor.
Lori had a green malachite ring.
We know from the Amazon order
that Lori ordered this malachite ring
when Tammy was still alive.
When those photos came out, this exploded.
Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell
got married here on a beach in Kauai,
just 13 days after the memorial
of Chad's first wife Tammy.
It was so deflating
to see them together,
in Kauai of all places.
And there's no trace of the kids.
Tylee's sixteen. JJ's seven.
Where are they?
Why aren't the kids behind you?
I started having a lot of dreams.
I think I dreamed about Tylee, JJ,
Charles, my mom, or Chad every night.
Every single time I woke up,
I had this feeling
deep inside of my stomach, in my spirit,
there was something wrong.
But they have to be safe.
Well, hello.
Because my mom has
spent her whole life protecting us kids.
JJ!
I had the battling thought,
"Are they even alive?"
I'm like, "No, there's no way.
They're not alive."
Happy birthday.
How could that be possible?
I'm sitting in the courtroom,
and it feels like a movie,
like it's not real life.
She walked in like a character.
She's weirdly Has this weird makeup on,
it looked like she
I don't even know colored it on.
And she's in a jumpsuit.
She's this villain.
And she just looked at Brandon,
she looked at Kay,
and Larry, just smiled at them.
Like, why? Why Like, I remember
just thinking, what are you doing?
What are Like, I wanted to
scream it out. What are you doing?
Since this last summer,
there's been a clear and alarming
pattern in the defendant's life.
There are literally
three active investigations
of suspicious deaths
that she is related to.
And it is alarming to the state.
And the most aggravating factor
is that the children are still missing.
And the defendant
has completely and utterly
refused to aid in
any attempts to find the children,
even before charges were filed.
With that,
bail will be set at one million dollars.
We'll be in recess.
All rise.
I sat up, like,
trying to get her attention.
I wanted her to know I was there.
And I just remember
her connection to him, seeing him.
And I remember how she looked at him.
You're looking at him as like
Like there's something there.
Are you Like, you don't know him.
How do How have you had
enough time to get comfortable enough
to be in a bad situation,
look at him, and find comfort?
She just walked by.
And that's when I stood up and saw him,
and I locked eyes with him.
I was like, I just want to
come punch you in the face.
And I looked at him, and he looked scared.
I saw him cower.
I just feel like
I know there's something wrong with you.
Where are the kids, Chad?
Where are the kids?
Where are the kids, Chad?
You've already said the kids are okay.
Can you say that now?
Hey, Chad, where are the kids?
Chad
That night, I called the jail.
I'm her son. I just need to talk to her.
You know I love you.
That's why this is
the hardest conversation I could ever have
with anybody in my whole life.
You're not the same mom that I know.
You're not the one that
raised me to understand Jesus.
Really?
Really?
I hope that you turn your heart,
turn to the true Christ so you can
come back from whatever this is.
I've always trusted you my whole life.
I would have never thought you
would have ever done something like this.
What is it that
you think that I've done?
I remember
we had this conversation.
She started bringing up Abraham and Isaac.
In Abraham and Isaac,
the whole entire story,
is that Abraham is told
to sacrifice his son.
He was trying to keep his faith.
And just to trust that God had a plan.
So when he went to actually do it,
raising the knife ready to go,
God told him to stop.
It was just a test of faith.
Why would you even say that?
You know that I'm
asking you every day about my siblings.
But she reaffirmed it
to me almost every day.
"Yes. They're fine.
Everything's gonna be fine."
So it started to
build up more and more of
there's a thread of hope.
I thought there was a chance
that they could be different places.
That she had asked someone
to put the kids with them for a while.
And so the first time
that she called from the jail,
she said, "The kids are fine."
She said,
"You know what kind of mother I am."
"I would never hurt the kids."
That's what she said.
And she said,
"They're in a very safe place."
I didn't think they were missing.
I thought Lori knew where they were.
So I felt like it's important
to tell the truth about our family.
Family members
of a woman at the center of a
high-profile missing children's case
are publicly defending her
for the very first time.
There is no way she did anything to them.
There's just no way.
Yeah. We really think that
she did nothing wrong. I She
I'm just really
not sure why my grandma
and my aunt wanted to do interviews.
I remember how dumb
I thought it was to even say anything.
Why are you supporting her?
She's obvious There's something wrong.
And I just thought
that was a really bad move
to try to defend her at that point.
I have faith in her, as a mother,
that she's doing the best
she knows how for her children.
It was hard for me to watch that.
I felt like there was a lot of denial,
just not even wanting to look at the
reality that the children were missing.
Um, it's like I
couldn't understand if it was
denial or if it was damage control.
Do you think she's in a cult?
- No. No. We don't.
- No.
You don't think that Chad brainwashed her?
No!
No. He couldn't do it. It's not possible.
But they were right. We were wrong.
I I should never say "I know" again.
I don't really know.
I just think that
Who knew it would get worse?
Investigators get
access to Lori's iCloud account,
and that's where they find
a photo from September 8th, 2019.
A picture of JJ, Tylee, and Alex
at Yellowstone National Park.
The FBI and the
Rexburg Police Department
are now asking anyone
who visited Yellowstone National Park
on September 8th, 2019,
to send them photos or video that
might help them in their investigation.
Police have determined both children
were at Yellowstone that day
with Lori and Lori's brother Alex Cox.
This is the last known photo of Tylee.
The FBI says
the group was traveling
in this truck belonging to Alex Cox.
Cox has been linked to the
deaths of Charles Vallow, Tammy Daybell
But when Alex died,
a crucial piece of the puzzle
was now missing,
but FBI had his cell phone.
They used cell phone data
and the GPS pings,
and they traced his steps
to Chad Daybell's property in September,
when JJ and Tylee went missing.
On the ninth, Alex's phone locates him
in the backyard for two and a half hours.
The FBI also secured Tammy's phone,
so they learned, 14 minutes after
Alex left the Daybell residence,
Chad texted Tammy.
Finally, on June 9th, 2020,
law enforcement is once again
headed to the Daybell residence.
All right,
for those of you just tuning in,
we are about a minute away
from Chad Daybell's home,
and we, uh
The police are serving a search warrant.
Rexburg Police,
Fremont County Sheriff's Office,
the FBI, they are all here.
Here's what we can see.
Uh, there are
multiple police officers here.
There's at least one K9 dog.
They have set up
three or four blue canopy tents.
They have taped off the backyard.
That seems to be
the area of focus right now.
No word
We're not sure where
Chad Daybell is at this moment.
Chad Daybell was
watching the search very closely,
and eventually tried to leave in his SUV.
The witnesses we spoke to said
it looked like
Chad Daybell was driving very fast.
I saw his car take off
down the road and, just seconds later,
the, the marked police cars
had their lights and sirens,
and floored it to go catch him.
The FBI called me, and they said,
"Colby, they arrested Chad today."
"And they found
human remains on his property."
I could have just died right there.
My body was, like, ready to faint.
So then I started asking her questions
like, "Is it a little skeleton?"
"Is it a little person? Is it a teenager?"
"Do you know?" and she didn't know.
And they hadn't even
been able to get to that process.
An autopsy will be, uh, conducted.
Um, shortly after
the remains were discovered,
uh, Chad Daybell was taken into custody.
It was just horrible to
even know that there was human remains.
Like, I didn't wanna know
if it really was them.
A huge day, probably one of
the biggest in this case so far.
Authorities served a
search warrant on Daybell's home,
leading to the discovery
of what now police confirm
is two sets of human remains.
Near the fire pit
and pet cemetery,
they found human bones and charred tissue.
We are gonna be out here
as we slowly start learning these details.
You just try somehow, some way,
to rationalize and protect yourself
from being hurt in that moment,
but in my heart, I knew it was them.
When I got the call
from Kay Woodcock this morning,
she held back tears, telling me
one set of the human remains found
belong to her grandson, JJ.
Then, a couple of hours later,
family members confirmed
the second set of remains
are of Tylee Ryan.
Their bodies have been
unearthed from a shallow grave in Idaho.
A very emotional moment
now facing the reality of
what happened to these children.
say you find
I'm sorry. I'm sorry.
We're all with you.
It was a horrible,
awful, terrible realization.
I said I knew Lori
couldn't hurt her kids, and I was wrong.
- What?
- Hello.
Those two beautiful
Hi, my name is Tylee.
talented, loving, generous kids
Oh, my gosh.
had so much to offer
and so much to experience.
- Picture. Cheese.
- Cheese.
I can't think
about them without crying.
I was honestly, like, angry.
It was just, like,
I was angry that this was real.
Yeah.
Say hello.
- Say hello.
- Hi, JJ.
- Hi, JJ.
- Hi, Colby.
Hi, Colby.
I just I just miss JJ and Ty.
Like, it's hard to talk about them.
Yeah. It's just hard.
An inmate
at the Madison County Jail.
How are you, bubba?
I'm not good, Mom.
I'm so sorry.
You're sorry?
- Of course I am.
- You're sorry.
Are you sorry for me?
Or are you sorry for my siblings?
My brother, who's
seven years old, is dead.
And my little sister, who's 16, is dead.
What I've seen
- is that you moved away
- And you've seen it?
You were there, so you saw
everything that happened, huh?
That's interesting.
This did not just happen.
They were murdered.
And the reason I'm calling you is
because I can't even fathom what happened.
I miss my family, Mom.
I know, baby. Me too. So do I.
What do you mean you miss them?
How can you miss them, Mom?
How can I not?
How can I not?
They're my babies!
Both parents face two charges of
conspiracy to conceal or destroy evidence.
Still, nobody is facing murder charges
related to Tammy's
death or the kids' death.
Some Idaho attorneys say they hope
and believe police have more evidence
that has not been released yet.
Chad Daybell will appear
in court tomorrow beginning at 11 a.m.
Daybell's preliminary hearing
will be livestreamed from Idaho
for the next two days.
This is the case
of State of Idaho v. Chad Guy Daybell.
Mr. Wood, you may call your first witness.
Thank you.
The State calls Ray Hermosillo.
Sir, you can be seated
here at the witness stand.
If you'll give your full name as well
as your occupation, we'll get started.
Ray Dennis Hermosillo.
I'm a detective with
the Rexburg Police Department.
Detective,
have you ever had the opportunity
to meet the defendant Chad Daybell?
Yes.
I was contacted
by Gilbert Police Department.
I was asked to do a welfare
check on a seven-year-old boy
by the name of Joshua Jackson Vallow.
Myself and Detective Hope
went to Lori Vallow's residence.
We ended up making contact
with the defendant, Mr. Daybell,
and Alex Cox.
I asked Mr. Daybell
how he knew Lori Vallow,
and he stated that he had only met
her a couple of times through Alex Cox.
What did you ask him?
I asked Mr. Daybell
when's the last time he saw JJ,
and he stated that he saw JJ
in Apartment 107 in October.
I asked Mr. Daybell
for Lori Vallow's phone number,
and he stated he didn't have it.
Detective Hope had come back
to where we were speaking.
I again asked Mr. Daybell
if he had Lori's phone number,
and at that point, he gave me
Lori Vallow's phone number.
Okay, did you ask him
why he hadn't given you that number?
- I did.
- And what was his response?
He stated that he felt like
I was accusing him of something.
Did you have any contact
with Lori Vallow that day?
I did not have
any contact with Lori. No.
Okay. Were you
still with Detective Hope?
I was.
Did he Do you know if he had
contact with Lori Vallow that day?
He did.
- Hi. Are you Lori?
- Hi.
Okay. So
JJ would be where?
He's with
one of my friends in Arizona.
Her name is Melanie Gibb.
Miss Gibb, if you'll please come forward.
Be seated here at this witness chair.
Miss Gibb, I'm gonna
call your attention to
the date of November 26th, 2019.
What contact, if any, did you
have with Mr. Daybell that day?
I received a phone call from
Chad Daybell from his cell phone.
He said, "Hi, Melanie, this is Chad."
Um, "The Rexburg Police
are gonna call you. Don't pick up."
He let me know that the police were
over at Lori Vallow's home in Rexburg,
and that, um, they were
inquiring about where JJ was,
and that she was going to
tell the police that JJ was with me.
I said, "JJ's not at Kay's house?"
How did
Mr. Daybell respond to that?
He said, "No."
Was there any other
content to that conversation?
I asked him if he was nervous,
and he said, "Yes."
And approximately what time
did you hear from Lori Vallow?
I
Possibly within an hour or two.
I can't exactly recall.
I recorded the conversation.
Okay.
Could you state your name?
David Gale Warwick.
Do you recall the night
of September 22nd, 2019?
Yes.
What did you do that night?
I was doing a podcast
with Melanie Gibb and Lori Vallow.
Was JJ there when you did your podcast?
No.
Did you talk to Lori about JJ?
I did.
She said that he was, uh, being a zombie
and climbed up on the cabinets,
climbed up on top of the fridge,
smashed her picture of Christ down,
then climbed up onto the upper cabinets
and got between the
top of the cabinet and the ceiling.
JJ, because of his autism,
he says things on repeat.
That was something, when I found out,
you know, like, what was going on,
I just thought, "Oh!"
If JJ heard something,
or he got caught in some
cycle just saying something,
that would've made him a liability.
I asked to see him, and she just
said that he was out of control.
So she had Alex come and get him.
Did you see him later that night?
- Yes.
- When?
When, uh, Alex brought
him home to put him to bed.
Okay.
David Warwick,
he remembers this time
he sees JJ with Alex as a tender moment.
JJ's laying in his arms, um,
and he's got his head on Alex's shoulder.
And he's just peaceful.
That's the last time he sees him.
- Say hi!
- Hi!
I personally believe that
when Alex brought JJ in that night,
the night that they were
working on the podcast,
I believe that JJ was dead.
How long
have you worked for the FBI?
For approximately six years.
I'm an intelligence analyst.
Were you asked
to review data from any devices?
Yes, I was.
It was a cell phone.
Tammy Daybell was
the user of the cell phone.
Mr. Dean, I'm gonna hand you
the state's exhibit 31 for admission.
Exhibit 31 is
being handed to the witness.
Could you please read
aloud the messages in this exhibit,
including time stamps and contact names?
This is a copy of the messages
sent between Chad and
Tammy Daybell on September 9th.
From Chad
Can you testify, Mr. Dean, that these
messages initially caught your attention?
The thing that
caught my attention was the date.
Upon reading this text message,
in which Chad appears
to claim to have started a fire,
shot and killed a large animal
and buried it on his property,
I recognized that it was sent a day
after Tylee Ryan was last seen alive.
One of the biggest
revelations about this case
is the amount of time, effort,
man-hours put into finding JJ and Tylee.
And then you realize they were killed
within a month of moving to Idaho,
and were in Chad's
backyard the whole time.
Agent, what involvement
did you have with the search
on the Chad Daybell residence?
I was the senior team leader
for the Evidence Response
at that search of Chad Daybell's
property on those dates.
So based on a text message,
we knew that there was discussion
of a pet cemetery.
We make the determination
based on seeing a statue of a dog.
And then in front
of the statue of the dog,
there's what appears to be a grave.
The difficulty, I think, for us
was the way these
human remains were found.
So it was kind of
partially burnt human remains.
So as we continue to
excavate another burial site,
it was a little bit more complex.
Once we removed some soil,
I observed a small child
in red pajamas.
Red pajama shirt, red pajama pants.
The most heartbreaking
image from this evidence
is a picture of JJ Vallow
taken from Lori's iCloud.
It's taken the day of September 22nd,
and you can assume it's Lori's apartment.
JJ's sitting on the couch
wearing his red pajamas.
A As you, uh,
looked at this child's face,
did you recognize this child?
Yes, I did.
I recognized that to be Joshua Vallow.
It's not even human
to take your own two children that you,
like, are supposed to love and care for,
and do what they did.
It breaks you,
like, in a way you've never felt.
In a surprise
super-fast hearing,
Lori Vallow Daybell waived
her right to a preliminary hearing.
You understand that
there will be no preliminary hearing
that is currently scheduled
for Monday and Tuesday.
That will be vacated. Is Understand?
Correct.
This morning, the legal team
representing the so-called "Doomsday Mom,"
Lori Vallow, are raising concerns
about her mental competency.
Now her attorneys say
she's unfit to stand trial.
The judge
halting proceedings for now,
but has yet to make a final determination
on whether proceedings will continue.
Vallow has been committed
to an Idaho Department of Health
and Welfare mental facility for 90 days,
and when that ends,
officials will determine
whether she can proceed to trial,
or needs additional treatment
to restore her competency.
Mr. Daybell, how do you plead?
Not guilty.
We'll enter the
"not guilty" plea on count one.
On count two, how do you plead?
Not guilty.
- On count three, how do you plead?
- Not guilty.
Chad Daybell
pleaded not guilty today,
meaning the case
will go forward to a trial.
I can't
tell you the level of suffering that
I've had to go through,
and I'm talking the brink of my life,
because of your decisions.
Well, I'm
definitely sorry about that.
I never meant to cause you
any pain of any sort, of any kind.
I never wanted to.
Well, I'm not the victim.
Well, I'm sorry that you don't
really fully understand the situation.
So
Why weren't my
siblings protected if it wasn't you?
If you didn't do anything wrong,
why were they murdered?
I've done everything
to protect them,
their whole lives, as you know.
Yeah, but their
whole lives are gone now.
They were killed.
You guys decided that
that was spiritually your mission,
under the name Jesus Christ.
I love you, but you don't know.
You just don't know.
You don't know.
You need to turn your heart
to Jesus Christ to let him save you.
You will see one day.
As I speak to you right now,
you will see.
Do you hear how crazy that is?
That nothing's your fault,
you did nothing wrong,
you have no idea what happened,
and sorry you don't have
a fuller understanding.
It was just To listen to her actually
try to flip the script is unbelievable.
We've got some
breaking news out of Idaho.
A grand jury just indicted a mom
and her husband on murder charges
for the deaths of her two children.
Daybell was also charged
yesterday with the murder of his late wife
who died three months
before he married Vallow.
Our other big story tonight:
Lori Daybell indicted here in the valley,
accused of conspiring
to murder her ex-husband.
Now a grand jury believes Lori and Alex
conspired that at least one of them
was going to commit first-degree murder.
Meanwhile, Lori is currently
in a state medical facility in Idaho
undergoing restorative treatment
after being found incompetent
to under understand
the charges against her in Idaho.
I want to be
as kind to her as I can be.
I don't see any reason to pile on to
somebody that's done something so awful.
I think whatever happens will just happen.
She's in jail,
and I think she'll
be there the rest of her life.
So there is gonna be justice done.
We did have a wonderful
family before this happened.
I don't know. I don't know if it's
strong enough to stand this or not.
We'll just have to see.
We are in Kauai on Hanalei Bay.
One of our favorite places as a family.
We're gonna be doing a memorial
for Charles and JJ and Tylee.
And it's something that
we've been needing for a really long time.
It's to honor them and to
remember them, and this is the place.
I'm so grateful
that this gets to happen here.
Kauai was such a happy place.
My brother, my sister, loved being here,
and I remember the things we did here.
Charles, I just want to
I just want to
thank you for being my dad.
I know you never deserved
what happened to you,
but I wouldn't have
the life that I had without you.
JJ, I just can't tell you
how much I love you.
You're the greatest little brother
anybody could ever ask for,
and I love you so much.
Tylee, you're who
made me a big brother, and
I'll never forget how much
I immediately fell in love with you
and immediately wanted to
protect you from everything in life,
and
I love all of you,
and
I'm grateful for all of you.
It's okay.
- I love you.
- I love you.
To me, it still
kind of just doesn't feel real.
But it's been really hard on all of us.
Throughout all of this, we
Colby and I have tried to make
Riley's life as normal as possible.
We're definitely gonna
let her know what happened.
We don't really know how yet.
But she knows Tylee and JJ's faces.
We have their pictures
everywhere all over our house.
I made Colby a photo blanket
with, um, their pictures on it,
and it's hanging up in her playroom.
And she'll walk up to it
and she'll go, "Ty-Ty. JJ."
I think that's been
the main thing for us right now,
is showing her who they are,
showing her videos, and saying their names
and really helping her remember them.
We have to
live with what happened.
And what am I gonna focus on?
Am I gonna focus on their death,
or am I gonna focus on
their memory and honoring them?
They don't want us sitting here broken,
destroyed by everything
because they're gone.
JJ!
I just really feel
like I'm making it through
because of Kelsee and Riley.
If I didn't have Riley,
if I didn't have my wife,
like, I don't think I would
I'd probably would have
just died from sadness.
Like, I have a purpose besides myself.
My biggest fear is that my mom's
story becomes our family's story.
She's not going to define anything else.
I know that in my heart.