Detective tells court in detail about discovery of kids’ bodies

BOISE, Idaho — A detective described in excruciating details Monday how investigators unearthed the remains of two children who had been missing for months while searching the rural Idaho property of a man charged with concealing evidence.

The testimony came during a preliminary hearing, where a judge will decide whether there is enough evidence to hold Chad Daybell for trial. He and the children’s mother face charges related to the hiding of the remains of 17-year-old Tylee Ryan and 7-year-old Joshua “JJ” Vallow.

Authorities have yet to say how the two died or whether homicide charges will be filed in the case, which has attracted worldwide headlines.

Late last year, Daybell married Lori Vallow Daybell, who’s charged with conspiring to help him keep the bodies of her children hidden. Both have pleaded not guilty in the case, which has ties to doomsday beliefs and the mysterious deaths of others close to the couple.

Rexburg police Detective Ray Hermosillo said JJ Vallow’s body was found beneath fresh sod, under which were three large white flat rocks in a row and then a piece of wood paneling. He said the body was buried in a black plastic bag covered in duct tape.

Hermosillo testified that the girl’s body was found a short distance away. He said investigators found evidence that the remains appeared to have been burned.

Investigators said they found the bodies by tracking the movements of Lori Vallow’s brother, Alex Cox, using cellphone data. Cox died of an apparent blood clot in his lung at his Arizona home in December.

The strange case began last summer after Cox fatally shot Lori Vallow’s estranged husband, Charles Vallow, in suburban Phoenix in what he asserted was self-defense. Vallow had been seeking a divorce, saying Lori believed that she had become a godlike figure who was responsible for ushering in the biblical end times.

A short time later, she and the kids moved to Idaho, where Chad Daybell lived. He ran a small publishing company and had written many fiction books about apocalyptic scenarios loosely based on the theology of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Friends said he claimed to be able to receive visions from “beyond the veil.”

At the time, Chad Daybell was married to Tammy Daybell. She died in October of what her obituary said were natural causes. Authorities grew suspicious when he married Lori Vallow two weeks later.