Town wants answers on kids’ deaths
Within a few hours, a garden of mementos grew outside the rural crime scene. Pinwheels, flowers and stuffed animals dotted a fence near where police found remains believed to belong to two children in a bizarre case that has captured attention around the world.
For police, the grisly discovery this week marked a significant break in a months-long investigation into what happened to Joshua ‘‘JJ’’ Vallow, who was 7 when he vanished in September along with his 17-year-old sister Tylee Ryan.
For relatives, who said the remains belong to the children, their heartbreak was magnified.
‘‘I never thought it would come to this – I didn’t think they were dead,’’ said Timanee Olsen, who planned a vigil to mourn them. ‘‘It’s just sparked a lot of sadness in our town.’’
The children’s mother, Lori Vallow Daybell, has been in jail since February on felony child abandonment and other charges. Her new husband, Chad Daybell, was charged with concealing or destroying the bodies after police searched his rural property on Tuesday. The remains have yet to be formally identified, but family members told news outlets that they belong to JJ and Tylee.
Kay and Larry Woodcock, JJ’s grandparents, worked for months to keep the search for the children in the spotlight. With this week’s discovery, they have withdrawn to grieve.
The complex case transfixed the public with its ties to the mysterious deaths of the Daybells’ former spouses and the couple’s doomsday beliefs.
It began with Lori Daybell’s brother shooting and killing her estranged husband, Charles Vallow, in suburban Phoenix last year in what he asserted was selfdefence. Vallow was seeking a divorce, saying Lori believed she had become a god-like figure who was responsible for ushering in the biblical end times. Her brother, Alex Cox, died in December of an apparent blood clot in his lung.
Shortly after Vallow’s death, Lori and the children moved to Idaho, where Chad Daybell lived. He ran a small publishing company, putting out many fiction books he wrote about apocalyptic scenarios loosely based on the theology of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He also recorded podcasts about preparing for biblical end times, and friends said he claimed to be able to receive visions from ‘‘beyond the veil’’.
He was married to Tammy Daybell, who died in her sleep last October of what her obituary said were natural causes. Authorities grew suspicious when Chad Daybell married Lori just two weeks later, and they had Tammy Daybell’s body exhumed in December. The results of that autopsy have not been released.
Police began searching for Tylee and JJ in November after relatives raised concerns. Police say the Daybells lied to investigators about the children’s whereabouts before quietly leaving Idaho. They were found in Hawaii months later.