Tylee Ashlyn Ryan (September 24, 2002 – September 9, 2019) and Joshua Jaxon "J. J." Vallow (May 25, 2012 – September 23, 2019) were two American children from Rexburg, Idaho, who were missing since September 2019 and subsequently found deceased in June 2020. Tylee Ryan was last seen alive at Yellowstone National Park on September 8, 2019. J.J. was last seen alive on September 23, 2019, at Rexburg's Kennedy Elementary School. Prompted by relatives concerned not only about the children they hadn't heard from in weeks, but also about other suspicious incidents, in November 2019 police questioned their mother, Lori Vallow Daybell, about the children's whereabouts and welfare.
Vallow and her new husband, Chad Guy Daybell, falsely told the police that J.J. was staying with family friend Melanie Gibb in Arizona, where they had lived before moving to Idaho in early September 2019. When police reached Gibb by phone, she told police that Joshua was not with her and had not been there for several months. More than a week later, Gibb called police saying that both Lori and her husband, Chad Daybell, had asked her to lie to police about J.J.'s whereabouts but she refused. Police efforts to locate J.J. led them to discover that his older sister, Tylee Ryan, was also missing.
Further complicating the children's disappearances and lack of cooperation from the mother was a string of suspicious deaths and a shooting. In July 2019, Vallow's estranged husband, Charles Vallow, was shot and killed in Phoenix, Arizona by Lori's brother, Alex Cox, who claimed self-defense, which was accepted by the police. Alex Pastenes died of a blood clot in December 2019. In early-October 2019, Brandon Boudreaux, the then-estranged husband of Lori Vallow's niece, Melani Boudreaux, was shot at in the driveway of his Gilbert, Arizona home from a vehicle still registered to the deceased Charles Vallow. This shooting prompted Boudreaux to hire a private detective to investigate the suspicious incidents. Other private investigators hired by Boudreaux in Idaho noticed the children missing. Also in October 2019, Chad Daybell's wife, Tammy Daybell, was attacked in her driveway by what she believed was someone shooting a defective paintball gun. A few weeks later, on October 19, she died in her sleep from what was initially recorded as "natural causes". No post-mortem or autopsy was performed. After Chad and Lori married just two weeks after Tammy's death, law enforcement became suspicious and began investigating Tammy's cause of death.
On February 20, 2020, Lori Daybell was arrested in Kauai and charged with desertion and nonsupport of her dependent children. She was extradited to Idaho and traveled there on Thursday, March 5, 2020. She appeared in court on Friday, March 6 where the judge reduced the bail from $5 million to $1 million; as of July 2020, she remains in jail.
On June 9, 2020, police executed a search warrant at Chad Daybell’s home and discovered the human remains of J.J. and Tylee. Chad Daybell was arrested later that day on charges of destruction or concealment of evidence.
Background
Chad Guy Daybell was born August 11, 1968, in Provo, Utah. He married Tamara "Tammy" Douglas (May 4, 1970 – October 19, 2019) in Manti, Utah on March 9, 1990. He graduated from Brigham Young University in 1992 with a B.A. in journalism, and worked, among others jobs, as a cemetery sexton (also referred to as a "gravedigger" by detractors). In 2004, Daybell founded Spring Creek Book Company, devoted to his end times fiction and other religious books, with a man identified in media only by the name Douglas, a graphic artist and manager. Chad and Tammy had five children: Garth, Emma, Seth, Leah, and Mark.
In 2015, Chad Daybell claimed he heard a voice telling him to relocate to Rexburg, Idaho. He and Tammy moved there from Springville, Utah that June.
On October 9, 2019, Tammy Daybell reported on Facebook and to police that she was shot at, in her driveway, by a masked man with what she believed was a defective paintball marker. The Fremont County sheriff's office did not find the perpetrator. Ten days later she was found dead in her home, purportedly from natural causes. Chad Daybell claimed that she had retired the night before "with a terrible cough" and died in her sleep. No post-mortem or autopsy was performed at the time as Chad Daybell declined and the county coroner, Brenda Dye, did not overrule his decision. Two months later, Tammy Daybell's body was exhumed and autopsied but the results have not been made public.
On June 9, 2020, police executed a search warrant at Chad Daybell’s Idaho home where they discovered human remains. Daybell was booked into jail later that day on charges of obstruction or concealment of evidence. On June 10, 2020, Chad's bail was set at $1 million.
Another factor contributing to the mystery is the well-documented obsession of Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell with certain "end of times" beliefs, about which Chad Daybell has written a number of books, and together they have discussed in podcasts. Reportedly Vallow's niece, Melani Boudreaux, shares these beliefs.
Lori Norene Daybell, also referred to as Lori Vallow Daybell, was born Lori Norene Cox on June 26, 1973 in San Bernardino, California. At the age of 19, she married high school sweetheart Nelson Yanes in 1992 and the marriage ended in divorce shortly afterwards. At age 22, she married 23-year-old William Lagioia in Travis County, Texas, on October 22, 1995. She and Lagioia had a son, Colby, in 1996, before divorcing on February 25, 1998.
In 2001, Lori married Joseph Anthony Ryan Jr. Ryan legally adopted Colby before the couple had a daughter, Tylee, born in 2002. Ryan filed for divorce on August 13, 2004; the divorce was finalized on May 18, 2005. In 2007, Joseph Ryan was attacked by Lori's brother, Alexander Lamar "Alex" Cox, who tasered him and threatened to murder him. Cox pled guilty and was sentenced to 90 days in jail. Joseph Ryan died eleven years later, on April 3, 2018, from a myocardial infarction. Towards the end of his own life, Alex Cox used the surname Pastenes, having apparently legally adopted the surname of his fiancée, Zulema Pastenes, whom he married in Las Vegas on November 29, 2019, roughly two weeks before his own death on December 12, 2019, which was attributed to blood clots and high blood pressure. Cox died one day after the exhumation of Tammy Daybell's remains before he could be questioned by the police. Lori was known to the Ryan family as "Lolo".
On February 24, 2006 — 282 days after her previous divorce — Lori Ryan married Leland Anthony Vallow (born August 17, 1956, Calcasieu, Louisiana – died July 11, 2019), known as Charles Vallow, in Las Vegas, who had converted to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In 2013, the couple adopted Vallow's grandnephew, Joshua Jaxon "J.J." Vallow (2012-2019), before moving to Kauai in late 2014.
Around 2015, Lori Vallow read Daybell's Standing in Holy Places series of books, becoming "obsessed" with them, according to a friend. After about two and a half years in Hawaii, the Vallow family moved to Arizona. On December 5, 2018, she first joined Daybell on the podcast Preparing a People (episode "Time to Warrior Up"), and would continue to do so. In February 2019, according to Charles Vallow, Lori said "she no longer cared about him or J.J.", and that she was the reincarnated wife of Joseph Smith, before vanishing for 58 days. That same month, Charles Vallow filed for divorce, saying that his wife had "threaten[ed] to murder him", taken US$35,000 from their joint bank accounts, and stolen his truck. However, Charles Vallow withdrew the petition one month later, in March 2019, saying he "wanted to try to make the marriage work".
In March 2020, an email written by police in Arizona revealed that Lori Vallow could soon be indicted in relation to the death of her ex-husband, Charles Vallow. A wedding ring was purchased on Amazon for $35.99 on October 2, 2019, 17 days before Chad Daybell's first wife, Tammy, aged 49, died of undisclosed causes, purportedly in her sleep. Lori Vallow paid for the ring on her deceased husband's Amazon account. The ring was delivered to a Rexburg townhouse and was in the name of the now-deceased Charles Vallow. Lori Vallow continued to use her late husband's account after his death.
Disappearance
As of September 23, 2019, a doorbell video of J.J. Vallow playing with a friend is the last video of him taken. Rexburg's Kennedy Elementary School is the last confirmed place he was seen. On September 24, 2019, Lori Vallow contacted J.J.'s school to tell them that she was withdrawing him, claiming she would be homeschooling him. Tylee Ryan was last seen September 8, 2019 at Yellowstone National Park with her brother J.J., her mother Lori Vallow, and her uncle Alex Cox (aka Alex Pastenes), Lori's brother. Chad Daybell had become incommunicado, last speaking with filmmaker Devin K. Hansen via text messaging.
In October, two Venmo payments were made from Tylee's account to her older half-brother, Colby Ryan. One payment was sent on October 10, 2019 with a message that read "we love you", and the second payment was sent on October 16, 2019, with a heart emoji. Colby has said he had not heard from Tylee since the October texts. After text-messaging Tylee indicating he was worried, he received responses from Tylee's cell phone that indicated she was safe, but too busy to talk. After repeated calls to Tylee went unanswered, Colby Ryan became more worried.
Vallow and Daybell
Vallow and Daybell were married in Hawaii on November 5, 2019, two weeks after the death of Tamara Daybell. Also in November, they both told people that Tylee had died in 2017 and/or that Lori had no minor children. At the request of J.J.'s grandmother, Kay Woodcock, the police visited Lori Daybell's Rexburg, Idaho townhouse on November 26 to conduct a welfare check on J.J., but Vallow told police that J.J. was in Arizona with family. That night, a neighbor saw Lori Vallow Daybell and her brother packing a truck outside her home. When the police and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) arrived the next day to search the home, it was abandoned. Chad Daybell's home was also searched by investigators.
From December 2019 – January 2020, the Rexburg police, Fremont County sheriff's office, and FBI increased the investigation into the disappearance of the two children, as well as Tamara Daybell's death, and the flight of Chad and Lori Daybell from Idaho. Evidence was collected, and Tamara Daybell's body was exhumed for autopsy. Colby Ryan and J.J. Vallow's grandparents pleaded with the Daybells to return the children, with the latter offering a reward of $20,000. Investigators contended that "'Joshua and Tylee's lives are in danger.', [...] the children are not with Chad and Lori. [... Lori] knows where they are or what has happened to them, but has 'completely refused to assist this investigation, [choosing instead to leave the state with her new husband.'" Through their lawyer, the Daybells said, "Chad Daybell was a loving husband and has the support of his children in this matter. Lori Daybell is a devoted mother and resents assertions to the contrary. We look forward to addressing the allegations once they have moved beyond speculation and rumor."
Storage locker
The day after being questioned, Vallow and Daybell left Rexburg, abandoning a storage locker full of children's items and photos, and were not seen until they were found in Kauai, Hawaii on Sunday, January 26, 2020. A search warrant was issued to search their rental car. They found items belonging to the missing children. Police also gave Vallow a court order demanding she produce the children by January 30. The children were not produced as ordered.
A storage locker rented by Lori Vallow in October 2019 which contained items belonging to, or related to, J.J. Vallow and Tylee Ryan, such as clothing, bikes, and photographs, was abandoned by her when she suddenly left Rexburg, Idaho, at the end of November 2019. Video footage shows her and her brother, Alex Cox (later Alex Pastenes), moving items in and out of the locker.
Arrests and criminal charges
On February 20, 2020, Lori Vallow was arrested by the Kauai Police Department in Princeville, Hawaii and charged with two felony counts of desertion and nonsupport of dependent children by prosecutors in Madison County, Idaho. She was also charged with three misdemeanors: resisting or obstructing officers, criminal solicitation to commit a crime, and contempt of court. She was being held on $5 million bail. She later agreed to be extradited back to Idaho to fight the charges. The judge lowered her bail from $5 million to $1 million.
In a March 24, 2020 report, official court documents noted that Lori and Chad Daybell had been convinced that Tylee and J.J. had been "possessed" and become "zombies."
On May 1, 2020, Lori appeared for a court hearing in Rexburg, Idaho, to request a reduction of her $1 million bail. The judge denied her request. At least two local bond companies are reportedly unwilling to work with her.
On June 9, 2020, police executed a search warrant at Chad Daybell’s home where they discovered human remains. Daybell was booked into jail later that day on obstruction or concealment of evidence. On June 10, 2020, his bail was set at $1 million. On July 2, prosecutors dropped two charges against Lori Daybell, two felony counts of desertion and nonsupport of dependent children and instead charged her with obstruction or concealment of evidence after her children's human remains were found.
In July 2020, Lori Daybell's bond was lowered on her three misdemeanor charges in Madison County to $150,000 from $1 million. She still faces a $1 million dollar bond on the two felony counts in Freemont County. In addition to the bond reduction, a jury trial for the Madison County charges against Lori has been set for January 25-29, 2021.
Deaths
On June 10, 2020, the Woodcock and Ryan families confirmed that the human remains found in Daybell’s property were that of Tylee and J.J. On June 13, the Rexburg Police Department officially announced that the remains were that of the children. Since the children were found, they are no longer considered missing and the investigation is now focused on the cause of and the motive for the children's death.
Timeline
March 9, 1990 — Chad Daybell and Tamara Douglas are married.
2001 — Lori Norene Cox marries Joseph Anthony Ryan Jr.
September 24, 2002 — Tylee Ryan is born to Lori and Joseph, who later divorce.
February 24, 2006 — Lori Ryan marries Charles Vallow.
2007 — Alex Cox attacks Joseph Ryan with a taser and threatens his life; Cox sentenced to 90 days in jail.
May 25, 2012 — Joshua Jaxon "J.J." Vallow is born, the son of Charles Vallow's nephew.
July 2014 to February 2019
July 2014 — Lori and Charles officially adopt Joshua Jaxon "J.J." Vallow.
End of 2014 — Charles and Lori move to Kauai, Hawaii with Tylee and J.J.
Mid-2017 — The Vallows move to Arizona.
April 3, 2018 — Joseph Ryan dies of apparent heart attack.
December 5, 2018 — Chad Daybell and Lori Vallow meet.
February 2019 to March 2019 — Lori Vallow disappears for 58 days.
February 8, 2019 — Charles Vallow files for divorce from Lori. In the filing, Charles claims that, in late January 2019, Lori threatened to murder him if he got in the way of her preparations for Christ's second coming in July 2020.
July 2019 to August 2019
July 11, 2019 — Charles Vallow shot dead by Lori's brother, Alex Cox, who claims self-defense.
July 12, 2019 — Lori Vallow notifies Charles' sons from another marriage of his death via text message. She repeatedly dodges their questions regarding his cause of death.
July 2019 — Days after Charles Vallow's death, Lori learns her late husband had changed the beneficiary of his million dollar life insurance policy from Lori to his sister, Kay Woodcock, who is also J.J.'s paternal grandmother.
August 10, 2019 — The last time grandparents Larry and Kay Woodcock reportedly speak with J.J.
August 30, 2019 — Lori returns J.J.'s service dog, citing "a change in life circumstances".
September 2019 to November 2019
September 2019 — Lori, with Tylee, and J.J., moves to Rexburg, Idaho to be with Chad Daybell.
September 8, 2019 — Tylee is last seen, in Yellowstone National Park, along with Lori, Alex and J.J.
September 23, 2019 — J.J. is last seen, at his new school, Kennedy Elementary in Rexburg, Idaho.
September 24, 2019 — Lori informs J.J.'s school that he will no longer be attending and will be homeschooled instead.
October 1, 2019 — Lori rents storage locker in Rexburg in which children's belongings are later found.
October 2, 2019 — Brandon Boudreaux, Lori Vallow's nephew-in-law, is the target of a failed drive-by shooting in Gilbert, Arizona, by someone driving a green Jeep Cherokee still registered to Charles Vallow.
October 9, 2019 — Tamara "Tammy" Daybell calls police after a masked assailant attempted to shoot her in her garage with what she believed was a paintball gun.
October 19, 2019 — Tammy Daybell is found dead in her home in Salem, Idaho, approximately 5 miles (8.0 km) away from Rexburg. The death was initially ruled due to natural causes, but as of February 11, 2020, was under investigation.
October 2019 — Lori's brother, Alex Cox, believed to be seen on video security footage using Lori's storage unit numerous times during this period, usually alone.
October 31/November 1, 2019 — Alex Cox and Lori's niece, Melani Boudreaux, reportedly seen by Melani's ex-husband, Brandon Boudreaux, packing up in Chandler, Arizona, "before driving up to Rexburg", and discarding children's items on the curb. Some of the information comes from a private investigator hired by Brandon Boudreaux after the October 2 shooting.
November 4, 2019 — Alex Cox and Melani Boudreaux arrive in Rexburg.
November 5, 2019 — Lori Vallow marries Chad Daybell in Hawaii.
November 26, 2019 — Rexburg Police Department conducts a well-being check on J.J. Lori claims J.J. is with relatives in Arizona and Tylee is away at Brigham Young University in Idaho.
November 27, 2019 — Chad and Lori are seen packing. They abandon everything in Rexburg, including the contents of Lori's storage unit, and disappear until found in Kauai in late January.
November 27, 2019 — Rexburg police search for children, to no avail, with search warrants to the three apartments of Lori Vallow Daybell, Alex Cox (aka Alex Pastenes) and Melani Boudreaux.
November 29, 2019 — Alex Cox marries Zulema Pastenes of Gilbert, Arizona in Las Vegas.
November 30, 2019 — Newly-divorced Melani Boudreaux marries Ian Pawlowski of Rexburg in Las Vegas, one day after Alex Cox (Melani's uncle) wed Zulema Pastenes. Cox legally changed his name to Alex Pastenes just before his marriage
December 2019 to March 2020
December 11, 2019 — Authorities decide to further investigate the death of Tammy Daybell.
December 12, 2019 — Alex Cox (aka Alex Pastenes), dies at his home in Gilbert, Arizona. A 911 call is made by someone who identifies Alex as their mother's "boyfriend" and to report his collapse in the bathroom of the home of his new wife, Zulema Pastenes. His death is later attributed by autopsy to natural causes, i.e. blood clots and high blood pressure.
December 20, 2019 — Rexburg Police Department officially announce an investigation into the disappearances of Tylee and J.J.
January 3, 2020 — Rexburg Police Department and FBI search Chad and Tammy's former home in Idaho.
January 25, 2020 — Local authorities locate Chad Daybell and Lori Vallow in Kauai, Hawaii and serve Lori with court order requiring her to produce the children within five days.
January 30, 2020 — Lori misses court-ordered deadline to produce J.J. and Tylee.
February 10, 2020 — CBS News reports police found Tylee's cell phone with Lori's belongings in Hawaii.
February 20, 2020 — Lori Vallow is arrested in Kauai and charged with two felony counts of desertion and nonsupport of dependent children.
February 24, 2020 — In child custody court documents, Brandon Boudreaux has said that Ian Pawlowski told law enforcement that Melani conspired with her uncle Alex Cox to kill Brandon. Brandon also alleges in these papers that police are investigating Melani's role in the disappearance of the children as well as Brandon's shooting.
February 26, 2020 — In extradition hearing, judge refuses to lower Lori's $5 million bail. She remains incarcerated in Kauai awaiting extradition to Idaho.
March 6, 2020 — In first hearing after being extradited from Hawaii to Idaho, court lowers bail from $5 million to $1 million.
March 9, 2020 — Lori remains in jail, and some local bail bond companies reportedly have refused to assist her.
June to July 2020
June 9, 2020 — Human remains were found on Chad Daybell's property in Salem, Idaho. Daybell was arrested later that day. He is being charged with two felony counts of "Destruction, Alteration or Concealment of Evidence" and is currently being held at Fremont County Jail.
June 10, 2020 — Kay Woodcock, the biological grandmother of J.J. Vallow, announces that one of the sets of human remains belongs to Vallow. The Ryan family confirm that the second set of remains belong to Tylee Ryan.
June 13, 2020 — Authorities officially confirm the remains are those of the children.
June 29, 2020 — Police execute another search warrant at the home of Chad Daybell.
July 17, 2020 — Lori Daybell's jury trial was set in Madison County for January 25-29, 2021, on three misdemeanor charges.
Notes
Tylee was last seen September 8, 2019, at Yellowstone National Park. Authorities believe Tylee died around September 9, 2019 in Rexburg, based on location data on the cell phone of her uncle Alex Cox.
J.J. was last seen on the evening of September 23, 2019, at his mother Lori Daybell's Rexburg apartment. His uncle Alex Cox later went to take J. J. to his apartment. Authorities believe J. J. died around that time frame based on location data on the cell phone of his uncle.
Daybell has been known by a variety of different legal names. She was known as Lori Norene Ryan when she was married to her second husband Joseph Ryan and was announced as such during her Mrs. Texas beauty pageant in 2004. After marrying Charles Vallow, Lori took the name Lori Norene Vallow and has been known as such since the investigation into the disappearance and deaths of her children. Since marrying Chad Daybell, Lori has informed Madison County court that she prefers the name Lori Norene Daybell. She is referred to as both Lori Norene Vallow and Lori Norene Daybell in court filings. She has commonly been referred to as Lori Vallow Daybell in the media during the investigation.
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