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Lori Vallow Daybell was convicted of murdering her two kids in 2023.
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The doomsday cult mom, who held strange religious views, was sentenced to life in prison.
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Chad Daybell is also accused of murdering the children.
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Jury selection has begun in Chad Daybell’s trial.
(NewsReady.com) – In 2019, Lori Vallow Daybell and Chad Daybell allegedly murdered her children, Joshua Jaxon “J. J.” Vallow and Tylee Ashlyn Ryan. The kids were missing for months before law enforcement found their bodies buried in Daybell’s backyard. A jury convicted Vallow Daybell of killing her kids and conspiring to murder Daybell’s first wife.
The trial against Daybell has now started.
Trial Begins
On Monday, April 1, Idaho District Judge Steven Boyce began jury selection in the Daybell murder trial. The case is being tried at the Ada County Courthouse in Boise, Idaho. Initially, Daybell was supposed to go on trial with his wife, Lori Vallow Daybell, but a judge severed the trials after he waived his right to a speedy trial.
Daybell is charged with eight counts, including the murder of his first wife, Tammy Daybell, and the two children. From Monday to Wednesday, 37 out of 50 jurors were added to the jury pool. The trial is estimated to last 8 to 10 weeks. Potential jurors are being questioned about their feelings about the death penalty and whether they’ve seen media coverage of the case.
The Murders
In July 2019, Daybell reportedly began exchanging messages with Vallow Daybell that investigators said were like “a romance novel.” Coincidentally, the text exchanges began the same month Vallow Daybell’s brother, Alex Cox, killed her estranged husband, Charles Vallow, in Arizona. On September 8, 2019, Vallow Daybell, Daybell, and Cox took the children on a trip to Yellowstone National Park. That was the last time 16-year-old Tylee was seen alive.
The next day, Daybell texted his wife, Tammy Daybell, and told her he was burying a raccoon he’d killed in the backyard. September 23, was the last time 7-year-old J.J. was seen alive. That day, Vallow Daybell unenrolled him from school and said she was going to homeschool. Less than a month later, on October 19, Tammy Daybell died at her home. Police initially thought it was a heart attack, but later discovered she was murdered.
On November 5, Daybell married Vallow Daybell in Hawaii. At that point, the children had been missing for weeks, and on November 26, police performed a welfare check after J.J.’s grandma reported him missing. Vallow Daybell lied and said he was with someone else. That person disputed the claims.
On December 1, the couple flew to Hawaii. Twelve days later, Cox died. The police declared the kids missing on December 20 and called the couple “persons of interest.” Vallow Daybell was told to return the kids to Idaho but failed to do so and was arrested in February 2020.
In June, authorities discovered the remains of the children on Daybell’s property. The couple was charged with murder in 2022. In 2023, Daybell Vallow was convicted and sentenced to life in prison. She’s also facing murder charges in Arizona for the death of Charles Vallow.
Copyright 2024, NewsReady.com
