prophecies and the end of the world. Before they
left, Lori called dog trainer Mestas to return J.J.’s
service dog Bailey. “She called out of the blue and
said, ‘Charles has passed away, I need to re-home
Bailey,’ which was really puzzling because now you
think, ‘Doesn’t J.J. need the dog more than ever?’ ”
recalls Mestas.
Those who knew Lori expressed con-
cern over her fascination with Chad
Daybell, whose ideas were becoming
increasingly extreme. “He believed a lot
of strange things,” says his friend Brian
Scheider. “He was obsessed with the
end of the world. He said he understood
prophecy more than most people.”
But no one predicted that Chad’s
wife, Tammy, 49, with whom he had
five children, would be found dead in
the couple’s bed on Oct. 19 or that Chad would
marry Lori just weeks later. Though Tammy’s
death was originally ruled to be of natural caus-
es, the Fremont County sheriff ’s office has now
opened an investigation. “I didn’t think he was
capable of killing her,” says Tammy’s friend Dan-
ielle Janes, “but now I’m not so sure.”
Also being investigated: the death of Lori’s
brother Alex, 51, who was found unresponsive in
his girlfriend’s home on Dec. 12, five months after
killing Charles Vallow. Rich Robertson, a private
investigator working with Charles’s family, points
out a chilling fact: “Everybody involved in [the
day Charles was killed] is either dead or missing.
Charles is dead, Alex is dead, and Tylee and J.J.,
who were there, are missing.”
While multiple investigations continue in
four states, an attorney for Lori and Chad issued
a statement that did not address the children’s
whereabouts but said simply, “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.”
Police, meanwhile, have become increasingly
frustrated by Lori and Chad’s lack of cooperation.
“It is astonishing that rather than work with law
enforcement to help us locate her own children,Lori Vallow has chosen instead to leave the state
with her new husband,” the Rexburg police depart-
ment said in a statement. It’s a frustration keenly
felt by the children’s grandparents, who long for the
day they’ll embrace Tylee and J.J. again. “I believe
they’re out there somewhere,” says Kay Wood-
cock, “and I just want them to come home safe and
healthy, to a place where they are loved. ”With reporting by JEFF TRUESDELL‘WE WANT
ANSWERS.
WE NEED TO
KNOW THAT
THEY ARE
SAFE’
— KAY
WOODCOCK,
GRANDMOTHER
JAN. 25-FEB. 4, 2020
Authorities locate Lori and
Chad in Hawaii and order
Lori to produce the kids
in five days. She misses
the deadline. Police open
a storage locker rented
by Lori and find J.J. and
Tylee’s belongings (right).NOV. 26, 2019
After getting a call from
J.J.’s grandparents, police
conduct a welfare check
and realize that J.J. and
Tylee haven’t been seen
since September. They
open a missing-persons
investigation.
JAN.3-5, 2020
Authorities search Chad’s
home, collecting evidence.
Lori’s oldest son, Colby
(left), pleads with his mom
in a YouTube video to
bring the kids home safely.
“You have the power to
end this,” he says.BEGGING FOR
ANSWERS
“It’s a nightmare,”
says J.J.’s
grandmother Kay
Woodcock (above,
with husband
Larry) of the
disappearance
of Tylee and
J.J. (top).March 2, 2020 51