Cops confirm two sets of human remains were found at Lori Vallow’s husband’s home

Family members have confirmed that one set of children’s remains found on the property of Lori Vallow’s husband Chad Daybell were identified as her son, Joshua ‘JJ’ Vallow. 

JJ’s grandmother, Kay Woodcock, made the heartbreaking confirmation to Fox10 on Wednesday, hours after the remains were discovered buried in the backyard of the home in Salem, Idaho.  

The second set of remains have not yet been publicly identified, but its feared they could belong to Lori’s other child, 17-year-old daughter Tylee Ryan.  

The announcement came as Chad appeared in court to face two felony charges for destruction or concealment of evidence on Wednesday. His bail was set at $1million.  

According to a charging document, Chad ‘did willfully conceal and/or did aid and abet another to willfully conceal human remains, knowing that said remains were about to be produced, used and/or discovered as evidence in a felony proceeding, inquiry and/or investigation by law, with the intent to prevent it from being so produced, used and/or discovered’. 

Each of the counts corresponds with the date that either child was last seen. 

The first count ranges from September 8, 2019 – the day Tylee disappeared – to June 9, 2020. The second count ranges from September 22, 2019 – the day before JJ disappeared – to June 9, 2020. 

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Chad made the court appearance via a Zoom call from the Fremont County Jail.  

He was joined by his attorney John Prior while Judge Farren Eddins and Prosecutor Rob Wood called in from their respective offices. 

Dressed in a gray striped jail jumpsuit, Chad acknowledged the charges against him in a quiet, low voice. 

Prior requested to have bail set at $100,000, arguing that his client had no intention of leaving town. 

But Judge Eddins ultimately set it much higher at $1million, given the seriousness of the case and the fact that Chad previously fled from Idaho after police first began asking questions about the children back in November. 

Lori has spent the past four months behind bars on charges of abandonment and desertion in connection with the children’s disappearance. Her bail was also set at $1million.

She and Chad – the prolific Doomsday author, alleged cut leader and former grave digger whom she married less than two months after her kids vanished – had repeatedly refused to say where the children were but insisted that they were safe.

The last known sighting of 17-year-old Tylee was on September 8, when she visited Yellowstone National Park with her family. JJ, who would have turned eight last month, was last seen two weeks later on September 23. 

While some relatives believed that Lori would never hurt her kids, others have long feared that they could be dead.  

Fremont County Sheriff’s deputies, Rexburg Police officers and FBI agents arrived at Chad’s home on 200 block of 1900 East at about 7am Tuesday with a search warrant. 

Video showed them using a backhoe to dig up dirt near a barn in the yard.  

FBI spokeswoman Sandra Barker confirmed that the agency’s Evidence Response Team is assisting local authorities with the execution of the warrant. 

Police told media outlets on the scene that they planned to be there for several hours or days. 

Chief Hagen said an autopsy will be carried out on the remains found at the property in the coming days.

Footage capture by a bystander also showed police towing one of Daybell’s cars away from the property. 

This is the second major raid performed at the Daybell home since police began searching for the children in late November. 

During the previous raid on January 3, authorities removed 43 items from the home and combed over several sections of the yard with metal detectors and rakes.   

Lori and Chad are also being investigated for conspiracy, attempted murder and murder in the death of Chad’s first wife Tammy Daybell, who mysteriously died at the Salem home in October. 

Authorities began searching for the children in late November after performing a welfare check ordered by concerned relatives who said they hadn’t spoken to seven-year-old JJ, who is autistic, in months.

When officers first went to Lori’s home in Idaho on November 26, she told them that JJ was visiting relatives in Arizona – which investigators say was a lie.  

Officers returned the following day and found that Lori and the man she married weeks earlier, Chad Daybell, had fled from the home.  

Authorities say the couple have repeatedly lied about where JJ and Tylee are and refused to cooperate with the investigation.   

Lori and Chad were named persons of interest in the children’s disappearance after investigators said they believe the mother knew where her children were or what happened to them.  

The case captured nationwide attention with the revelations that police are also investigating three mysterious deaths linked to Lori and Chad, as well as family members’ claims that the couple are members of a dangerous doomsday cult.  

The first death is that of Lori’s estranged husband Charles Vallow, who was shot dead by her brother Alex Cox in Arizona on July 10.  

Charles and Lori had gotten into an argument when the father came to pick up JJ at the mother’s home in Chandler. 

Lori’s brother intervened and fatally shot Charles. 

Police initially determined that he acted in self defense – but the case was reopened amid the multi-state search for JJ and Tylee, who had moved to Idaho, where Chad lived, with their mother in August.   

The second mysterious death was Tammy Daybell, who was found dead at the home she shared with Chad on October 19.  

An obituary stated that Tammy passed away in her sleep and her cause of death was ruled as natural after Chad reportedly declined an autopsy. 

Investigators reopened the case after learning that JJ and Tylee were missing, as their mother had married Chad just two weeks after Tammy died. They believe the two cases could be linked.

Tammy’s body was exhumed on December 11 and the autopsy results have not yet been released. 

On December 12, Lori’s brother, Alex Cox, was found dead in Gilbert, Arizona. 

An autopsy determined that the 51-year-old’s died of natural causes but noted that he had the overdose drug Narcan in his system at the time.  

Police tracked Lori and Chad down in Princeville, Hawaii, in late January and served the mother with a court order requiring her to physically produce the children to authorities in Idaho by January 30. 

Lori failed to meet the deadline, prompting her arrest and extradition to Idaho, where she is currently being held at Madison County Jail in lieu of $1million bond.  

From grave digger to ‘cult’ leader: How Chad Daybell was arrested in the disappearance of Lori Vallow’s children just three weeks before he predicted the world would end 

Chad has been described as many things: a cult leader, a prolific Doomsday author and public speaker, a former grave digger, a loving father to five children with his first wife Tammy Daybell – who died two weeks before he and Lori tied the knot, and now, a suspected criminal.  

As the investigation finally appears to be coming to a head, DailyMail.com took a deep dive into what we know about Chad, based on accounts from court documents, family members, and friends from his past.  

Those who know Chad have often described him as a private but deeply charismatic man who preached his beliefs in one-on-one chats with his ‘followers’ and in his many books about the end of the world and near-death experiences. 

At the core of those beliefs was the idea that the Second Coming of Christ is set to take place in July 2020. 

Chad and Lori viewed themselves as prophets sent to earth by God to lead the ‘chosen 144,000’ into the New Millenium, according to court documents and accounts from friends and family. 

Born in Provo, Utah, in August 1968, Chad was raised as a devote member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and went on to study at Brigham Young University. 

Whilst pursuing a degree in communications at the the university, which is owned by the LDS Church, Chad met the woman he would go on to marry and have five children with – Tammy. 

The pair tied the knot in 1990 and were together for nearly three decades before Tammy died under suspicious circumstances at their home in Salem, Idaho. 

This past April, police announced that Chad, and Lori, whom he married less than two weeks after Tammy died, were under investigation for murder, attempted murder and conspiracy in his first wife’s death. 

One Foot In The Grave: How Chad’s ‘rewarding’ job as a grave digger and cemetery sexton fueled his later career as a self-published author of 25 books 

It was also during Chad’s time at BYU that he developed an unusual relationship with death while working as a grave digger at a cemetery.   

He went on to become a sexton at a cemetery in Springville – a job he called ‘rewarding’ and said helped launch his career as an author. He released his first book, One Foot in the Grave: Secrets of a Cemetery Sexton, in 2001.   

Chad described his fondness for the grave-digging job in an interview with Deseret News the same year. 

‘Taking care of the graves is rewarding, as well as helping widows and grieving family members deal with the trauma,’ he said at the time.  

‘Sad times are always when you have to bury babies. That’s always a poignant moment.’

He said he found cemeteries to be ‘fertile ground’ for story ideas – foreshadowing his prolific career as a self-published author and book editor.  

According to his website, Chad has penned more than 25 books and worked as an editor and publisher on countless others.   

In his books, Chad often described how he formed his religious views as a young man when he had two near-death experiences.  

The first was when he was cliff jumping as a 17-year-old and he ‘crossed into another dimension and realized there was a world beyond this one’.

The second was in his early-20s when he was smashed around in heavy surf. ‘He was hit with a monstrous wave at La Jolla Cove in California, the biography for his book Living on the Edge of Heaven states.

‘While his body was being tossed by the wave, his spirit was visiting with his grandfather, who showed him future events involving his still-unborn children.

‘This accident caused his ‘veil’ that separates mortal life from the Spirit World to stay partially open, so he often feels as if he has a foot in both worlds.’

He has written about apocalyptic times in a series of ‘Times of Turmoil’ books. One of the books, Days of Fury, tells of church members coping with the imposition of martial law and the aftermath of an earthquake in Salt Lake City, Utah.

‘Many Saints have found refuge and safety at mountain camps, but many others are coping with other natural disasters and civil disturbances that continue to plague the nation’s city,’ a promotional blurb for the book reads.

‘Meanwhile, a convoy of United Nations peacekeepers is making its way to Utah to assist in the full invasion of the United States by the Coalition forces, which will spark World War III.’  

Self-proclaimed prophet: Chad leveraged his influence in the Doomsday organization Preparing a People to form his own ‘cult’  

Many people who’ve known him over the years have described him as a ‘prepper’ – someone is getting ready for the end of times.    

He began heavily involved in an organization called Preparing a People, which says its mission is to ‘help prepare the people of this earth for the second coming of Jesus Christ’. 

On its website, the organization says it doesn’t represent any church or official church doctrines, policies or positions. 

However, many people associated with Preparing A People, and those who speak at their workshops and conferences, are members of the LDS Church.  

Friends say that Lori and Chad met through the organization at a conference where Chad was a guest speaker in October 2018. 

The organization aimed to distance themselves from Chad and Lori as the missing children’s case made headlines, allegedly fearing that misconceptions about Preparing a People could cause members to be excommunicated from the LDS Church. 

Chad’s media portrayal as a ‘cult leader’ led the leaders of Preparing a People to clarify that his alleged beliefs were not representative of the organization. 

Michael James, who operates the Preparing a People website, told the East Idaho News in December that while Chad was a popular speaker at some of their events, he was no longer affiliated with the group.  

‘He was one of our best speakers, and people really trusted him, (but) Chad evidently had some strange ideas about things we didn’t know about,’ James said.

‘Occasionally, that happens, and when it does, you need to break with them.’ 

He added: ‘I have no idea what Chad and Lori did in their spare time, but Preparing A People is not a cult. It’s just LDS people that go to conferences.’

James’ remarks were echoed in a statement put out on the Preparing a People website. 

‘We also do not share any of Chad Daybell’s or Lori Vallow’s beliefs if they are contrary to Christian principles of honesty, integrity, and truth, or if they do not align with the doctrines of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,’ it read. 

Around the same time late last year, DailyMail.com spoke to a religious leader who claimed Chad had been excommunicated from the LDS Church after he declared himself a prophet. 

Chad fostered his own intimate religious group on the sidelines of his involvement in Preparing a People. 

One of the group’s members was Melanie Gibb, Lori’s best friend. Gibb detailed her complex relationship with Lori and Chad – and their beliefs – in an interview with East Idaho News last month. 

A troubled union: Lori’s former best friend describes how she became obsessed with Chad’s teaching while both were still married to their previous spouses 

Gibb first met Chad a few years ago at a religious conference in northern Utah, where he was a guest speaker. 

She was already familiar with the books Chad had self-published, many of them about his dreams, near-death experiences and the end of times.  

‘I wanted to meet him because I thought his dreams were interesting, and when I met him, I thought he was a really nice guy,’ Gibb said.

She met Lori later, in October 2018, while teaching a class at her Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Gilbert, Arizona.  

The pair became friends instantly, bonding over everything from religion to motherhood. 

A few weeks later, they traveled together to St George, Utah, for a conference where Chad was speaking and selling his books.

Gibb described watching Lori approach Chad and struck up a conversation. 

She said Chad told Lori that they had met in a previous life and had been married multiple times in prior existences.  

‘They started talking about these different beliefs that are not something you learn in church,’ Gibb said, adding that many of the things they discussed were deeply personal and private. 

Lori and Chad then exchanged phone numbers and began talking on a daily basis.  

Gibb went on to spend a lot of time with the couple during intimate meetings where Chad would pull people to the side for deep one-on-one conversations.   

‘He was teaching us about some of his understandings about multiple lives and things of that nature,’ Gibb said. 

‘It was definitely different. The idea was definitely a new concept. Did I 100 percent believe any of it, ever? No, not 100 percent, no. 

‘When you get introduced to something, you kind of let it marinate. I just listened to them talk about it.’

Gibb said Chad’s teachings did not represent the doctrine of the LDS Church – but did not definitively say if she felt the group was a cult.    

In hindsight, Gibb admitted that she found Lori and Chad’s beliefs about the Second Coming to be ‘little unusual’, but said they made her feel special by telling her she was one of the chosen and insisting that they’d known each other in previous lives.  

And one day, Lori told Gibb she was sealed to Chad.

Latter-day Saints believe that relationships continue after death if a husband and wife are sealed in the temple by an officiant. People cannot be sealed to a second spouse if they are already legally married to a living person. 

‘[Lori said] they felt they were sealed by those on the other side of the veil that had the authority to do that,’ Gibb said. 

‘She said it was okay they did this because they had been married so many times before, that their [current] spouses would understand someday.’

Gibb mentioned several other portions of Chad’s teachings that alarmed her, including when he created a spiritual ‘portal’ in Lori’s closet.  

‘A portal is a spot where he said a prayer or something to create the portal. I wasn’t there, so I don’t know. [But] it was a way for them to interact spiritually,’ Gibb explained. 

‘I thought it was different. I thought: ‘How do you do that?’ It was pretty extreme, but to me, everything was new.’

Gibb also described an extensive chart Chad made that ranked people based on their spiritual level.  

It was four pages and included Biblical apostles, the current Latter-day Saint 12 apostles, family members, friends and celebrities.   

The chart detailed how many lives each person had lives, whether they were ‘dark’ or ‘light’ spirits, their previous names and other unusual information.  

It stated that Lori was on her 21st life, Chad was on his 31st, and both had lived five lives on this earth. Chad was identified as a Holy Ghost. 

Gibb said that Lori and Chad only seemed to share their extreme beliefs with the people close to them.  

In hindsight, she thinks they kept them private to protect their membership in the church. 

‘When you go in the temple, there are certain questions they ask you to see if your belief systems are consistent with the doctrine,’ Gibb said. 

‘They were inconsistent, so that’s the reason they’re going to be secretive about it.’   

Many friends and relatives have said they think that Lori and Chad’s extreme religious views are involved with the disappearance of her children and the string of mysterious deaths that have occurred in their orbit.