Day 13: Vallow Daybell told police JJ was at the movies during welfare check, footage shows

An 18-person jury has spent nearly the last two weeks listening to testimony from over a dozen witnesses in the trial of Lori Vallow Daybell, a 49-year-old Rexburg mother accused of murder in the deaths of her two children.

Lori and Chad Daybell — who had a months-long affair before getting married — were charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of Tylee and JJ, along with three counts of conspiracy to commit murder.

Vallow Daybell is accused of conspiring to kill Chad Daybell’s then-wife, Tammy Daybell. Vallow Daybell faces a felony charge in Arizona as well for allegedly conspiring to kill her fourth husband, Charles Vallow.

Chad Daybell — whose trial date hasn’t been set — also faces a first-degree murder charge in Tammy Daybell’s death. Chad and Lori got married on a Hawaii beach two weeks after Tammy Daybell’s body was buried in a Utah cemetery, according to witnesses throughout the trial.

Authorities said they believe Lori’s brother Alex Cox — who died from natural causes — also conspired to kill JJ, Tylee and Tammy Daybell, according to the indictment filed by prosecution teams from Madison and Fremont counties.

The prosecution has called 18 witnesses so far, and four of them have been officials from Arizona who have recounted the shooting of Vallow Daybell’s fourth husband, Charles Vallow.

The defense has objected to statements or the entire testimony from those witnesses and said they believe anything that happened in Arizona isn’t relevant to the trial in Idaho.

Three of those witnesses testified Wednesday — including Scott Cowden, a firefighter in Chandler, Arizona, who performed CPR on Charles Vallow.

Typically, in criminal trials, evidence that indicates other alleged or convicted crimes is off-limits. According to Idaho Rules of Evidence, “evidence of a crime, wrong, or other act is not admissible to prove a person’s character.”

But it can be used when trying to prove “motive, opportunity or intent.”

2:25 p.m. — Body camera footage captures Vallow Daybell a month after kids went missing

A roughly five-minute body camera video from the Rexburg Police Department was played in the courtroom Thursday afternoon. In the video, Rexburg Police Det. David Stubbs and two other officers knocked on Vallow Daybell’s Rexburg apartment on Nov. 26, 2019.

When the offices asked Vallow Daybell about JJ’s whereabouts, she quickly told them he was in Arizona with her friend Melanie Gibb. But Gibb never had JJ, according to her testimony last week.

Gibb said during her testimony that the Daybells had told her police would be contacting her about JJ. Chad Daybell initially told Gibb not to answer her phone, but then Vallow Daybell later asked Gibb to lie to the police and say JJ was with her.

Throughout the roughly five minutes that the officers were in Vallow Daybell’s apartment, she talked a lot. Vallow Daybell told them that Tylee was attending Brigham Young University-Idaho, and mentioned that she didn’t receive any money from Charles Vallow’s life insurance policy.

“We got nothing for me to raise JJ,” Vallow Daybell told the officers. Charles Vallow changed the beneficiary on his $1 million life insurance policy from Vallow Daybell to his sister, Kay Woodcock, before he was killed.

Vallow Daybell also told police that Chad Daybell was her brother’s friend, adding that “he’s an author.” But at this point, Chad and Lori Vallow Daybell had been married — and the police knew, Stubbs said.

The officers left Vallow Daybell’s home but quickly returned and asked her if she’d call Gibb and asked her to call the Arizona police department back.

“Apparently she’s not answering the phone down there,” an officer said, referring to Gibb.

Vallow Daybell told the officers that she’d call Gibb but mentioned that Gibb and JJ were likely at the movies watching “Frozen 2.” Gibb told police later that JJ wasn’t with her.

The next day, authorities searched three apartments — which were being rented by Vallow Daybell, Cox and Vallow Daybell’s niece Melani Pawlowski — in Rexburg. They didn’t find anyone at the apartments.

1:20 p.m. — Chad Daybell burned wood, buried raccoon after Tylee was last seen

FBI Intelligence Agent Benjamin Dean, who testified Thursday, said he reviewed text messages sent to Tammy Daybell’s cellphone as a part of the investigation into the case. He said a text exchange between Tammy and Chad Daybell on Sept. 9, 2019, caught his attention.

At around noon that day, Chad Daybell texted Tammy Daybell that he had an “interesting morning” because when he went outside to burn some old wood in case the weather got bad, he spotted a large raccoon. Chad Daybell said he shot the raccoon and buried it in their pet cemetery.

Dean said the text message was concerning to him because it was the day after Tylee was last seen at Yellowstone National Park.

Tylee’s remains were found buried in a shallow grave in the pet cemetery, Rexburg Police Detective Ray Hermosillo said during his testimony last week, after being burned in the property’s fire pit.

Dean also noted that Chad Daybell’s text didn’t match the normal way he communicated with Tammy Daybell. He said that from his observation, it was the first and only time that Chad Daybell sent Tammy a longer narrative text.

1 p.m. — No Daybell case in court Friday

There will not be court Friday, and the trial is expected to pick back up Monday.

”The case is moving much more quickly than we thought,” said Rachel Smith, an attorney with the prosecution. The prosecution has called four witnesses as of 1 p.m.

11 a.m. — One of the last people who saw JJ alive testifies

David Warwick, the now-husband of Vallow Daybell’s former friend Melanie Gibb, said during his testimony Thursday that he had one of the worst nightmares of his life when he and Gibb stayed at Lori’s Rexburg apartment on Sept. 23, 2019.

Gibb said during her testimony last week that when Warwick woke up, Gibb attempted to wake up Vallow Daybell to find Chad Daybell so that he could give Warwick a blessing. But Gibb said Vallow Daybell’s door was locked and she couldn’t find her.

That morning, when the couple was getting ready to leave Vallow Daybell’s home, Warwick asked Vallow Daybell where JJ was because he didn’t see him. Vallow Daybell told him that Cox, her brother, picked him up.

Vallow Daybell told Warwick, according to his testimony, that JJ wasn’t behaving, had climbed up on the cabinets and fridge and “knocked over a picture of Christ.” Warwick said that he thought that was strange because there weren’t any scuffs or noticeable damage, so he asked to see JJ.

“I was just trying to understand what was going on here,” Warwick said.

Vallow Daybell said JJ was with Cox. Warwick, when asked by the defense, said that he didn’t see any reason to suspect anything because Vallow Daybell was one of the “sweetest” people he knew.

Warwick was likely one of the last people to see JJ alive, as he saw Cox take JJ, who was sleeping, upstairs to his bedroom around 10:30 p.m. on Sept. 22, 2019.

Warwick traveled to Rexburg that weekend in part to record a podcast with the Daybells. He had done podcasts before and had spoken previously at a Preparing A People conference about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and his visions and dreams.

Preparing A People is an organization of people who were preparing for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. The group — which had fringe beliefs — was not affiliated with the church, but most members of the group were LDS members.

Preparing A People’s website organizer, Michael James, told East Idaho News in February 2020 that the group is not a cult, and “it’s just LDS people that go to conferences.”

Warwick said he didn’t believe the Daybells’ beliefs that they were part of the 144,000 people who would be saved during the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, and that a revelation like that would need to come from the church’s president.

Throughout the defense’s questions, Jim Archibald, Vallow Daybell’s attorney, asked Warwick about previous visions he’s publicly talked about.

“You’ve seen visions of Russia and China invading the United States, right?” Archibald asked.

“Yes,” Warwick responded.

The court adjourned for lunch at 11:50 a.m.

9:40 a.m. — JJ last seen at elementary school on Sept. 20

JJ was enrolled at Kennedy Elementary in Rexburg, Idaho on Sept. 3, 2019, Principal Josh Wilson said during his quick testimony Thursday.

Exactly three weeks later, on Sept. 24, Wilson received an email from Vallow Daybell that said she was removing JJ from Kennedy Elementary because he was being sent to Louisiana to live with his grandparents. Wilson added that the last time JJ was physically present in school was on Sept. 20.

Kay Woodcock, JJ’s grandmother who lives in Louisiana, said during her testimony last week that the last time she, or her husband Larry Woodcock, heard from JJ was on Aug. 10, 2019.

Wilson told Vallow Daybell they would send over any necessary documents once JJ was enrolled at a school in Louisiana, but Vallow Daybell told him that JJ was going to be homeschooled.

Brigham Young University-Idaho Dean of Students Wynn Hill was also called as a witness Thursday morning. He confirmed that Tylee never applied and was never enrolled at the Rexburg university.

9:20 a.m. — Vallow Daybell told babysitter JJ was with grandparents in Louisiana

Vallow Daybell hired Sidney Woodbury Schenk to babysit JJ — less than a week before he was last seen.

Schenk, a student at the BYU-Idaho, who testified Thursday said she was hired by Vallow Daybell to babysit JJ. Schenk said that Vallow Daybell told her JJ was having a hard time because his father, Charles Vallow, had recently died from a heart attack.

Charles Vallow was shot and killed by Cox.

Schenk said she watched JJ once on Sept 19. She said that JJ had gotten into a fight with his friend because of a toy, and she was hoping he would calm down but he didn’t.

JJ was diagnosed with autism, and Vallow Daybell told Schenk that he could get easily emotional.

“When she came home, he was still pretty upset,” Schenk said referring to when Vallow Daybell returned home.

Schenk said when she reached back out to Vallow Daybell a few days later, Vallow Daybell told her that JJ had gone to his grandparent’s house for a month and that she was in Hawaii.

When asked by the defense whether Schenk thought the babysitting job was short-term, she said she expected — and Vallow Daybell gave her the impression — that she’d be watching him for the next several months.

Schenk added that while she was at Vallow Daybell’s home, she didn’t see a teenage girl, but Vallow Daybell had told her that her daughter, Tylee, was attending school in Rexburg.

8:45 a.m. — Vallow Daybell tried to file claim on Charles Vallow’s life insurance policy

Another Arizona-based law enforcement officer was called to testify Thursday regarding the shooting of Charles Vallow.

Chandler Police Sgt. Nathan Moffat, who interviewed Cox in 2019, said that Cox told him Charles Vallow struck him with a baseball bat during the incident. While Moffat said Cox had a small laceration on the back of his head, it wasn’t consistent with “a violent strike.”

He saidt here was an indent from a bullet under Charles Vallow’s body consistent with Charles lying on the ground during the shooting. Moffatt said that Charles Vallow lying down was inconsistent with what Cox told police. Chandler Police Det. Nathan Duncan also said last week during his testimony that Charles Vallow was lying down when one of the rounds was fired.

There was also a mark from another bullet on the baseboard.

Moffat also said Vallow Daybell tried to file a claim on Charles Vallow’s $1 million life insurance policy after he was killed. The money wasn’t paid out to her but was given to Charles Vallow’s sister, Kay Woodcock.