The Lori Vallow case: Did Chad Daybell help to kill her kids?

It was confirmed that the bodies found on Chad Daybell’s property in Idaho belonged to Lori Vallow’s missing kids. Both Daybell and Vallow are now in custody for a slew of charges, but homicide counts for killing JJ Vallow and Tylee Ryan aren’t on the list. Yet. 

On June 30th, Lori Vallow was charged with two counts of conspiracy to conceal, alter, or destroy evidence. The charges were handed down after police searched Chad Daybell’s property that morning and came out of the house with brown evidence bags. 

Earlier this month, two sets of remains were found on Chad Daybell’s property in Idaho and after forensic testing, were confirmed to belong to Tylee and JJ. Tests are still being performed on the remains to determine the cause of death. However, it’s anyone’s guess how they died.

Chad Daybell has already been charged with two counts of concealing, altering or destroying evidence and obstruction of justice. Both he and Lori Vallow are being held on million-dollar bonds. 

In most people’s minds who have followed the case, there’s no question that JJ and Tylee met their ends by their mother’s hands. How involved Chad Daybell was in their deaths is still a mystery, but here’s what we know so far. 

Premonitions from dead Grandma

Chad Daybell claimed to be a medium and in communication with his deceased grandmother. He claimed to receive messages from her, including doomsday prophecies. One of these doomsday prophecies led to Daybell telling his sister to leave their property and go to stay with their mother in Utah. 

The day Chad Daybell got that premonition, around October 3rd, was in the timeframe when the new charges allege Daybell and Vallow conspired to hide Tylee and JJ’s bodies. Daybell could have asked his sister to leave so she wouldn’t discover what he and Vallow were doing.

Melanie Gibb

At Lori Vallow’s hearing, a charge the judge mentioned was that Chad Daybell instructed a woman named Melanie Gibb to conceal evidence on his behalf. Each new count in Vallow’s hearing alleged that at least one other person was responsible for hiding JJ and Tylee’s bodies.

Melanie Gibb was one of Chad Daybell’s disciples and a family friend of Daybell and Lori Vallow. Gibb believed Daybell’s teachings, which centered around Biblical doomsday prophecies, multiple past lives, and “prepper culture.” Preppers stockpile for an impending emergency, go off the grid, and often stockpile weapons & ammunition. 

Gibb expressed remorse about following Chad Daybell and Lori Vallow in a letter on a prepper website. She claimed Satan led her astray and led her to join Daybell and Vallow. If she had any larger role than being a follower remains to be seen. However, it’s known that Vallow contacted her about hiding evidence in November.

Zombie kids

In a custody hearing between Chad Daybell and his ex-wife, court documents revealed that Daybell told Melanie Gibb that two of her kids were zombies. If it couldn’t get any weirder, the kid’s mom was also told that her son was a dark spirit who was in Hitler’s inner circle in his past life. 

We wonder if Chad Daybell made any similar predictions about JJ and Tylee which led to their deaths.

Lori Vallow in tears

Lori Vallow appeared in a social-distanced court appearance on these new charges on June 30, asking to be called Mrs. Daybell. She married Chad Daybell in Hawaii last fall, but her name wasn’t legally changed as far as we know. 

Lori Vallow appeared composed through most of her hearing June 30th. After the judge mentioned her sentence could run concurrently or consecutively, she appeared to dab her eyes with a tissue. 

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Only time will tell if Lori Vallow was another woman caught up in Chad Daybell’s doomsday visions, or if she had her own motivations behind the disappearance of her children. Evidence suggests her relationship with Tylee was unstable and there was some resentment between mother and daughter. 

A preliminary hearing for the charges is set for August 10th and August 11th. We expect this will be a general plea hearing and the trial may not take place until this fall.