Lori Vallow, Chad Daybell timeline
A quick look at the timeline of events in the chilling Lori Vallow case.
Lori Vallow – the mother of the missing children Joshua “JJ” Vallow, 7, and Tylee Ryan, 17 – was arrested in Hawaii last week and is being held on a $5 million bond.
She's due back in court Wednesday in Kauai and is expected to contest her extradition to Idaho, where she was charged with two felony counts of desertion and nonsupport of dependent children, as well as resisting or obstructing police officers, criminal solicitation to commit a crime and contempt of court.
Despite skipping town in November, fleeing Idaho with her new and fifth husband, Chad Daybell, the author of several religious-themed novels about the end times, Vallow was not initially charged when she was finally located by Hawaii authorities in January. She roamed free – reportedly island-hopping in Maui – until she was finally arrested and charged last week. The children have been missing since September.
Three people connected with the couple have died under mysterious circumstances over the past year. Just a month after her children went missing, and weeks after Chad’s former wife, Tammy Daybell, died unexpectedly in their Idaho home, Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell tied the knot in October.
Vallow’s former and fourth husband, Charles Vallow, accused her in divorce papers of joining a doomsday cult, declaring herself a godsent to prepare the world for an imminent apocalypse — before he met his own demise in July: Lori Vallow’s brother, Alex Cox, shot and killed him in their Arizona home, claiming self-defense. He was never arrested and he too then died unexpectedly in December.
Chad Daybell remains a free man in Hawaii and has not been charged in connection with the death of his former wife and mother of his five children. The deaths of Tammy Daybell, Charles Vallow and Alex Cox all remain under investigation. Autopsy reports have not been released.
This combination photo of undated file photos released by National Center for Missing & Exploited Children show missing children Joshua "JJ" Vallow, 7, left, and Tylee Ryan, 17. (National Center for Missing & Exploited Children via AP)
Here’s a timeline of events in the case that’s captured national attention:
March 9, 1990: Chad and Tammy Daybell were married in Manti, Utah, her online obituary said. They founded Spring Creek Book Company, which allowed Chad to publish several religious-themed novels about the end times. They had five children and eventually moved to Salem, Idaho, in 2015.
April 3, 2018: Joseph Ryan, Tylee’s father and Lori Vallow’s third husband before their divorce, died. Police had performed a welfare check on his apartment after his neighbor’s dog detected a foul-smell. His death was ruled a heart attack and he was cremated. There is little information available about his death.
In an interview with Salt Lake City Utah’s KSL-TV, Joseph Ryan’s sister and Tylee’s aunt, Annie Cushing, said the last time she saw her ex-sister-in-law was in 2018. Lori Vallow had asked Cushing to come from out of state to support Tylee while she grieved the loss of her father. During her visit with Tylee, Cushing said her former sister-in-law seemed “unhinged” and questioned whether she was a “psychopath.”
Chad Daybell and Lori Vallow (pictured) appeared together for the first time on Preparing a People Podcast Network’s “Time to Warrior Up” in December 2018. They both discussed doomsday and theories about the end of the world. The podcast has since cut ties with the couple.
Lori Vallow and Joseph Ryan had married in 2000 but divorced four years later, when Tylee was just 18 months old, Cushing said. Tylee was Joseph’s first child, while Lori had an older son from a previous marriage, Colby Ryan, who took his stepfather's last name. They lived in Texas but Lori moved to Arizona after the divorce. Joseph moved there to be close to Tylee, as he and her mother remained locked in a contentious child custody suit, KSL-TV reported, citing court documents.
Colby Ryan’s biological dad is William Lagioia, Lori Vallow’s second husband, East Idaho News reported. Lori Vallow and Lagioia married in 1995 but divorced the next year, East Idaho News reported. Little is known about him. Lori Vallow’s first marriage, in 1992, also ended in divorce. The identity of her first husband is unknown.
Lori married her fourth husband, Charles Vallow, in 2006.
December 2018: Chad Daybell and Lori Vallow appeared together for the first time on Preparing a People Podcast Network’s “Time to Warrior Up.” They both discussed doomsday and theories about the end of the world. The podcast has since cut ties with the couple.
LORI VALLOW ABANDONED MISSING CHILDREN'S PHOTOS, BIKES, CLOTHING IN IDAHO STORAGE UNIT: REPORT
February 2019: Charles Vallow, Lori’s fourth husband, filed for divorce, claiming in court documents that he feared his wife would kill him and that she’d developed strange, doomsday-cultlike beliefs, reportedly calling herself “a god assigned to carry out the work of the 144,000 at Christ’s second coming in July 2020,” Fox 10 Phoenix reported.
That same month, Charles Vallow removed Lori from his $1 million life insurance policy, instead naming his sister and the grandmother of his adopted son JJ, Kay Woodcock, the sole beneficiary, East Idaho News reported.
July 11, 2019: Charles Vallow is shot dead inside an Arizona home by Lori’s brother, Alex Cox. Cox told police Tylee had taken a metal baseball bat to defend her mother when her stepfather came too close to her. Cox then said he shot Charles Vallow in self-defense. He was never arrested before his own death in December.
July 22, 2019: Lori Vallow sent Dog Training Elite in Phoenix an email about finding a new family for JJ’s service dog, Baily, due to a “change in life circumstances,” KTVB reported, citing court documents. The company picked up the dog on Aug. 30. The animal was trained to accompany JJ, who has autism.
Late August-early September 2019: Lori Vallow moves to Idaho with her two children Tylee and JJ, renting a townhome at Rock Creek Hollow subdivision in the rural town of Rexburg, located in Madison County. She registered JJ in Kennedy Elementary School in Rexburg on Sept. 3, school principal Josh Wilson told EastIdahoNews.com.
Sept. 8, 2019: Tylee was last seen on surveillance video at the entrance of Yellowstone National Park, which sprawls across Wyoming, Montana and Idaho. A photo from that day, later obtained by authorities from Lori Vallow’s iCloud account, showed Vallow, her brother Alex Cox, Tylee and JJ at the national park.
Sept. 17, 2019: The last known video of JJ was recorded. A doorbell camera captured footage showing JJ and another child playing outside at the Rock Creek Hollow subdivision. The video, first obtained by East Idaho News, showed JJ moving outside a doorframe, which activated the Ring Door camera, before running across the yard with another child.
Vallow reportedly told a child, who knocked on her townhome door later in the month looking for JJ, that her son had gone to Louisiana to spend time with his grandmother, KSL.com reported, citing court documents. Investigators determined that information was false – JJ’s grandmother was the one to report him missing in November.
Sept. 23, 2019: JJ was last seen attending Kennedy Elementary School in Rexburg. Vallow withdrew her son from the school the next day, claiming she would homeschool him.
Oct. 1, 2019: Lori Vallow signed a $53-per-month rental agreement for a 10 by 10 unit at Self Storage Plus in Rexburg, Idaho. Her credit card was declined in January and the company notified police.
The company released security camera footage showing Lori Vallow, and a man resembling her brother, Alex Cox, had visited going to the unit nine times in October and once in November. They moved items, including bikes and even gun cases, in and out of the unit, according to the news outlet. The man also was seen visiting the unit alone.
A police search found two blankets - one with images of 17-year-old Tylee Ryan, another with images of 7-year-old Joshua "JJ" Vallow -- inside a storage unit abandoned by their mother. (East Idaho News)
A police search found a two blankets - one with images of 17-year-old Tylee Ryan, another with images of 7-year-old Joshua "JJ" Vallow -- inside a storage unit abandoned by their mother.
Police executed a search warrant on the unit in late November. Investigators photographed items found inside, including bikes, a scooter, winter clothing, a photo album with pictures of JJ and Tylee, sports equipment, a backpack with JJ’s initials and a jersey with the name of Colby Ryan, the mother’s eldest son, 23.
Oct. 9, 2019: Tammy Daybell called 911 claiming a masked man shot at her with a paintball gun, East Idaho News reported. She also posted about the incident on Facebook, saying she had no idea what the motive was.
Oct. 2, 2019: Brandon Boudreaux, the ex-husband to Melani Pawlowski, who is Lori Vallow’s niece, called 911 after a bullet struck his Tesla’s window outside his home in Gilbert, Ariz. He reported seeing a rifle with a silencer come out of the rear window of a 2018 Jeep Wrangler. The same vehicle, with a Texas license plate registered to Charles Vallow, was later found in Idaho.
Boudreaux and Pawlowski were locked in a child custody dispute. He alleged in court documents that his ex-wife had “knowledge of the whereabouts” of Tylee and JJ but was unwilling to cooperate with law enforcement. He also claimed Pawlowski had a “million dollars of reasons to have him killed,” as she was “hoping to cash in on the policy to help support the cult.” The court documents also stated Pawlowski sometimes told her ex-husband that “sometimes children are full of light and then just like that they go dark," Fox 10 Phoenix reported.
Oct. 19, 2019: Tammy Daybell died at her home in Salem, Idaho. Family members called 911, saying she died in her sleep. Investigators who arrived to the house initially ruled the death due to natural causes. Family members said they did not want an autopsy conducted. She was buried at Evergreen Cemetery in Springville on Oct. 22, East Idaho News reported.
Within weeks of her death, Chad Daybell and Lori Vallow were wed. The couple reportedly married in Hawaii before returning to Idaho.
Nov. 26, 2019: The Rexburg Police Department performed a welfare check for JJ at the townhome rented by his mother on Pioneer Road but did not find the boy. JJ’s grandmother, Kay Woodcock, who lives in Lake Charles, La., had called the police after she said she hadn’t heard from her grandson for an extended period of time.
Nov. 27, 2019: Local authorities served a search warrant on three apartments in the same Idaho complex rented by Vallow, Cox and Pawlowski. Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell were no longer there and appeared to have “abruptly left,” police said.
Authorities seized a 2018 Jeep Wrangler with a Texas license plate registered to Charles Vallow, Fox 10 Phoenix reported. Tylee reportedly regularly drove the vehicle before her disappearance. That same car was linked to a 9-1-1 call in October made by Pawlowski’s ex-husband, who reported someone shot at his car window while he sat parked in his Arizona driveway.
Dec. 1, 2019: Court documents later revealed Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell boarded an American Airlines flight to Lihue, Hawaii on the island of Kauai on this date, East Idaho News reported. The two missing children were not on the flight with their mother and new stepfather, police said.
Dec. 11, 2019: Tammy Daybell’s body was exhumed to perform an autopsy after the Fremont County Sheriff’s Office began considering her death suspicious. Her death remains under investigation but the autopsy results have not been released.
Dec. 12, 2019: Alex Cox died of unknown causes inside his Arizona home. His death remains under investigation. Toxicology reports conducted as part of an autopsy have not yet been released.
Dec. 20, 2019: The Rexburg Police Department publicly announced their search for Tylee and Ryan. Authorities named Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell persons of interest in the missing children’s case.
Dec. 30, 2019: After traveling from Louisiana to Idaho, JJ’s grandparents, Larry and Kay Woodcock, announced at a news conference they were offered a $20,000 reward for information that leads to the recovery of the two children.
Jan. 3, 2020: The FBI and local authorities with the Fremont County Sheriff’s Office executed a search warrant on the home in Salem, Idaho, where Chad and Tammy Daybell had lived before her death. Investigators seized 43 items, which included computers, cell phones, journals, documents and medications, to be sent to a lab for further analysis, Fremont County Sheriff Len Humphries said.
Jan. 5, 2020: Colby Ryan posted an emotional YouTube video titled “Mom,” in which he pleads for Lori Vallow to offer any information about the whereabouts of his missing siblings.
Jan. 25, 2020: Lori Vallow is served with a notice by the Kauai Police Department, ordering her to physically produce Tylee and JJ to Idaho child welfare workers or the Rexburg Police Department within five days.
Jan. 26, 2020: Vallow and Daybell were pulled over by Hawaii police. They pulled into the parking lot at the Kauai Beach Resort and were briefly detained while officers executed a search warrant on their rental vehicle. They were later released but the car was seized by police.
Authorities also executed a search warrant on their rented townhome in Princeville, Hawaii. Investigators found Tylee’s cell phone in her mother’s possession but saw no signs of the missing children while executing the warrants, CBS News reported.
Jan. 30, 2020: Lori Vallow missed the 5 p.m. deadline to physically produce the missing children in Idaho.
Feb. 14, 2020: Dateline NBC released a two-hour documentary titled “Where Are the Children?” about Tylee and JJ’s disappearance.
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Feb. 20, 2020: Lori Vallow was arrested in Hawaii on several charges, including two felony counts of desertion and nonsupport of dependent children, as well as resisting or obstructing police officers, criminal solicitation to commit a crime and contempt of court.
She appeared in court in Hawaii Friday to contest her extradition to Idaho. She is being held on a $5 million bond at the Kauai Community Correctional Center.
Chad Daybell has not been arrested and has not been named as a suspect in connection with Tammy Daybell’s death.
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