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BOISE — Testimony in the Lori Vallow Daybell murder trial Monday focused on electronic records, with evidence from location data, texts and internet searches showing communication between her and Chad Daybell and providing more insight into their relationship.
Chad and Lori Daybell were married 17 days after his wife Tammy Daybell's death, with both of their spouses dying under suspicious circumstances. Tammy Daybell's death was initially believed to have been from natural causes. But after her body was exhumed from a Utah County cemetery, investigators later concluded that she died from asphyxiation.
Lori Daybell's husband, Charles Vallow, was shot to death by her brother, Alex Cox. It was initially determined to be self-defense, but a grand jury in Arizona's Maricopa County later indicted Lori Daybell with conspiracy to commit first-degree murder.
Rexburg Police Sgt. David Stubbs testified Monday that Lori Daybell made a few internet searches that caught his attention, including:
- "Define possess," searched Sept. 20 shortly before her son JJ Vallow disappeared. Others testified in the trial she had told them her son was possessed.
- "How to remove the rear seat of my Jeep," which she watched a YouTube video result for on Sept. 20.
- "When you surprise someone with accusations."
- Wedding dresses in Kauai, Hawaii, searched on the day of Tammy Daybell's funeral.
- Travel plans to and from Hawaii on the day of the funeral.
According to Stubbs, Lori Daybell's phone showed she ordered malachite wedding rings on Aug. 25, 2019, just over one month after her husband died and while Chad Daybell's wife was still alive.
Prosecutors showed the jury wedding photos from Lori and Chad Daybell's wedding. From her seat in the courtroom, Daybell looked up at a photo of her and her new husband embracing multiple times, but later stopped watching as the attorney rotated through more photos.
Nicole Heideman, a tactical specialist with the FBI, testified that Chad Daybell searched for wedding rings in May 2019 and around the same time searched whether his zodiac sign and Lori Daybell's zodiac signs were compatible.
In a presentation to the jury, a document was shown titled "Presiding Council of Archangels" that referenced malachite rings, the day the two were married, and several aliases for both Chad and Lori Daybell.
Heideman said she investigated the email addresses associated with multiple players in the case. She said Chad Daybell, Lori Daybell and Cox each had three phone numbers that were investigated, some under different names.
An investigation of Lori Daybell's email address led Heideman to searches for children's life insurance. Witnesses previously testified about Vallow changing the beneficiary of his life insurance policy to his sister shortly before his death — and about how Lori Daybell had applied for that benefit after his death and was surprised to learn she wasn't the beneficiary.
Near the start of 2019, Chad Daybell searched the internet for a Ned Snider who died in 1996 in Louisiana, Heideman said. Witnesses have testified that Lori Daybell began saying her then-husband had been taken over by a demon named Ned Snider about that same time.
Chad Daybell sent romantic texts to Lori Daybell in July 2019, shortly after her husband died. These included:
- Multiple texts saying "I love you."
- A text that said, "I feel she'll be gone by then" after talking about BYU-Idaho graduation on July 23.
- "Hopefully we will be there someday soon together," speaking about Kauai, Hawaii.
- "Missing you desperately but so excited to be with you."
Warrants and location data
Lori Daybell is charged with murder, conspiracy and grand theft in the deaths of her two children, 7-year-old JJ and 16-year-old Tylee Ryan — whose bodies were found buried in her new husband's backyard. She is also charged in connection with Tammy Daybell's death. Chad Daybell is charged in the same three deaths and will face a separate trial.
Stubbs testified Thursday about the beginning of the search for JJ, after multiple things Lori Daybell told police during a welfare check were proven to be false. When police went back to her Rexburg apartment later that day, everyone was gone and the apartment had been mostly emptied.
On Monday, Stubbs talked about his search of another unit in the same complex where Melani Boudreaux, Lori Daybell's niece, lived. The officer said Daybell's name was on the lease there and the unit she was living in was rented under the name Alex Cox.
Stubbs said he prepared around 20 search warrants while searching for JJ and Tylee between November 2019 and June 2020, including warrants for GPS locations for multiple phones, and searches of 10 electronic devices seized from Chad Daybell's rental car in Hawaii.
One phone, with an account owned by Chad Daybell, searched the wind direction for Sept. 9 — the day prosecutors say Tylee was buried in his backyard. Stubbs said this is the only time wind direction was searched on the phone.
He said the only person who consistently showed up at the locations on the dates they consider important was Cox — who died in December of 2019.
Nicolas Ballance, a special agent with the FBI on the Cellular Analysis Survey Team, spoke about the cellular mapping the FBI conducted as part of the investigation. Ballance said investigators can track a phone, but can't tell if that phone is in a person's pocket or not.
On Sept. 9, 2019 — the day Tylee Ryan is estimated to have died — Cox's phone was located just northwest of Lori Daybell's apartment at 3 a.m., Ballance said. From 8:49 a.m. to 9:15 a.m., his phone was located near Chad Daybell's home, and then between 9:21 a.m. and 10:57 a.m. his phone was on the property near where the children's remains were found.
Ballance said there was a phone call between Chad and Lori Daybell between 7:20 a.m. and 8:04 a.m. that day, there was a call between Chad Daybell and Cox at 8:11 a.m. and then there were more texts and calls between Chad and Lori Daybell between 8:15 a.m. and 9:06 a.m.
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