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BOISE — Summer Shiflet testified Tuesday that she trusted her sister, Lori Vallow Daybell, in February 2020 when her sister told her she knew where her children, JJ Vallow and Tylee Ryan, were.
She said they had a close relationship.
But when the children's bodies were found buried and burned in the backyard of her sister's new husband's house four months later, Shiflet said she "felt lied to."
The woman was wiping her eyes as a phone call between the sisters was played for the jury in Daybell's murder trial. In the call, which was made shortly after the bodies were discovered, Shiflet is crying and hysterical, while Daybell is calm and later seemed angry or defensive.
"I don't know how they can be thrown away like garbage," Shiflet said. "You were in Hawaii, dancing on the beach while your kids are in the ground?"
"This is your opinion," Daybell responded.
"They were just little kids. I don't understand," Shiflet said. "We would have taken them for you. ... You cut me and mom off for four months."
"You don't understand. I can't talk about them," Daybell said.
"You didn't tell me Alex died, which I'm glad he's gone if he was involved," Shiflet also told her sister, apparently referring to their brother Alex Cox.
During the conversation, Daybell told Shiflet, "Nobody in the world knows what I've been through."
"Lori, you were dancing on a beach smiling, getting wedding photos."
"Yeah, months later."
"Please consider that you've been deceived," the sister said, adding something like, "How could you let them die like this?"
"I didn't!" Daybell emphatically replied.
While the phone call was played on Tuesday, Daybell wiped tears away from her eyes and Shiflet looked over at her sister.
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. She is also charged with conspiracy in connection with Tammy Daybell's death, her husband's former wife. Chad Daybell is charged in the same three deaths and will face a separate trial.
While Daybell's attorney, James Archibald, cross-examined Shiflet, she testified that her sister "was a loving mother" and that Tylee adored her. She said she could not imagine her killing her own children, or conspiring to kill them.
She also testified about Cox, who is named in the charges, although he was not charged because he had already died from what authorities said was natural causes. Shiflet said Cox had a brain injury as a teenager after an accident. She said he "kind of kept making decisions in life as a 16-year-old."
Finding the bodies of JJ and Tylee
On Tuesday afternoon, testimony turned to the recovery of the bodies of both children. Jurors were shown photos of the burial sites and what was found there. Larry and Kay Woodcock, JJ's grandparents, were not in the courtroom for that testimony, even though they have attended most of the trial. Shiflet stayed in the courtroom.
Richard Schmitt, a retired detective who worked with Rexburg police in June 2020, said Chad Daybell was behaving unnaturally that day while dogs were near JJ's remains on his property as officers were searching for the children.
He said he helped uncover the remains of JJ and Tylee, and described how investigators had to use a backhoe to remove hard dirt. He said it looked like someone had poured concrete used in fence posts on top of the ground. Then they found Tylee's remains in a green plastic bucket.
"I found teeth, I found bones, human flesh, burnt human flesh," Schmitt testified.
FBI special agent Steve Daniels, who is trained specifically in recovering human remains, said investigators took about 600 photos of the scene that day.
Since the children were believed to have been killed in September 2019 and the search was in June 2020, the investigation site was made larger to include patches of ashes around the area, he said.
He said as they began to sift through the fire pit, officers found suspected bone fragments, organic material, pieces of cloth and a chain with the words "Pura Vida" on it that was believed to be Tylee's. Daniels said a silver charm was also found a few meters from the fire pit.
Daniels recalled originally recognizing a strong odor indicating decomposing human remains. The first sign of human remains specifically was a vertebra, then after a second bone was found and later pink charred flesh and charred bone; it was clear investigators had found a human grave.
He said excavation was difficult because remains were melted together and placed in a melted green 5-gallon bucket. Tylee had been buried 2 feet under the ground.
Lori Daybell stopped watching the testimony and photos, turning herself toward her attorney and bowing her head.
Daniels said they located where JJ was buried because there was a difference in the length of grass. They uncovered large stones, cement blocks and cut roots in the shape of a small body.
Device information
Jurors also heard testimony about information gleaned from electronic devices during the investigation. Nicolas Ballance, a special agent with the FBI on the Cellular Analysis Survey Team, testified about phone information from the time investigators determined that Tylee died.
He said there were multiple calls and texts between Chad Daybell, Lori Daybell and Cox on the morning of Sept. 9, 2019, the day after Tylee was last seen alive. Cox's phone had been in a location near where the children's remains were buried for more than 90 minutes that morning.
Ballance testified Tuesday about location data and communications between the same three people on Sept. 23, 2019 — the day after JJ was last seen alive, between 3 a.m. and 9 a.m. Between 9:55 a.m. and 10:12 a.m., Cox's phone had been near the area where the bodies were found again and a number of phone calls were made between the three phones during that hour.
Ballance also testified about communications and locations on Oct. 9, 2019, when someone attempted to rob Tammy Daybell, about late night and early morning communications between the three on Oct. 18, 2019, the day before Tammy Daybell died, and on Oct. 22, 2019, the day of her funeral service.
