BOISE — Chad Daybell stopped by the school district offices where his wife worked just two days after she died to inquire about her life insurance.

Angela Yancey, who works as payroll and benefits administrator at the Sugar-Salem School District where Tammy Daybell worked, testified Thursday that Daybell visited her on Monday, Oct. 21, 2019, in the morning to talk about his wife's life insurance. Tammy Daybell died on Saturday, Oct. 19.

Yancey said it was unusual for a spouse to come in so quickly.

"I explained we could not submit a death claim until we had a death certificate and (Chad Daybell) said, 'That's OK. I've already ordered eight of them.'"

He wrote on a form that Tammy Daybell had died in her sleep.

Yancey said Tammy Daybell had changed her life insurance policy just six weeks earlier on Sept. 8, choosing the policy with the highest payout after she went to full-time employment.

Thursday was the 17th day of testimony in the trial of Lori Vallow Daybell, who is charged with murder, conspiracy and grand theft in the deaths of her two children, 16-year-old Tylee Ryan and 7-year-old JJ Vallow. She is also charged with conspiracy in connection with the death of Tammy Daybell, her new husband's previous wife. Chad Daybell is charged with murder for the same three deaths and will face a separate trial at a later date.

Taylor Ballard, a health insurance broker, told the jury Thursday that Chad Daybell visited her on Oct. 31, 2019, asking about health insurance since their previous insurance was through Tammy Daybell's work and she had died a few weeks before.

On Nov. 21, 2019, more than two weeks after he married Lori Vallow Daybell, Ballard said Chad Daybell asked how hard it would be to add his wife to the policy if he got married. She answered that it would have to be within 60 days of the wedding.

On March 11, 2020, Chad Daybell came in to try to get the coverage for his new wife, but Ballard said it had been too long since their wedding on Nov. 5, 2019.

"He told me she was incarcerated and he was really worried about something happening to her, but that she was supposed to get out the following week," Ballard said.

When she asked Chad Daybell if there were any children, he said, "No."

Secret recordings

Earlier Thursday, Judge Steven Boyce ruled that jurors will not be able to hear secret recordings of conversations between Lori Daybell, Chad Daybell and others. Boyce said the recordings constituted hearsay and could not be admitted.

Ian Pawlowski worked with police to make the recordings. He married Lori Daybell's niece in late November of 2019 after dating her for 10 days. He testified that the night after marrying Melani Pawlowski, she expressed fears — specifically about Daybell's missing children and about an attempted shooting of her former husband.

He said that's when he decided that "something needs to happen." He met with law enforcement a few days later and agreed to make recordings of family conversations with Lori Daybell, Chad Daybell and his new wife.

In his arguments, defense attorney James Archibald pushed for the recordings to be played for jurors. He said in one of the recordings, Melani Pawlowski was on the phone with Chad Daybell and Lori Daybell discussing her brother Alex Cox's death, religious issues, and a blessing from Chad Daybell.

Archibald says the recordings contain statements important to the case's religious aspects and argued that Ian Pawlowski's summaries of the conversations are insufficient. Prosecutors argued the recordings were hearsay and the judge agreed.

'Spiritual attack'

Ian Pawlowski testified he heard about "casting" during the phone calls he recorded, and said he understood the term means getting rid of a demonic spirit from someone who is possessed. He recorded phone calls for law enforcement over the course of two weeks, making a total of nine recordings.

"We were trying to ... obtain some kind of evidence. I didn't know what the FBI knew — but the mutual hope was that we could get anything to help find Tylee and JJ," Pawlowski said.

He said he hasn't listened to the recordings since, but he remembers asking his wife questions and trying to learn what she understood.

"Lori said she was able to cast Satan out into the shape of a taco, and fold him up in a box and send him to Antarctica," Pawlowski told the jury.

He said it was during those two weeks when Cox — Lori Daybell's brother — died. He said his wife was distraught.

"She had been told by Chad and Lori that there would be a spiritual attack that day, and to get to a place of safety. And with Alex dying ... she felt that it was happening," Ian Pawlowski said.

He said he had no idea how Chad Daybell and Lori Daybell knew something bad was going to happen, and it seemed everyone was genuinely hurting.

"There's layers of reality, and then there's spiritual explanations over the layers of reality," Pawlowski said.

He said he gave his wife a blessing of comfort at that point, and said there were a lot of blessings offered in the extended family for various reasons. He said blessings were "flying around like flies."

At the time, Pawlowski said it felt like the Daybells were trying to bring him to a higher religious level, but now "it feels a lot more like manipulation."

"More than anything I feel like Melani was manipulated and taken advantage of during a difficult and dark time in her life," he said.

Attempted shooting

Gilbert (Arizona) police officer Ryan Pillar testified about responding to an attempted shooting of Brandon Boudreaux — Melani Pawlowski's former husband — on Oct. 2, 2019. He said a Jeep had been idling in front of Boudreaux's home for over an hour.

Pillar said Boudreaux had left home that day, took his children to school, brought one child to his ex-wife, went to the gym and then returned home. He noticed the Jeep before a shot was fired at him.

The officer said a bullet hole was found in the front driver's side door of Boudreaux's Tesla, and the window had shattered, leaving shards of glass at the location.

Pillar said officers determined marital problems were a possible motive, and learned that Boudreaux's ex-wife's family had been involved in a homicide in nearby Chandler, Arizona — the shooting death of Lori Daybell's previous husband, Charles Vallow, by Cox. Later, they learned Charles Vallow owned a Jeep that was being used by Tylee.

He said investigators learned from Boudreaux about Tammy Daybell's death and also reached out to the Fremont County Sheriff's Office in Idaho to discuss the Jeep, after a black Jeep with a Texas license plate was seen traveling between Arizona and Idaho around the time of the shooting.

Wednesday testimony:

Woman says Lori Daybell threatened to kill her when she ended friendship

A woman testified Wednesday that Lori Vallow Daybell threatened to kill her when she decided to end their friendship.

Pillar said police believed Cox was a suspect, but they also wanted to check on the welfare of the children, Tylee and JJ.

"A big question arose of, when was the last time either Tylee Ryan or JJ Vallow were seen?" the officer said. "Despite our desire to locate Alex and interview him and locate the Jeep, another focus became, let's check the welfare of these children."

Pillar said JJ's grandmother had reached out to them with concerns as well.

When Lori Daybell told police officers in Idaho that JJ was with her friend Melanie Gibb in Arizona, Pillar said he went to two residences to locate her and could not reach her, but police set up cameras to monitor her home after Gibb told officers she wasn't in Arizona.

Pillar said Gilbert police held regular meetings over the phone with other police departments to compare notes about the investigation, and it was clear no one had any evidence of JJ or Tylee.

Later, he said they did find residue from a gunshot near the back window of the Jeep, but at that time their main focus was finding the children. He said cellphone data showed Tylee's device had been used in Arizona, Idaho, Hawaii and Missouri.

Hawaii search warrant

Colin Nesbitt with the Kauai County Police Department in Hawaii testified that he first contacted Lori Daybell on Jan. 25, 2020, when detectives from the Rexburg Police Department flew to Hawaii and asked for assistance serving a document.

He said they found her at the swimming pool area of a condominium complex in Princeville, Hawaii. A video played in the courtroom showed Lori Daybell in a bikini next to a shirtless Chad Daybell. When asked if she had any questions about the paper she had read, Lori Daybell shrugged and the officers left.

Not long after, police served a search warrant, initiating a traffic stop on the car Lori Daybell was driving at Kauai Beach Resort.

Nesbitt talked about photos shown to the jury with what they found in the black 2019 Ford Explorer, including a credit card with the name Tylee Ryan — who Nesbitt recognized was one of the missing children they were searching for.

They seized Lori Daybell's cellphone, two computers found in a backpack, and a bag filled with several personal documents, including birth, death and marriage certificates, rental agreements and a patriarchal blessing.

Specific items that were found in the car included:

• An iPad in an Otterbox case with the initials "JJ"
• About 15 copies of the Arizona death certificate for Leland Charles Anthony Vallow, Lori Daybell's previous husband.
• A Louisiana birth certificate for Joshua Jaxon Vallow, and several copies of a birth certificate showing his birth name, Canaan Trahan.
• Social Security cards for Tylee and JJ.
• School paperwork.
• A Department of State Health Services vital statistics document for Tylee.
• A document labeled as a patriarchal blessing from Chad Daybell to Cox on Nov. 24, 2019.
• A bag with about $5,000 in cash.
• A paper with names and other words on blue sticky notes.

In the condominium, Nesbitt said they found two silicone rings and did not see any evidence of children there or in the car.

Tweets by NateNewsNow

Contributing: Lauren Steinbrecher

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