Investigators Complete Autopsy on Tammy Daybell
Since the disappearance of her two children over a year ago, the nation has been following the updates on “Mommy Doomsday” subject Lori Vallow Daybell. The Vallow Daybell saga has been a rollercoaster punctuated by death and tragedy that is now going to be the subject of a new true-crime podcast by Dateline. It’s the story of doomsday rhetoric, fanaticism, and murder.
People first heard the name Lori Daybell back in 2019 when her children Joshua “J.J.” Vallow, 7, and Tylee Ryan, 17, were finally reported missing. The children had not been seen for weeks since Vallow elected to pull them out of public school, citing the family’s alleged move to a different state. After her children were reported missing, Vallow and her new husband, Chad Daybell, fell off the grid for weeks. Law enforcement finally tracked the couple down in Hawaii, with no sign of the children. Despite repeated assertions that the children were alive and well, Vallow was finally served with a court order to produce the children in January of 2020. The deadline came and went without any sign of the children and Vallow and Daybell were arrested.
In a heartbreaking development in the case, the remains of J.J. and Tylee were finally located in June of 2020 on Chad Daybell’s Idaho property after a search warrant was executed. “It’s not the outcome we had hoped; to be able to find the children safe. Our hearts and prayers go out to the families of J.J. and Tylee,” the Rexburg Police Department stated in a press release.
The tragic deaths of the children are not the only factor in the case against Vallow and Daybell. Vallow’s late husband, Chuck Vallow, was killed in a domestic dispute between himself and Lori Vallow’s Brother Alex Cox, in which Cox claimed self-defense. Cox died in December of natural causes.
The events of the Vallow Daybell case were triggered in the fall of 2019 when Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell were not yet married. Chad Daybell was still married to his late wife, Tammy Daybell, who died only two weeks before Lori Daybell’s children disappeared. Chad Daybell described his wife’s affliction as “a bad cough,” subsequently passing in her sleep. This came as a shock to many who knew Tammy, knowing her to be a healthy individual who was training to run a marathon. Tammy Daybell was buried without an autopsy, and following the discovery of Lori Vallow’s children, investigators reopened the investigation into her death. While Vallow and Daybell await trial on charges related to the deaths of Tylee and J.J., investigators exhumed Tammy Daybell’s body to perform an autopsy. While the autopsy has been completed, the results still remain under seal as prosecutors continue to build a case.