Chad Guy Daybell, born on August 11, 1968, in Provo, Utah, stands accused of unimaginable crimes. He is charged with the first-degree murder of his first wife, Tamara “Tammy” Douglas Daybell, and the children of his second wife, Lori Vallow Daybell: 7-year-old Joshua "JJ" Vallow and 16-year-old Tylee Ryan.
Daybell's trial has gripped the nation, revealing a complex web of religious extremism, alleged conspiracies, and the tragic loss of innocent lives. The trial is overseen by Judge Steven Boyce, who also presided over Vallow Daybell's trial.
Chad Daybell during a court hearing. | Photo: Deseret News
Early Life and Career
Chad Daybell spent his childhood in Springville, Utah. After graduating from Springville High School, Daybell attended Brigham Young University and studied journalism.
While many students take on-campus jobs working in the cafeteria or as a research assistant to pay for school, Daybell dug graves at a cemetery in Springville, leading to that early book. While at BYU he married Tammy Daybell in the Manti Utah Temple in 1990, and the couple lived in Utah for most of their marriage.
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After graduating from Brigham Young University in 1992 with a B.A. in journalism, Daybell worked as a cemetery sexton, before establishing end of days publisher Spring Creek Book Company, in 2004, with his wife, a graphic artist and manager.
One of his early books published in 2001 titled, “One Foot in the Grave,” is described as “a collection of true graveyard stories” from his time working as a sexton - a fancy word for gravedigger, among other things.
“Sad times are always when you have to bury babies,” Daybell said while talking to a reporter in 2001. Springville employment records detail several stints working in the city’s cemetery before he resigned in 2014. He also wrote a series of books about the end times for a religious audience and was a prominent enough writer and podcaster to be called one of “15 amazing speakers” at a two-day conference in St. George.
Doomsday Beliefs and Meeting Lori Vallow
Daybell had already built a reputation, the former Utahn whose apparent near-death experiences had prompted his foray into the world of preppers - those preparing for catastrophe, if not the many end-of-days scenarios that fill the internet. By this time Daybell was known in his field as an author with apocalyptic stories to tell. Chad Daybell was a member of the LDS church and a self-published author of doomsday-focused fiction.
Lori Vallow packed her bags for a weekend trip to St. George, Utah, in late October 2018. She and a few friends were traveling north from Arizona to attend a weekend preppers conference held at a local high school. Vallow was attracted to the world of preppers, as she read some of Daybell’s doomsday-themed books, including a series about the end of the world.
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Though they were both married to other people, this conference marked the beginning of their months long affair. Vallow later told her best friend Melanie Gibb that during her initial conversation with Daybell, they spoke about how they believed they were married in a previous time period, a belief or delusion that would lead to an insidious outcome.
It was around the time Daybell and Rowe grew closer in the mid to late 2010s that Daybell apparently developed doomsday beliefs.
Chad preached about a light and dark scale for followers and claimed that zombies were able to possess a person’s body.
Timeline of Events Leading to the Murders
The following timeline outlines the key events leading up to the deaths of Charles Vallow, Tammy Daybell, Tylee Ryan, and JJ Vallow:
- July 2019: Charles Vallow was killed in an altercation with Vallow Daybell's brother, Alex Cox, in Arizona.
- September 2019: The last time anyone saw Tylee Ryan was in September 2019, when the family took a trip to Yellowstone National Park.
- October 9, 2019: Tammy Daybell was shot at while standing in front of her house.
- October 19, 2019: Tammy Daybell died at the Daybell's home in Idaho of what officials initially said were natural causes but later said was suspicious. Daybell told police he did not want an autopsy.
- November 5, 2019: Chad Daybell and Lori Vallow married in Hawaii two weeks later.
- December 2019: Police and the FBI were searching for 16-year-old Tylee and 7-year-old JJ.
- June 9, 2020: The remains of Tylee and JJ were found on Chad Daybell’s property.
Investigators on Chad Daybell's property where the remains of Tylee Ryan and JJ Vallow were discovered. | Photo: East Idaho News
Read also: Inside the Daybell Trial
The Deaths of Tammy Daybell, Tylee Ryan, and JJ Vallow
Over the next few months, Vallow’s husband Charles was dead. So was Daybell’s wife Tammy. Both deaths were ruled a homicide - Tammy Daybell was originally believed to die of natural causes, but her body was later exhumed. Then the children went missing.
Two weeks before Tammy Daybell died, Lori Vallow placed an order on Amazon for a size four malachite ring - the same ring that would be seen on her hand as her wedding ring. The couple were married in Hawaii, set to live a life together. They returned to Rexburg after their November 5 nuptials.
On Dec 20, 2019, the police announced the children were missing. Hundreds of tips poured in as investigators tried to track the whereabouts of the children. They couldn’t find them.
Then, on June 9, 2020, the Rexburg Police Department, FBI and Fremont County Sheriff’s Office descended on Chad Daybell’s Salem, Idaho, home to serve a search warrant. Investigators spent hours combing through the home and searching the exterior where they found human remains.
A couple days later, officials identified the remains found on his property as those of J.J. Vallow and Tylee Ryan.
The remains of the children - Tylee Ryan and JJ Vallow - were found on his property on June 9, 2020. Tylee was 17 years old and JJ was 7 when they were killed.
Lori and Chad Daybell Case: Everything You Need to Know
Legal Proceedings and Conviction
Lori Vallow has already stood trial and been convicted for the murder of her children. “You chose the most evil and destructive path possible,” Judge Steven Boyce said when sentencing Vallow to multiple life sentences in prison without possibility of parole.
Vallow was convicted last year and received multiple life sentences in prison without the possibility of parole. She has since been extradited to Arizona, where she faces two charges of conspiracy to commit murder in the death of her husband and the case of Brandon Boudreaux. Authorities say her brother, Alex Cox, shot at Boudreaux, the former husband of Vallow Daybell's niece. Cox died in late 2019.
Daybell faced multiple charges, according to court documents, including murder in the death of his first wife, Tammy Daybell, and in the deaths of his then-girlfriend Lori Vallow's children, 7-year-old Joshua "JJ" Vallow and 16-year-old Tylee Ryan.
Daybell was also found guilty of two counts of insurance fraud. He was sentenced to 15 years for each count to run concurrently.
On May 30, 2024, Chad was found guilty of all charges related to the deaths of his first wife and of Lori's children.
The Tammy Douglas Daybell Foundation thanked “everyone who put in countless hours of work to get where we are today; law enforcement, the prosecution, the media, and all of you who watched and listened to the trial and prayed for us.”
“We are grateful for the relationships we have created through this horrible time and the support and love we were able to give each other,” the foundation said in a statement released Saturday. “We can all start to heal from the terrible losses we have suffered. We will miss Tammy every single day of our lives but we have some comfort knowing we will see her again.”
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