Joshua “JJ” Vallow, and Tylee Ryan
Where are 7-year-old Joshua “JJ” Vallow and his 17-year-old sister Tylee Ryan? The children have been considered missing since September, and there’s no definitive sign of their whereabouts, even after their 46-year-old mother Lori Vallow was arrested for allegedly deserting them.
Nonetheless, the newly released criminal complaint sheds more light on the official point-of-view on this matter (h/t Fox 10 Phoenix).
1. No Witnesses Can Verify They’ve Seen Tylee Ryan Since September 8, 2019: Cops
Police in Rexburg, Idaho have said they first got a missing child report on November 26, and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children have Joshua and Tylee missing since September 23. It turns out things are more complicated than that.
Investigators say they have no witnesses who can show that they’ve seen Ryan since September 8, 2019. That was the day she, her mother, uncle Alex Cox, and brother Joshua went on a day trip to Yellowstone National Park, officers said. The National Park Service provided a photograph of her, and Lori Vallow’s iCloud account featured another picture. Authorities said this was the most recent record they have of the 17-year-old being with her mother.
Colby Ryan, the girl’s adult brother, told officers in Gilbert, Arizona that he last spoke with Tylee on August 30, 2019 via Facetime, police said. He said that he hadn’t spoke to her since then, and that when he tried to get in contact, mother Lori Vallow “would give excuses” as to why his sister couldn’t talk.
As previously reported, Vallow and her children moved from Arizona to Idaho less than two months after her brother Alex Cox fatally shot her estranged husband Charles Vallow. Cox died in December of unclear causes.
That move happened on or about September 1 or 2, 2019, investigators said. According to officials, Lori lied to witness Melanie Gibb about attending school at BYU-Idaho. (She was never enrolled there, or any other affiliated school, cops said.) In any case, neighbors said they saw Tylee Ryan at first, and a couple of times after the move, but didn’t see her since the first couple of weeks of September.
2. The Last Time Joshua Vallow Was Seen
After the move, neighbors said their son played with Joshua Vallow multiple times. But this ended sometime in last September: the neighbors’ boy went to play with Joshua, but Lori Vallow told him that he was staying with a grandmother, cops said.
A doorbell camera from another neighbor caught Joshua playing outside on September 17, 2019, officers said. Cops said they’ve found no witnesses who have seen Joshua since September 24, 2019.
3. Charles Vallow’s Jeep Tied to Attempted Murder After His Death
As previously reported, the Lori Vallow situation has been linked to an alleged drive-by shooting in Gilbert, Arizona. Someone tried to kill her niece’s ex-husband Brandon Boudreaux on October 2, police said. The suspect’s Jeep was registered to the late Charles Vallow, investigators said.
Cops haven’t forgotten that. They were sure to mention this claim in their complaint against Vallow, though she wasn’t charged in the incident. Officers said Boudreaux witnessed a rifle with a silencer come out of the rear window of the Jeep. Investigators also noted that the target also recognized that vehicle as the same one that Tylee regularly drove.
This Jeep was seized in a search warrant executed in Rexburg, Idaho, officers said.
4. Vallow and New Husband Left for Hawaii After Police Started Investigating Children’s Disappearance
Officers say that Lori Vallow married husband Chad Daybell on November 5, 2019 at Kaua’i, Hawaii, weeks before the children were reported missing. That’s still a heck of a time to get hitched. It’s just months after Charles Vallow’s shooting death, and just two weeks after Daybell’s wife Tammy Daybell died. Investigators say that neither of the missing children were present in photographs of the marriage.
The couple returned to the continental United States after the ceremony, but police said they went back to Hawaii on December 1, 2019, just days after police started investigating the disappearances (more on that shortly). Investigators said there’s no evidence they left for the mainland since then.
The new husband and wife were later spotted in January at Kaua’i amid the disappearances. It’s where Vallow was arrested.
5. Alleged Lies and a Cover-Up
Vallow and Daybell are accused of lying amid the investigation. For example, detectives performed a welfare check at Lori’s home in Rexburg on November 26. They said they met with her, Daybell, and Cox.
Chad Daybell, who had just married Vallow just three weeks before, allegedly acted like he didn’t know her very well, and said he didn’t know her phone number. According to police, Cox claimed that Joshua was with a grandmother, Kay Woodcock, in Louisiana.
The thing is, Woodcock was the person who reported the kids missing in the first place to Gilbert, Arizona police. She and her husband Larry have done a full-on media blitz amid the children’s disappearance, and have regularly called out Lori Vallow. No love lost.
Cox allegedly pointed cops toward an apartment, where he said his sister might be. Officers said that this apartment was “completely empty and vacant.”
A detective later stopped Chad Daybell on the road; this time, the newlywed admitted he knew Vallow’s phone number, and gave it to the investigator, officers said. This man also allegedly claimed to have last seen Joshua in October at the aforementioned apartment.
In any case, officers were able to track down Lori Vallow to another apartment. The defendant allegedly claimed that her son was with her friend Melanie Gibb in Gilbert, Arizona.
Investigators said they talked to this friend (who worked on an End Times podcast with Vallow). Gibb claimed, however, that Joshua had not been staying with her, and had not been there for months, according to police. She said that Lori and Chad separately called her on November 26, and asked her to tell cops that Joshua was with her, even though that wasn’t true, according to the complaint. Gibb rejected the requests. This allegation is why Vallow faces a count of misdemeanor solicitation to commit resisting and/or obstructing an officer.
Police suggest the newlyweds left Rexburg, Idaho on November 26.
6. Items Found in Storage Apparently Belonged to Joshua
Police say they’ve been digging around residences, vehicles, and other properties linked to the missing persons case. You may already know about the storage facility. Police said they executed a search warrant on a unit at Self-Storage Plus in Rexburg on November 27. They found items including a blanket featuring pictures of Joshua’s face, a backpack featuring his initials, toys appropriate for a young boy, and other items, including children’s clothes. Officers said Vallow’s card was declined at the storage facility on January 2, 2020. The owner of the facility said that he reached out to her via phone, text, and email, but hadn’t heard back. Vallow hasn’t tried to provide another debit or credit card to the business, officers said.
Joshua Vallow has brown hair, has brown eyes, stands 4’0″, and weighs 50 pounds, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Tylee Ryan has blonde hair, has blue eyes, stands 5’0″, and weighs 160 pounds. Officials said the little brother “may be in need of medical attention.”
In the criminal complaint, officers said a search of Lori Vallow’s apartment turned up evidence her son was prescribed Risperidone, a tranquilizer used to “treat irritability caused by autism.” It was previously known that JJ was on the autism spectrum. Officers said that the bottle still contained 17 pills. The prescription was filled in January 2019 back in Arizona, officers said.
[Image via National Center for Missing and Exploited Children]