Lori Vallow Daybell
Prosecutors in Idaho signaled that they’re open to a bail reduction for Lori Vallow Daybell. But first, she has to follow a court order to turn over her missing children Joshua Vallow, 7, and Tylee Ryan, 17.
“This court should make obedience to said order or show a good cause for why the defendant cannot obey said order, a condition for any further bail reduction,” the prosecution wrote in a filing obtained by KUTV.
Investigators say that the kids haven’t been seen since September. The last definitive sign of Tylee was a September 8 family trip to Yellowstone National Park. As for Joshua, authorities say they haven’t found anyone who could attest to his whereabouts since the 24th.
Their mother is accused of leaving their home of Rexburg, Idaho instead of helping cops look for the kids. She went to Kauai, Hawaii with her new husband Chad Daybell. Vallow Daybell was arrested in February after allegedly snubbing an Idaho court order to turn over her missing kids.
The new couple married November 5, cops said. That was amid the children’s disappearance and just months after Vallow Daybell’s brother Alex Cox fatally shot her then-husband Charles Vallow back when the family lived in Arizona. No charges were filed in the July 11 shooting, but cops have apparently still been looking into it. A police detective with in Chandler, Ariz. reportedly asserted that they’re “confident” they’re going to get Vallow Daybell indicted for this. The defendant moved with her kids to Idaho in early September, and her brother died in December.
According to police, the son of Cox’s girlfriend called 911 and said he found Cox passed out in a bathroom. Investigators had also been taking a second look at the October death of Daybell’s previous wife Tammy Daybell, and 2018 fatal apparent heard attack of Joseph Ryan, who was Tylee’s father and Vallow Daybell’s former husband.
Gilbert, Ariz. police spokesperson Brenda Carrasco told Law&Crime on Friday that autopsy results for Cox were still pending.
Vallow Daybell remains locked up in lieu of $1 million bail, but she’s been having trouble finding help in covering the cost. Her defense lawyer Mark Means is attempting to knock down the dollar amount. The defendant maintains her innocence but has never publicly discussed the whereabouts of her kids. Chad Daybell has only cryptically referred to them being “safe.”
The Madison County Jail recently admitted to recording a jailhouse conversation between Means and the defendant but maintained it was an accident. Prosecutor Rob Wood attributed this purported error to policies over the COVID-19 outbreak. He maintained the jail immediately deleted the record and stopped all recordings in the “current attorney/client visiting area to preclude any other accident recordings,” he wrote according to KSTU-TV in Salt Lake City.
[Mugshot via Madison County Jail]