Chad Daybell
Prosecutors in Maricopa County, Arizona have declined to charge Chad Daybell, 52, in the alleged murder of his new wife’s slain fourth husband Charles Vallow. The announcement came as other charges mount against both Daybell and his wife Lori Vallow Daybell, 48, in two states involving the killings of Lori’s children Joshua Jaxon “JJ” Vallow, 7, and Tylee Ryan, 16, as well as Chad’s late wife Tammy Daybell, 49.
In a document announcing the decision, the prosecutor’s office said there was “[n]o reasonable likelihood of conviction” if attorneys were were to go forward a hypothetical case against Chad Daybell in Charles Vallow’s death.
Lori’s brother Alex Cox shot and killed Lori’s then-husband Charles Vallow at a confrontation in July 11, 2019 in the city of Chandler, Arizona. Cox claimed he fired in self-defense, but Charles Vallow had previously told police that Lori threatened to kill him.
“She’s lost her mind,” Charles said on body camera video in January 2019. “I don’t know how else to say it. We’re LDS [Latter-Day Saints]. She thinks she’s a resurrected being and a god, and member of the 144,000.”
Lori asserted that Jesus was “coming next year,” according to his account.
No charges were filed at the time.
A series of other bizarre incidents followed Charles’ death. Lori moved Joshua (who is Charles’ adoptive son) and Tylee (Lori’s daughter from a previous marriage) to Idaho, where the children disappeared on separate dates in September 2019.
Chad’s former wife Tammy Daybell died in October 2019. Her death was not initially considered suspicious, but Chad married Lori just days later in Hawaii. JJ’s grandmother, who lived in another state, called police in Rexburg, Idaho, for a welfare check on the boy, but instead of helping find their then-missing children, Lori and Chad fled town, the police have said. Joshua and Tylee were found dead in June 2020 in gravesites on Chad’s Fremont County, Idaho property.
Now Lori and Chad Daybell stand indicted for allegedly murder her children, and Chad is charged with murdering Tammy Daybell. Both are charged with conspiracy in all three deaths. Prosecutors say Cox also participated in the plot. Cox tried to shoot Tammy on October 9, 2019, days before she died, authorities said.
There will be no charges against Cox; he died in December 2019 of what authorities described as natural causes — a blood clot.
As for the killing of Charles Vallow, Lori Vallow Daybell was indicted in a conspiracy to commit murder in the first degree last June, but Maricopa County prosecutors say they just do not have a case against her current husband.
You can read the prosecutor’s decision as to Chad Daybell here:
[Image via John Roark/the Post-Register/Pool]
