Lori Vallow Daybell is scheduled to appear in court Friday afternoon for a bond reduction hearing. You can watch in the player above. The proceeding is set to start at 4 p.m. ET / 2 p.m. MT.
The defendant bolted out of Rexburg, Idaho instead helping to look for her missing children Joshua Vallow, 7, and Tylee Ryan, 17, police say. The defendant was charged after snubbing a court order to produce the kids. She has been having trouble posting a $1 million bail. Prosecutors have said they’re okay with reducing the amount, but only if she produces her son and daughter.
Through an attorney, she has maintained her innocence. Her new husband Chad Daybell, who is not the father of either child, has cryptically said the kids are safe.
There’s a lot happening in the background of the case. The defendant’s brother Alex Cox shot and killed her previous husband Charles Vallow on July 11, 2019 when the family lived in Arizona. Less than two months later, Lori and her kids moved to Idaho. The last proof of Tylee’s whereabouts was a Sept. 8 family trip to Yellowstone National Park, and no one’s been able to account of Joshua’s location since the 24th, police said. Vallow Daybell and Chad married Nov. 5 in Hawaii, returned to Idaho, but left town when officers started to look into the children’s newly reported disappearances, according to the official account. They later popped up again in Hawaii.
We’d be remiss if we didn’t mention that Cox died in December of unclear causes and that authorities were taking another look at the 2018 death of Tylee’s dad Joseph Ryan (who passed from an apparent heart attack), and the October 2019 passing of Chad Daybell’s wife Tammy Daybell, who died in Freemont County, Idaho. At the request of the local prosecutor’s office, the state attorney general is investigating Vallow Daybell and her new husband for a possible case of conspiracy, attempted murder, and murder.
At a March 6 court hearing, the prosecution used this Arizona-to-Idaho-to-Hawaii move in order to argue Vallow Daybell should stay behind bars. They maintained they had no confidence she would remain in the state if were released from Madison County Jail.
Attorney Edwina Elcox, who no longer represents Vallow Daybell, argued that her client wasn’t a flight risk, and that the move to Hawaii had been planned.
Joshua “JJ” Vallow, and Tylee Ryan via National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
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.”
[Lori Vallow mugshot via Madison County Jail]