Content warning: This story contains disturbing details.
Shortly beforeLori Vallow Daybell’ssonJoshua “J.J.” Vallow’s cause of deathwas revealed on Wednesday, FBI Special Agent Steve Daniels testified about finding the remains of J.J. and his sister Tylee Ryan buried on the property of Chad Daybell, who married Lori shortly after the children disappeared.
“I’ve probably excavated approximately five to seven burials,” Daniels said, according toEast Idaho News. “Out of all of those burials, this is the most precise — somebody’s taken the most effort to bury these remains.”
Underneath the wood, Daniels said he saw plastic and felt what hethought was a skull. He used a razor blade to cut open the two plastic bags around the remains and saw human hair.
“That’s the point we decide these are human remains,” Daniels said, according toEast Idaho News. “This becomes burial site number 1, and it is J.J.’s burial site.”
“Once we found J.J.’s remains, we knew Tylee was around here somewhere,” Daniels added. “Was Tylee buried underneath J.J.? We had to be very careful.”
The remains of Tylee, 16, were found in a separate burial site. Daniels said that her burial was completely different than J.J.’s.
Lori Vallow, center, with her children Joshua “J.J.” Vallow, at left, and Tylee Ryan.REXBURG POLICE DEPARTMENT
“Such a big contrast for us as a team going from J.J.’s, how precise everything was placed, versus Tylee’s melted, charred, mass,” Daniels said,East Idaho Newsreports.
J.J. and Tylee went missing in September 2019, and their remains were found on June 9, 2020.
Lori, 49, is currently on trial on charges she murdered J.J. and Tylee and conspired to murder Chad’s first wife Tammy Daybell. She has pleaded not guilty and faces life in prison if convicted.
Tammy died in the home she shared with Chad on Oct. 19 of that same year.
During opening statements, Fremont County Prosecuting Attorney Lindsey Blake revealedTammy’s cause of death was also asphyxiation.
Two weeks after she died on November 5,Lori and Chad— an author who wrote about religious doomsday scenarios — married in Hawaii.
Chad Daybell.Rexburg Police Department
Earlier in the trial, Rexburg, Idaho,police detective Ray Hermosilloalso testified about his experience finding the children’s remains.
He said that he and other detectives dug Tylee’s dismembered remains out of the ground on Chad’s property.
“A few of us got on our hands and knees and began digging around this moist section of dirt,” he said, adding that investigators began to smell a decomposing body.
“We eventually uncovered bits and pieces of Tylee — whom we assumed it was Tylee — that had been burned. There were pieces of bone, charred flesh, just globs of flesh that were falling apart,” Hermosillo continued.
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Hermosillo said investigators found more globs of burnt flesh and bone in a green bucket. He added they were only able to work for a few minutes at a time because of the smell.
He said as they continued to dig they found a partial skull.
Lori Vallow Daybell, left, and Tammy Daybell.John Roark/AP/Shutterstock;
Chad is also charged in connection with the deaths of J.J., Tylee and Tammy and has pleaded not guilty, but will be tried at a separate time.
Lori’s trial is ongoing.
If you suspect child abuse, call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child or 1-800-422-4453, or go to www.childhelp.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.
source: people.com
