Chad Daybell is found guilty in a murder trial dubbed ‘zombie’ in Idaho
Bill Chappell 31/05/2024
Judge Steven W. Boyce YouTube channel/Screenshot of NPR
An inquest jury from Boise, Idaho, has found Chad Daybell guilty of murder and conspiracy charges for the death of his former wife, Tammy Daybell, and two children of his current spouse, Lori Vallow Daybell.
Prosecutors have indicated that they intend to apply for the death penalty in the case of Daybell in the event of his conviction. In such instances the jury will be able to hear from both sides on any aggravating or mitigation circumstances before deciding if it is appropriate to impose a death penalty.
Prosecutors claimed Daybell made up bizarre, religiously-inflected stories of people turning into zombies in order to justify horrific crime — with the aim to getting a new start in with Lori Vallow after having an affair with her. They also accuse Daybell of fraud with regard to insurance claims after his ex-wife’s death.
Daybell 55, is found guilty on first degree murder in the death of Tammy Daybell in the latter part of 2019. Daybell has also been found guilty of conspiring with regard to the death of Vallow Daybell’s two children, who were her youngest, Tylee Ryan and Joshua Jaxon “JJ” Vallow. Tylee was just 17, when she along with JJ 7 was last seen alive on September, 2019 in the same month in which they relocated along with their parents out of Chandler, Ariz., to Rexburg, Idaho.
Prosecutor says that the texts prove Tammy had been “in the way”
Tammy Daybell, Chad’s then-wife was found dead in her home in the month of October, 2019. The educator and librarian was aged 49. The coroner initially did not do an autopsy and claimed that heart attacks were the most likely reason for death. However, the suspicions grew and caused Tammy’s body to be removed, and the reason that killed her was later changed to murder, which was asphyxiation due to the suffocation process.
In her closing argument last time, Fremont County Prosecutor Lindsey Blake claimed that Chad Daybell influenced the coroner’s initial ruling by fabricating facts regarding Tammy’s medical conditions. This was part of a plot, Blake said, for Chad to rid himself of his wife in order to remain in a relationship with Lori Vallow. The brother of Vallow had died a few months prior. had killed and shot the husband of her, Charles.
“A little over 24 hours from reporting his wife’s death,” Blake declared in her final argument “Chad messages Lori”I understand exactly what you’re feeling. I’m grieving however it’s not because of the reason that everyone else thinks”!”
The time was when Vallow went on an excursion to Hawaii. Blake told Blake that Vallow was getting angry with Daybell and had sent him a message in HTML1saying they could not be together until something changed.
“What needs to change?” the prosecutor asked jurors. “Tammy’s in the way.”
Daybell replied to Vallow’s message, Blake added, by declaring his love for Vallow was all that was important to him.
“Lori manipulates Chad with sex,” Blake stated. “From the minute he met her, he wanted to be with her — and she knew it.”
Two children were dead on the property of Daybell.
Blake explained the process by which Vallow started asking Daybell about plans that could be made with Tylee as well as JJ.
“About a month after Charles’ passing, Lori’s asking Chad, ‘Do you think there is a perfectly orchestrated plan to take the children?'” Blake stated, showing the image of Vallow’s text note to Daybell in the courtroom.
“There is a plan being orchestrated for the children,” Daybell said during his exchanges of texts. “I was shown last night how it fit together again.”
The bodies of the kids were found in June of 2020 and were they were buried on a property in Rexburg which was owned by Daybell. The heartbreaking and horrifying photos of the scene were displayed to the jury in the early stages of the trial.
“Tylee’s DNA was found on a pickax and a shovel that were in the defendant’s garage,” Blake said to the jury during her review of the evidence during the closing arguments on Wednesday.
Blake claimed that Daybell utilized a system of numbers to rank the members of her and Vallow Daybell’s family. Blake said more prestigious numbers reserved for those who he believed to be taken over with dark force.
“Chad said if someone’s a zombie, the body has to die,” Blake explained to the jury.
Chad Daybell also was charged with two counts of insurance fraud. Prosecutors claim he maxed Tammy’s life insurance in the month before her death and named himself as the beneficiary. Just a month later, Tammy’s death, he was married to Lori Vallow in Hawaii.
Couple had been driven by strange belief system, according to witnesses.
Chad Daybell and Lori Vallow Daybell were jointly indicted on murder charges in the month of May 2021 The cases were split on Daybell’s request.
Vallow Daybell has been sentenced to multiple life sentences in prison in the year 2000 for three deaths that occurred in Idaho.
Melanie Gibb, a confidante of Vallow Daybell’s has testified that she witnessed her friend’s involvement grow and enmeshed with Chad Daybell, with the pair telling her they were married before in another life. They talked about being married for eternity, and of being a leader for 144,000 people in the last days as outlined in the Book of Revelation, Gibb claimed.
Gibb stated that the couple believed in the same beliefs that people are overcome by dark, evil energy. This Criminal indictment mentions text messages between them “regarding death percentages for Tammy” Daybell and also messages regarding her being in limbo in addition to Tammy “being possessed by a spirit named Viola.”
As well as the allegations in Idaho, Vallow Daybell has been transferred into Arizona to be chargedrelated to her ex-husband’s death in July, 2019 and an attempted robbery on the life of her ex-husband’s niece.