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The relatives of two missing children who once lived in Arizona say their remains were uncovered on Tuesday from an Idaho home belonging to their mother’s husband, according to The Associated Press.
Officials say Tylee Ryan and Joshua “JJ” Vallow have been missing from Rexburg, Idaho since last September. The case has sparked international attention partly due to the string of deaths surrounding their mother Lori Vallow and her new husband, Chad Daybell.
Vallow and her children once lived in metro Phoenix for years and have ties to investigations in Chandler and Gilbert.
She was charged earlier this year with child abandonment and obstructing the investigation and is in jail on a $1 million bond. Her attorney has indicated she intends to defend herself against the charges, and she is scheduled for a preliminary hearing next month.
Her husband, Chad Daybell, is now also in jail after the human remains were found at his Idaho home. Authorities have not released the identities of the remains, stating autopsy results were pending. However, family members say the remains belong to the children.
Joshua’s grandfather ,Larry Woodcock, told the Post Register in Idaho Falls that “both children are no longer with us,” also referring to Tylee.
In a statement provided to The Arizona Republic by Mesa attorney Robert Jarvis, Lori Vallow’s family said they were “deeply saddened by the recent findings” and that the family had “maintained a strong hope and belief that they (the children) were alive and well.”
“With that hope and belief apparently shattered, they struggle to find comfort and hope in this potential new reality,” the statement said, adding that the family missed Tylee and Joshua.
Discovery of remains leads to arrest
A sealed search warrant was served on Tuesday at Chad Daybell’s home Idaho.
There, the Rexburg Police Department – along with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Fremont County Sheriff’s Office – discovered two sets of human remains, officials announced on the following day.
Chad Daybell was taken into custody and prosecutors charged him with destroying or concealing two sets of human remains.
A criminal complaint filed in an Idaho District Court on Wednesday alleges Chad Daybell concealed or helped hide the remains knowing they were about to be used as evidence in court. The first set of remains was concealed on or between Sept. 8, 2019 and June 9 and the second set was concealed on or between Sept. 22, 2019 and June 9, according to the complaint.
Previous court records state Tylee was last seen in Yellowstone National Park on Sept. 8, 2019 while Joshua was last seen on Sept. 23 at Kennedy Elementary School in Rexburg. At the time, Tylee was 17-years-old and Joshua was 7.
Probable cause documents related to Chad Daybell’s arrest were sealed by the court. Madison County Prosecutor Rob Wood indicated the documents could compromise the criminal investigation and noted how much media attention the case has received.
Chad Daybell’s bond was set at $1 million during an initial appearance Wednesday morning. His attorney, John Prior, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Timeline of children’s disappearance
Lori Vallow and her two children lived in the Phoenix-area for years.
Previous court records filed in Maricopa County Superior Court showed Tylee lived in Chandler as far back as June 2012. About two years later, Joshua was adopted by Lori Vallow and her late husband, Charles Vallow, who was the brother of Joshua’s grandmother.
Lori Vallow and her children moved to Rexburg in September 2019, where Chad Daybell lived. He ran a small publishing company, putting out many fiction books he wrote about apocalyptic scenarios loosely based on the theology of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He also recorded podcasts about preparing for biblical end times, and friends said he claimed to be able to receive visions from “beyond the veil.”
Tylee and Joshua were not seen again by the end of the month. The children were also not present for Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell’s Nov. 5, 2019 wedding in Kaua’i, previous court records stated.
The Gilbert Police Department was the first to be alerted about the missing children by Joshua’s biological grandmother, Kay Woodcock. She asked police to check on him because she had not heard from him. At the time, she did not know they moved to Rexburg, she explained during a “Dateline” episode.
Gilbert police alerted Rexburg police, who did a welfare check the following day on Lori Vallow’s residence. There, authorities said Lori Vallow, Chad Daybell and Lori Vallow’s brother, Alex Cox, made several false statements about the children’s whereabouts.
That night, police said Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell fled to Kaua’i, where they remained until Lori Vallow was arrested on February 20 and later extradited to Idaho.
Authorities previously said the couple had been uncooperative during their investigation into the children’s disappearance.
String of deaths tied to missing children
There have been several deaths surrounding the missing children, including ongoing investigations in Arizona.
Divorce records filed by Charles Vallow in Maricopa County Superior Court in Feb. 2019 revealed Lori Vallow believed she was a god and threatened to kill her husband. Five months later, Charles Vallow was shot to death by Lori Vallow’s brother Alex Cox on July 11, 2019 in Chandler.
The Chandler Police Department’s investigation into Charles Vallow’s death remained active as of Wednesday, said department spokesperson Sgt. Jason McClimans. He added that Lori Vallow was “an investigative lead” in the case.
Cox, who claimed self-defense in the July shooting, died on Dec. 12, 2019 in Gilbert. Few details about his death have been released by the Gilbert Police Department.
A 911 call obtained by The Republic revealed Cox was found “passed out” in a bathroom by 25-year-old Joseph Lopez. Lopez told dispatchers Cox was his mother’s boyfriend and that he didn’t know him.
The Maricopa County Medical Examiner’s Office last month deemed his manner of death natural. His cause of death was listed as “bilateral pulmonary thromboembolic” with “atherosclerotic and hypertensive cardiovascular disease” listed as a contributory cause of death.
The report said he had complained of chest pain and shortness of breath about a week before being found unresponsive on his bathroom floor.
Charles Vallow was the second of Lori Vallow’s husbands to die.
Joseph Ryan was found dead April 5, 2018, in bed at his Gilbert home, according to a report from the medical examiner’s office. His manner of death was deemed natural and his cause of death was “arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease,” the office said. Ryan was Tylee’s father.
Chad Daybell’s previous wife, Tammy Daybell, also died in Fremont County, Idaho on Oct. 19, 2019. Authorities initially believed she died of natural causes but authorities grew suspicious when Chad Daybell married Lori Vallow just two weeks later.
Her remains were exhumed and an autopsy was pending as of Wednesday, according to Fremont County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Megan Swensen.
Brandon Boudreaux — who married Vallow’s niece, Melani Boudreaux — also was shot at on Oct. 2, 2019 in Gilbert. He was driving home from the gym when the shooting occurred and a bullet missed his head by inches.
He said during a “Dateline” episode he believed Cox shot at him.
Rexburg police was contacted after the incident by Gilbert and Chandler police for help in obtaining search warrants for the 2018 Jeep Wrangler, which was in Lori Vallow’s possession and believed to be “related to a possible attempted murder” of Brandon Boudreaux, court records said. The vehicle was registered to Charles Vallow.
The Gilbert Police Department’s investigations into Cox’s death and the shooting directed at Boudreaux remained active as of Wednesday, said department spokesperson Brenda Carrasco. She added they were independent from “all the other cases still being worked on throughout different states.”
No further information was provided.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Reach the reporter at [email protected] or follow her on Twitter @curtis_chels.
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