The mother of two missing Idaho children, who was located in Hawaii by Kauai police with her new husband, has failed to meet a court-ordered deadline to bring her kids to authorities in Idaho on Jan. 31.
The Idaho couple, Lori Vallow and her husband Chad Daybell, were being sought for questioning after Daybell’s previous wife was found dead back in October. Then in November, his two stepchildren were reported missing. According to police, Vallow’s two children—Joshua Vallow, 7, and his sister Tylee Ryan, 17—have not been seen since September, according to CNN.
Vallow’s failure to meet the court-ordered deadline clears the way for a judge to potentially hold her in contempt of court, a legal move that could allow prosecutors to seek to have her extradited from Hawaii to Idaho to face charges, The Associated Press reported.
As indicated by the East Idaho News, Lori Vallow and her husband were found in Kauai on Jan. 25, when they were pulled over by the police 16 miles from where they were staying in Princeville. They had been there for over a month, according to the news outlet.
Police have also said Lori Vallow and her new husband lied about the children’s whereabouts and even their very existence, with Chad Daybell allegedly telling one person that Lori Vallow had no kids, and Lori Vallow allegedly telling another person that her daughter had died more than a year earlier.
Police confirmed that Chad Daybell was still there with her in Hawaii. Still, there were no signs of Vallow’s children, nor was there any evidence that the children were there with her in Hawaii, according to the news release issued by the Rexburg Police Department. Vallow had five days to “physically produce Tylee and J.J. to the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare in Rexburg, Idaho, or the Rexburg Police.” Should she fail to do so, Vallow may be charged with civil or criminal contempt of court.
A contempt of court charge is generally a misdemeanor under Idaho law, with a penalty of just five days in jail and a $5,000 fine. But Kay Woodcock, JJ’s grandmother, said authorities told her it could be used to seek Lori Vallow’s extradition.
“We now know that there’s some recourse that can happen after this,” she said. “They’re going to make her accountable to law enforcement.”
Thomas “Tad” DiBiase, a former homicide prosecutor in Washington, said the order to produce the children is a good strategy if prosecutors are looking to build a criminal case. DiBiase consults with law enforcement agencies on “no body” murder cases.
“It’s actually very clever, because it forces the parent’s hand,” DiBiase said Thursday. “Parents who have not done something to their kids are not going to violate a court order, so in that sense it’s powerful.”
Bringing missing persons cases to court can be difficult because, without a body, prosecutors are missing their best piece of evidence, DiBiase said.
“If you have a body, you know generally when the murder happened: Did it happen an hour ago, did it happen two days ago, did it happen a year ago, did it happen five years ago? You also don’t know how the murder happened, you also don’t know where the murder happened,” he said. “It’s an enormous challenge, because in addition to that, you don’t know whether the person is truly dead or not.”
When the potential victims are kids, however, it’s easier to bring a case without a body, he said.
“A 7-year-old is not likely to walk away on their own, never to be found again,” he said.
Wood also asked anyone with information about the kids to come forward.
Kay and Larry Woodcock have offered a $20,000 reward for information leading to the children’s discovery.
Background
In a press release issued by the Rexburg Police Department back in December 2019, Tylee Ryan and Joshua J.J. Vallow were last seen in September 2019. Police became aware of the children’s missing status when they were investigating the case of Tammy Daybell, Chad Daybell’s deceased wife.
“On October 19, 2019, family members found Tammy Daybell, 49, dead in her Fremont County home. At that time, Daybell’s death was believed to be natural. [Chad] Daybell was interred in Springville, Utah, on October 22, 2019. A subsequent investigation by the [Fremont County Sheriff’s Office] determined that Daybell’s death may be suspicious,” according to the press release.
Tammy Daybell’s body was exhumed, and an autopsy was conducted by the Fremont County Sheriff’s Office (FCSO) along with the assistance of the Utah Office of the Medical Examiner on Dec. 11, 2019, the press release stated. It was during the investigation that authorities were made aware of the missing children. Officials also found out that within weeks of Tammy Daybell’s death, Chad Daybell married Lori Vallow, the mother of the two missing children.
The family’s extended relatives had not seen or heard from Joshua since September 2019, and were worried about the young boy’s welfare, according to the press release. While Rexburg police were conducting a welfare check on Joshua Vallow on Nov. 26, 2019, whom they learned was a special needs child, Lori Vallow told authorities that she sent her son to stay with a family friend in Arizona.
However, authorities later learned that Joshua Vallow was not with the family friend as indicated by Lori Vallow, and executed a search warrant for the 7-year-old at the Vallow’s residence at 565 Pioneer Road. Investigators found out that Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell had since packed up their things and disappeared, according to the press release.
In the meantime, from September 2019 when the children were last seen and November 2019 when authorities found out about their missing status, the children were not reported missing to any facility.
Rexburg police said the parents never reported the kids missing, had repeatedly lied about where their children are—initially saying the boy was in Arizona—and aren’t cooperating with the investigation. Relatives of the family had urged Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell to cooperate with the police so that the children could be found.
Similarly, investigators learned that Lori Vallow’s daughter, Tylee Ryan, had also not been seen since September, and no one in their extended family had heard from the 16-year-old since then, according to the press release.
The Associated Press and Lorenz Duchamps contributed to this report.