Chad Daybell’s son is speaking out – two days after the ‘doomsday author’ was arrested for concealing the remains of his step-children in his backyard.
Chad was taken into custody Tuesday after the bodies of seven-year-old Joshua ‘JJ’ Vallow and 17-year-old Tylee Ryan were discovered at his property in Salem, Idaho.
On Thursday, his son Garth Daybell was seen moving items out of the home, before giving a video interview in which he revealed his shock at his father’s arrest.
‘I’d say it happens, but it doesn’t,’ Garth told videographer Tyson Draper.
‘Keep supporting us, we appreciate your love and support… We feel your prayers,’ he added.
Chad Daybell’s adult son, Garth, was seen moving boxes in and out of the family home in Salem, Idaho. He told a videographer he was shocked by his dad’s arrest after the remains of seven-year-old JJ Vallow and 17-year-old Tylee Ryan were discovered buried at the property
The remains of Lori Vallow’s children, seven-year-old JJ and 17-year-old Tylee, were discovered buried at Chad Daybell’s property on Tuesday. Lori and Chad married just months after the children disappeared
Garth is one of five adult children whom Chad Daybell shared with his late wife, Tammy.
Tammy Daybell, 49, died in her sleep in October of last year. Her body has since been exhumed following suspicion that Chad may have had something to do with her death.
Another of Chad and Tammy’s five children were seen moving out of the Salem home on Thursday. The kids were pictured carting boxes back and forth to vehicles parked outside the property.
Chad Daybell, 51, is facing two felony charges in the disappearance of his wife Lori’s children. Lori is currently behind bars on charges of neglect and desertion
A neighbor of the Daybells says he is worried for the children, giving that they are still grappling with their mother’s death and will now have to face the arrest of their father.
‘I feel for the kids, and I think they’ve got a long road ahead of them,’ the neighbor, Boyd Price, told KUTV.
Just weeks after Tammy’s death in October 2019, Chad went on to marry Lori Vallow – the mother of the two children whose bodies were discovered Tuesday in his backyard.
Chad’s wife Tammy Daybell (pictured together left) was found dead under suspicious circumstances at their home in Idaho in October. Chad married Lori less than two months after her children vanished. The couple are seen right during their wedding on the beach in Kauai
Locals left tributes to Tylee and JJ, whose remains were discovered buried in Chad Daybell’s backyard
Flowers and balloons are seen tied to the fence of Daybell’s Salem property
Vallow has spent the past four months behind bar on five charges related to the children’s disappearance: two felony counts of desertion and nonsupport of children and one misdemeanor count each for obstructing an investigation, criminal solicitation to commit a crime and contempt of court.
Prosecutors have not said whether they plan to add additional charges in light of the body discovery.
Authorities began searching for the children in late November after performing a welfare check ordered by concerned relatives who said they hadn’t spoken to seven-year-old JJ, who is autistic, in months.
When officers first went to Lori’s home in Idaho on November 26, she told them that JJ was visiting relatives in Arizona – which investigators say was a lie.
Officers returned the following day and found that Lori and the man she married weeks earlier, Chad Daybell, had fled from the home.
Authorities say the couple have repeatedly lied about where JJ and Tylee are and refused to cooperate with the investigation.
Lori and Chad were named persons of interest in the children’s disappearance after investigators said they believe the mother knew where her children were or what happened to them.
The case captured nationwide attention with the revelations that police are also investigating three mysterious deaths linked to Lori and Chad, as well as family members’ claims that the couple are members of a dangerous doomsday cult.
The first death is that of Lori’s estranged husband Charles Vallow, who was shot dead by her brother Alex Cox in Arizona on July 10.
Charles and Lori had gotten into an argument when the father came to pick up JJ at the mother’s home in Chandler.
Lori’s brother intervened and fatally shot Charles.
Police initially determined that he acted in self defense – but the case was reopened amid the multi-state search for JJ and Tylee, who had moved to Idaho, where Chad lived, with their mother in August.
The second mysterious death was Tammy Daybell, who was found dead at the home she shared with Chad on October 19.
An obituary stated that Tammy passed away in her sleep and her cause of death was ruled as natural after Chad reportedly declined an autopsy.
Investigators reopened the case after learning that JJ and Tylee were missing, as their mother had married Chad just two weeks after Tammy died.
They believe the two cases could be linked.
Tammy’s body was exhumed on December 11 and the autopsy results have not yet been released.
On December 12, Lori’s brother, Alex Cox, was found dead in Gilbert, Arizona.
An autopsy determined that the 51-year-old’s died of natural causes but noted that he had the overdose drug Narcan in his system at the time.
Police tracked Lori and Chad down in Princeville, Hawaii, in late January and served the mother with a court order requiring her to physically produce the children to authorities in Idaho by January 30.
Lori failed to meet the deadline, prompting her arrest and extradition to Idaho, where she is currently being held at Madison County Jail in lieu of $1million bond.
What took them so long? Police searched Chad’s home back in JANUARY but found nothing
The house where Lori’s missing children’s remains were found this week was searched by police in January but cops found nothing, which adds to the questions over why it has taken so long for the kids to be found and their mother and stepfather charged.
JJ and Tylee were last seen alive in Idaho in September but they weren’t reported missing until November and their mother fled to Hawaii the first time she was questioned by police.
She married Chad, a former grave digger and doomsday fanatic, and the pair evaded police, refusing to answer questions on where the children were, for months. Lori was finally arrested in December on charges of neglect.
The case stalled again then until this week, when the Rexburg Police Department in Idaho suddenly carried out a search warrant on Daybell’s property in Salem that allowed them to bring cadaver dogs for the first time.
The police department is refusing to answer questions on why it took so long to arrest Lori and find the children’s remains.
The search warrant has been sealed, which shrouds the case in further mystery.
In January, police seized several items from Chad’s home after executing a search warrant but it was believed to have been in connection with his ex-wife’s death and not the children’s disappearance.
Legal experts say they must have some form of new evidence which led them to believe the children’s bodies were buried there, and that the force did not want to put a foot wrong in the complex investigation because it could jeopardize a future trial.
Chad’s home in Salem is seen in January, when police executed an earlier search warrant
FBI agents removed 43 items from Chad’s home during their initial raid in January. Officers were also seen combing sections of the yard with rakes and metal detectors
‘I don’t have any idea why it took that amount of time. There are so many legal issues that have to be dealt with prior,’ Jennifer Shen, former cop and crime lab manager, told DailyMail.com on Wednesday.
‘I don’t know when it was the police would have gotten the information from that there were bodies on that property but they can’t do any of that without probable cause.
‘It’s called fruit of the poisonous tree. If you wind up finding evidence but not legally, that evidence can be thrown out, all the evidence could be no longer useful they have to do it the right way. It could have catastrophic consequences.’
Shen added that the case was ‘tragic’ but ‘really complicated’.
‘[It is] one of the most bizarre cases from start to finish.
‘This case has got dead bodies everywhere – you have to do things the right way,’ she said.
Frank Montoya Jr, who retired from the FBI in 2016 after serving since 1991, previously explained to DailyMail.com that the authorities in Idaho had been forced to hold off until there was any evidence of a crime which was more difficult to produce than before.
He gave an interview in February – before the kids bodies were found – and said it ‘wasn’t enough’ at the time that Lori simply was not cooperating with the authorities.
‘When the parent herself is not cooperating.. it isn’t enough to arrest them.
‘What’s the charge? If it’s just child endangerment and she refuses to talk, how do you prove the children have been harmed or more tragically if they’re dead? You can’t.
‘A judge and jury have no choice but to say there’s no evidence to hold her in cases like this you’ll hugely dependent,’ he said.