The house where Lori Vallow’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 Daybell, 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.
The remains of the children were discovered this week on the property in Salem, Idaho. Police won’t say how long they have been there
JJ and Tylee have been missing since September. Their mother refused to answer questions about their disappearance
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.
‘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…
When the children vanished, Lori and Chad fled to Hawaii and got married on the beach. His wife of 23 years had just died and her ex-husband had also been killed by her brother. Her brother died in December
‘I don’t know when it was the police would have gotten the information from that there were bodies on that property but they cant 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,’ Jennifer Shen, former cop and crime lab manager, told DailyMail.com on Wednesday.
She 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.
Daybell remains in court on a $1million bond.
While the children vanished in September, suspicious and mysterious deaths were happening in the family months earlier.
In January 2019, Lori’s third husband – JJ’s adopted father Charles – called the police claiming she was behaving erratically and that she did not recognize him.
He filed for divorce shortly afterwards and she complained that he’d changed his life insurance policy to write her out of it.
In July last year, Lori’s brother Alex Cox shot Charles dead in Arizona.
He told police at the time that it was an act of self-defense and he wasn’t arrested.
In September, the children – after moving with Lori to Idaho – vanished.
The following month, Chad Daybell’s wife of more than 23 years died in mysterious circumstances at their home.
The pair have now finally been charged and are in custody but so much of the case remains a mystery
He and Lori fled to Hawaii, got married and dodged questions on the children’s disappearance, even as it made national news.
She was eventually arrested in December and extradited back to Idaho.
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.
Montoya went on to explain what will likely happen now to Vallow. He also speculated over the various strands of investigation the police in Idaho now have to look at.
‘People like this – what exactly is their intent? Part of these end of the world scenarios is that everyone gets resurrected. Are her kids the test case of that?
‘Until she starts talking who knows… maybe this is the step to get her to start talking,’ he said.
JJ’s grandparents have long made public appeals for him to return safely to them.
They put up their own $20,000 reward for information in January because they’d heard nothing about the case.