The grandparents of Lori Vallow’s son Joshua ‘JJ’ Vallow were overcome with grief as they visited the site where investigators found him and his sister Tylee Ryan buried in the backyard of the ‘cult’ mom’s husband.
Larry and Kay Woodcock have spent the better part of the past year desperately hoping that the children would be found safe after they disappeared last September.
But on Wednesday they received the news they’ve been dreading for months, when authorities confirmed that two sets of human remains recovered on Lori’s husband Chad Daybell’s property in Salem, Idaho, had been identified as JJ, who would have turned eight last month, and Tylee, 17.
The grandparents arrived in Idaho from Louisiana within hours. As the sun set on one of the worst days of their lives, they looked upon the grave where the children were buried.
‘That’s the scene where JJ was,’ Larry told Fox13 at the scene, getting choked up as he spoke.
He paused and looked away at the ground for a moment as his eyes filled with tears, then turned to look back at the field.
‘My little man,’ he said.
Larry Woodcock broke down in tears when he visited the site where his grandson, Joshua ‘JJ’ Vallow, and the boy’s sister, Tylee Ryan, were buried in their stepfather Chad Daybell’s yard
Larry looked out at the grave site and said: ‘My little man’
Larry and Kay Woodcock have spent the better part of the past year desperately hoping that they’re grandson would be found safe. But on Wednesday they received the news they’ve been dreading for months, when authorities confirmed that two sets of human remains recovered on Lori’s husband Chad Daybell’s property had been identified as JJ and Tylee
Members of the tight-knit community in Fremont County who’d also spent months clinging to hope that the children would be found alive decorated the fence outside Chad’s property with flowers and signs and T-shirts that read: ‘Bring JJ and Tylee home.’
Larry and Kay had repeated that slogan many, many times over the course of the seven-month investigation.
They were the ones credited with launching the search by requesting a welfare check at Lori’s home in neighboring Rexburg in late November after they hadn’t seen or heard from JJ in months.
During that welfare check on November 26, authorities say Lori lied and told police JJ was with relatives in Arizona.
Officers returned the following day with a search warrant and found that Lori and her new husband Chad – whom she’d married two weeks earlier – had fled.
At the same time they discovered JJ’s older sister Tylee also hadn’t been seen since September.
Authorities confirmed that two sets of human remains were found on the property of Lori Vallow’s husband Chad Daybell
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
JJ and Tylee are seen in the first photos released by investigators back in December, three months after they vanished
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 the couple, as well as family members’ claims that the couple are members of a dangerous doomsday cult.
Frustrated with the pace of the investigation, the Woodcocks put up a $20,000 reward for information on the children’s whereabouts in early January.
Police tracked Lori and Chad down in Hawaii on January 25, and Lori was jailed on charges for child abandonment and obstruction of justice the following month.
Chad was arrested on Tuesday after investigators dug up the children’s bodies in his yard. He is now being held on $1million bail at Fremont County Jail on two felony counts for destruction or concealment of evidence.
Speaking at the grave site on Wednesday, Larry said he wasn’t thinking right now about who is behind the children’s deaths, and that he would let the justice system take care of the person responsible.
Frustrated with the pace of the investigation, the Woodcocks put up a $20,000 reward for information on the children’s whereabouts in early January
Several of Chad’s family members were seen moving furniture out of his home on Wednesday night when the Woodcocks visited.
Larry said he wants to mend fences with Chad’s five adult children and potentially get to know them.
‘I’m not coming in hostility in any way,’ he said. ‘I come with trying to be the peacemaker, and that’s all I want. I just want to be a peacemaker. Let’s all get along here.’
The children experienced similar grief last fall when their mother Tammy Daybell, Chad’s first wife of nearly 30 years, died at the Salem home on October.
The 49-year-old’s death was initially ruled as natural after Chad declined an autopsy, but was reclassified as suspicious when the case was reopened after JJ and Tylee were reported missing.
The results of Tammy’s autopsy have not yet been released.
Chad tied the knot with Lori on a beach in Kauai less than three weeks after Tammy died.
Receipts showed that Lori had purchased her own wedding ring from Amazon weeks before Tammy’s death.
Chad married Lori less than two months after her children vanished. The couple are seen during their wedding on the beach in Kauai
Chad’s wife Tammy Daybell (pictured together) was found dead under suspicious circumstances at their home in Idaho in October
Chad made his first court appearance on Wednesday morning, where his bail was set at $1million.
During the arraignment prosecutor Rob Wood described how one of the two children’s remains were disposed of in an ‘egregious’ way.
What led authorities to find the bodies seven months after the children were first reported missing, and six months after they first searched Chad’s property, remains unclear.
Video showed investigators using a backhoe to dig up dirt near a barn in the yard. It appeared that they knew exactly where in the yard to locate the remains, thanks to help from cadaver dogs.
It’s also unclear whether Lori will face additional charges in light of the body discovery.
Chad Daybell and his attorney John Prior are seen during a video court appearance on Wednesday