Authorities are searching the Idaho home of Chad Daybell as the hunt for his wife Lori Vallow’s missing children continues.
Fremont County Sheriff’s deputies, Rexburg Police officers and FBI agents arrived at the home on the 200 block of 1900 East in Salem with a search warrant at around 7am Tuesday.
Aerial footage from the East Idaho News showed officers digging up soil around what appears to be a well in the back yard.
It’s unclear what the authorities are looking for because the warrant issued by the Rexburg Police Department is sealed.
The search is believed to be connected to the disappearance of Lori’s children, Joshua ‘JJ’ Vallow and Tylee Ryan, who were last seen in Idaho in September.
Lori married Chad – a prolific Doomsday author, alleged cult leader and former grave digger – less than two months after the kids vanished.
The couple have refused to say where the children are but insist that they are safe. While some relatives believe that Lori would never hurt her kids, others fear that they could be dead.
Authorities are searching the Idaho home of Chad Daybell (left) as his wife Lori Vallow (right) remains behind bars on charges over the disappearance of her children last fall
Aerial footage from the East Idaho News showed officers digging up soil around what appears to be a well in the backyard
Lori’s children Tylee Ryan and Joshua ‘JJ’ Vallow were last seen in Idaho in September
The East Idaho News, which first reported on the search, said that no one has been taken into custody yet.
Police told the outlet that they planned to be on the scene for hours.
FBI spokeswoman Sandra Barker confirmed that the agency’s Evidence Response Team is assisting local authorities with the execution of the warrant.
This is the second major raid performed at the Daybell home since police began searching for the children in late November.
During the previous raid on January 3, authorities removed 43 items from the home and combed over several sections of the yard with metal detectors and rakes.
Lori has spent the past four months behind bars on charges of abandonment in connection with the children’s disappearance.
The last known sighting of 17-year-old Tylee was on September 8, when she visited Yellowstone National Park with her family. JJ, who would have turned eight last month, was last seen two weeks later on September 23.
Lori and Chad are also being investigated for conspiracy, attempted murder and murder in the death of Chad’s first wife Tammy Daybell, who mysteriously died at the Salem home in October.
Chad is not facing any charges at this time.
Chad’s home in Salem is seen in January, when police executed an earlier search warrant
Chad married Lori less than two months after her children vanished. The couple are seen during their wedding on the beach in Kauai
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 knows where her children are 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.
The 51-year-old’s death is now under investigation as police wait for an autopsy to determine the cause.
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.