10 Grim Details Surrounding Lori Vallow, The Zombie-Obsessed Mother Whose Kids Mysteriously Disappeared

6 /10 Closer To Chad Daybell

Lori took J.J. to school, and strangely she told the school administrator that her husband had just killed himself. In late August, Lori and her two kids moved to Rexburg, Idaho, where Chad Daybell and his wife lived nearby.

Alex Cox also moved into the same area. Lori enrolled J.J. at Kennedy Elementary in the city on September 3. 

Tylee was never enrolled in school in Idaho. According to April Raymond, the spring of 2019 was when Lori described Tylee as having a dark spirit. Lori also referred to Tylee as a zombie.

5 /10 Tylee Last Seen Alive

The last time anyone saw Tylee was on September 8 at Yellowstone National Park. She was there with J.J., Lori, and Alex. They left Yellowstone at around 6:45 p.m. and went back to the apartment complex in Rexburg.

Thanks to Alex’s phone records and digital map, the police learned he visited Lori’s apartment in the early morning on September 9.

He stayed there for a few hours before returning home. Sometime after 9 a.m., his digital phone location appeared in Chad’s backyard. Alex was there for two hours. Chad texted his wife, saying he had just buried a raccoon.

4 /10 Another Day Of Tracking

During the weekend in late September, Lori was at home with family friend Melanie Gibb and her boyfriend David Warwick – both would later give statements to the police saying that on September 22, sometime between 9 p.m. and midnight, Alex put J.J. in Lori’s bedroom. No one ever saw J.J. alive again in the morning.

Once again, police learned about what possibly happened to the boy from Alex’s phone records.

On September 23, at around 9:55 a.m., Alex was in Chad’s backyard for 17 minutes. Somehow in that short amount of time, there was a new grave on the property.

3 /10 Lori Daybell

Chad married Lori on November 5, or just about two and half weeks after the death of his wife. They had their wedding in Hawaii and returned to Rexburg soon after.

J.J.’s grandparents Larry and Kay Woodcock, who had not spoken with the boy for months, requested a welfare check on J.J. at Lori’s apartment on November 26.

The welfare check led to the discovery that both J.J. and Tylee were missing. Some witnesses said that Chad had told them Lori had no minor children.

2 /10 Flee To Hawaii

The police executed a search warrant the next day. No one was at home. Lori and Chad fled to Hawaii on December 1 – J.J. and Tylee were not with their mother.

It was not until December 20 that the Rexburg Police Department announced the children were missing.

On January 25, 2020, the Kauai Police Department in Hawaii served Lori a notice to produce J.J. and Tylee to authority in Idaho, either Rexburg Police Department or the Department of Health and Welfare, within five days.

Lori would miss the deadline. On February 20, she was arrested in Kauai on child abandonment charges.

1 /10 Human Remains Found

When the police and FBI served a search warrant on Chad Daybell’s property on June 9, they uncovered unidentified human remains buried in the backyard.

Further analysis days later confirmed the remains were those of J.J. and Tylee.

Based on the condition of Tylee’s remains, the most plausible explanation was that her body had been dismembered and burned. J.J.’s remains were tightly wrapped in plastic, his mouth and hands were bound in duct tape, seemingly to prevent him from yelling and moving. Some believe J.J. was buried alive.

Lori and Chad are currently under investigation for conspiracy to commit murder, attempted murder, and murder of J.J. and Tylee.

Prosecutors have now combined the case as they plan to present the same witnesses and evidence. Alex Cox died from a blood clot on December 12, 2019.

The discovery of Tylee’s and J.J.’s remains has unraveled a tale of religious fanaticism in which children became victims of their mother’s belief system. The death of J.J. and Tylee is still now an ongoing case.