Lori Vallow, the Idaho mother jailed in the disappearance of her two children, is being investigated along with her new husband in the 2019 death of his previous wife, according to a report by East Idaho News, citing the Idaho Attorney General's office.
Chad Daybell’s former wife, Tammy Daybell, died mysteriously in her sleep at her home in Idaho on October 19. She was 49.
Less than two weeks later, Daybell and Vallow eloped to Hawaii, and were married on Nov. 5.
Raising even more suspicions, Amazon shopping records unearthed last month show a wedding ring was purchased a little more than two weeks before Tammy died, and that Chad Daybell also shopped online for wedding dresses the day after her passing.
Daybell’s body was exhumed from the Springville Evergreen Cemetery in Utah in December, detectives are still awaiting autopsy and toxicology reports.
Neither Daybell, 51, nor Vallow, 46, has been formally charged in Tammy Daybell’s death, although prosecutors are considering possible conspiracy, attempted murder and murder counts, according to East Idaho News, which has closely followed the case from the outset.
The potential charges were revealed in a letter from Deputy Attorney General Colleen Zahn, who responded to Fremont County Prosecuting Attorney Marcia Murdoch’s April 7 request for assistance in the Tammy Daybell death investigation.
Vallow’s children — 7-year-old Joshua “JJ” Vallow and 17-year-old Tylee Ryan — have not been seen since September, and there were no signs that the children were ever with the newlyweds on the island of Kauai.
Vallow has pleaded not guilty to several felony abandonment charges, but officials say she has never cooperated with the investigation nor has she offered any explanation as to the children’s whereabouts. Daybell has also denied any wrongdoing.
The ongoing saga has had many twists, including several other suspicious deaths and family accusations that Daybell and Vallow are members of a Doomsday cult.
A story published earlier this week by British tabloid The Sun said Vallow was "preparing to walk free from jail on Thursday after her defense team argued she cannot remain behind bars during the coronavirus pandemic," but the Madison County Sheriff's Office later confirmed to East Idaho News that Vallow was not being released.
Vallow is currently facing a $1 million bond, and is scheduled for a reduction hearing April 24 before Magistrate Judge Michelle Mallard, who took over the case after the previous judge recused himself.
Vallow’s lawyer filed a motion to seal her address if she makes bail, but so far multiple bond providers have steered clear of the case.
Vallow has been jailed since her Feb. 20 arrest in Kauai. She was extradited back to Idaho in early March.
She first came under suspicion when her son Joshua’s grandparents reported him missing on Nov. 25. But she had already vanished from her Idaho apartment just as authorities were preparing to carry out a welfare check.
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