Chad Daybell, the Idaho doomsday writer whose wife has already been convicted of killing her children and his first wife, has been transferred to Ada County where his own murder trial will be held.
Daybell’s trial is set to begin April 1 in the same courtroom where Lori Vallow Daybell was tried and convicted last year. She was given three life sentences for her role in the deaths of 7-year-old JJ Vallow, 16-year-old Tylee Ryan, and Tammy Daybell and has now been extradited to Arizona, where she’ll be tried for conspiracy to kill her third husband, Charles Vallow, and the attempt on the life of her niece’s ex-husband, Brandon Boudreaux.
See CrimeOnline’s reporting in the Vallow-Daybell saga.
Daybell does not face charges in those crimes.
He was brought from Fremont County, where he’s been held since his arrest after the bodies of the children were found on his property in June 2020, to Ada County on Thursday. A new booking photo was posted on the jail website shortly after his arrival.
Daybell was married to Tammy Daybell in 2018 when he met Vallow Daybell, who was married to Charles Vallow. Friends say there was an instant connection, and soon the conversations turned dark as the pair did podcasts together discussing “zombies” — those whose souls were replaced by “dark spirits.” One former friend told CBS News’ “48 Hours” that Vallow Daybell called her husband a “demon.”
Charles Vallow filed for divorce in early 2019, and in July, when he came to his wife’s house to pick up JJ to take him to school, Vallow Daybell’s brother shot him dead, claiming self-defense. Two months later, JJ and Tylee disappeared. And the next month, Tammy Daybell died mysteriously.
Two weeks after her death, Chad Daybell and Lori Vallow married in Hawaii. In another two weeks, JJ’s grandmother, Kay Woodcock, began asking questions about him. When police got conflicting answers about his whereabouts — and realized Tylee was also missing — they launched a full-fledged search.
And the newlyweds took off for Hawaii.
A court eventually issued an order for Vallow Daybell to produce the children, and when she didn’t, she was arrested in February and brought back to Idaho.
Four months later, law enforcement searched Daybell’s property and found the children’s bodies. A reinvestigation of the death of Tammy Daybell brought murder charges in her death as well as the children.
Daybell and Vallow Daybell were eventually set to be tried together, but Daybell waived his right to a speedy trial and his wife did not, prompting Judge Steven Boyce to sever the cases. Vallow Daybell’s trial was still delayed as she was twice found incompetent to stand trial and sent to a state mental health facility for treatment.
But her trial finally began on April 3, 2023. Six weeks later, she was found guilty and sentenced in July.
Daybell, like his wife, has pleaded not guilty to all charges. His trial is expected to last eight to ten weeks. He faces the death penalty if he is convicted.
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[Featured image: Chad Daybell/Ada County Sheriff’s Office]
