JJ Vallow, left, and Tylee Ryan were found dead in June. (AP)
Lori Vallow was arrested in February and extradited back to Idaho. (John Roark/AP)
As Lori Vallow sits behind bars, charged in the disappearance of her children, investigators are trying to unfurl a tangled web that led to their deaths.
Here’s a timeline of the case, including deaths, adoptions and divorces.Remains of Lori Vallow’s missing children found on husband Chad Daybell’s property: family »
March 9, 1990: Chad Daybell and Tammy Douglas marry in Manti, Utah, at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
1992: Vallow marries her first husband, her high school boyfriend. Little is known about him, including his name. They divorce.
Oct. 22, 1995: Vallow marries her second husband, William Lagioia, in Travis County, Texas.
1996: Vallow and Lagioia welcome son Colby.
Dec. 17, 1996: Lagioia files for divorce.
Feb. 25, 1998: Vallow’s second divorce is finalized.
2001: Vallow marries her third husband, Joseph Anthony Ryan Jr.
Sept. 24, 2002: Vallow and Ryan welcome daughter Tylee. At some point, Ryan adopts Vallow’s first son, Colby.
Aug. 13, 2004: Ryan files for divorce.
May 18, 2005: Vallow’s third divorce is finalized.
Feb. 24, 2006: Vallow marries her fourth husband, Charles Vallow, in Las Vegas.
July 2014: Charles and Lori Vallow adopt JJ, the biological grandson of Charles’ sister, Kay Woodcock.
Late 2014: Charles, Lori, Tylee and JJ move to Kauai, Hawaii.
Late 2016/early 2017: Charles, Lori, Tylee and JJ move to Phoenix, Arizona.
April 3, 2018: Joseph Ryan, Tylee’s father, dies from what is ruled a heart attack. His body is cremated.
Dec. 5, 2018: Vallow and Daybell appear together on a Preparing a People podcast, “Time to Warrior Up.” Preparing a People is rumored to be a doomsday cult that focuses on the second coming of Jesus. A statement on the group’s since-deleted website denied any involvement in the “missing children, nor any nefarious, criminal, illegal, or occult activities.”
February 2019: Charles Vallow changes his $1 million life insurance, listing his sister, Kay Woodcock, as his beneficiary. “(Charles) told me how to split it and, ‘Y’all are gonna need that money because JJ is expensive with all of his special needs,’” Woodcock told Fox 10.
Feb. 8, 2019: Charles Vallow files for divorce from Lori. In the documents, Vallow accused his wife of becoming “infatuated at times obsessive about near death experiences and spiritual visions.” He also claimed Lori had threatened to kill him “if he got in her way” during her mission as a God “to carry out the work of the 144,000 at Christ’s second coming in July 2020,” according to the court documents, and claimed she had “an angel there to help her dispose of the body.”
March 6, 2019: Charles Vallow dismisses the divorce proceedings, saying he wants to try again with Lori.
June 2019: Lori’s niece, Melani Boudreaux, files from divorce from her husband, Brandon Boudreaux. On Facebook, Brandon claims that Melani has followed Lori into a “cult.”
July 11, 2019: Lori Vallow’s brother, Alex Cox, shoots and kills Charles when he shows up at Lori’s house to pick up JJ. Cox claims self-defense and was never charged.
Aug. 10, 2019: JJ’s grandmother, Kay Woodcock, speaks with him over FaceTime, the last contact she ever has with him.
Chad Daybell was arrested in June after two sets of human remains were found on his property. (AP)
September 2019: Lori, Tylee and J.J. move to Rexburg, Idaho, where Chad and Tammy Daybell live.
Sept. 8, 2019: Tylee, 17, is seen for the last time, photographed at Yellowstone National Park with Lori, JJ and Cox.
Sept. 23, 2019: JJ, 7, attends Kennedy Elementary school for the last time. Vallow tells the school that she is going to home-school him. JJ is never seen again.
Sept. 24, 2019: Vallow tells her babysitter that she is no longer needed and that JJ is going to stay with his grandmother in Arizona.
Oct. 1, 2019: Vallow rents a storage unit, which she visits nine times between October and November, according to surveillance footage. Many visits are with a man believed to be her brother, Cox, who also visited several times without her.
Oct. 2, 2019: Brandon Boudreaux, the estranged husband of Vallow’s niece, reports being shot at outside his Gilbert, Ariz., home. Shooting outside home of the estranged husband of Vallow’s niece. The gunman drove a car registered to Charles Vallow, who is dead, but Boudreaux said he believes Alex Cox was shooting.
Oct. 19, 2019: Tammy Daybell, Chad’s wife, is found dead at home. Her death was ruled natural, but her family refused an autopsy.
Nov. 5, 2019: Vallow marries her fifth husband, Daybell, in Hawaii.
Nov. 26, 2019: The Rexburg Police Department performs a wellness check at Vallow’s home after JJ’s grandparents report that they haven’t heard from him in months. Vallow lies and says JJ is visiting relatives in Arizona.
Larry and Kay Woodcock, JJ’s grandparents, offered a $20,000 reward for the safe return of him and his sister. (JOHN ROARK | [email protected]/AP)
Nov. 27, 2019: The Rexburg Police Department returns to Vallow’s home, but she and Daybell are already gone.
Nov. 29, 2019: Alex Cox marries Zulema Pastenes at the Chapel of Love in Las Vegas.
Nov. 30, 2019: Vallow’s niece, Melani Boudreaux, marries a Rexburg man, Ian Pawlowski, in Las Vegas. He had gotten divorced in July.
Dec. 11, 2019: Tammy Daybell’s body is exhumed and her death ruled suspicious.
Dec. 12, 2019: Alex Cox is found dead in Gilbert, Ariz. His cause of death is eventually ruled a blood clot.
Dec. 20, 2019: The Rexburg Police Department announce a formal search for JJ and Tylee, which they tie to Tammy Daybell’s “suspicious death.” Police say in a press release that Vallow and Chad Daybell are not cooperating.
Dec. 21, 2019: Police officially rule Vallow and Daybell persons of interest in JJ and Tylee’s disappearance.
Dec. 30, 2019: The Rexburg Police Department say in a press release that they “strongly believe that Joshua and Tylee’s lives are in danger.” The children are not with Vallow and Daybell, officials say.
Jan. 3, 2020: The Fremont County Sheriff’s Office, the Rexburg Police Department and the FBI serve a search warrant at Daybell’s house. Forty-three items are removed, including “computers, cell phones, journals, documents and medications.”
Jan. 7, 2020: Larry and Kay Woodcock, JJ’s grandparents, offer a $20,000 reward for his and Tylee’s safe return.
Jan. 25, 2020: Vallow and Daybell are tracked to Kauai, Hawaii, where she once lived with her family. Local authorities serve an order from the Madison County Prosecutor’s Office that requires Vallow to “physically produce Tylee and J.J. to the Idaho Department of Welfare in Rexburg, Idaho, or to the Rexburg Police within five days of being served with the order.”
Jan. 29, 2020: Larry and Kay Woodcock file for guardianship of JJ with the Madison County Magistrate court.
Jan. 30, 2020: Vallow misses the 5 p.m. deadline to produce JJ and Tylee to the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare or the Rexburg Police Department.
Feb. 20, 2020: Vallow is arrested and charged with two felony counts of desertion and nonsupport of dependent children and misdemeanor charges of resisting and obstructing an officer, solicitation of a crime and contempt. She is held on a $5 million bond pending extradition to Idaho.
Feb. 21, 2020: Vallow tells a judge she plans to fight the extradition order.
Feb. 26, 2020: Vallow waives her extradition to Idaho after her request to have her bail lowered is denied.
March 5, 2020: Vallow is extradited back to Rexburg, Idaho.
In this aerial photo, investigators search for human remains at Chad Daybell’s residence in Salem, Idaho. (JOHN ROARK | [email protected]/AP)
March 6, 2020: Vallow appears before Judge Faren Eddins for the first time. Her bail is lowered to $1 million.
March 13, 2020: Eddins removes himself from the case, per Vallow’s request. Michelle Mallard replaces him.
June 9, 2020: Chad Daybell is arrested and charged with two counts of destruction, alteration or concealment of evidence after police execute a search warrant on his property. Two sets of human remains are found.
June 10, 2020: The families of JJ and Tylee confirm that the remains found on Daybell’s property belong to the missing children. Daybell appears in court. His bail is set at $1 million.
