Daybell day 16: The jury hears from investigators who helped uncover J.J. and Tylee’s remains
BOISE, Idaho (KIFI) - On day 16 of the Chad Daybell trial, Rexburg Police detective David Stubbs took the stand. Stubbs helped discover the bodies of J.J. Vallow and Tylee Ryan on Chad Daybell's property. He also conducted a search of Lori Vallow's Rexburg apartment after efforts to find J.J. began.
Never-before-seen bodycam footage from that search was shown to the jury today. It shows a walk through of Lori's apartment. Closets had been cleared out and a half-packed bag was left on one of the beds. Detective Stubbs said the apartment seemed to be cleared in haste.
He also shared how "tap and trace" warrants were used to pin phone locations for Lori and Chad while the children were still missing. In addition, warrants were obtained to search emails associated with them both. The following is a partial transcript from Stubbs' testimony.
Prosecutor Rob Wood: “Who do those numbers belong to?”
Detective David Stubbs: “So, we believe those numbers to be associated with Lori Vallow, Alex Cox, Tylee Ryan, Chad Daybell.”
Wood: “If you were looking for Tylee and JJ, why were you looking at Chad Daybell's location?”
Stubbs: “Well, I mean, Lori and Chad were married. We couldn't get a hold of either one of them. We couldn't get any straight answers as to where they were. We couldn't get any answers to where the children were, so they were associated.”
Wood: “What did you find?”
Stubbs: "The user of Chad dot Daybell looked up what the wind direction was going to be for the following day, which were around the ninth."
Wood: “And in the course of your investigation, why was that of note to you?”
Stubbs: "We believe on the ninth was the day that Tylee was, her body, was burned and buried in the firepit behind Chad's house."
FBI Special Agent Steve Daniels also took the stand Friday. He worked as the team lead for an Emergency Response Team (ERM) that investigated Chad Daybell's property.
After marking a perimeter and marking areas of interest with orange stakes, Agent Daniels' team sifted through soil and ash in the fire pit. During a larger excavation operation, they found human remains.
"We had an anthropologist with us on scene, and we tried to make a determination if this was human or not" Daniels said. "And while that determination was being attempted, I caught an odor of human remains decomposing. And so, that leads us to stop utilizing the tractor, and we start processing this area by hand."
The following is a partial transcript of his testimony in which he identifies a necklace chain and silver charm recovered by his team on or around June 9, 2020.
Wood: "What do you observe in this photo?"
Daniels: "This is a chain that was collected from the fire pit. So from that sifting operation that we did, this is one of the important pieces of evidence that we collected."
Wood: "Can you describe what you see there?"
Daniels: "That's the silver charm. That's the charm that was found in that northeast corner just outside of our grid perimeter. And, that was seen on our exhibit indicated by that red dot over by the measurement area."
Wood: "Do you know who that individual is?"
Daniels: "Tylee Ryan."
Wood: "Do you see her wearing any jewelry?"
Daniels: "I do."
Wood: "Does that jewelry resemble or look like the jewelry recovered from Chad Daybell's property?"
Daniels: "It does."
Due to graphic imagery, Judge Steven Boyce restricted the publication of certain photo evidence to anyone outside the jury. Agent Daniels will be back on the stand Monday for continuing testimony.
