Lori Vallow Daybell, the Idaho mother accused of killing two of her children, was lounging by the pool in a bikini when she was served a court order to produce her children, who had been missing for four months by that time.
The video, dated January 25, 2020, shows Vallow Daybell relaxing by a pool in Kauai, Hawaii, when she is approached by authorities with paperwork from Madison County, Idaho, the New York Post reported. The paperwork demanded Vallow Daybell prove her children, 16-year-old Tylee Ryan from a previous marriage, and 7-year-old adopted son J.J., were safe.
In the video released this week, Vallow Daybell can be seen shaking her head at the court order and then shrugging when a police officer asks if she has any questions.
Relatives had been searching for the children since September 2019, when Vallow Daybell, along with Tylee and J.J., moved to Rexburg, Idaho, to be closer to Chad Daybell, the author of several doomsday books, who said a voice told him to move there for the second coming of Christ. On September 8, 2019, Vallow Daybell and her brother Alex, took Tylee and J.J. to Yellowstone National Park. Tylee was never seen alive again.
Two weeks later, on September 23, J.J., who is autistic, was last seen at his school in Idaho. The next day, Vallow Daybell informed the school that he would be homeschooled instead.
Shortly after this, Chad’s wife Tammy was found dead in her home. Her death was initially ruled to be natural, but police have since opened an investigation into the matter.
Less than a month after Tammy died, Vallow Daybell married Chad Daybell in Hawaii.
Three weeks later, after Vallow Daybell and Daybell returned to Idaho, police conducted a welfare check on J.J. at the request of his grandmother. According to police, Vallow Daybell said that J.J. was with friends in Arizona and that Tylee had gone to Brigham Young University-Idaho. People then began to question where J.J. and Tylee had gone, and suddenly, Vallow Daybell and Daybell packed up and traveled to Hawaii on the same day police began searching for the children, court documents indicate.
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Not long after, on December 12, Vallow Daybell’s brother Alex died in Gilbert, Arizona, due to a reported blood clot. His death was not investigated further, as the condition ran in the family.
On December 20, police in Rexburg, Idaho, officially announced an investigation into the disappearance of J.J. and Tylee. A month later is when Vallow Daybell was served a court order to produce the children within five days.
When the deadline to produce the children passed, police began laying the groundwork to arrest Vallow Daybell. They did so on February 20, 2020, arresting Vallow Daybell in Kauai and charging her with two felony counts of desertion and nonsupport of dependent children.
It wasn’t until June 9, 2020, when police searched Chad Daybell’s property in Idaho, that the bodies of Tylee and J.J. were found. Daybell tried to flee the scene but was caught and charged with two felony counts of destruction, alteration, or concealment of evidence.
Vallow Daybell and her husband, Chad, are charged with murdering Vallow’s daughter Tylee from a previous marriage and her adopted son J.J., as well as murdering Daybell’s ex-wife, Tammy. The pair was charged on May 25, 2021, but the trial didn’t begin until April 2023. Fremont County Prosecuting Attorney Lindsey Blake opened the state’s case by saying it was all about “money, power, and sex” for Vallow Daybell.