Content warning: This story contains disturbing details.
Nearly three years after the remains ofLori Vallow Daybell’s children, 7-year-old Joshua “J.J.” Vallow and 16-year-old Tylee Ryan, were found, J.J.’s cause of death has been revealed.
“Was J.J. trying to get the bag off his head? It could be scratch marks of him trying to get it off his head,” Warren said, according to the outlet.
Warren said Tylee’s autopsy took several days because her remains were not intact.
“This autopsy was different,” he said,East Idaho Newsreports. “The vast majority of the time when I perform an autopsy, I get an entire body and there’s a process we go through. Tylee’s case was different. Her remains were received in three separate sealed bags.”
Joshua “J.J.” Vallow, at left, and Tylee Ryan.Rexburg Police Department (2)
Lori is charged with murder in connection with the deaths of J.J. and Tylee and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder in the death of her fifth husband Chad’s first wife Tammy Daybell.
During opening statements, Fremont County Prosecuting Attorney Lindsey Blake revealedTammy’s cause of death was also asphyxiation. Chad is also charged in connection with the deaths of Tylee, J.J. and Tammy, but will be tried separately.
Earlier in the weeks-long trial, Rexburg, Idaho, police detective Ray Hermosillo took the stand and described chilling details about how J.J.’s remains were found on June 9, 2020, nearly nine months after the children went missing.
“I saw a little boy in red pajamas,” Hermosillo said on the stand. “He had a white plastic bag around his head. Several layers of duct tape from chin to his forehead area. His arm was duct taped with several layers. [His arms] were folded across his chest. His feet were also duct taped and bound.”
Hermosillo also said a white and blue child’s blanket was placed on top of him. On his feet, he was wearing black Skechers socks. At the autopsy, the coroner cut open the bag that was wrapped over J.J.s head.
“Underneath that white plastic bag was another layer of duct tape across his mouth from jaw line to jaw line,” said Hermosillo.
J.J. Vallow.Courtesy Kay Vallow-Woodcock
Hermosillo said there was “visible bruising on his arm” and his pajamas were soaked in decomposition.
Tylee’s remains were found at a separate location on Chad’s property on the same day.
“What was left of Tylee was found. Charred remains. A mass of bone and tissues. That was what was left of this beautiful young woman,” Blake said during the first week of trial. “Her DNA was discovered on a pickaxe and shovel and later found in Daybell’s shed.”
Hermosillo also described finding Tylee’s dismembered remains.
“A few of us got on our hands and knees and began digging around this moist section of dirt,” he said, adding that investigators began to smell a decomposing body.
“We eventually uncovered bits and pieces of Tylee — whom we assumed it was Tylee — that had been burned. There were pieces of bone, charred flesh, just globs of flesh that were falling apart,” Hermosillo continued.
Lori Vallow Daybell.Dennis Fujimoto/AP/Shutterstock
J.J., who had an autism diagnosis, was last seen Sept. 23, 2019, at his Rexburg school before Lori withdrew him and told the principal she was considering home-schooling. The last known image of Tylee was taken Sept. 8, 2019, while she was on a day trip to Yellowstone National Park with her mother, brother and uncle Alex Cox, according to a court filing.
After the children disappeared, Lori and Chad — an author who wrote about religious doomsday scenarios — facedpolice scrutinywhen their pasts revealed a trail of mysterious deaths, including Chad’s first wife,Tammy, who died in October 2019 — weeks after Lori’s children went missing and weeks before Chad and Lori got married.
Chad Daybell, left, with his defense attorney John Prior in court Aug. 3, 2020.John Roark/Post Register
On April 13, Lori’s former friendMelanie Gibbtestified during the trial that Lori had told her both of her children had “dark” spirits.
According to Gibb, Lori believed that people existed on a scale of “light” and “dark” — with those that “signed contracts” with Jesus Christ being light and those who did the same with Satan as dark.
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Gibb said that Lori told her in September 2019 that J.J. had become “dark” that month and that Tylee had become dark earlier that year.
Gibb also testified that when she visited Lori in Rexburg, Idaho, in September 2019, Lori allegedly told her that J.J. had an evil spirit in him — saying that her husband, Chad, had told her so.
“She let me know that J.J now had an evil spirit in him,” Gibb testified. “She learned it the day before.”
Lori also allegedly told a close friend that her children had become “zombies” and that she was on a religious mission with Chad “to rid the world of “zombies” months before the children’s remains were found.
Lori’s trial is ongoing.
If you suspect child abuse, call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child or 1-800-422-4453, or go to www.childhelp.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.
source: people.com
