Police found a missing child’s debit card and an iPad with Daybells in Hawaii, Sergeant says

BOISE – Colin Nesbitt, a sergeant with the Kauai Police Department in Hawaii, said he first met Chad Daybell and Lori Vallow Daybell at a pool on the island.

He showed the jury in Chad Daybell’s murder trial body camera footage from Jan. 25, 2020, in which officers can be seen delivering an order to Lori Daybell to bring her children, 7-year-old Joshua “JJ” Vallow and 16-year-old Tylee Ryan , to the Idaho Department of Health.

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Officers invited the couple to ask them questions, but they had none. The next day, officers returned with search warrants and found Chad and Lori Daybell in their vehicle.

Nesbitt testified about items they found, including a debit card belonging to Tylee, an iPad marked “JJ,” 17 copies of Charles Vallow’s death certificate, some birth certificates and $10,500 in cash. He said they also found two laptops in a backpack, four credit cards belonging to Chad Daybell and other documents.

This came about two months after police began searching for the two missing children. Her remains were later found in Chad Daybell’s backyard in Salem, Idaho.

The public is helping to find the children

Benjamin Dean, an FBI intelligence analyst, said he was tasked with reviewing about 600 to 800 tips sent by the public in March 2020 after a public request for information from anyone around March 8 September 2019 was in Yellowstone National Park – the day Tylee was last seen. He said some were just text messages, but many had photos and videos attached.

Dean also reviewed electronic devices seized from Chad Daybell’s home in January 2020, including his late wife Tammy Daybell’s phone.

He said one particular text message was “longer and more detailed” than any other messages between Tammy and Chad Daybell, and that Chad Daybell described his actions “with some care.”

“This message was the only one on this device in which Chad wrote Tammy such a lengthy and detailed explanation of the events of his day,” Dean said.

The text said: “I had an interesting morning! I felt like I should burn all the limb remains next to the fire pit before the coming storm soaked them too much. As I was doing this, I spotted a large raccoon on the fence. I rushed and got my gun and he still kept walking. I got close enough that a single shot was enough. He is now in our pet cemetery. Fun times!”

A second text message said, “I’m going to shower every now and then and then write at BYU for a while. Love you.” Tammy Daybell’s response a few hours later was, “Good for you.”

He said the date of the message caught his attention because it was one day after the day he knew Tylee and JJ had been in Yellowstone with their family.

Tylee’s body was eventually found in the pet cemetery, other witnesses testified during the trial.

DNA samples

Katherine Dace, a forensic biologist with the Idaho State Police, testified about her findings after examining items found on Chad Daybell’s property in addition to the children’s bodies.

This included human remains found on tools carried into the courtroom, and Dace showed the jury where on the tools the remains – ashes and blood – were found. She said that human remains on a shovel matched Tylee’s DNA and that remains on a pickaxe had a partial DNA profile that also matched Tylee.

Tape and plastic wrapped around JJ’s body tested positive for blood, and she said decomposition fluid often contains blood. A hair found near JJ, she said, was most likely Lori Daybell’s hair.

Dace said she tested 18 tools and nine of them tested positive for blood. However, she said the tools did not contain enough blood to conduct further DNA testing.

She said they did not test the handles of the shovels for traces of DNA from the people who may have used them because it was not requested and is not normally done unless ownership of the tools is in dispute. She said Chad Daybell’s DNA would likely be found there, but she believed his family’s DNA would be on the tools “in a non-criminal manner.”

Colleagues say Tammy Daybell is healthy

Three women who worked with Tammy Daybell testified at the end of the day Thursday, each saying she was healthy until the day before her death.

Janet Andersen said Tammy Daybell was friendly and friends with everyone. “She was the energizer bunny…she just never gave up,” Andersen said. “She was just never sick. She never had a cough or a runny nose or a limp or anything else that I noticed.”

Tammy Gee, a kindergarten teacher at the elementary school where Tammy Daybell worked as a librarian, said she spoke with her the day before her death and found no health problems. She said she was “shocked” when she heard of the death.

Pamela Peebles said Tammy Daybell knew every child in the school by name and was a good friend and colleague. She also testified that she was shocked to hear of Tammy Daybell’s death and said the woman had recently told her she was feeling “in the best health of her life.”

Contributor: Daniel Woodruff, KSL TV