A man who wrote several doomsday books and moved to Idaho because a voice told him to for the second coming of Christ has been convicted of murdering his first wife and his second wife’s children.
Chad Daybell, 55, was found guilty of first-degree murder and conspiracy charges for the deaths of his first wife, Tammy, and his second wife’s children, 16-year-old Tylee Ryan and 7-year-old J.J., CNN reported.
In May of last year, Chad’s second wife, Lori Vallow Daybell, was found guilty of murdering Tylee and J.J. and conspiring to kill Tammy. She was sentenced to life in prison.
Relatives had been searching for the children since September 2019, when Lori, along with Tylee and J.J., moved to Rexburg, Idaho, to be closer to Chad, who said a voice told him to move there for the second coming of Christ. On September 8, 2019, Lori 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, Lori informed the school that he would be homeschooled instead.
Shortly after this, Chad’s first 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, Lori married Chad in Hawaii.
Three weeks later, after Lori and Chad returned to Idaho, police conducted a welfare check on J.J. at the request of his grandmother. According to police, Lori 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, Lori and Chad packed up and traveled to Hawaii on the same day police began searching for the children, court documents indicate.
Not long after, on December 12, Lori’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, Lori 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 Lori. They did so on February 20, 2020, arresting Lori 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’s property in Idaho, that the bodies of Tylee and J.J. were found. Chad tried to flee the scene but was caught and charged with two felony counts of destruction, alteration, or concealment of evidence.
Chad faces the death penalty for the murders.
