Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / Bonus: ‘Cult Mom’ Lori Vallow’s missing children remains found? Neighbors say bonfires at husbands property

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Bonus: ‘Cult Mom’ Lori Vallow’s missing children remains found? Neighbors say bonfires at husbands property · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: The search for seven year old JJ Valo and his sister,
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: seventeen year old ty Lee Ryan, began at the end
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: of November, when their grandparents had been unable to reach
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: them for a number of weeks. They called police and
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: asked them to do a welfare check on the grandchildren.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: When police arrived, they talked to their mother, Laurie Valo,
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: who told police the children were visiting friends and family
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: out of state. Police tried to verify the information that
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: Laurie Valo gave them, Failing at that, they went back
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: to have another discussion about the location of the children. However,
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: Laurie Valo was gone. That began the search for seven
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: year old JJ Valo and seventeen year old Tyleie Ryan.
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: Nate Eaton from East Idaho News dot Com has been
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: covering this story since its beginning, so has Ellen Killeram
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: with Crime Online dot Com. We have both of them
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: joining us today to get us updated on what's happening
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: in this case. We'll start with Nate Eaton. Nate, tell
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: me what has happened this week in the search for
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: JJ and So. Tuesday morning, dozens of police officers arrived
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: at Chad day Bell's home to serve a search warrant.
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: The warrant was to search the property. He lives on
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: a large lot of property. You know. Police went there
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: in January and seized a bunch of electronic devices. They
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: didn't focus so much on the yard, but this warrant
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: this week was to focus on the yard. Chad day
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: Bell was there at the house when the warrant was served.
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: He went outside. Police immediately went to the backyard. We
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: were able to get in the helicopter right away and
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: fly over the house and I immediately noticed that they
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: were putting up blue canopies, some blue tarps, and they
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: had kind of a grid area in the backyard near
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: the fire pit. That's where they were focusing their search.
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: And within two or three hours, Chad day Bell was
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: arrested and placed into custody. We didn't know what that
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: was for. We just knew that he was placed into
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: And then two hours after that they announced that human
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: remains had been found on the property and they were
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: able to confirm that it was two sets of remains
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: belonging to children, and according to family members, those remains
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: are Jj and Tyley, the children who have been missing
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: since September. So those remains were taken to Boise for
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: an autopsy, where an autopsy was performed yesterday to get
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: a positive identification, and right now Chad was arrested. He's
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: being held in the Fremont County Jail on one million
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: dollars bond. Laurie, his wife, is being held in a
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: neighboring county, Mite, Madison County Jail on other charges. She
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: hasn't been charged in connection to the death of her
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: children yet. That could be coming, but right now they're
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: holding her on the initial charges of abandoning her children.
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: A neighbor who has lived across from the day Belle
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: residence for many years noted that there were a couple
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: of big bonfires last fall, and then a couple more
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: bonfires in the past few months on the property. So
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: it sounded to me like he was indicating that having
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: bonfires out there was not a regular occurrence and had
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: just started in the fall and then again in the spring.
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: Is that a true assessment of what was going on?
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: That's true. Yeah, that's from what we understand. Chad Davel's
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: kids moved in with him and we're living in the house.
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: When Tammy died back in October and the children started
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: to use the fire. Pity, they do live on a
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: large piece of property and they did have an official
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: fire pit back there, so yeah, they were having fires
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: in This neighbor did reports seeing bonfires out there, and
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: the remains were found very close to that fire pit.
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: They hadn't really seen information as far as you know,
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: if the children were burned or anything like that, but
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: one could assume that something happened. And right now the
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: case is stealed, so the details of how the children
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: died the condition of their bodies have not been released.
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: What we do know is that during the hearing the
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: other day, the prosecutors said that the concealment of one
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: of the bodies was particularly egregious. Those were his words,
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: particularly egregious. So we do know that there must be
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: something that was disturbing about the way one of these
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: children died or was buried. They were able to find
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: these bodies fast. I mean, it wasn't a matter of
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: hours from the moment they served astir point to the
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: moment they had the children out of the ground. It
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: was as if police knew exactly where to look. They
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: didn't care up the yard, they didn't they didn't have
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: holes everywhere. They went right to a specific place, and
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: if you were to drive by that house today, you
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: would see nothing unusual, and they put the dirt right back.
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: It looks like a normal, average backyard. So I've heard
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: that within the past week or so police were able
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: to take a bunch of tiny little clues and tips
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: and put them all together into one big, solid puzzle piece,
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: and that's what led them to the house this week. Well,
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: that was the one thing we noticed, is that they
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: only dug one hole, just one hole, And in covering
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: these types of story from stories for many, many years,
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: that just doesn't happen. It was, as you indicated, they
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: knew exactly where they were digging, they found what they
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: were looking for. And now I do want to point out,
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: and you alluded to this earlier, the confirmation of the
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: identity of the bodies has not come from any investigatory source.
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: The medical examiner has not confirmed it. We've gotten that
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: confirmation from the family members. And obviously we are dealing
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: with children, we are dealing with I mean, it's an
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: easy leap here. Let me ask you, though, Nate, because
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: you have been covering it, You're right, they're in the
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: thick of things. Is there any chance that Chad day
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: Bell is going to be able to raise a million
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: dollars bail? Very very very unlikely. And we know that
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: because Laurie has been in jail on one million dollars
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: bail and he has tried everything he could to get
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: her out. And when her attorney went before a judge
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: weeks ago for a bond hearing, it was a three
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: hour hearing. As he pleaded with the judge to drop
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: her bonds, he was suggesting that they drop it down
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: to two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. He said that
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: they could afford two hundred and fifty thousand dollars to
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: get her out. Chad has not been working, he has
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: no income coming in. His books have not been selling,
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: and so he doesn't really have any money. If he
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: didn't have enough money to bail her out, I don't
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: think they have enough money to bail him out now.
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: He does have different circumstances. He has an extended family,
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: several brothers and sisters, He has parents, so they may
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: be able to raise the funds. Although his family has
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: issued statements in the past few days expressing their sorrow
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: and heartbreak for the remains that were found in the yards.
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: So it's unclear right now who's standing by him, but
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: we do know that he has not been released from jail,
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: and you've got to think that if additional charges come
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: in the next week or so, once the Emmy does
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: positively id these children and they're able to move forward
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: on more serious charges, that bond amount may be raised
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: even higher. Graham Online dot Com investigated journalist at Ellen
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: Keller and joining us, Ellen, what have you heard about
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: the bail amount and how other family members are responding
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: to the recent turn of events with regard to Chad Daybell.
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: The fact that the judge ordered him held on one
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: million dollars bail at the prosecutor's recommendation, even though the
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: charges that he's currently facing at this moment don't carry
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: that stiff of a penalty, indicates that the judge understands
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: there is something further coming down the pike. So I
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: don't think that we need to worry at all at
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: this point about Chad day Bell being released. I think
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: that he's going to stay in custody, and obviously Laurie
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: is too. Now you have been interviewing and talking with
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: many people surrounding the story and people in the area.
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: What have you uncovered recently about Chad day Bell and
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: his wife who passed away in October, Tammy, I have
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: been speaking to someone is the YouTuber briv the name
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: of Tyson Draper, who's who we've worked with before on
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: the Susanne Morphew case. He is on the ground there
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: right now and he went to the chat. He went
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: to Chad day Belle's home yesterday. He had a brief
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: conversation with Garth, who is one of Chad Dayville's son,
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: and he has fun video and we're going to have
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: that up on crime Online very shortly. He also spoke
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: to Emma Dave Bell actually her sorry, her married name
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: was Murray. He spoke to her. He did not court
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: that conversation, but he related to me what she said
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: to him. It wasn't a whole lot, but the impression
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: that Tyson says that he got from hers that she
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: had really been wanting to support her father and believing
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: her father, and he says that he got the sense
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: from her that her position has very much changed. One
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: detail that might be incidental, might not be, is that
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: Emma is actually moving into that home she up until
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: this week, she lived across the street with her husband
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: and their child or children, I'm not sure if they
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: have one or more than one, And she is now
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: moving into the home. So Chad day Bell and the
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: other adult young adult children that were living in that
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: home that was raided this week have already moved out,
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: and the family said that this was in the works.
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: So that's and but I haven't been able to get
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: any answers on where did Chad day Bell plan to move,
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: where was he going, and did the decision to move
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: from that property have anything to do with this investigation?
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: All right, So there was already a plan in the
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: works for them to leave the house, which explains why
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: we saw furniture and other things being taken out the
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: next day. That's right, the very next day. And I'll
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: admit when I when I saw the family's saying that
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: this was already planned, I thought that the timing was
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: really coincidential. It was kind of it was kind of
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: tough to not link it to what's been going on
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: in the home. But this person who spoke to Emma
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: said that the ausolready on the way and she she's
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: actually planning on moving into the house. So the house
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: is staying, staying in the family. But I'm very curious
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: to know where Chad Dayvill was planning on going. I
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: know everybody's a little bit different on this, but to
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: be honest, I don't think I would want to live
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: in a home that was party to having bodies of
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: children in the yard, you know, right by where they
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: were having bonfires. Absolutely absolutely, And if it's true that
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: this was already in the works it is, I would
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: love to know. I'd love to speak to her myself.
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: I would love to know if his daughter is having
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: any different thoughts about this. Now, Nate back to you
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: East Idaho News dot Com. Nate eaton what was the
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: general mood before the remains were recovered. Did people think
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: that the children were being hidden and that we would
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: find them alive and well, or was there a general
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: thought that we were looking for remains. I think that
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: most people did not believe the children were alive, but
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: the manner in which they were found, in the manner
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: in which they were killed or died, it is just heartbreaking.
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: Here you have Chad day Bell walking out the back
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: door of his house every day, and yards away there
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: are children buried underneath the dirt. I don't know how
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: any parent can function knowing that we ran into them
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: in Hawaii in January and going back and watching that
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: interview now, to me is chilly because I said to them,
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: where are your children? Did you do something to your children?
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: And they've got a you know, they seem to not
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: have a care in the world. As we're walking knowing
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: that they're buried in his backyard, and they know this
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: while they're on the island of Kauai. It just is
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: is so disturbing. I was at outside the house all
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: day yesterday and people were just driving by to look,
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: and several people stopped and just broke down sobbing. One
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: woman had one of Chad day Bell's book and she said,
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: I came to burn it, but she didn't want to
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: do it. There She's just like, I want to get
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: rid of this book. There's flowers, you know, taped to
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: a fence. There's teddy bears, there's signs, there's been vigils,
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: there's one tonight, there's memorials. So not a lot of
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: people in our community knew these kids. They moved here fast,
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: then they disappeared fast. They didn't have friends, they didn't
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: have associates, they didn't go to the local church, nothing
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: like that. But the community has come to embrace and
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: love these kids, and I think it's just such a
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: sorrowful way in which they are found. On the other hand,
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: it's nice to know that they have been found that
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: in five ten years, we're not saying, I wonder whatever
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: happened to those kids, that there is some sort of closure.
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: The sheriff described it as a wonderfully sad day. It's
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: wonderful that there's some bit of resolution. It's very sad
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: in the way that it was resolved. We know. The
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: one thing that continues to play in my head over
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: and over is that they've got Chad day Bell in jail,
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: million dollars bond and not accused of murder. Here he's
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: not accused of killing the children at this point, and
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: as Joe Scott Morgan has pointed out on the program
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: that in reality, oftentimes the charge of abuse of a
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: corpse is oftentimes in many states a misdemeanor. But the
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: prosecutor said Rob Wood said that it was so egregious
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: that if the facts come out about what happened to
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: these children, at least one of them, in particular that
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: it would give Chad Daybell the incentive to flee. That's
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: the part I can't quite get over. I think he
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: was concerning to him that Chad could take off. I
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: don't know where he'd go. He does have family down
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: in Utah and a neighboring state, and I think that
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: they just want to be sure that Chad does not leave.
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: The other question people have raised is could Chad potentially
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: take his life now knowing that the walls are closing
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: in that he is now going to have to face
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: some realities when in the past it seems as if
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: they've been living on their own planets in a way.
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: And we know that his religious beliefs speak to that
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: that he believes he's a god, that Laurie was a goddess,
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: that they are to lead one hundred and forty four
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: thousand and prepare them for the second coming of Christ.
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: The world will end in a month, on July twenty second,
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: and so one would think that maybe he thinks, well,
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: we'll just wait it out and things will end, and
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: then when that doesn't happen, he'll have a new reality
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: to face. So I think that they just want to
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: be sure that he stays behind bars until he can
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: go before the judge and go before the jury and
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: possibly you face the charges. The one question in all
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: of this that we still don't have any answer to
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: is his wife's death, Tammy. We are still awaiting those
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: autopsy results. I imagine that will be coming here in
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: the next few weeks. That's the one piece of this
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: puzzle that still is open. And anyway, I think that
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: that will be interesting and he could face additional charges
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: for that as well. And then you've got the cases
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: in Arizona concerning Charles's shooting. In Alex's death, they did
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: find that Alex died of a blood clot and his lung,
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: but police were quick to note that their investigation into
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: that death is not over, so this case is far
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: from over, despite the big break that came this week.
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: Just amazing. Thank you, Nate. That's Nate Eaten with East
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: Idaho News dot Com. Also special thanks to Ellen Killerin
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: from Crime Online dot Com. I'm Dave Mack, thanks for
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: joining us.