DAYBELL TRIAL: Kay Woodcock, Daybell family members testify

BOISE — Several witnesses testified during the Chad Daybell trial court proceedings on Thursday, including J.J. Vallow’s grandmother and several members of the Daybell family.

On Day 15 of the trial, witnesses discussed the search for J.J. and the sudden death of Tammy Daybell, Chad’s late wife.

Daybell is charged with conspiracy to commit murder, first-degree murder, insurance fraud and grand theft in connection to the deaths of 16-year-old Tylee Ryan, 7-year-old J.J. Vallow and Tammy Daybell.

KAY WOODCOCK

On Thursday morning, Kay Woodcock finally took the stand. Woodcock is J.J. Vallow’s grandmother; she cared J.J. after her son and his girlfriend were unable to care for him.

Charles Vallow, Lori Vallow’s late husband, was Kay’s older brother.

Kay and her husband Larry have been attending the Daybell trial since it began in April.

Charles and Lori adopted J.J., changing his name from Canaan Trahan to Joshua Jackson Vallow. The adoption of J.J. was hard for both Larry and Kay, she said, so they would visit every couple months, even in 2014 when Charles and Lori moved to Hawaii. Kay said she felt Charles and Lori were loving and educated themselves on autism to better understand J.J., who was autistic.

After Charles and Lori separated in 2019, Kay visited Charles in Arizona to help him with J.J. and would occasionally bring J.J. home with her to Louisiana. When it became clear that Lori did not want to reconcile with Charles, Kay and Charles discussed Kay becoming the beneficiary on his life insurance policy — a $1 million policy, with $250,000 going to Charles’s two adult sons and the rest to Kay and Larry for raising J.J.

Kay said she never knew if Charles actually ended up changing his policy. In January 2020, she gave $250,000 to Charles’s two sons, as she had previously agreed to.

The last time Kay saw J.J. was on a FaceTime call on Aug. 10, 2019. After Charles died, it was hard for both Kay and Larry to get in touch with Lori and by extension, J.J. Kay was concerned about J.J. and spoke with various law enforcement about her concerns, she said.

In January 2020, Kay and Larry went to Rexburg and offered a reward for help finding J.J. and Tylee, who had both been missing since September. Both children’s remains were found in June 2020.

SHEILA DAYBELL

Chad’s mother, Sheila Daybell also testified on Thursday. Sheila and Jack Daybell have five children: Chad, Paul, Matt, Brad and Becky. The last time Sheila saw Tammy alive was Oct. 13, 2019. Tammy seemed well at the time, Sheila said.

After Chad called and told her of Tammy’s passing, Sheila and Jack drove to Idaho to attend the memorial service. She didn’t notice anything odd about her son’s grief, Sheila said.

“He acted like someone who just had their partner pass away,” Sheila said.

However, Sheila said it is not common in the LDS faith to be remarried two weeks after a spouse dies, which is what Chad did.

Tammy Daybell died on Oct. 19, 2019. Chad married Lori on Nov. 5, 2019.

Sheila first met Lori in November 2019 at a dinner in an Idaho Falls Texas Roadhouse, which is where Chad told Sheila and Jack that he had remarried. That day, Lori also told Sheila that her husband (Charles Vallow) had recently died from a heart attack and that her daughter had also died.

Lori didn’t say anything about J.J. during the dinner, Sheila said.

HEATHER DAYBELL

Heather Daybell, who is married to Daybell’s younger brother Matt, was called to the stand around 11 a.m. She’s known Chad for over 30 years.

In the beginning of her marriage to Matt, Heather’s relationship with Chad was as normal as any in-law relationship would be, Heather said.

“Cordial, nothing out of the ordinary,” she said, describing their relationship.

That all changed in 2014 when he started talking about end-of-times events and he began discussing his most recent publications. Chad wrote and published several books about the “last days,” depicting and earthquake in Salt Lake City and the gathering of Israel, which preludes the second coming of Jesus Christ.

“I was concerned with the things he was telling the family,” Heather said. “He indicated there would be an earthquake that would be happening in 2015 and he was making us aware and preparing us for these end of times.”

He was convinced he could see beyond the veil and into the future, Heather said. Chad eventually made it known that he and his family were considering moving from Utah to Rexburg.

Heather and Matt sat with him in the summer of 2015 and asked Chad to give them the details of why he felt he needed to move to Rexburg. He told them they would become great leaders after the destruction of Utah and that their home would become like a church or a temple. Heather said she did not believe these visions or anything Chad was saying to them and was concerned. From her understanding his immediate family believed his visions, Heather said.

“I told him that I wasn’t feeling good about what he was saying. I was very blunt,” Heather said.

When asked about Chad’s reaction to her rejection of his visions, Heather said that Chad typically doesn’t react to things, he just said “OK” and moved on. Heather recalled specifically telling Chad not to move into their neighborhood and ward.

“I knew why he was coming and I didn’t want him trying to draw in people from my ward,” Heather said. “We’ve made a good name for ourselves and we didn’t want there to be issues because of Chad.”

Chad and his family moved about a half a mile from Heather and her family’s home several weeks later. When she found out that Chad and his family had made an offer on a house in Rexburg, Heather cried.

After hearing that Tammy had died, Heather called Chad and asked him what happened to Tammy. That call on Oct. 19 was very upsetting to Heather.

“The whole time he was explaining (what had happened to Tammy), it felt scripted,” Heather said.

She asked him if he was going to have an autopsy done and he said no. He informed her that the funeral would be in two days. When Heather asked if it could wait, Chad said no.

The funeral was in Springville, Utah. The program was just Chad and his children and the opening song was Put Your Shoulder To The Wheel, an LDS hymn about working, Heather said.

Chad’s grief seemed “disingenuous,” Heather said. She was concerned about his kids, especially after Chad married Lori a few weeks after Tammy’s passing, so Heather reached out to them.

In mid-November Chad called Heather after she had reached out to his kids. He told her she had been a problem for him his whole life. She asked about Lori and asked how Tammy had died. Chad said she had died of a pulmonary embolism because she had recently gained 40 pounds, which Heather found odd because Chad had previously said Tammy had died after a coughing fit.

At the time, Chad was serving as an executive secretary in his ward, which made him a part of the bishopric, who are essentially ward leaders.

“Having an affair is not conducive to having an executive secretary calling and being a part of a bishopric in the LDS church,” Heather said.

Chad was in that calling when he married Lori.