One of the first detectives investigating the disappearance of “cult mom” Lori Vallow’s son and daughter has revealed the alarming items discovered in her home months before the children were found murdered.
The trial of Ms Vallow, 49, is finally underway in at the Ada County Courthouse in Boise, Idaho, almost three years after she was charged with the murders of her son Joshua “JJ” Vallow and daughter Tylee Ryan and conspiracy to murder her doomsday preacher’s husband Chad Daybell’s first wife Tammy Daybell.
Detective Ray Hermosillo with the Rexburg Police Department was called to the stand by the prosecution on the second day of testimony on Tuesday. His department joined the investigation into JJ and Tylee’s disappearance after police in Gilbert, Arizona, raised alarm regarding the minors’ whereabouts.
Ms Vallow and her children moved from Arizona to Rexburg, where her future husband and alleged co-conspirator Chad Daybell lived, in early September 2019. Mr Hermosillo told jurors that officers found knives, several guns and empty magazines while searching Ms Vallow’s apartment two months later — when JJ and Tylee had allegedly already been killed.
Mr Hermosillo said he helped conduct a welfare check on Ms Vallow’s Rexburg apartment on 26 November after increasingly worried relatives in Arizona told law enforcement that they had not seen or heard from JJ, seven, or Tylee, 16, in months.
He said Ms Vallow and the children were nowhere to be found, but Mr Daybell and Ms Vallow’s brother Alex Cox told him the children were staying with JJ’s grandmother Kay Woodcock in Arizona — which the detective already knew to be false.
When asked to contact Ms Vallow, Mr Daybell said that he did not have her number.
“We knew Chad and Lori had married two weeks prior to my contact with him,” Mr Hermosillo told jurors in reference to the couple’s Hawaii wedding on 5 November 2019. “I assumed he was lying because I knew they were close.”
Mr Hermosillo testified that after knocking on Ms Vallow’s door without obtaining a response, he filed a request for a search warrant. Later that day, Ms Vallow opened her door and agreed to speak with detectives, telling them this time that JJ was “with one of her friends” in Arizona.
Mr Hermosillo returned the next day to serve the search warrant, only to find that Ms Vallow was gone. Inside the apartment, investigators retrieved guns in the garage of the apartment, as well as several Army-grade knives, and empty magazines for various weapons.
Police also found Hazmat-style suits and preparedness bags with emergency kits, a camouflage suit, ammunition, guns, silencers, and black trash bags full of clothes and papers. Toys and items belonging to JJ, including prescription medication, were also found in the search.
“There were things of that nature in the garage that caught our eye,” Mr Hermosillo said.
Recounting the scene at the apartment, Mr Hermosillo said someone appeared to have fled in a hurry, taking all of their clothes but leaving everything else behind.
Mr Hermosillo said that after the alarming discovery inside Ms Vallow’s apartment, he contacted the FBI to try to locate her, Mr Daybell and the kids.
Rexburg PD also contacted Colby Ryan, Ms Vallow’s oldest son, who told officers he had not spoken to his sister Tylee in a while.
Mr Hermosillo told the court that the last date he is aware of “proof of life” of Tylee was on 8 September 2019, based on a photo of her taken at Yellowstone. The last documentation that JJ was alive is 22 September 2019, based on a photo of him sitting on a couch in Ms Vallow’s front room.
On 11 December, the police officially reported the children as missing. Ms Vallow was ordered to produce the kids to Rexburg PD, and was ultimately arrested in Hawaii on 21 February 2020 when she failed to do so.
Prosecutors believe JJ and Tylee were killed by the couple in September - more than two months before Ms Vallow’s home was raided in November 2019. Mr Daybell and Ms Vallow then got married in Hawaii and refused to cooperate in a desperate cross-state search for Tylee and JJ.
Tylee and JJ’s bodies were found buried in a pet cemetery on Mr Daybell’s property seven months later on 9 June 2020.
Some details about their deaths had not been released to the public before Mr Hermosillo’s testimony on Tuesday.
Describing the search for the remains in graphic detail, Mr Hermosillo said that a crime scene team uncovered a black object protruding through the earth.
It “appeared to be the crown of a head” and more excavation revealed JJ’s body wrapped in plastic and duct tape.
Digging into another area, burnt flesh and charred bones were found. The smell was so bad the team had to take turns, Mr Hermosillo said.
“Eventually we uncovered bits and pieces of Tylee, whom we assumed was Tylee, that had been burned. There were pieces of bone, charred flesh, just globs of flesh that were falling apart.”
Hermosillo says more burnt flesh and bone were found in a green bucket that had melted. Eventually, they located a partial human skull.
“It was kind of deformed and the flesh and bone was all kind of stuffed in that melted bucket,” he added.
Once the plastic was slit open there appeared to be human hair.
At that moment the bodies were discovered, Mr Hermosillo was informed that Mr Daybell attempted to flee but was taken into custody by officers near the scene.
Ms Vallow and Mr Daybell are also facing conspiracy to murder charges in Arizona for Ms Vallow’s previous husband Charles Vallow’s fatal shooting by her brother Alex Cox during a supposed domestic argument.
Cox claimed he acted in self-defence before his death in December 2019.
Prosecutors alleged during opening arguments on Monday that Ms Vallow and Mr Daybell conspired with Cox to murder Tammy Daybell, JJ and Tylee as part of their doomsday cult beliefs and for their financial purposes.
Ms Daybell is scheduled to face trial later this year, after requesting to be tried separately from his wife.
