“Cult mom” Lori Vallow’s former nephew-in-law broke down in tears on the witness stand as he testified about the moment he had to identify the remains of her murdered seven-year-old son.
During an emotional first day of testimony in Ms Vallow’s murder trial on Monday, Brandon Boudreaux told jurors about the moment that he learned Joshua “JJ” Vallow, seven, and Tylee Ryan’s remains had been found buried on Chad Daybell’s property.
“I was in my parents’ home in the garage. It was the day before my wedding,” he sobbed.
Mr Boudreaux said he travelled to Rexburg, Idaho, to be with JJ’s grandparents Larry and Kay Woodcock.
Choking up with emotion, he confirmed that law enforcement asked to identify JJ’s remains.
JJ and Tylee were last seen alive in September 2019 – not long after Ms Vallow had moved the two children from Arizona to Idaho, allegedly to be close to Mr Daybell.
Nine months later in June 2020, their remains were discovered buried on Mr Daybell’s property in Rexburg.
Tylee’s body had been dismembered and burned in a fire pit, before being buried in the pet cemetery. JJ’s body was found in garbage bags and wrapped in duct tape, also buried on Mr Daybell’s property.
Now, their mother Ms Vallow is on trial for their murders in a bizarre and tragic case that includes several murders, unexplained deaths and a doomsday cult.
She is charged with the murders of JJ and Tylee and conspiracy to murder her husband Chad Daybell’s first wife Tammy Daybell.
Mr Boudreaux was the second witness called to the stand to testify for the state.
He was married to Ms Vallow’s niece Melani Pawlowski for ten years from 2008 and they have four children together.
He was close to JJ and Tylee, he said, and the seven-year-old was especially close to his own son Braxton.
“I think JJ looked up to him a lot and they spent a lot of time together,” he told the court.
“JJ wasn’t super interactive, he had autism, so he wasn’t always incredibly interactive but he seemed to love hanging out with my kids.”
However, in 2018 he said things changed when Ms Pawlowski became more involved in the doosmday cult with Ms Vallow and Mr Daybell.
“It just kind of got more bizarre,” he said.
The couple divorced and he was living in a new home when, one day, he was the victim of a failed shooting attempt.
On 2 October 2019 – just days after JJ and Tylee vanished and days before Tammy was killed – Mr Boudreaux testified that someone shot at him.
He had pulled up in his car in front of his home when he noticed a jeep parked nearby, he said.
Then, he heard a gunshot and his window broke so he quickly drove from the scene.
Police were called but no one was ever charged.
After that, he said he began looking into his estranged wife’s doomsday cult and learned that Mr Daybell’s wife Tammy had also died recently.
“It made me really nervous,” he said.
Mr Daybell’s wife of three decades Tammy died suddenly in her sleep on 19 October 2019 – just one month after the children disappeared.
Despite being an otherwise healthy 49-year-old, her family declined an autopsy and Tammy’s death was ruled natural causes. Less than a month later, Mr Daybell and Ms Vallow married on a beach in Hawaii.
Investigators later exhumed her body and carried out an autopsy.
Tammy’s cause of death was revealed for the first time in Ada County Courthouse on Monday – with the prosecutor revealing she died by asphyxiation.
Prosecutors allege that Ms Vallow and Mr Daybell conspired with Ms Vallow’s brother Alex Cox to murder Tammy, JJ and Tylee as part of their doomsday cult beliefs – but also for financial purposes so that they could collect Tammy’s life insurance money and the children’s social security and survivor benefits.
During opening statements on Monday, prosecutors said that Ms Vallow was driven by “money, power and sex” to murder the three victims.
As part of their cult beliefs, they believed in a “rating system of light and dark” for how they ranked the spirits of the people around them.
Over time, this evolved into the belief that some people – including the children – were “zombies” and the only way to get rid of the zombies was for the human body to be destroyed.
JJ, Tylee and Tammy aren’t the only deaths surrounding the doomsday cult couple.
In July 2019 – two months before the children’s disappearance – Ms Vallow’s fourth husband Charles Vallow was shot dead by Cox.
At the time, Cox claimed Vallow attacked him with a baseball bat and it was ruled self-defence.
Yet, a new investigation was later opened into his death.
Now, Ms Vallow is also facing charges in Arizona of conspiring with Cox to murder Vallow.
On 11 December 2019, Cox also died suddenly at the age of 51. His death was also ruled natural causes, with indications of a blood clot wedged in the arteries of his lungs. However the overdose drug Narcan was also found in his system.
In the Idaho case, Ms Vallow is charged with first-degree murder, conspiracy and grand theft in connection with the deaths of JJ and Tylee and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder in the death of Tammy.
She is also charged with related financial crimes and is facing life in prison after the death penalty was taken off the table.
Mr Daybell is also charged with the murders of JJ, Tylee and Tammy and the couple had been due to stand trial together – before the judge severed the two cases last month.
Now, his trial will take place on a later, unspecified date.
