Mega Edition: Day Three Of The Chad Daybell Trial (10/17/26)

Day three of Chad Daybell’s trial on April 15, 2024, focused heavily on his behavior as investigators searched his property and discovered the bodies of JJ Vallow and Tylee Ryan. Madison County Chief Deputy Vince Kaaiakamanu authenticated a recorded jail call between Lori Vallow and Daybell from the morning of June 9, 2020, in which Daybell told Lori that police were searching the property and urged her to pray. Kaaiakamanu testified that Daybell’s tone during the call sounded noticeably different from his usual conversations with Lori. Rexburg Police Detective Eric Wheeler then described watching Daybell during the search, saying Daybell repeatedly looked toward areas where investigators were working before leaving for his daughter Emma’s nearby home and later driving away. Officers stopped and detained Daybell, and jurors watched patrol-car footage showing him speaking with Emma after being told a body had been found. Rather than focusing primarily on what investigators had discovered, Daybell discussed bank accounts, approximately $9,000 in cash, business finances, vehicle payments and putting money into Lori’s jail commissary account. At one point, when Emma suggested he might not be getting out for a while, Daybell told her, “I’m not coming back.”

Fremont County Lt. Joe Powell later testified about the decision to exhume Tammy Daybell’s body and the December 2019 exhumation itself, with jurors seeing photographs of her grave being opened and an autopsy photograph. Powell explained that Daybell had originally told investigators Tammy had been sick, suffered a coughing fit and vomited before going to bed and dying, while the defense emphasized that Tammy had used herbal remedies and other alternative treatments and questioned aspects of the investigation, including the fact that investigators had not reviewed her death certificate before obtaining the exhumation order and had not notified her children beforehand. The day concluded with FBI tactical specialist Nicole Heideman beginning testimony about the enormous volume of cellphone evidence in the investigation. She walked jurors through numerous phone numbers, aliases and accounts associated with Lori, Chad and Alex Cox, identifying several numbers investigators considered particularly important and beginning the process of connecting those devices to the people and events at the center of the case. Taken together, day three moved the prosecution from the discovery of the bodies into Daybell’s conduct during that discovery, Tammy’s suspicious death and the digital evidence prosecutors intended to use to tie the alleged conspiracy together.



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