Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell unhappily accept court papers in January 2020. (Kaua’i Police Department)
A just-released body-worn camera video shows accused cult killers Lori Vallow Daybell and her fifth-and-current husband, Chad Daybell, luxuriating in the sun on pool chairs as they are approached and served a court order by Hawaiian police in January 2020.
“How’s it going?” an officer with the Kaua’i Police Department asks the sunbathing couple. Vallow says, “Hi.”
“Are you Chad and Lori?” one of the officers asks. Vallow then says something, apparently replying in the affirmative.
A water feature of the nearby swimming pool incessantly swishes in the background – gurgling and breaking back and forth. A purple-covered book about Mormon eschatology sits on Vallow’s right.
“Mrs. Vallow, you’ve been served,” an officer says as she accepts the court documents in the footage obtained by Law&Crime.
The Madison County, Idaho, court papers ordered Vallow to physically produce her children Joshua “JJ” Vallow, 7, and Tylee Ashlyn Ryan, 17, who were missing at the time.
The video is cut together from two different officers’ perspectives of the brief interaction on Jan. 25, 2020. Daybell immediately rises from his resting position as law enforcement walks up, and appears to grimace in his dark bathing shorts. Vallow remains reclined at first, slightly moving to grab the papers, while wearing an emerald-teal bikini and appearing to glare at the officer who hands off the order.
“Do you have any questions regarding that?” the KPD officer asks.
Vallow slowly and almost tentatively shakes her head no, as she reads, her eyes hidden by dark sunglasses.
She later sits up cross-legged and reads the documents from her lap. One of the officers calls out the time and date for record-keeping purposes. The iPhone “Blues” ringtone can be heard playing for a few seconds. Daybell cranes his neck over to try and read the court order.
Vallow turns the page and asks: “Do you need something from us?”
“Any questions?” One KPD officer replies. Another officer quickly says: “Do you have any questions for that?”
Vallow again shakes her head no.
The officers then thank the couple, and turn around, exiting from the same pool gate they entered by.
Vallow was arrested and charged with desertion and nonsupport of her children, Joshua “JJ” Vallow and Tylee Ashlyn Ryan, less than a month later, on Feb. 20, 2022, by the KPD.
The couple had been vacationing in Hawaii, on an extended honeymoon, after getting married there in November 2019.
They told witnesses to the marriage that Tylee Ryan had died in 2017 and that Vallow had no minor children.
More Law&Crime coverage: ‘You got wedding pictures while your kids are in the ground?’: Lori Vallow’s sister rages in jailhouse call accusing defendant of treating her dead children like ‘garbage’
The 49-year-old “doomsday cult”-connected mother is currently on trial for the murder of both children, who died on separate dates in 2019, in Ada County, Idaho. Daybell, 54, was arrested on June 9, 2020, and stands accused of their murders as well – after the children’s bodies were found buried in shallow graves on his property in Salem, Idaho.
The two were indicted for the murder of Vallow’s children and Daybell’s first wife, Tammy Daybell, 49, in May 2021. They were initially prosecuted as husband-and-wife co-defendants, but the couple’s cases were recently severed and they now face separate trials.
Evidentiary proceedings in Vallow’s nearly 4-week-long trial drew to a close on Tuesday; closing arguments begin Thursday morning.
Watch the footage below:
Have a tip we should know? [email protected]
