BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Chad Daybell, a self-published doomsday fiction author, is on trial in Idaho in the deaths of his wife and his new girlfriend’s two children. It’s a complex triple-murder trial that investigators say involves unusual claims that the victims were possessed by evil spirits — and more typical claims related to life insurance and social security benefits.
The children’s mother, Lori Vallow Daybell, has already been sentenced to life in prison. But Chad Daybell has pleaded not guilty to murder, conspiracy and insurance fraud charges in the deaths of his late wife, Tammy Daybell, as well as the children, Joshua “JJ” Vallow and Tylee Ryan. The trial is expected to take more than two months.
Here’s a look at some of the people connected to the case.
Chad Daybell, 55, was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and self-published fiction loosely based on its teachings. He married Tammy Daybell in 1990. They had five kids and a home in rural southeastern Idaho.
Prosecutors say he met Vallow Daybell at a conference in Utah in 2018. They became a couple, insisting they had been married in a past life, police said. They led a group of friends in trying to cast out evil spirits by praying and doing what they called “energy work,” prosecutors said.
In some cases, they claimed, a person could become a “zombie,” and the only way to banish a zombie was to kill the person, friends said. One friend told police she heard Vallow Daybell call the children zombies before they disappeared.
In October 2019, Daybell reportedly told authorities that his wife had been battling a respiratory infection and died in her sleep. The death was initially attributed to natural causes, but authorities became suspicious when Chad Daybell married Lori Vallow Daybell just two weeks later.
Tammy Daybell’s body was exhumed and an autopsy showed she died of asphyxiation.
Lori Vallow Daybell, 50, is a beautician by trade, a mother of three and a wife — five times over. She was convicted last year of murder, conspiracy and grand theft charges and has been sentenced to life in prison without parole. She is also facing charges in Arizona related to the 2019 death of her fourth husband.
Vallow Daybell’s first marriage, to a high school sweetheart when she was 19, ended quickly. She married again in her early 20s and had a son. In 2001, Vallow Daybell married again, this time to a man named Joseph Ryan. The couple had a daughter named Tylee in 2002, but divorced a few years later. Ryan later died in his home of a suspected heart attack.
After her father’s death, Tylee received social security survivor benefits — which Vallow Daybell collected herself after Tylee disappeared in 2019.
During her sentencing, Vallow Daybell gave a long statement saying that “accidental deaths happen.” She claimed the spirits of the three victims visited her regularly and were all happy in the “spirit world.”
In summer 2019, after her fourth husband was shot to death by her brother, Vallow Daybell moved with her two youngest kids to southeastern Idaho, where she could be closer to Chad Daybell. That September, the children disappeared, and Chad and Tammy Daybell applied to increase Tammy Daybell’s life insurance benefit, prosecutors said.
Tammy Daybell died the next month.
The children’s bodies were found the following year, buried in Chad Daybell’s yard.
Charles Vallow, a member of the LDS church, entered the picture several months after Vallow Daybell and Joseph Ryan divorced. Vallow Daybell joined the LDS church and the two married in 2006. They later adopted Joshua Jaxon “JJ” Vallow.
By 2019, the marriage had soured. Charles Vallow filed for divorce, contending in court papers that Vallow Daybell believed herself to be a deity tasked with helping to usher in the Biblical apocalypse.
The two were estranged but still married when Vallow Daybell’s brother, Alex Cox, shot and killed Charles Vallow outside his suburban Phoenix home.
Cox told police the shooting was in self defense and was never charged in the case. Shortly after Charles’ death, Vallow Daybell moved to eastern Idaho with her brother and two children.
Both Chad Daybell and Lori Vallow Daybell are accused of conspiring with Vallow Daybell’s brother, Alex Cox, in the deaths. But Cox was never charged — he died suddenly in December 2019.
Autopsy and toxicology reports showed Cox died of a pulmonary blood clot, and law enforcement officials have said Cox’s death is believed to be from natural causes.
During Vallow Daybell’s trial, prosecutors presented several witnesses and pieces of evidence that appeared to tie Cox to the deaths, including GPS data on Cox’s phone that was traced to the places where the children’s bodies were found.
Prosecutors say Cox also tried to shoot Tammy Daybell in October 2019.
Friends of Cox and Vallow Daybell testified last year that the siblings were very close, and that Cox believed he was put on Earth to serve as Vallow Daybell’s “protector.”
Cox also believed people could be possessed and turn into zombies, his wife, Zulema Pastenes, testified. When Cox learned Tammy Daybell’s body was being exhumed, he said he was the “fall guy” but wouldn’t elaborate, Pastenes said. He died the next day.
FILE - Chad Daybell sits during a court hearing, Aug. 4, 2020, in St. Anthony, Idaho. The trial of Daybell, who is charged with the deaths of his wife and his girlfriend's two youngest children, is set to begin in Idaho, serving as a second act in a bizarre case that has drawn worldwide attention and already resulted in a life sentence for the kids' mother. (John Roark/The Idaho Post-Register via AP, Pool, File)
FILE - Larry Woodcock speaks to media members at the Rexburg Standard Journal Newspaper in Rexburg, Idaho on Jan. 7, 2020, while holding a reward flyer for Joshua Vallow and Tylee Ryan. A self-published doomsday fiction author is on trial in Idaho in the deaths of his wife and his new girlfriend's two children. Chad Daybell has pleaded not guilty to murder, conspiracy and grand theft charges in the deaths of his late wife Tammy Daybell, as well as the children, Joshua "JJ" Vallow and Tylee Ryan. (John Roark/The Idaho Post-Register via AP, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Clarence B. Jones says he thought a prankster was on the line when he answered the telephone and heard the person on the other end say they were calling from the White House.
“I said, ‘Is this a joke or is this serious?’" Jones recalled. The caller swore they were serious and was calling with the news that President Joe Biden wanted to recognize Jones with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor.
Jones, 93, will be honored for his activism during the Civil Rights Movement. He's a lawyer who provided legal counsel to Martin Luther King Jr. and helped write the opening paragraphs of the “I Have a Dream” speech that King delivered at the Lincoln Memorial at the 1963 March on Washington.
Jones is among a diverse group of 19 individuals to be honored Friday by the Democratic president for making what the White House said are “exemplary contributions to the prosperity, values, or security of the United States, world peace, or other significant societal, public or private endeavors.”
The 10 men and nine women hail from the worlds of politics, sports, entertainment, civil rights and LGBTQ+ advocacy, science and religion. Three medals will be awarded posthumously.
“These nineteen Americans built teams, coalitions, movements, organizations, and businesses that shaped America for the better,” the announcement from the White House said. “They are the pinnacle of leadership in their fields. They consistently demonstrated over their careers the power of community, hard work, and science.”
Seven politicians are among the recipients: former New York mayor and philanthropist Michael Bloomberg, Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., former Sen. Elizabeth Dole, climate activist and former Vice President Al Gore, Biden's former climate envoy John Kerry, former Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., who died in 2013, and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
Clyburn's endorsement of his longtime friend Biden in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary is credited with helping Biden score a thundering win in South Carolina that helped power him to his party's nomination and ultimately the White House. Bloomberg mounted a short-lived bid for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.
In addition to representing North Carolina in the Senate, Dole, who is a Republican, also served as transportation secretary and labor secretary and was president of the American Red Cross. She currently leads a foundation supporting military caregivers.
Pelosi is the first and only woman ever elected to the speaker's post, putting her second in the line of succession to the presidency.
Medgar Evers will receive posthumous recognition for his work more than six decades ago fighting segregation in Mississippi in the 1960s as the NAACP's first field officer in the state. He was 37 when he was fatally shot in the driveway of his home in June 1963.
Michelle Yeoh made history last year by becoming the first Asian woman to win an Academy Award for best actress for her performance in “ Everything, Everywhere All at Once.”
Jim Thorpe, who died in 1953, was the first Native American to win an Olympic gold medal for the United States.
Judy Shepard co-founded the Matthew Shepard Foundation, named after her son, a gay 21-year-old University of Wyoming student who died in 1998 after he was beaten and tied to a fence.
Jones said he felt “very touched” after he digested what the caller had said.
“I'm 93 years old with some health challenges, but I woke up this morning thanks to the grace of God,” he told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Thursday. “I'm looking forward to whatever the White House would like for me to do.”
The other medal recipients are:
— Gregory Boyle, a Jesuit Catholic priest who founded and runs Homeboy Industries, a gang-intervention and rehabilitation program.
— Phil Donahue, a journalist and former daytime TV talk-show host.
— Katie Ledecky, the most decorated female swimmer in history.
— Opal Lee, an activist who is best known for pushing to make Juneteenth a federal holiday. Biden did so in 2021.
— Ellen Ochoa, the first Hispanic woman in space and the second female director of NASA's Johnson Space Center.
— Jane Rigby, an astronomer who is chief scientist of the world's most powerful telescope. She grew up in Delaware, Biden's home state.
— Teresa Romero, president of the United Farm Workers and the first Hispanic woman to lead a national union in the U.S. The union has endorsed Biden's reelection bid and backed him in 2020.
In 2022, Biden presented the Presidential Medal of Freedom to 17 people, including gymnast Simone Biles, the late Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and gun-control advocate Gabby Giffords.
Biden also knows how it feels to receive the medal. As president, Barack Obama presented Biden, his vice president, with the medal a week before their administration ended in 2017.
FILE - Former Vice President Al Gore speaks about climate change at the Annual Meeting of World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Jan. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, File)
FILE - Former Sen. Elizabeth Dole listens to a speaker during a memorial service for former Sen. Bob Dole, R-Kan., Dec. 11, 2021, in Russell, Kan. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File)
FILE - Phil Donahue attends the 2019 American Icon Awards at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel on May 19, 2019, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP, File)
FILE - John Kerry, U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, speaks during an interview in his office at the State Department, Feb. 6, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)
FILE - Michael Bloomberg, former mayor of New York, speaks at the opening of the U.S. Pavilion at the COP27 U.N. Climate Summit, Nov. 8, 2022, in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty, File)
FILE - Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., speaks at a ceremony to award a Congressional Gold Medal to baseball player Larry Doby at the Capitol, Dec. 13, 2023, in Washington.(AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)
FILE - Teresa Romero, president of United Farm Workers, speaks at a news conference at Balletto Vineyards in Santa Rosa, Calif., April 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)
FILE - Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi walks to a news conference to address sea level rise along the city's waterfront in San Francisco, Jan. 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg, File)
FILE - Michelle Yeoh arrives at the 10th Breakthrough Prize Ceremony on April 13, 2024, at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File)
FILE - Clarence B. Jones poses for a photo before was presented with the American Jewish Congress' "Isaiah Award," March 1, 2006, in New York. (AP Photo/Diane Bondareff, File)
