U.S.|Remains in Idaho Identified as Those of Missing Children
Chad Daybell, who is married to the children’s mother, was arrested on Tuesday after investigators found human remains on his property.
Human remains discovered on an Idaho man’s property were identified as belonging to his wife’s two children who had been missing for months, the police said on Saturday.
Chad Daybell, the children’s stepfather, was arrested on Tuesday on a felony charge of concealing evidence after investigators found remains on his property, the authorities said.
“The remains were taken to the medical examiner’s office, where an autopsy and positive identification was performed,” Assistant Chief Gary Hagen of the Rexburg Police Department said in a statement. “It is with heavy hearts that we now confirm that those remains have now been officially identified as those of JJ Vallow and Tylee Ryan.”
The two children, Tylee, 17, and Joshua, also known as JJ, whose eighth birthday was on May 23, vanished sometime last year. Their mother, Lori Vallow, was arrested in February in Hawaii on a raft of charges that included two felony counts of desertion and nonsupport of dependent children.
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Mr. Daybell was booked into the Fremont County Jail, Chief Hagen said during a news conference on Tuesday. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for July 1.
The case has drawn international attention because the children’s mother and Mr. Daybell had apocalyptic religious beliefs that isolated them from their families, according to relatives. The two married shortly after each of their former spouses died last year.
Ms. Vallow’s previous husband, Charles Vallow, was shot and killed in Arizona last July by Ms. Vallow’s brother, Alexander Cox, who told the police that his brother-in-law had hit him in the head with a baseball bat and that the shooting was in self-defense. Ms. Vallow and her first husband were estranged at the time.
Mr. Daybell’s wife was found dead in October in her home in Idaho. The authorities initially said that she appeared to have died of natural causes, but her body was exhumed on Dec. 11 after the authorities began to question the circumstances of her death and whether it might have been connected to the disappearances of Tylee and Joshua.
The authorities have said that Ms. Vallow did not cooperate to help find the missing children.
Neil Vigdor contributed reporting.
