An Idaho man was sentenced to the death penalty Saturday for the murders of his first wife and his second wife’s two children, the culmination of a years-long case that drew national attention.
Daybell and Vallow Daybell pleaded not guilty to the charges.
A jury in Fremont County, Idaho, recommended the death penalty at a hearing Saturday. Judge Steven W. Boyce made the final sentencing as Daybell appeared largely expressionless. He was given the death penalty for all six murder and conspiracy counts on which he was convicted in the three 2019 killings.
The case’s unusual details drew attention when the children were reported missing and as authorities zeroed in on Daybell, an author of apocalyptic novels for Mormon audiences, and Vallow Daybell, a former beauty pageant contestant. Prosecutors alleged that the couple had doomsday beliefs and justified the killings through bizarre ideas about cleansing “zombie” spirits.
The case spanned multiple years and states, starting with the disappearance of and search for the children. At a news conference after the sentencing, the prosecutors described a complex investigation that involved several agencies and hundreds of people.
Calling it a “hard-fought battle,” Fremont County Prosecutor Lindsey Blake told reporters that it had been a challenge to present the story uncovered by the sprawling investigation.
“In rendering this verdict [by the jury], we hope the victims and survivors of Chad Daybell know that the community as a whole does not tolerate the loss of three precious and irreplaceable human beings,” Blake said.
John Prior, Chad Daybell’s attorney, did not immediately respond to The Washington Post’s requests for comment Saturday afternoon.
The case began in July 2019, when Vallow’s estranged husband, Charles Vallow, was killed by her brother in Arizona. Her brother Alex Cox was not charged and died several months later. Vallow then moved to Idaho with her two children, and she met Daybell.
The children were reported missing in September 2019, and Tammy Daybell was killed in October 2019. Her death was first ruled to have been from natural causes, but her body was later exhumed for an autopsy that determined she had been asphyxiated.
When relatives of the children reported that they hadn’t heard from them, Vallow told authorities that the children were with a friend in Arizona, then she fled to Hawaii and married Daybell.
The children’s remains were found on Daybell’s property. Vallow Daybell and Daybell were arrested in 2020.
When Vallow Daybell was sentenced, she denied that anyone had been murdered, saying her deceased children had told her that they were happy and that “Jesus Christ knows the truth of what happened here.”
After Daybell’s sentencing Saturday, family members of the victims thanked prosecutors and law enforcement officers, telling reporters that Daybell’s sentence represented justice. Some of the victims also read statements in court.
“We can all start to heal from the terrible losses we have suffered,” the family of Tammy Daybell wrote in a statement, released through the Tammy Douglas Daybell Foundation. “We will miss Tammy every single day of our lives but we have some comfort knowing we will see her again.”
Idaho has eight people on death row, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, and has executed 29 people since 1864. The state uses lethal injection, though execution by firing squad is also legal if lethal-injection drugs are unavailable.
“Today justice was served,” Madison County Prosecutor Rob Wood, whose office worked on the case, told reporters. “To all those who held Tylee, J.J. and Tammy in their hearts, we hope these verdicts bring a measure of healing and closure, and may the memory of Tylee, J.J. and Tammy continue to be a blessing to all who knew and loved them.”
Antonia Noori Farzan, Amber Ferguson, Marisa Iati, Andrea Salcedo and Katie Shepherd contributed to this report.
