Colby Ryan faces mother as he testifies in Lori Vallow Daybell trial

BOISE, Idaho — Colby Ryan, the only surviving son of Lori Vallow Daybell, who is charged in the deaths of her other two children, took the stand Tuesday.

Vallow Daybell is charged with seven felonies. She and her husband Chad Daybell are accused of murdering her two children, JJ Vallow and Tylee Ryan. Vallow Daybell is also accused of conspiring to murder Daybell’s late wife, Tammy Daybell. 

Vallow Daybell pleaded not guilty.

Ryan is Vallow Daybell’s biological son; half-brother of Tylee Ryan; adoptive brother of JJ Vallow.

JJ and Tylee’s bodies were found buried in shallow graves on Chad Daybell’s property in June 2020.

Colby Ryan on the stand

Ryan’s testimony Tuesday revealed more about the interactions between Vallow Daybell and her oldest child and the timeline of those interactions as it relates to the disappearance of the other children.

When Charles Vallow died, Ryan said Vallow Daybell told him “he had died from a heart attack.” He was shot.

Ryan told the court he often received money from his mom, via Tylee who would send money on Venmo. Tylee was receiving $1,859 per month since the death of her father, Joseph Ryan.

JJ Vallow also received $1,951 per month after July 2019, due to his father’s death. 

Payments were suspended on Jan. 3, 2020, due to the children’s whereabouts being unknown.  

Asking for money

On Sept. 8, 2019 Colby Ryan asked Tylee for money. She said she was no longer handling the money, her mom was. Ryan talked to his Mom that day on the phone and heard Tylee in the background. They were at Yellowstone National Park in a gift shop.

That was Tylee’s last known sighting and is believed to be her last day alive. By Nov. 27, 2019 Ryan was contacted by Gilbert (Arizona) Police Department asking about Tylee’s whereabouts. 

Ryan said he tried to be in touch with Tylee after that time and that he had been “concerned about Tylee,” because his conversations over text and over the phone were different from how she would usually talk and the “way she would use punctuation was different.”  

Throughout this time, Vallow Daybell did not tell Ryan where she had moved and then on Dec. 19, 2019, Ryan learned his mother had moved to Idaho. 

A call was played for the jury in the courtroom between Ryan and Vallow Daybell while she was in prison.

“You think you can hide from me?” Ryan asks.

Vallow Daybell responds she is not hiding.

“Probably because you murdered my siblings,” Ryan said.

“I didn’t, I’m sorry that you feel that way,” Vallow Daybell said.

Ryan prayed for his family

Ryan speaks further about how he had prayed for her and his siblings and that she had promised they were okay.

 “I thought I could trust you, I thought that you were a completely different person,” Ryan said.

The call continued with Vallow Daybell insisting Ryan didn’t and couldn’t understand because he wasn’t there and that JJ and Tylee were happy.  Ryan sounds more heated as he talks about how Vallow Daybell has lied to him multiple times.

“You tell me this is God’s will for my whole family, including my step-father to be dead … I pushed past all of everything to try to get to you to help, my own mother. You have lied to me more times than I can count,” Ryan said.

Then Ryan addressed the texts he’d been receiving from Tylee that he was concerned about.

“To know that they’re gone and you knew,” Ryan said. “And my phone’s being texted by my little sister who’s not even alive”  

Ryan ends the call by stating, “You ripped my heart out, and you ripped out the hearts of everyone in this family.”