Misdemeanor trial date set for Lori Vallow Daybell

REXBURG, Idaho — A trial date has been set for Lori Vallow Daybell on misdemeanor charges related to the death and disappearance of her two children.

These charges, which include resisting or obstructing officers, criminal solicitation to commit a crime and contempt of court are in addition to two felony charges that Daybell and her husband Chad also face. Those felony charges are conspiracy to commit destruction, alteration, or concealment of evidence.

In the brief meeting on Monday attended by Daybell’s attorney Mark Means, prosecutor Rob Wood, and Magistrate Judge Michelle Mallard, scheduled a trial date set to begin on Aug. 30 and run until Sept. 3. The pretrial conference will start on Aug. 7. Daybell was not in attendance. 

The charges

The misdemeanor charges in this case state Vallow Daybell lied to police about her 7-year-old son JJ Vallow to police officers in 2019 when she said he was with her friend Melanie Gibb in Arizona. Gibb told a court earlier Daybell asked her to lie to investigators and say that JJ was with her.

Daybell also faces a contempt of court case after failing to produce her children to the police or the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare. 

The case of JJ Vallow and Tylee Ryan

The bodies of both  7-year-old Joshua “JJ” Vallow and 16-year-old Tylee Ryan were found buried on Chad Daybell’s property in June after the two had been reported missing since September 2019.

Police began to investigate the children’s disappearance after suspicions arose in the death of Chad Daybell’s former wife.

Both Chad and Lori flew to Hawaii shortly after the police investigation began. Lori was arrested in Hawaii in February after failing to comply with a court order to “physically produce” her children to the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare” in Rexburg.

Chad Daybell was arrested in June after police and FBI agents found JJ and Tylee’s remains buried on his property. 

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