DNA from a hair found stuck to duct tape wrapping the dead body of a 7-year-old boy matched his mother, analysts told prosecutors Monday during the mother’s murder trial.
The hair was found attached to a black plastic bag used to wrap up the body of Lori Vallow Daybell’s son Joshua Vallow. Partial DNA from the hair was compared against three different samples, including Ms. Vallow. The results pointed to the mother.
In June 2020, the remains of Ms. Vallow’s two children, Joseph and Tylee, were found buried on property owned by her husband, Chad Daybell.
Ms. Vallow is on trial in Boise, Idaho, for murder, conspiracy and grand theft related to the deaths of her two children and her new husband’s previous wife. Mr. Daybell is standing trial separately for the same murders on a different date.
Both have pleaded not guilty to the charges
Prosecutors also revealed autopsy reports for Mr. Daybell’s former wife, Tammy Daybell. Attorney’s said that she was likely restrained while she was asphyxiated.
When Daybell died in October 2019, authorities said she died of natural causes. However, when Mr. Daybell flew to Hawaii to marry Ms. Vallow only weeks later, authorities became suspicious and exhumed the body. A new examination found that she died of asphyxiation and her death was ruled a homicide.
Prosecutors showed the jury photos of bruises found on Ms. Daybell’s body and said that they must have happened before she died. They said that the bruises’ locations were consistent with someone who was held down and asphyxiated.
Friends of Daybell took the stand and testified that she remained active and healthy up until her sudden death.
Daybell’s sister, Samantha Gwilliam, recalled that someone had shot at her sister just days before she died. A little over a week before she was found dead, a masked man met her in her driveway and fired two shots at her with what she said looked like a paintball gun.
Daybell told friends and her sister that she assumed the masked shooter was a teenager.
According to prosecutors, the shooter was Ms. Vallow’s brother, Alex Cox, who died suddenly in late 2019. He allegedly shot and killed Ms. Vallow’s previous husband in what authorities say was self-defense. The night before his death, Cox told his wife that he was the “fall guy” for his sister and her husband in the death of Daybell, prosecutors said.
Cox is also implicated in the deaths of Ms. Vallow’s children.
• Vaughn Cockayne can be reached at vcockayne@washingtontimes.com.
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