How did Chad Daybell’s two children defend him in court against accusations that he killed their mother?

Chad Daybell is accused of murdering his first wife Tammy Daybell, along with Lori Vallow’s two children, Tylee Ryan and JJ Vallow

Two of Chad Daybell’s adult children took the stand this week in a courtroom in Ada County, Idaho, where their father is accused of killing three people, including their mother.

Emma Murray and Garth Daybell testified during the first day of their father’s defense after prosecutors alleged he killed his wife Lori Vallow’s two children, Joshua “JJ” Vallow, 7, and Tylee Ryan, 16, and their mother, Chad Daybell’s first wife, Tammy Daybell, had murdered. who was found dead in her bed on October 19, 2019.

Murray testified that her father, who was married to Tammy for nearly thirty years and had five children with her, was distraught over Tammy’s death at age 49.

“I’ve never seen him as upset as he was at that moment,” Murray told the jury, 12News reported. “I know the sadness was real. He may not have had the same romantic relationship he had with my mother in the past, but I know he valued her as a person and it was very traumatic to see her die.

Murray told the jury that her mother’s health began to deteriorate leading up to her death.

“Her health started to deteriorate. I was really worried about it,” she testified, according to FOX 10. “She, well, she would always meet the demands of everyday life without getting exhausted and she would go to bed before dinner. some nights.”

Related: ‘Attraction from the Very Beginning’: A Look Inside the Courtship of Lori Vallow & Chad Daybell

Garth Daybell also testified that his mother “tired extremely quickly,” often became out of breath and “fainted” after kneeling, according to KSL.

Daybell told authorities that Tammy had gone to bed with a cough and had not woken up. Her manner of death was initially ruled as ‘natural causes’ and no autopsy was performed. Tammy’s death was later deemed “suspicious” and her body was exhumed. Prosecutors later revealed that Tammy’s death was a homicide and that she died of asphyxiation.

Murray also testified that both her parents had similar views on religion and spoke to her about a dark entity that was plaguing her.

“Dad cast it out using the power of the priesthood and afterward I felt better,” she testified to 12News.

Related: Prosecutors reveal how Tammy Daybell died during Lori Vallow Daybell trial: ‘at the hands of another’

Prosecutors said Daybell, a self-published author of doomsday-themed books, believed that both Lori’s children and Tammy were possessed by dark spirits and that Daybell and Lori’s lives together revolved around a small doomsday cult that believed in the preparation on death. the impending end of the world and the elimination of people whose minds had gone ‘dark’.

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The severely decomposed remains of JJ and Tylee were found buried on Daybell’s Idaho property on June 9, 2020. Tylee was dismembered and burned; JJ was suffocated, wrapped in plastic and bound with duct tape.

During her testimony, Murray said she spoke with Daybell about where the children were prior to their discovery.

Daybell allegedly told her they were “in a safe place,” she testified, according to 12News.

Lori was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in July 2023 after a jury found her guilty of murdering JJ and Tylee and conspiring to kill Tammy.

Before sentencing her, Judge Steven Boyce called Lori’s crimes “heinous and egregious,” and said she had shown no remorse for her actions.

Daybell’s murder trial began in March.

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