REXBURG, Idaho — Earlier this month, investigators made a gruesome discovery while searching for missing kids JJ Vallow and Tylee Ryan. Now, a family friend is sharing what she knows – giving insight into dark religious beliefs that may have led to the children’s tragic end.
JJ and Tylee, who once lived in the Valley, went missing in September 2019. Their mother, Lori Vallow Daybell, refused to give authorities any information. After months of searching, investigators found JJ and Tylee buried on the property of Lori’s new husband, Chad Daybell.
But the case has been anything but straightforward. Even before investigators found the children’s bodies, they were looking into several deaths related to the case.
The first was Charles Vallow, Lori’s estranged fourth husband. Lori claims her brother, Alex Cox, shot Charles in self-defense during an argument, but there are multiple inconsistencies in hers and Cox’s stories.
Cox would later meet an untimely end himself. The Medical Examiner’s Office determined he died of natural causes.
Investigators are also looking into the death of Tammy Daybell, Chad’s former wife who mysteriously died in her sleep two weeks before Chad married Lori.
And shortly after JJ and Tylee disappeared, Brandon Boudreaux, who was married to Lori's niece at the time, was shot at in front of his Gilbert home as he returned home from the gym. Boudreaux told police he believes Alex Cox pulled the trigger.
Melanie Gibb was a close friend to the couple at the center of the case. She met Chad at a religious conference in Utah and met Lori in 2018 while Gibb taught a church class in Arizona.
She said she witnessed Lori and Chad’s budding relationship, even when they were still married to their former spouses.
Court records show Gibb was staying with Lori in late September, which is when JJ was last seen alive. Gibb told police Lori thought both kids had turned into "zombies," that they were hard to handle and that Chad put the idea in her head, according to documents.
"They both lie," she told Keith Morrison. "And that was their common thread is that they were really good at lying to each other."
Melanie Gibb will tell the complete story on a special Dateline “What Happened to JJ and Tylee” Monday night at 9 p.m.
"Melanie Gibb is central," Keith Morrison told 12 News. "She, I think, has a certain feeling of guilt about this herself."
