REXBURG, Idaho — It's case that’s gripped the nation, rocking communities from the Valley to the Hawaiian islands. The Lori Vallow Daybell case is perplexing and new documents reveal more about the dark path that led investigators to this point.
Lori's children, JJ Vallow and Tylee Ryan, had been missing for months until investigators found their bodies buried on Chad Daybell's property in June. Chad is Lori's new husband.
"I saw him as the hand and her as the puppet on that hand," Melanie Gibb told Dateline's Keith Morrison.
Gibb is one of Lori Vallow Daybell's close friends. The two met through church in Arizona back in 2018. And after months of hiding, she's starting to open up her friend's relationship with doomsday author Chad Daybell.
"They both lie," she said. "And that was their common thread is that they were really good at lying to each other."
When Lori moved the kids from the Valley to Idaho in early September 2019, Melanie was quick to visit.
Court records show she was staying with Lori in late September, which is when Lori’s son JJ was last seen alive.
At that point, her daughter Tylee had been missing for about two weeks.
"Melanie Gibb is central," Keith Morrison told 12 News. "She, I think, has a certain feeling of guilt about this herself."
Court documents reveal 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 Gibb, Lori believed that once a person was possessed by a zombie, their spirit goes into a limbo, where it’s stuck until the body is killed.
"They were like gasoline and fire," Gibb said of Chad and Lori. "Equally destructive to each other, so in a way, they both had deception in them."
Right now, Lori Vallow Daybell is in jail for deserting her children. Chad Daybell is also locked up, accused of concealing evidence.
At this point, no one has been charged in the children’s death, but investigators expect more charges to come.
Be sure to tune in to a Dateline special, ‘What Happened to JJ and Tylee." Monday night at 9 p.m. on 12 News. You'll hear more from Melanie Gibb and what she knows about the case.
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