Chad Daybell’s family is speaking out about the murder charges against him, telling CBS News they believe he’s being framed.
In an interview with “48 Hours,” Chad’s children say they are skeptical that their father killed his wife’s two kids and buried their bodies on his property.
The two children of Lori Vallow Daybell, 16-year-old Tylee Ryan and 7-year-old JJ Vallow, went missing in September 2019. Chad’s former wife, Tammy Daybell, died in October 2019, shortly after the children disappeared, and Chad and Lori married just weeks afterward.
The children’s bodies were found in shallow graves on Chad’s property near Rexburg, Idaho, in June 2020. At the time, their mother was in custody on charges of obstruction of justice and deserting her kids.
Prosecutors charged Chad and Lori with murdering Tylee and JJ. Lori was found incompetent to stand trial and is receiving mental health treatment, but Chad has pleaded not guilty and is scheduled for a jury trial.
As lawyers in the case prepare for Chad’s trial, Emma Murray, one of Chad’s children, tells CBS News it makes no sense for her father, a professional gravedigger, to have buried the bodies on his own property.
“I don’t know why they would be there,” Murray told CBS News. “But I do know that if he were to commit a crime, he wouldn’t be foolish enough to put the evidence in his own backyard.”
Chad’s five children say their father did not know the bodies were buried on his property and believe someone else put them there to frame him for the crime.
The property was accessible to anyone during the day and the burial sites were not visible from Chad’s house.
The children told the television news magazine there are far better and more remote places to hide a body than their father’s own land where he lives.
Further, the children assert, that the graves are particularly shallow, which makes no sense if their father did it because he is a former gravedigger.
“This is . . . a man who buries pets at, like, as deep as he can,” son Seth Daybell told CBS News. “He knew how to dig graves and that just doesn’t sound believable to me.”
However, CBS News consultant Morgan Loew said it is possible that Chad dug the graves in haste.
“Saying that somebody’s prior experience as a gravedigger means that they wouldn’t just sloppily bury somebody in their own backyard sort of discounts all of the psychological pressure that might be affecting somebody who’s trying to get rid of bodies,” Loew told the television program.
Moreover, Loew pointed to other evidence implicating Chad, including odd text messages about the graves and lies to investigators.
Chad’s trial is scheduled for November.
Click here to read more CrimeOnline coverage on “Cult Mom” Lori Vallow
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[Feature Photo: Police Handout]
