KAUA’I, Hawaii, Feb. 10, 2020 (Gephardt Daily) — Officials have found a cellphone belonging to 17-year-old Tylee Ryan, who, along with her 7-year-old adopted brother, J.J. Vallow, has been missing since September, CBS News is reporting Monday morning.
The report said it appears her phone was found in Hawaii with her mother, Lori Vallow, who is considered a person of interest in the case.
On Saturday, Jan. 25, Madison County authorities filed a child protection order on behalf of the missing children. The order required Lori Vallow to physically produce the children to the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare in Rexburg or to the Rexburg Police Department within five days of being served with the order. That deadline expired at 5 p.m. on Jan. 30, and there is still no sign of the children.
Lori Vallow and her new husband, Chad Daybell, traveled from Idaho after police conducted a welfare check on their home in November and were found in Hawaii in January.
The CBS News report said that Tylee Ryan’s phone was used several times after she disappeared, but it’s not clear at this time who was using it.
On Oct. 25, a text was allegedly sent from her phone to a worried friend: “hi. miss you guys too …luv ya.” The person it was sent to said it didn’t sound like her.
Also in October, two small Venmo payments were reportedly sent from Ryan’s account to a family member.
The discovery of Ryan’s phone comes after items belonging to her and her brother were found abandoned inside a storage facility.
Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell deny any wrong doing and have not been arrested.
A timeline of events in the case, which seems to grow more complicated as time passes, follows below:
• J.J. Vallow was last seen on Sept. 23, 2019, when he was un-enrolled from his Rexburg elementary school by his mother, Lori Vallow, who said she would be homeschooling her adopted son. Tylee Ryan also was last seen in September.
• On Oct. 10, 2019, Tammy Daybell died, seemingly of natural causes, which are now being investigated as suspicious. Sometime in November, Tammy’s widower, Chad Daybell, married Lori Vallow, whose previous husband, Charles Vallow, had been shot dead by Alexander Cox, Vallow’s brother.
Alexander Cox said the shooting was in self defense. Cox died under undisclosed circumstances in December.
Chad Daybell, who at one time lived and worked in Utah, is an author of what has been described as religious-themed “doomsday” fiction.
• On Nov. 26, 2019, Rexburg Police officers responded to the Vallow-Daybell residence after family members requested a welfare check on J.J. Vallow and Tylee Ryan.
• The next day, police returned to the Vallow-Daybell residence with a search warrant, and found the couple had packed up and left. The children were not found, nor was evidence they had been living in the house, police said at the time.
• On Dec. 11, 2019, investigators exhumed Tammy Daybell’s body for an autopsy. The results have not yet been released.
• On Dec. 20, Rexburg police announced the search for J.J. Vallow and Tylee Ryan to the public, hoping for leads. The next day, police named Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell as persons of interest in the investigation.
• On Dec. 23, Rexburg attorney Sean Bartholick, reportedly hired by the couple, put out a statement on their behalf:
“Chad Daybell was a loving husband and has the support of his children in this matter. Lori Daybell is a devoted mother and resents assertions to the contrary. We look forward to addressing the allegations once they have moved beyond speculation and rumor.”
The attorney also stated he did not know the couple’s location.
• On Dec. 31, Rexburg police issued a statement urging Lori Vallow to contact them because they believed she knew where the children are or what happened to them, they said.
• On Jan. 7 of this year, Kay and Larry Woodcock, the children’s grandparents, announced a $20,000 reward for information leading to the recovery of the children. Kay Woodcock said Lori was overwhelmed with caring for J.J., who had special needs.
• On Jan. 10, Matt Daybell, brother of Chad Daybell, urged his brother to cooperate with police in a news conference arranged by the East Idaho News.
• On Saturday, Jan. 25, Madison County authorities filed a child protection order on behalf of the missing children. The order required Lori Vallow to physically produce the children to the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare in Rexburg or to the Rexburg Police within five days of being served with the order.
• The protective order was served on Sunday, Jan. 26, by officers of the Kaua’i, Hawaii, Police Department. “Kaua‘i police served Vallow with an order of petition in an attempt to have her physically produce her children to the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare,” says a Kaua’i Police statement posted on Facebook. “On Jan. 26, Kaua‘i police and Rexburg police executed a search warrant in support of the ongoing investigation related to the whereabouts of the two children. There are no local charges or any current warrants of arrest.”
• A Rexburg Police Department statement issued on Jan. 27 says no evidence was found that J.J. or Tylee had ever been in Hawaii. It also said that, concerning the order to produce the children, “Failure to comply with this order may subject Lori Vallow to civil or criminal contempt of court.”
- On Jan. 30, the deadline passed for Lori Vallow to produce her children to authorities.
Gephardt Daily will have more on this developing story as information is made available.
