Mega Edition: Detective Hermosillo Gives Testimony During The Chad Daybell Trial (10/17/26)

Rexburg Police Detective Ray Hermosillo testified about how the investigation into Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell evolved from a welfare check for JJ Vallow into a search for two missing children and ultimately a murder investigation. Hermosillo told jurors that when officers first went to Lori’s Rexburg apartment in November 2019, they encountered Chad Daybell and Alex Cox, both of whom gave answers that immediately raised suspicions. Cox claimed JJ was with his grandmother Kay Woodcock, even though Woodcock was the person who had requested the welfare check, while Daybell initially downplayed how well he knew Lori despite having already married her in Hawaii. Hermosillo described the months-long effort to locate JJ and Tylee Ryan, including searches of Lori’s apartment, surveillance, trips to Hawaii and attempts to establish the children’s last known “proof of life.” He testified that investigators eventually determined Tylee was last known to be alive during a September 2019 trip to Yellowstone and that JJ disappeared later that same month.

Hermosillo’s most consequential testimony centered on the June 9, 2020 search of Chad Daybell’s property, where investigators found the remains of both children. He testified that while officers executed the warrant, he noticed Daybell sitting in his vehicle and repeatedly looking toward the area near a pond behind the house, which drew Hermosillo’s attention. FBI evidence recovery personnel then began excavating a section beneath a tree near that area, where Hermosillo said investigators smelled decomposition before uncovering a small body wrapped in black and white plastic, later identified as JJ. Investigators also searched a fire pit and pet cemetery area, where Tylee’s badly burned and dismembered remains were recovered. Hermosillo’s testimony connected the physical search of Daybell’s property to the earlier missing-person investigation and gave jurors a firsthand account of how the children were ultimately found buried on land belonging to the man prosecutors accused of helping orchestrate their deaths.


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