(KUTV) — The unsealed probable cause affidavit for the arrest of Chad Daybell paints the clearest picture so far about how religious beliefs played a part in the disappearance of Tylee Ryan and JJ Vallow. The children's family previously confirmed to media that their remains were identified by police when they dug in the ground behind Chad Daybell's house. The documents were unsealed Friday afternoon.
Daybell was arrested and charged after the remains were found buried on his property in Fremont County, Idaho, near Rexburg. Daybell claimed he could talk to spirits and is the author of religious books with end-of-the-world themes, still available for sale on Amazon. Their audience was believed to be largely in LDS circles.
As previously reported, Chad Daybell and Lori Vallow Daybell are said to have believed that some people were zombies, or that evil spirits inhabited their otherwise normal bodies.
These "zombie" accusations were eventually made about both children. The affidavit explains:
the term“zombie”refers to an individual whose mortal spirit has left their body and that their body is now the host of another spirit. The new spirit in a“zombie” is always considered a “dark spirit." While the “dark spirit” inhabits the host body, the person’s true spirit goes into “limbo” and is stuck there until the host body is physically killed.
Police learned this from Lori Daybell's friend, Melani Gibb, who has cooperated with police. In the documents, police said they had proof of phone calls from the recently married Daybells to Gibb in Arizona after police questioned the Daybells about the welfare and whereabouts of JJ Vallow. Gibb told police the Daybells, in those calls, asked her to confirm their story that the child was with her, but she declined and told police he had not been there in months.
Gibb said Chad and Lori Daybell believed they were part of the "Church of the Firstborn," part of the 144,000 mentioned in the Book of Revelation. The King James version of the bible speaks of the "elite who are with God and learn his song." The bible says:
Then I looked, and there before me was the Lamb, standing on Mount Zion, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads . No one could learn the song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth.
According to documents Gibb told police:
They also stated their mission was to rid the world of“zombies.”
According to Gibb, Lori Vallow told her Tylee was a zombie in the spring of 2019 in a phone call.
"Gibb was on the phone with Lori and heard Lori call Tylee a zombie to which Tylee responded 'not me, mom,'" documents state.
This, because Vallow instructed Tylee to look after JJ, which Gibb told police she did not want to do. Reportedly, Vallow said Tylee had turned into a zombie when she was 12 or 13, "approximately the same time Tylee had become 'difficult' to deal with."
Gibb also told police that when she visited Lori Daybell in Rexburg, she was told that the two children had become zombies. Lori Daybell told Gibb JJ's zombie-like behavior included sitting still and watching TV, saying he loved Satan and an increased vocabulary. Gibb said his behavior seemed the same. Gibb last say JJ the night of Sept. 22, 2019, and when she woke up the following day, JJ was gone.
Lori Daybell allegedly told Gibb that JJ had been acting like a zombie when he crawled on the kitchen cabinetry and knocked a picture of Jesus off the refrigerator. She said her brother Alex Cox, who lived in the same apartment complex in Rexburg, had taken the child. Police used phone location evidence to determine Cox had gone to Chad Daybell's property and had visited his sister during the night. Cox died suddenly a few months later, in December.
The Daybells and Gibb were or are active members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.