Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - "THE PROPHET" CHAD DAYBELL TRIPLE MURDER SUSPECT "FUELED BY SEX, MONEY, POWER"

Episode Date: May 1, 2024

The second person charged in the deaths of Tylee Ryan, JJ Vallow, and Tammy Daybell is now in court. Chad Daybell, husband of Cult Mom Lori Vallow, is facing the same charges as his wife and more. Shortly after her husband Charles Vallow’s shooting death, Lori Vallow moves with her two children to Rexburg, Idaho. It’s not far from where Chad Daybell, Vallow’s lover and “husband from a past life” resides with his wife Tammy Daybell. Tylee Ryan and J.J. Vallow settle in, making a trip to Yellowstone National Park with their mom and uncle Alex Cox. A photo from that trip is the last proof of Tylee’s life, and weeks later, J.J. Vallow stops going to school. Meanwhile, Vallow and Daybell spend more time together. The couple is seen loading a storage unit with Vallow’s children’s belongings. A month passes, and suddenly Daybell’s wife Tammy is dead. Two weeks later, Lori Vallow is now Lori Vallow-Daybell after a wedding ceremony on a Kauai beach. Chad Daybell’s wife Tammy Daybell dies in her sleep at the age of 49. Friends were shocked by her death, saying that Tammy was incredibly fit. The mom of five was training for a marathon and regularly attended high-intensity exercise classes with friends. However, Chad Daybell painted a very different story of his wife’s health. He said Tammy Daybell was sickly, always coughing, and struggling with low blood pressure that led to fainting spells. Daybell said on the night of her death, Tammy Daybell had a coughing fit that led her to vomit. He helped her to bed and was startled awake when Tammy rolled onto the floor. Daybell says when he checked on her, he realized Tammy was dead. Fremont County Coroner, Brenda Dye, took Daybell’s account of his wife’s health into consideration when she ruled Tammy Daybell’s cause of death to be pulmonary edema due to a cardiac event without performing an autopsy. By June of 2020, detectives are narrowing down what happened to J.J. Vallow and Tylee Ryan since their disappearance nearly six months earlier. Lori Vallow-Daybell is behind bars on two felony charges of Desertion & Nonsupport of Dependent Children after failing to produce Tylee and J.J. in court on January 30. On April 9, police announce their suspicion that Vallow and Vallow-Daybell conspired to kill Tammy Daybell. Rexburg Police return to Chad Daybell’s home for another search. While Daybell is detained, investigators uncover human remains in a pet cemetery in Daybell’s backyard. The remains are later confirmed to be J.J. Vallow and Tylee Ryan. Joining Nancy Grace Today: Vicki Hoban - Tammy Daybell's Aunt   Tom Evans - Juror on Lori Daybell Trial (chosen as an alternate); Book: “Money Power and Sex: The Lori Daybell Trial”    Tara Malek – Bosie, ID, Attorney & Co-owner of Smith + Malek; Former State and Federal Prosecutor; X: @smith_malek  Dr. Kendall Crowns – Chief Medical Examiner Tarrant County (Ft Worth) and Lecturer: University of Texas Austin and Texas Christian University Medical School Nate Eaton – News Director/Reporter for East Idaho News; Twitter: @NateNewsNow, Instagram: @n.eaton See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Breaking news tonight, the so-called prophet Chad Daybell on trial for triple murders. The triple murders of his wife, Tammy, and two children of his second wife, cult mom, Lori Vallow. In court, we are hearing claims that Daybell was fueled by sex, money, and power, but is the so-called prophet set to pin it all on his beauty queen wife, cult mom, Lori Vallow? Good evening. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us.

911, where is your emergency? We're at 202 North, 1900 East. What's going on? We just found my mom. She's on the ground frozen or she's stiff and

I don't know. Are you in Madison County or Fremont County? Hello, I'm Chad, the husband. She's clearly dead. Oh, sorry, okay. Okay, are you in Rexburg or does your address show the Rexburg address that you're in Fremont County? It's a mile past. Okay.

Okay. Okay. Okay. All right. I'm sorry. I didn't really mean to roll my eyes right there at the end. I was just wondering why he saved the, uh, for the very end of the call. And just before 911 hangs up, you hear a daybell, the prophet go, Oh, I mean, need to work on that daybell. And I love the way

he sat in court, like while the 911 is being called, it hurt me to hear the 911, to hear the husband say, yep, she's on the ground frozen stiff. She's clearly dead. I've heard a lot of 911 calls, but you know what? You're supposed to fake it till you make it. All right. That 911 call fell very short of making it. Big question is the so-called prophet Chad Daybell going to rat out his wife who he once called a goddess when they were dating? Is he gonna rat her out and pin all the blame on her? Why does it matter? Because remember even though Lori Vallow has been convicted, she was found guilty in the murders of her little boy, JJ, and her little girl, Tylee, and implicated in the murder of her brand new husband. Is it number five, Jackie?

Yes. Number five. You know that by heart now. I do. Number five, husband number five, the so-called prophet, Chad Daybell's wife, Tammy Daybell, who healthy as a horse, a young woman, just ran a marathon, died in her sleep. Before I go to Nate Eaton, a news director of the East Idaho News, you can find him on Facebook, Nate Eaton Reporter. I have got to go to a special guest, Tom Evans, a juror on the Lori Daybell trial and part of a book, Money, Power and Sex, the Lori Daybell trial. So, Tom Evans, you not only lived through it during the trial of Lori Daybell, you also got in on the book.

You relived it. You re-traumatized yourself. So going through, living through Colt Montlory Vallow's trial, can I ask you, what are your thoughts on Chad Daybell? Oh man, I have a lot of thoughts about Chad Daybell. I think the most telling thing that I've seen recently is I was sitting in court in the morning before trial started, and Chad sits maybe 10 or 15 feet away from me. And he was scrolling through his computer looking at the pictures of Tammy's autopsy. And he had no emotion on his face. I watched Chad all the time in court looking for some kind of emotion, but he showed nothing. He's just scrolling through like he's looking at Facebook or something.

And then later on, when testimony was happening and the jury was seeing those photos, Chad was crying, carrying on. And John Pryor is making a big show out of handing him a Kleenex. And he's just putting on a big show. So you asked if Chad's going to turn on Tammy Daybell. I think he's going to do anything, or Lori Vallow, I'm sorry. He's going to do anything he can to get out of this. You know, I'm just wondering, according to some reports, he did manage to squeeze out a tear during that 911 call. I didn't see that at all as I was watching him.

Maybe some eagle-eyed reporter named Nate Eaton may have seen it. But hold on, hold on, Nate. Before you jump off the cliff, I want you to hear more of the Tammy Daybell 911 call played in court. Listen. Yeah, she's not even close. Okay, can I get your name? Chad Daybell. Chad.

Oh, man. Okay, Chad. your name chad davo oh man okay chad i'm gonna get somebody up to you right now okay you have a corner where the blinking yellow light is for the red house yes red house on the corner yes blinking yellow light okay Right. Okay. We'll get somebody out to you, okay? I'm so sorry. Okay. If you need anything else, call me back, okay? Okay.

Okay, bye-bye. Okay, Nate Eaton, did I just see the defense lawyer hand him a box of tissues? Really? I haven't seen that since, let's see, the Lyle Menendez trial, where the defense attorney was smoothing down the killer brother's sweaters during the trial. They were dressed up all preppy. And I noticed in the 911 call, oh gosh, I wish I could try this case, although they're doing a great job. He goes, and then he goes, oh yeah, we are the red house on the corner. Okay. I just, you know, help me out here, Nate. Well, Nancy, we are the red house on the corner. No!

Okay, I just, you know, help me out here, Nate. Well, Nancy, this is the first time we saw any sort of emotion from Chad in this trial. He has sat there stone-faced, looking straight ahead as autopsy photos of the children or what's left of the children were shown, as emotional witnesses took the stand and cried about their love of these people who have been murdered, who have been killed. He showed no emotion except when he heard himself crying in that call. And we haven't seen any other emotions since. So it's a telling thing there. A lot of people wonder if his attorney put him up to that. Be sure you show some emotion and I'll hand you the tissue box or if it was an actual moment that was unplanned.

But either way, for the first time in four weeks, we've seen some sort of emotion from Chad Daybell. Okay, wait a minute. It's handing him tissues more like this. Hey, hey, wake up. Cry, man, like we talked about. I mean, really? I didn't even see any emotion. If there was any emotion, it was the defense attorney going, hey, hey, psst, psst.

Anyway, you know, a great defense attorney would try to tear me apart right now because they would say something. I mean, I've heard it so many times. I can just tell you what they'd say, Nate Eaton. Something like, there's no playbook for grief. Yeah, there is. Now, sometimes people are so shell-shocked, they're just sitting there. But when he hears himself crying, he goes, oh, yeah, I was sad. And then he cries. Well, the other thing, Nancy, that just came out with a witness hours ago is that he didn't show much emotion at Tammy's funeral. In fact, he spoke from the pulpit at her service and said, Tammy was kind of lazy. She didn't do much. We had a witness testify that he said those things at her funeral. And then 17

days later, married Lori Vallow. Okay, guys, Nate Eaton has been on this case from the beginning when the two children of Lori Vallow, cult mom Lori Vallow, went missing, i.e. were murdered. He, Eaton, was the one that followed cult mom Lori Vallow and the prophet Chad Daybell all the way to Hawaii. And you can see his hand running along beside cult mom going, hey, hey, hey, where are the children? Where are the children? She didn't answer. But I just want to point out another thing. You know what? Let me go to Vicki Hoban joining me. Another special guest. This is Tammy Daybell's aunt. The death of the children, seven-year-old JJ and 16-year-old Tylee kind of overshadowed the death of a grown lady, Tammy Daybell.

But I've always been disturbed that she was kind of lost in the sauce, but not now, not in court. Vicki Hoban, did you know that cult mom Lori Vallow ordered her, and I'm quoting, beach, B-E-A-C-H, wedding dress and the groom's beach wedding attire before his wife, Tammy Daybell, was killed. And I say was killed because that's what the autopsy shows. So either she's clairvoyant or they plan to kill Tammy before she was found dead and then go for their beachside Hawaiian wedding. And Liz, if you have the picture of call my Maury Vallow doing the hula on the beach, they actually took pictures. Did you know that the wedding dress and groom's outfit was ordered before tammy before they got rid of the first wife well that's come out in court and um i to be honest i i believe it was k woodcock that ended up figuring that piece of the puzzle out because I think she had access to

and I'm not sure if it was this or the wedding rings but she had access to Charles's Amazon account and saw some transactions going on but yeah all of that's come out and it's clear by some of the other testimony as well that there was she was putting on pressure because charles was dead she was moving to rexburg she got to rexburg tammy still wasn't dead and it was like you know okay just go be with your family then i'll just be poor little me over in the corner and i'll just wait for her to die and then you can come back to me. So this was not, I mean, nobody's buying, well, as far as I, nobody I know, and I don't, I feel like the public is behind us a hundred percent, that all of the evidence leads to, they had a plan. The plan was to remove any obstacle that was there to keep them from being together

and Tammy was just one of them what was their marriage like before cult mom came along because I've got a very strong feeling and it's based on evidence that I have obtained throughout the investigation I don't think cult mom Lori Vallow was Chad Daybell's first mistress. I don't either. I think that he was, I don't think that we knew who Chad was because the person that sits before us now is not the person that he pretended to be in our family. So we look at him now and we're like, who are you? Like, we still, I still don't know who he is. I think, you know, like Nate said, you know, he turned on a fake tear when he heard

himself crying. And at the beginning of that phone call, that's his son Garth and you can hear in his voice the like he's just shot in shock and then Chad grabs the phone away from him and then in the courtroom when you hear him go he starts to tear up which I don't even know if he did tear up for all I know it was just a fake dab of the eyes I mean the guy's emotionless. And to be honest, I think that Tammy thought their marriage was one thing and it was a complete other thing. And that's the only thing I can figure out, because as a family, we just we don't know. We don't know who Chad is. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.

To Nate Eaton joining me, News Director of East Idaho News, several things. Number one, as to the crying in court, there's a telltale giveaway. We're not allowed to say the S word in our house, snot, but there was none. So he's crying and he gets the tissue and dare I reenact, dab, dab, dab, dab. There's no, nothing like that. Nothing. But that said, when we hear Vicki Hoban, who is Tammy's aunt, state, we didn't really know who Chad Daybell was. I had a pretty good idea of who Chad Daybell was is when I heard one of his most infamous pickup lines during his marriage. Hey, you and I were married in another life, so we've already done it. Let's hip hop over to the sleep in motel. We've slept together in a previous life as man and wife. So it's not really adultery now. He actually said that and women went for it. Well, Lori Vallow sure went for it.

I mean, within hours, within minutes, he was telling her she was a goddess, that she had created other planets with him, that they were married, that they had special roles in the second coming of Jesus Christ. And they would, her job, her role was to lead the 144,000, the women who were in that group. And he was to lead the men and they were to create this. And it's come out in court, like you said, Nancy, that they would go to hotels to hook up, to meet up. Have sex, Nate. For Pete's sake, you're a reporter. They weren't meeting in the lobby to discuss the second coming for Pete's sake.

They weren't doing that. But when a friend asked Lori, don't you feel uncomfortable? You're both married. The friend testified that Lori said, well, I pray and Jesus tells me how far we can go. What's appropriate for me and Chad to do. Wait a minute.

You know how I get when somehow Christ gets dragged into all of these criminal scenarios. So wait, is she saying that Christ, I almost hate to say it, okay, was like an umpire and Christ is saying first base good, second base bad? Pretty much. Yeah, pretty much. I mean, and she was hearing this from Chad. The prosecution has over and over said in this trial that she would go to Chad for direction on everything. And she would get jealous that, you know, Chad was with his family.

She would use manipulation to try to get him with her. He would manipulate her back uh it was a a relationship that's been you know explained as she was the match he was the gasoline and together it was just explosive yeah he says i asked him says are they going to do an autopsy to find out because you know it might be for for your for her ready to say children might want to know know how their mother passed away so they could watch for symptoms, signs, stuff like that. But yeah, so basically the words were no, I do not want her to have an autopsy. Okay, Nate Eaton, help me out. You were hearing what was stated by Steve Schultz, Daybell family friend and funeral director, Nate Eaton,

everybody wanted for Chad Daybell to allow an autopsy to determine COD. Let's be clear, Nate Eaton. What did Chad Daybell say when he claims he woke up to find Tammy dead in bed right beside him? Cough a lot around 10 o'clock the night before. And then she threw up. And then he said that she said, I'm feeling better now. She went to sleep. He stayed up. This was one of his stories, Nancy. It's kind of changed, by the way. He says that he then went to bed and was awakened hours later when Tammy rolled off the bed. And as you infamously said months ago, dead people don't roll. I've never forgotten that. He then said

that he yelled out to his son to come and put her back on the bed. She was cold. They then called 911. And as you mentioned, she didn't want an autopsy and the family members didn't want an autopsy. And when this funeral director showed up, there was an urgency to get Tammy buried. She died on a Saturday. The funeral was Tuesday. And they kept saying, don't you want an autopsy? She's young. And the family members said, no, we don't want an autopsy. It's fine. We want to move on. And now we know why they didn't want an autopsy. Hold on. Wait, wait. You said she didn't want an autopsy. Tammy didn't want an autopsy. Sorry, I should. Daybell's daughter, Chad, was there with his daughter and his daughter said, we don't want an autopsy on the family.

And Chad kind of sat back quiet and didn't didn't really push it or deny it. You know, I'm surprised they didn't do an autopsy anyway, because didn't he say at the time that pink froth was coming out of her mouth and or nose? Right. And the coroner testified that there was a deputy saw that there was pink foam coming out of her mouth. The coroner obviously said that she regrets not doing an autopsy. And the thing that really struck everybody there, though, was the urgency of of the of Chad pushing to get the funeral done. And, you know, Tammy was a beloved librarian at the local elementary school. And the principal asked Chad, can we do a service or a memorial for her here where we live rather than four hours away where you're going to bury her? And Chad really hadn't thought about that.

He didn't really want to do that. And then the school ended up planning the memorial and doing it all on behalf of Tammy. Chad was in a hurry to get it all done and get her in the ground. You know, you stated also, Nate Eaton from EastIdahoNews.com, that the family didn't want an autopsy. They just wanted to, quote, move on. Your words, not mine. It had only been, what, two hours since they found her dead and they already wanted to, quote, move on? It had only been, yeah, a couple of hours. And that was that. The kids were in shock. I think the kids were completely stunned.

Chad was crying. He said that he was, the friends that went over to visit them that morning at the house to, you know, express their condolences, say Chad would cry when they cried and then he wouldn't cry. And it was very much like another thing on his list to do. I guess that's how you could describe it he was not a shocked husband who was you know distraught that his wife was gone it was more like well she's dead he had told people at these conferences he went to that his wife was going to die young he had said

this publicly to people and that's that was what he would tell people after she died. Well, I always figured she was going to die young. So he had talked about this. We don't know what Tammy thought about that or if Tammy had heard him saying things like that. But he had, quote unquote, prophesied that this was going to happen. OK, maybe he and Scott Peterson should room together behind bars and talk about, commiserate about what they did wrong. One of those things would be prophesying your wife's death before she dies. Dr. Kendall Crown, chief medical examiner, Tarrant County, that's Fort Worth. Never a lack of business there. Dr. Kendall Crowns and lecturer,

University of Texas Christian University Medical School. Dr. Kendall Crowns, I thought when the COD cause of death was unknown, you had to do an autopsy. You just can't have the cheating husband walk in and go, I don't want an autopsy. And then you say, okay, we won't do an autopsy. That's correct. I mean, when the circumstances of death are unknown, you should always perform an autopsy to determine them. Now there can be situations in which there's religious objections, but still, as the medical examiner, you can go past those objections if you have a suspicion to continue on to do the autopsy. So in a 49-year-old female found dead at home, suddenly you really should be suspicious of a number of things and not just, you know, heart attack, but possibly drug overdose and always the potential for a homicide.

Dr. Kendall-Crowns, those were a lot of words. So if possible, and I know that you're used to lecturing medical students who understand what you're saying. Dr. Crowns, yes, no. When you have a healthy, young female, she's 49 years old, to suddenly, quote, die in her sleep, shouldn't you do an autopsy if you don't know COD? No prior illnesses, no heart, no cancer,

no stroke symptoms, no nothing. Yes, you should always do an autopsy in that situation. You know what, before I go off on a tangent and a very well-deserved tangent on the medical examiner that didn't do the autopsy, that said, oh, the prophet doesn't want an autopsy. So, okay, all done here. Let's go home. Yeah, that was the big problem. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.

I want to circle back to what the funeral director said. Listen. He wanted to have the funeral service as soon as possible. And this was on a Sunday morning. And I said, well, you know, with social media, we need to have word get around so that the people know. So you'll have somebody showing up at the funeral and even announcing in the newspaper there's deadlines to meet. And so he said he wanted to do to get this done just as quickly as he could.

I think there was some discussion of even possibly doing it Monday, but, um, that was very quick. We talked about it and he said, we'll do the viewing on Monday. And we, we came to a reasonable conclusion that the funeral on Tuesday would probably suffice. What? Why don't they just put her in a trash bag and roll her out to the street and the Dixie dumpster or the Herbie Kirby? I mean, are you hearing this? Nate Eaton, help me.

Am I hearing that he was she's found on Saturday and he wanted to have the funeral as quickly as possible to, quote, get it over with. And they really, really, Chad Daybell really wanted to have it done on Monday, but they just couldn't get it together. He wanted to have the funeral and have Tammy Daybell buried and far, far away from an autopsy possibility as quickly as possible. Just, you know, get her done. Right. And not only that, Nancy, it wasn't there in their hometown. This funeral where they were going to bury Tammy was six or seven hours away. So you across another state line in Utah. So the funeral director there is trying to tell Chad that the logistics of making this happen so fast when you have family traveling from all over the place.

Why don't you wait a few days? Why don't you get this done but chad was determined we have to get her buried and it has come out at the trial that he was in communication with lori valo during all of this i'm sure you're not surprised to hear that listen to this whenever there's whenever there's somebody who's passed away without like without the doctors uh being there to to handle that i'm always really leery of things such as, well, I don't want to have an autopsy. I don't want to drag this thing out. And there were already some red flags that I had encountered prior to her passing away that just there was a cause of

suspicion for me. Not suspicion, concern. I wanted to find out if she had fallen, if there was anything wrong with Tammy. To Vicki Hoban joining us, this is Tammy Daybell's aunt. Ms. Hoban, thank you for being with us. Maybe I'm seeing all this in hindsight to his 2020, but what the big rush. Did you believe there was a rush at the time? Yeah, I did. I had the flu. I found out she passed Saturday morning. I had a 105 fever and I said, you know, please, you know, wait, you know, because I'm not going to be able to come. I had a sister with cancer and I couldn't be around her sick and I had to travel from Arizona. So I didn't even get to attend the funeral because he said she was, he looked, she looked peaceful and so he didn't need an autopsy. So he wanted

to get it done. And I was, I was blown away. I can't even express how to me that was a big red flag. It was just because he didn't care about family getting there. I mean, it was just so rushed and just, let's just get it done, wrap it up, and be done with it. And it was like, no, this is a person that means something to us. I mean, we wanted to celebrate her life. We wanted to mourn her death. We didn't know why she had died. She was perfectly healthy. There were so many things going on, so much going on within our family,

trying to figure it out. And my sister was in shock. It just, I can't even explain to you what it feels like to have somebody feel, you know, to the point where they just want to get rid of her and just put it behind them. And, you know, I felt horrible for her children because I'm like, they can't be okay with this. This doesn't even make any sense. It was heartbreaking. I'm just thinking it through. Tara Malik is with us, high profile lawyer, Smith and Malik in and around these jurisdictions. Tara, thank you for being with us. You know, it's really hard to keep a jury from projecting because as I was listening

to Vicki Hoban talk, and that's Tammy's aunt, I was thinking about when my dad went to heaven and I had a nephew. We're all very close family. And I recall it. He was in the middle of taking the entrance test to go to graduate school to get his MBA. And we're like, well, he's got to be here. And we waited. We waited an extra day or more so the whole family could be together.

When my dad, you know, when we had his service. And I'm projecting that onto what I'm hearing. Oh, I can't wait to go to the juror, Tom Evans. But Tara Mallett, you're a trial lawyer. How do you dispel that juror projection of their own life events onto the defendant? Well, you can't. I mean, the bottom line is that jurors are going to draw on their own personal experiences when they're interpreting what they're hearing and when they are deciding what the facts of this case are. And, you know, the prosecution has done a really nice job of covering these types of things,

including the rush to get, you know, get Tammy buried. I think that goes back to their motive, their big motive here that they're saying Chad had, which is this case was fueled by sex, money, and power. And all of these pieces of information about his rush to get her buried, his rush to skip over an autopsy, go to that theme, right? I mean, he is in a hurry to move on with his life. Okay, here I go projecting again, but to Tom Evans, a juror on the cult mom, Lori Vallow trial, and check out the book, Money, Power and Sex, the Lori Daybell trial.

Tom, a couple of months ago, I looked at my husband, David. I'm like, you've got to go to the doctor right now. Your color is not right. You look gray. Your face looks gray. And he said, no, it does. I'm like, it does. Please go to the doctor.

He went to the doctor. Guess what it was? A previous doctor had very wisely given him some type of a lotion to actually help prevent skin cancer. Okay. And it's white and it gave him a grayish power. I would not rest until he went to the heart doctor and had the whole shebang, the stress test, the you name it done. Every test imaginable because I was worried. So if grandma, whoever is coming back, Grandma Cooper.

That's my mother. Excuse me. What, Vicki? That's my mom that he's saying he's getting these premonition or visions from and it's well if it's your mom why did she come back and tell you well she that the whole point is it is a crock of crap is what i'll say it for you bs it's a technical legal term so it's your mother coming back to Chad Daybell. I bet she didn't like Chad Daybell very much, did she?

Why would she pick Chad? There's, I mean, if she's going to got something to say, there are other people she was a lot closer to. I just don't, I don't know why he used her other than she had a lot of influence over our family. She was a powerful matriarch of the family, but to use her and to put her in his books and to use her as to serve the purpose of trying to get rid of Tammy or to manipulate her or her family or whatever is just despicable. You know what? My husband's mom, same way. The most wonderful person had a profound effect

on my husband, even though she passed several years ago, when he does something, I don't want him to do. I say, David, I'm calling your mother. I'm going to do a seance and I'm going to call her. Uh, so I hear what you're saying. So she was picked by Daybell specifically to affect Tammy's decision to make a five hour, 10 hour round trip visit to Tom Evans. What do you think about all these premonitions and the dearly departed that have already gone over and gone to heaven coming back to, guess who, Chad Daybell and telling him Tammy's going to die. And lo and behold, she wakes up covered in bruises with pink froth in her mouth.

Well, Chad is the guru, the religious guru in this case. But I think it's just all so convoluted and complicated. And I know the prosecution, you know, it's just hard for them. They're worried about whether they're getting through to the jury right now, I'm sure. But they have to have faith that the jury is seeing the accumulation of evidence is what it's going to come down to. Wow. Have you ever considered being a lawyer? Because that would have been a great closing argument. So what was the COD cause of death? Listen. Two months after Tammy Daybell's death, while Chad Daybell is celebrating his Hawaiian

nuptials to Lori Vallow Daybell, his late wife's body is exhumed for a proper autopsy. Questions swirling around the whereabouts of Lori Vallow's children elicit doubts that Tammy Daybell's death was truly of natural causes. Fremont County Coroner Brenda Dye reexamines Daybell's body and finds several inconsistencies. Daybell's stomach contents do not indicate she vomited, as Chet Daybell reported. A bruise on her arm had significantly deepened and her lungs were still full of pink foam, which should have subsided. Dye amends the cause of death to homicide by asphyxiation due to strangulation. Dr. Kendall Crowns joining us, Chief Medical Examiner, Tarrant County. Dr. Kendall Crowns, what does that mean that her lungs were still full of pink foam and also based on what they find in Tammy's stomach, they know she didn't throw up. That's a new one on me.

The looking in the stomach and knowing that she didn't throw up, I'm familiar with the pink foam, but can you address the stomach contents as they indicate she did not throw up? How can you do that? Actually, that one's a new one for me as well. I'm not sure how they would know someone didn't vomit. You know, when you throw up, you don't necessarily throw up your entire stomach content some one go. So I don't know where they're going with that one at all. I can explain the pink fluid pulmonary edema, but I can't explain what they mean by she didn't throw up. Okay, let's hear it. That's pulmonary edema, fluid in the lungs.

When your heart goes into irregular heartbeats or starts slowing down before backs up. That causes a fluid backup that then goes into the lungs, creating edema or fluid buildup in the lungs, which creates this frothy foam that you see coming out of the mouth. You're going to see this usually in drug overdoses, cases of asphyxiation, cardiac deaths, and drownings. Why do you get the pink foam if you're asphyxiated, smothered, strangled, ligature, manual? Why the pink foam then? You're going to get the, while you're being strangled or asphyxiated, you're going to have your heart start slowing down because you're losing oxygenation of your tissues, going into organ

failure, which results in you developing the edema. And also, I would like to point out with his premonitions, I feel he's using that as a foundation for his murder and manipulating religious people by saying that God is talking to him because he already has a plan in place. So he's just saying, hey, we're having, I'm having a, you know, word from God that something's going to happen and then manipulating their religious background. I agree. Nate Aiton, tell me how the jury is reacting. The jury this entire time has been very focused. They are, many are taking notes. Many are intently looking at the witnesses and at Chad. They're seated directly across from Chad Daybell. So all they have to do is look forward to see his reaction

for all of it. There haven't been any disruptions with the jury. There are six alternate jurors here. So you have the 12 jurors and the six alternates. They will know at the end of the trial who the alternates are. And remember, Nancy, this is a death penalty case. So if Chad Daybell is found guilty, we will go straight into the penalty phase where the jury will then decide if he gets death or life in prison. And there will be witnesses called by the state and by the defense to argue whether he should get life or death. So this jury will not only decide the verdict, but they will decide what sentence Chad Daybell will get. Nate Eaton is the so-called prophet going to try to pin it all on cult mom Lori Vallow? Oh, I think he already is. I think he already is. His defense attorney said in his

opening statements that Chad Daybell had a normal life. He'd never even gotten a speeding ticket. And Lori Vallow came from chaos. She came from four husbands. She was constantly surrounded by commotion. Her brother would do anything for her. And then when Chad Daybell met her, everything changed. Everything changed. It was her. It was her. And so every single witness, it seems his defense attorney is trying to point the finger the other way and say, Chad wasn't really involved in this. It was all her, and it was all Alex Cox, who's also dead, her brother. Oh, okay. So it's the Garden of Eden all over again.

Blame the woman. It's her fault. And to you, Tom Evans, who was a juror on the Colt Mom Lori Vallow trial, as you look at the evidence unfolding against Chad Daybell, what do you make of all of his heavenly visits and Colt Mom trying to use Christ to justify triple murder? Oh, it's just crazy. The whole thing is unbelievable. Sitting in the courtroom with Lori Vallow for seven weeks and then the first time I ever heard her speak was at her sentencing. And that's what she had to say. It's just insulting. There were people in that room gasping and just shaking their heads. I'm sorry, that wasn't the question you asked me. But it was the perfect answer. I can tell you that much. And I'm just wondering, Nate Eaton, if there's any move afoot for Daybell,

the prophet, to take the stand and see if he can entice a jury the way he enticed that string of women. That's a great question, Nancy. I doubt he would take the stand. But think about this. This is a man that wanted followers. This is a man that wrote books. He wanted readers. He tried to convince people his entire adult life to follow him, to believe what he says. Will he take the stand and get those jurors believing what he says? Will he have 18 more followers at the end of this trial, or will they tell him, no, your story, your books, all of the stuff you're preaching doesn't hold up. Your plan to go live with Jesus might not happen now. Instead, you're going to be living in prison the rest of your life. Or

you might meet Jesus sooner than you thought. So we'll have to see if he does take the stand. I would strongly doubt if he does. You know, I'd have to have a shrink to figure this out. But I've taken a look at Chad Daybell, the so-called prophet's string of doomsday books. They don't sound anything like what I've read about Christ. Nothing at all. Well, he can think about that behind bars. Let's stop and remember. American hero, police officer Jordan Wingate, just 29,

critically injured in a car crash in the line of duty. Rookie of the year. He leaves behind Father Randall, a retired police captain, and his family. American hero, police officer Jordan Wingate. Thank you to our guests for being with us, but especially to you for being with us tonight. Nancy Grace signing off. Good night, friend. You're listening to an iHeart Podcast.