The Idaho coroner who oversaw the case of “Doomsday Mom” Lori Vallow Daybell says she still has “nightmares” about the convicted killer’s slain children.
Fremont County coroner Brenda Dye, 46, said she struggles to understand why Vallow Daybell killed Tylee Ryan and Joshua “JJ” Vallow.
“It’s just hard to imagine someone doing that to someone they care for and love. I have kids and I just can’t imagine what the family has had to go through,” Dye told the East Idaho News of the kids, both of whom are believed to have been killed as part of their mother’s delusional plot with her then-lover, Chad Daybell.
Tylee, 16, and 7-year-old JJ vanished in September 2019, and were found in shallow graves on Daybell’s property in June 2020.
At Vallow Daybell’s trial earlier this year, jurors learned that Tylee was burned and dismembered, while JJ – who had autism – was bound and wrapped in plastic, the East Idaho News recalled.
“I still have nightmares. Every time we have a new trial…I have to relive everything again and all those emotions come back. A lot of cases are harder than others, but this has been really hard for me,” Dye explained of the experience.
Vallow Daybell, 50, is now serving three life sentences for the murders of her children and conspiracy to murder Chad Daybell’s first wife, Tammy Daybell.
Dye – who also has 22 years of experience as an EMT – was just a few months into her first term as coroner when Tammy died of asphyxiation in October 2019, she explained to the East Idaho News.
Within days of Tammy’s funeral, Vallow Daybell and Daybell – a self-professed doomsday cultist – decamped to Hawaii, where they later married before being nabbed by authorities several months later.
The case of Tammy Daybell’s death and Vallow Daybell’s missing children involved people Dye knew, which made the grisly story even harder to cope with, she told the East Idaho News.
She is only the second woman to serve as Fremont County coroner, and is one of the few female coroners in Idaho, the outlet noted.
“It takes a person who can deal with death. When people are near death, they need a compassionate person there to help them through it,” Dye said of her demanding role.
Going forward into her second term, she said, her main goal is to support local families through the grieving process and to help victims’ families.
Chad Daybell, 55, is set to stand trial in connection with the murders of Tammy, Tylee, and JJ next year.