Lori Vallow trial hears Chad Daybell call before court abruptly ends – live

Lori Vallow’s high-profile murder trial came to an abrupt end on Wednesday, after jurors had heard a jailhouse phone call between Ms Vallow and Chad Daybell on the day that the children’s remains were found.

Following a short break, the prosecution team said that due to unforeseen circumstances, they were requesting a dismissal for the day.

The defence team did not object and so the trial was adjourned early.

The cause of the day’s abrupt end was later revealed to be due to a death in Fremont County Prosecuting Attorney Lindsey Blake’s family.

“There has been a death in the family of one of the prosecutor’s lead attorneys. The Court and defense have been gracious in allowing the prosecution to adjust to this personal situation,” a spokesperson for the prosecution team said in a statement.

Ms Blake had been absent for the day’s proceedings.

The court will resume on Thursday morning at 8.30am MT.

Tammy Daybell was Chad Daybell’s first wife who he allegedly murdered in October 2019.

The couple married in 1990 and founded Spring Creek Book Company together in Utah – the company which published Mr Daybell’s doomsday books. They had five children together and moved to Salem, Idaho, in 2015.

In October 2019, Tammy called 911 after a man allegedly shot at her with a paintball gun in the driveway of her home. She took to Facebook to describe the incident. Just 10 days later, Tammy died suddenly in her sleep at the age of 49. Her death was initially ruled natural causes and Mr Daybell declined an autopsy.

However, following the disappearance of Tylee and JJ, law enforcement officials grew suspicious. Her body was exhumed that December for an autopsy to be completed. Now, Mr Daybell is charged with her murder while both he and Ms Vallow are charged with conspiring to murder her.

Charles Vallow was Lori Vallow’s fourth husband. The couple married in 2006 and adopted Joshua “JJ” Vallow together.

In July 2019, her brother Alex Cox shot and killed Vallow at Ms Vallow’s home in Chandler, Arizona. Cox claimed that he shot Vallow in self-defence when Vallow tried to attack him with a baseball bat. However, Cox did not perform CPR on Vallow and waited 43 minutes to call the police.

At the time, the case was closed as self-defence, but after it was reopened, investigators found that Cox and Ms Vallow allegedly conspired to kill Vallow.

His death came after he had warned – in divorce filings and police complaints – that he feared his wife would kill him and that she believed she was a god preparing for a second coming. Ms Vallow is now facing charges in Arizona of conspiring to murder Vallow.

Alex Cox was Lori Vallow’s brother – who mysteriously died in December 2019. Cox is also Ms Vallow and Chad Daybell’s alleged accomplice in the murders of Tylee and JJ and in the conspiracy to kill Tammy Daybell. He also shot dead Ms Vallow’s fourth husband Charles Vallow.

In December 2019, Alex Cox died suddenly aged 51. His death has been ruled natural causes, with indications of a blood clot wedged in the arteries of his lungs. However, the overdose drug Narcan was also found in his system.

Here are the key revelations from the trial – so far:

In the call, made on 9 June 2020 and played in court during Ms Vallow’s high-profile double murder trial on Wednesday, Mr Daybell is heard telling his new wife that law enforcement were on the scene searching his property in Rexburg, Idaho.

“Cult mom” Lori Vallow’s former nephew-in-law broke down in tears on the witness stand as he testified about the moment he had to identify the remains of her murdered seven-year-old son.

“Cult mom” Lori Vallow was driven by “money, power and sex” to murder her two children and her new husband’s then-wife, prosecutors told her murder trial – as jurors were shown graphic images of the children’s charred and buried remains.

As an emotional day drew to a close on Tuesday, after graphic autopsy photos were shown to the court of the two children she is accused of murdering as part of a doomsday cult plot, Lori Vallow appeared to fall asleep.

Joshua “JJ” Vallow was last seen alive on 22 September 2019.

Rachel Sharp reports on the shocking evidence revealed in court.

Warning: GRAPHIC content.