WATCH: Court shows bodycam footage of welfare check in Chad Daybell murder trial
BOISE, Idaho (ABC4) — Prosecutors in the Chad Daybell murder trial showed bodycam footage of officers conducting a welfare check on Joshua “JJ” Vallow months before his body was found on Chad Daybell’s Idaho property.
David Stubbs, who previously served as a supervisor in the Rexburg Police Department’s detective division, took the stand Thursday afternoon. Stubbs testified to assisting with a welfare check on JJ after his grandmother Kay Woodcock — who took the stand earlier in the day — had contacted them.
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On Nov. 26, 2019, several officers conducted the welfare check speaking with Lori Vallow Daybell, Chad’s wife and mother of JJ, which was recorded on Stubbs’ bodycam.
The bodycam footage was shown in the court and is included below, however, it may be difficult to see due to the court’s online livestream.
During the visit, the footage depicts Lori telling officers her son is with her friend Melani Gibbs in Arizona and she plans to move there soon. She told officers her brother — who lives in Kansas — was trying to kill her, and that she found evidence of him conspiring with her late husband Charles Vallow after his passing. She said he had shown up at her door in Rexburg recently.
“I look like a suspect but I’m a good person, raised all my kids, I’ve done everything that I’m supposed to do in life, but everyone is causing me trouble right now,” she is heard saying to officers in the bodycam footage.
She also told officers Woodcock had asked for the welfare check as part of a scheme to win JJ in a future custody battle.
“She’s been horrible to me since my husband died,” Lori said.
She also told officers the two men police saw earlier at her residence were her other brother Alex Cox, who she called her “protector,” and his friend Chad Daybell. She told officers her daughter Tylee was attending BYU-Idaho.
Prosecutors asked Stubbs if he had any concerns after meeting with Lori that day to which he said he had several.
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Stubbs said he found it strange that she had referred to Chad Daybell as her brother’s friend when he had tracked them earlier and seen them holding hands at a Hobby Lobby and also discovered they had been married in Hawaii three weeks prior.
Stubbs testified that they found no evidence that her brother in Kansas had come to Idaho, that Tylee was enrolled or even applied to BYU-Idaho, and that JJ was with Gibbs.
Finally, he said he had been concerned about officer safety as she said her brother lived there but was nowhere in sight. Stubbs said he saw a shadow at the top of the stairs moving and he was worried about that person’s intentions.
About ten minutes after meeting with Lori, they returned since they could not get ahold of Gibbs. The video shows Lori telling them Gibbs and JJ were at the movies watching Frozen 2 and might not be able to pick up.
Stubbs said they verified that Gibbs was not in Arizona and could not verify that she had JJ, and therefore served a search warrant.
The court adjourned for the day. This story will be updated tomorrow morning as David Stubbs will return to the stand.
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