Mega Edition: The Chad Daybell Trial (Part 5) (10/19/26)

Day five of Chad Daybell’s trial focused heavily on financial and travel records prosecutors said helped establish the timeline surrounding the disappearances of JJ Vallow and Tylee Ryan and the relationship between Chad and Lori Vallow. Rexburg Police Detective Chuck Kunsaitis walked jurors through bank accounts, Social Security payments, airline records, hotel stays and credit-card activity tied to Lori, Chad, Alex Cox and the children. Prosecutors showed that Tylee had been actively using her bank account before she disappeared, but that her Social Security benefits were redirected into Lori’s account shortly before her death and continued to be collected afterward. JJ’s Social Security benefits also continued flowing into Lori’s account after he was last seen alive. Jurors also heard that Lori was using Tylee’s phone and Venmo account after Tylee had disappeared, including during a trip to Missouri. Travel records showed Chad and Lori moving frequently between Idaho, Arizona, Hawaii and other locations while the children were absent from those trips. The state also highlighted that Chad booked a trip to Hawaii just days after Tammy Daybell’s funeral and that he and Lori later contacted a Hawaii realtor describing themselves as a “clean couple with no kids or pets.”

The afternoon shifted even more sharply toward money when FBI forensic accountant Michael Douglass testified about roughly 80 financial accounts he had reviewed during the investigation. Douglass presented timelines showing that more than $22,000 in Social Security money had gone into Lori’s account after the children were dead, while also detailing Chad’s finances, Tammy Daybell’s increased life-insurance coverage and money movements around major events in the case. Jurors heard that Tammy’s life-insurance coverage was increased on September 8, 2019, the same date prosecutors identified as Tylee’s last known day alive, and that Chad later collected the policy after Tammy’s death. Most strikingly, Douglass testified that on June 9, 2020, while police were actively searching Chad’s property and discovering the children’s remains, Chad transferred large sums of money to several of his children, including multiple $8,000 transfers. The prosecution used the day’s testimony to argue that the financial and travel records were not isolated details but part of a broader timeline showing how Chad and Lori continued moving money, traveling and planning a new life while JJ and Tylee were missing and a