Arizona police release new documents from investigation into Charles Vallow’s death

CHANDLER, Ariz. — The Chandler Police Department released thousands of files from their investigation into the July 2019 death of Charles Vallow, which was ruled a homicide.

The release included 24 gigabytes of body camera footage, paperwork, witness interviews, picture logs and more than 1,100 pages of police reports.

The investigation details how detectives say Lori Vallow-Daybell and her brother Alex Cox carried out an execution-style shooting of Vallow-Daybell’s then-husband, Charles Vallow, on July 11, 2019.

Everyone that witnessed the shooting has died except for Lori Vallow-Daybell, but the documents include a two-hour recording of a police interview with Tylee Ryan.

This is the first known recording of Tylee in the timeframe detectives suspect Vallow-Daybell and her then-lover Chad Daybell allegedly carried out murder plans against five family members; four of the alleged plans were successful, including those against Tylee.

Timeline

• July 11, 2019 — Police say Charles Vallow was murdered in Chandler, Arizona
• Sept. 8-9, 2019 — Police suspect Tylee Ryan was murdered
• Sept. 23, 2019 — Police suspect JJ Vallow was murdered
• Oct. 2, 2019 — Brandon Boudreaux attempted murder
• Oct. 9, 2019 — Tammy Daybell reports someone shooting her with a paintball gun
• Oct. 19, 2019 — Police suspect Tammy Daybell was murdered

On July 11, 2019, Tylee described waking up to yelling coming from outside her bedroom.

Charles Vallow and Lori Vallow-Daybell were separated. Vallow-Daybell was living at a rental home in Chandler, Arizona, with their two children, Tylee and JJ.

New body cam video shows another plea for help from Charles Vallow

Charles Vallow had allegedly flown into town the night to visit JJ. The couple had planned on Vallow taking JJ to school the morning of July 11.

Tylee said she grabbed a baseball bat and left her room.

“It was just like first instincts… and (the bat) was right by my bed,” she said.

In the hallway, Tylee claimed her mother, Lori Vallow-Daybell, was arguing with her stepfather, Charles Vallow. Tylee said her uncle, Alex Cox, was also standing protectively behind Charles Vallow.

“I honestly couldn’t tell you what they were saying … it was kind of all just jumbled up in my head,” she told a detective.

According to Tylee, she then stepped in between Charles Vallow and Lori Vallow-Daybell with the bat. She said she pointed it out towards Charles Vallow.

“They were both just yelling and he was like if you hit me with that baseball bat … You’re going to go to jail,” Tylee said. “He was mostly the one yelling, my mom was just responding.”

“I stuck the baseball bat out there, and he just grabbed it and tried to take it so I held onto the end … and eventually I fell and he took it into his hands like he was going to do something with it,” Tylee said. “Then my mom told me to go outside with JJ.”

Tylee said she ran outside just as Charles Vallow stepped back almost as if someone had pulled him back. Tylee assumed it was Cox who pulled Charles from behind.

Tylee then said she ran outside.

"You will meet an extraordinary woman today who will change your life forever," Then there is the fictional not so fictional love story #ChadDaybell wrote of "James & Elena" AKA Chad & Lori. Det's say story proves Chad & Lori were having an affair **READER DISCRETION** @KSL5TV pic.twitter.com/DRRLTwa0lz

— Garna Mejia KSL (@GarnaMejiaKSL) October 7, 2021

“I ran out the door, and then I kind of just stood there with my little brother,” Tylee said,” He was in the front seat of the car and so I opened the door and stood there. He was trying to get out and I was like, ‘No we have to stay.’”

She then told detectives her mother eventually exited the house and the trio left.

Detectives then asked Tyee if she knew what happened inside the house. She responded she heard a loud sound and her mother exited the house almost immediately afterward.

“I heard a noise which I know what it was now but it sounded like … It sounded like someone took (the bat) and hit it really hard against the floor,” Tylee said she asked her mother if her uncle was OK because she feared Charles Vallow would hurt him. She told detectives her mother told her he was fine and they were going to take JJ to school.

It appears Tylee did not witness the shooting or the minutes leading up to it. She also told detectives after the shooting, she ran inside the house to get her mother’s purse but “tuned everything out” and “didn’t see anything or hear anything.”

Tylee’s account also seems to contradict the versions Lori Vallow and Alex Cox shared with detectives.

Autopsy for slain husband of Lori Vallow Daybell made public; death ruled a homicide

In an interview with detectives, Cox displayed a gash in the back of his head and what appeared to be blood.

Detectives asked Cox to explain his version of events because some of the information patrol officers shared “didn’t match what Lori told us.”

Detectives said one of the contradictions was Cox’s timeline for the events, including the time he shot Charles Vallow and consequently called 911.

Detectives say Cox waited about 43 minutes after shooting Vallow before calling 911.

They figured that out from surveillance footage at a Burger King, which captured Lori Vallow-Daybell and the children going through the drive-thru.

“Lori and Tylee both report hearing what they believe to be a gunshot prior to leaving the residence and Alexander said he called 911 within a few minutes of the shooting. There is a 42-minute delay between Lori being in the drive-thru and the 911 call which means someone’s account of the timeline is inaccurate,” detectives wrote in their police report.

Detectives also said Cox said he shot Charles Vallow twice while he was standing up. However, while processing the scene, ballistic evidence indicated one of the gunshot wounds Vallow received “had to have resulted in him being down on the ground.”

Tylee told detectives they stopped by Burger King to get chicken fries for JJ.

Lori Vallow-Daybell could face life in prison for the murder of Charles Vallow. Chad Daybell was not charged in connection to Charles Vallow’s death because detectives felt a case would not stand in court.

However, Chad Daybell and Lori Vallow-Daybell are facing the death penalty in Idaho for the murder of JJ and Tylee.