July 11, 2019: Lori Vallow’s husband Charles Vallow is killed by her brother Alex Cox in Arizona. Police initially decide Alex acted in self-defense, but reopened the case months later after the children were reported missing.
August 2019: Lori moves to Rexburg, Idaho, with children JJ and Tylee, near her future husband Chad Daybell, who lives with his wife Tammy.
September 8, 2019: Tylee is last seen alive during a trip to Yellowstone National Park with Lori, JJ and Alex. In the weeks that followed, Lori tells people that her daughter is studying on the campus of Brigham Young University in Idaho.
September 23, 2019: JJ is last seen at his school in Rexburg. Lori emails the school the next day, claiming that she is moving to California with the family for a new job.
October 2, 2019: Brandon Boudreaux, the ex-husband of Lori’s niece Melani Pawlowski, is the target of a drive-by shooting in Arizona. Police identify the vehicle carrying the shooter as a Jeep registered to Charles Vallow, Lori’s late husband.
October 19, 2019: Chad’s wife Tammy, 49, dies at her home in Idaho. An obituary states that she passed away peacefully in her sleep. Chad refuses an autopsy and her death is listed as natural causes.
October 25, 2019: A friend of Tylee’s gets a vague “miss you” text from her phone, but says it didn’t sound like the teenager.
November 5, 2019: Lori and Chad get married on a Kauai beach. Receipts show Lori bought her own wedding ring from Amazon nearly three weeks before Tammy’s death.
November 26, 2019: Out-of-state relatives are asking the Idaho Police Department to do a welfare check on JJ. Lori and Chad claim he is in Arizona with relatives and ask their friend Melanie Gibb to lie and say that she took the boy there for Thanksgiving. Police soon learn that no one has seen JJ or Tylee since September.
November 27, 2019: Police execute a search warrant related to the children at Lori’s home and discover that she and Chad fled Idaho.
December 11, 2019: Tammy’s body is exhumed from a Utah cemetery and her death is ruled suspicious.
December 12, 2019: Lori’s brother, Alex Cox, is found dead in a bathroom at his Arizona home. Months later, an autopsy determines that he died of natural causes while overdosing on narcan in his system.
December 21, 2019: The Rexburg Police Department issues the first press release about JJ and Tylee, revealing that they believe their disappearance may be linked to Tammy’s death and asking for information from the public.
December 24, 2019: Lori and Chad are issuing a statement through a lawyer saying they love their son and daughter and look forward to “addressing allegations once speculation and rumors are behind them.”
December 30, 2019: Police accuse Lori and Chad of lying to investigators and say they believe the couple knows where the children are or what happened to them.
January 3, 2020: Police search Chad’s Salem home and confiscate 43 items, including gadgets and magazines. They also comb parts of the snowy yard with rakes and metal detectors.
January 26, 2020: Lori and Chad are seen for the first time in months when police in Kauai serve them two search warrants. Lori is also served with a court order to produce the children for Idaho authorities in five days. The couple are approached by the media while officers deliver the documents and refuse to say anything about the children.
January 30, 2020: Lori misses the court deadline to present the children to Idaho authorities.
February 20, 2020: Lori is arrested in Kauai and charged with two felonies of desertion and failing to maintain dependent children, and resisting and obstructing an officer, inciting a crime, and contempt of court.
March 5, 2020: Lori is extradited to Idaho, where she is being held in the Madison County Jail on $1 million bail.
March 17, 2020: Lori pleads her innocence in a statement from her attorney as two more members of her defense team resign and the judge pulls out of the case.
March 24, 2020: Court documents filed in the divorce of Lori’s niece Melani and her husband Brandon Boudreaux claim Lori told people she believed her children were zombies before they disappeared.
April 9, 2020: Authorities announce that they are investigating Lori and Chad for murder, attempted murder and conspiracy related to Tammy’s death.
June 9, 2020: Police search Chad’s Salem home for a second time and discover human remains in the backyard. Chad is being held in police custody and charged with destroying or concealing evidence.
May 25, 2021: Lori and Chad are charged with first-degree murder in the children’s deaths. Chad is also charged with first degree murder in the death of his wife Tammy.
May 27, 2021: Lori is presumed unfit to stand trial on the Idaho murder charges.
August 5, 2021: The public prosecutor’s office announces that it will demand the death penalty for Chad.
April 11, 2022: Lori’s competence is restored. The criminal case against her in Ohio continues.
April 14, 2022: Lori is taken to the Madison County Jail in Rexburg, Idaho by Fremont County Sheriff officers
