The husband of an Idaho mother being held in Hawaii in the September disappearance of her two children has told news media there that "the kids are safe,” according to a report in the Huffington Post, citing ABC News.
Chad Daybell, an author of several apocalyptic novels about the biblical end of days, reportedly made the rare public statement to an ABC News reporter during the weekend as he left Kauai, where his wife, 46-year-old Lori Vallow, is awaiting extradition to Rexburg, Idaho, to face two felony charges of desertion and nonsupport of dependent children.
Credit: The Associated Press
Credit: The Associated Press
She has been jailed on $5 million bond since her arrest Feb. 20.
A judge last Wednesday refused to lower the bail after prosecutors argued Vallow was a flight risk.
Daybell, who has not been charged in the case, has been married to Vallow since early November and has been on the island with her since at least early January. Prosecutors also noted at the bail hearing that Daybell had $152,000 in a First Hawaiian Bank account, reports said.
Vallow’s children, Joshua “JJ” Vallow, 7, and Tylee Ryan, 17, have not been seen since September.
The Huffington Post report said Daybell did not elaborate on their whereabouts. The children’s grandfather, Larry Woodcock, who has been begging for the kids’ safe return, said for now he was willing to give Daybell the benefit of the doubt, the paper reported.
“I just think that we have to believe that they’re safe,” Woodcock told ABC News.
Authorities in the family’s hometown of Rexburg said they have turned their attention to Yellowstone National Park, not far from the family’s last known residence, and are just waiting for the snow to melt to be able to search the grounds that cover nearly 3,500 square miles, reports said.
Officials say one of the two missing children, Tylee, was last seen Sept. 8 at the entrance of the park, where a photograph was taken and later found on her mother’s iCloud account, according to news reports, citing recently filed court documents.
The teenager was at the park that day with her mother, her brother and an uncle, Alex Cox, according to reports.
Joshua was last seen on a neighbor’s doorbell camera playing in the yard with a friend outside the family's apartment in Rexburg on Sept. 17.
A week later, on Sept. 24, Vallow withdrew Joshua from his elementary school and he was never seen again.
Vallow had been under investigation since the boy's grandparents reported the boy missing Nov. 25, but she vanished from Idaho just as authorities were preparing to carry out a welfare check, according to reports.
Before she left Rexburg, Vallow reportedly told neighbors she sent her son to Lake Charles, Louisiana, to spend time with his grandparents, which turned out to be untrue, according to investigators.
In January, she resurfaced in Kauai, where she was staying with Daybell. She had been there for about a month when police served her with a court order from Idaho that gave her five days to bring the children in front of a judge by Jan. 31.
After failing to return to Idaho, Vallow was arrested Feb. 20.
Reports say there were no signs her children were ever with her in Hawaii.
