Lori Vallow Update: How Cellphone Data From Missing Brother Led To Bodies Of Missing Children

The missing children of “cult mom” Lori Vallow – Tylee Ryan, 17, and Joshua Vallow, 7 – were recently found in a well on the property of Chad Daybell, Vallow’s husband, after months of searching. Last seen in September, the children’s remains were found on June 9 with the help of cellphone data from another case close to the couple.

According to court documents obtained by KBOI, a CBS affiliate in Boise, Idaho, the FBI was able to determine the location where the bodies were later found by using cell tower pings from the phone of Vallow’s missing brother, Alex Cox. According to this data, Cox’s cellphone pinged from Daybell’s Idaho property on four different days in September

Neighbors of Daybell reported seeing fires on the property on Sept. 6 and Sept. 9, when Cox’s phone would have been present to ping a tower. This struck them as strange, as the property's fire pit was almost never used.

Roughly 15 minutes after Cox was last pinged on the property, at 9:21 a.m., Daybell texted his then-wife, Tammy, to say that he had shot a raccoon and buried it in their “pet cemetery.”

“Well, I’ve had an interesting morning,” he said in the text.

Investigators have noted that the pet cemetery was where Cox’s phone had been previously and that it was suspicious that a raccoon, a nocturnal mammal, would have been out early in the morning.

Vallow is currently charged with the desertion and nonsupport of her children, while her husband is charged with concealing evidence.

Both are being held in Idaho on $1 million bonds.

They are not currently charged in relation to the deaths of Tylee and Joshua, as their official causes of death have not been disclosed.