Lori Vallow Daybell reportedly moved from jail as new documents are filed in case
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REXBURG — Lori Vallow Daybell may have been moved from the Madison County Jail to another facility, according to a VINE notification received by EastIdahoNews.com and others.
However, government agencies will not confirm the move or her current location due to privacy laws, or the temporary stay of her case. EastIdahoNews.com’s inquiries were declined by the Madison County prosecutor’s office and sheriff’s office and the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare.
This development comes days after EastIdahoNews.com obtained 169 pages of evidentiary case documents about Daybell that were sealed hours after we obtained them.
The VINE victim notification phone calls were sent out Thursday around 10:30 a.m. The message said Daybell was placed into “supervised custody” in “another facility.” The service’s website lists the same information. VINE allows crime victims and others to obtain timely details about criminal cases and the custody status of offenders 24 hours a day.
The alleged move relates to Daybell’s mental health. On June 8, Judge Steven Boyce committed Daybell to the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare after a mental health professional deemed her incompetent to assist in her defense.
Daybell has been in the Madison County Jail since March 2020.
The state of Idaho maintains two psychiatric hospitals for inmates. Daybell could have been moved to State Hospital South in Blackfoot, a facility with 110 psychiatric adult beds and 42 skilled nursing beds. The hospital maintains a statewide program to restore the competency of criminal justice patients. She could have also been transferred to State Hospital North, a 55-bed psychiatric hospital in Orofino that provides treatment for adults in psychiatric crisis.
These are just two possibilities of Daybell’s location, as Idaho has a handful of other private mental health facilities.
Idaho law allows Daybell to be held in a health and welfare facility for up to 90 days to restore her competency. If that happens, court proceedings resume as normal. If not, the pause of her case extends another 180 days, and she would continue to receive treatment.
RELATED | A psychologist says Lori Vallow Daybell is not competent. What happens now?
Evidentiary documents filed and sealed
As Daybell’s competency is reviewed, all parts of her case are on hold and for the most part, the case will not progress.
However, Means recently filed a motion to compel on June 18 to demand prosecuting attorneys release more information to him. In general, a motion to compel asks the judge to enforce a request for information relevant to a case.
Attached to Means’ motion to compel were 169 pages of text messages, witness statements and other evidentiary documents connected to the case. EastIdahoNews.com obtained the morning they were filed, but hours later, in an emergency motion to seal by the prosecution, District Judge Steven Boyce sealed Means’ filing and all information in connection to it.
Included in Boyce’s sealing was the actual motion that sealed the case. EastIdahoNews.com filed a public record request asking Boyce to unseal the order that sealed the 169 pages. That order was granted Friday. Means’ motion to compel and 169 attached pages are still sealed and, at this time, EastIdahoNews.com is not publishing the information to protect the integrity of the case.
In May, a Fremont County grand jury indicted Daybell and her husband Chad Daybell on various charges, including first-degree murder for the deaths of Chad’s first wife, Tammy Daybell, 16-year-old Tylee Ryan and 7-year-old Joshua “JJ” Vallow — Lori’s two children.
Chad is scheduled for a jury trial in November that is expected to last five weeks. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges filed against him.
