JJ died of asphyxiation and may have put up struggle, doctor in Daybell trial says
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Emily Ashcraft, KSL.com
Editor’s note: Wednesday’s testimony from the Boise murder trial is graphic and may be disturbing to some readers.
BOISE (KSL.com) — A medical examiner testified Wednesday that Lori Vallow Daybell’s 7-year-old son died from asphyxiation.
Dr. Garth Warren, a forensic pathologist, told jurors that JJ Vallow had a bag taped over his head and his hands and wrists had also been tightly bound with duct tape.
“He was found with a plastic bag over his head, it was tight and there were signs of a struggle,” Warren said.
During the autopsy, scratch-like abrasions were found on the boy’s neck, which Warren said caused him to question whether JJ was trying to get the bag off his head.
The 7-year-old also had bruises on his ankles, which may have come from the duct tape, Warren said. He said there was no evidence of disease, organ issues or fractures.
The difficult testimony came as investigators testified about the burial locations for JJ and his sister, 16-year-old Tylee Ryan, in their mother’s murder trial.
Judge Steven Boyce allowed photos from JJ’s autopsy to be shared with the jury, but decided not to project them onto a screen where other exhibits have been shown, as Warren described the photos.
Daybell faced away from the monitors and hard copy photos of her son, and JJ’s grandparents were not in the courtroom while these photos were shown, but they returned to the courtroom Wednesday afternoon.
JJ’s body was in red pajamas, and he had a blue and white blanket covering his legs. He was wearing a diaper, Warren said.
In addition to the bag being wrapped multiple times with duct tape, another strip of duct tape covered the child’s mouth. He had symmetrical bruising on his upper arms, which Warren said occurred before his death.
The toxicology report for JJ found low levels of a drug that is naturally found in the body, GHB or gamma hydroxybutyrate, which can be used for medicinal purposes or as a date-rape drug, along with theobromine and caffeine. Warren said there were inconclusive amounts of GHB, and there is no way to determine whether it was given to JJ or if it was naturally in his liver.
Unlike JJ, Tylee’s exact cause of death was not able to be determined; Warren listed her cause of death as homicide by unspecified means. This finding requires objectively suspicious circumstances and no autopsy findings or social explanation regarding the cause of death — including in the toxicology report, the medical examiner said.
He said her autopsy was very different. Her remains were in three different bags and the autopsy process took several days. They were able to identify her organs, some of which were attached to each other. Multiple bones were unrecognizable, and her skull was in multiple pieces.
Warren said they looked for projectiles like a knife blade but did not find anything. He said there is no evidence to support that she was alive when she was burned.
Her toxicology report came back positive for ibuprofen and products from decomposition.
Lori Daybell continued to face away as photos of black charred bone and flesh from Tylee’s body were shown.
Dr. Angi Christensen, a forensic anthropologist for the FBI, was asked to review between 100 and 150 bones belonging to Tylee Ryan. She testified that some bones were impacted by a sharp object, some were bent and one showed evidence of carnivore activity.
Christensen did not know if the bones were bent or impacted before or after Tylee’s death.
Trauma marks were present on both hip bones and the base of the spinal cord. Christensen said sharp trauma is typical in dismemberment cases — but these trauma marks are not typical.
Burial site
The bodies of both children were found buried in Chad Daybell’s backyard in Salem, Idaho. Lori Daybell was married to Chad Daybell on a beach in Hawaii after the children went missing.
She is charged with murder, conspiracy and grand theft in the deaths of her two children. She is also charged with conspiracy in connection with the death of Tammy Daybell, her husband’s former wife. Chad Daybell is charged in the same three deaths and will face a separate trial.
FBI special agent Steve Daniels testified Wednesday about JJ’s burial site, which was discovered on June 9, 2020, over nine months after the last time he was seen. He said the boy was buried less than 2 feet under the ground.
Daniels said there were larger rocks laid in a row, and it looked like they had been deliberately placed. Under those stones, investigators found that roots had been cut and there were two wooden boards.
“In my experience, someone has taken the most effort to bury these remains,” Daniels testified, adding that the rocks and wood were likely placed so wild animals could not disturb the site and expose the body.
Daniels said when they saw the child’s hair, investigators knew they had found a burial site, and they subsequently acted methodically to preserve forensic evidence on the duct tape.
“Now that we’d found JJ, we knew Tylee was around here somewhere,” he said.
On Tuesday, Daniels described uncovering Tylee’s remains, some of which were in a melted green bucket buried 2 feet underground.
Her body was dismembered, melted and burned and it took time for investigators to realize what they were looking at. Daniels said they eventually found a skull under the green bucket that confirmed they had found another human body.
