The attorney for Chad Daybell had a pair of motions denied Thursday by an Idaho District Judge, including the dismissal of the criminal indictment against Daybell.
REXBURG, Idaho — Lori Daybell offered to pray for her husband, Chad Daybell, when she called him from the Madison County Jail on June 9, 2020.
Chad Daybell had informed his wife that police were serving a search warrant on his property related to the disappearance of Lori Daybell’s children, JJ Vallow and Tylee Ryan. Those investigators ended up locating the remains of both children on Daybell’s property on that date.
During a preliminary hearing against Chad Daybell on charges of conspiring to destroy, alter or conceal evidence on Tuesday, prosecutors in neighboring Fremont County, Idaho, introduced a recording of that phone call into evidence. The recording was played in open court, marking the second time prosecutors had made public a phone call recording in as many days.
During the first day of the hearing, prosecutors also played a recording of a phone call between Chad and Lori Daybell and their friend, Melanie Gibb, from Dec. 8, 2019.
KSL NewsRadio has processed the recording of the June 9, 2020 call that was introduced in court to improve intelligibility. However, due to the low quality of the original recording and the acoustics of the courtroom, portions of the recording are difficult to understand.
A transcript of the June 9, 2020, call follows:
Operator
“A call from [unintelligible].”
Lori Daybell
“Lori.”
Operator
“An inmate at the Madison County Jail. This call is subject to recording and monitoring. If you do not wish to talk, hang up now. Thank you for using Telmate.”
Lori Daybell
“Hi, babe.”
Chad Daybell
“Hello.”
Lori Daybell
“Are you okay?”
Chad Daybell
“No, they’re searching the property.”
Lori Daybell
“The house right now?”
Chad Daybell
“Yeah, yeah. [Unintelligible, possibly ‘not the house.’] So Mark Means [Lori Daybell’s attorney] will be talking to you.”
Lori Daybell
“Okay. What, are they in the house?”
Chad Daybell
“No, they’re out in the property.”
Lori Daybell
“Are they seizing stuff again?”
Chad Daybell
“They’re searching. There’s a search warrant and so [unintelligible] with the kids.”
Lori Daybell
“Okay.”
Chad Daybell
“So yeah, saw you’d tried to pull up a, a call. I’m glad you called.”
Lori Daybell
“Yeah.”
Chad Daybell
“So, we’ll see what transpires.”
Lori Daybell
“‘Kay.”
Chad Daybell
“[Unintelligible]”
Lori Daybell
“What do you want me to do? Pray?”
Chad Daybell
“What?”
Lori Daybell
“What do you want me to–”
Chad Daybell
“No, [talking over Lori] I’m sorry. ”
Lori Daybell
“[Laughs]”
Chad Daybell
“Well, [unintelligible]”
Lori Daybell
“Mmmkay. What can I do for you?”
Chad Daybell
“I’m [unintelligible] pretty calm. I would call Mark, though. We need, can you just talk with him?”
Lori Daybell
“Have you talked to him already?”
Chad Daybell
“[Unintelligible, possibly ‘I’ve tried to call him since.’]”
Lori Daybell
“So he knows what they’re doing?”
Chad Daybell
“Yeah. Looks like I’ve, a call from somebody else who I need to talk to, honey. I love you so much.”
Lori Daybell
“Okay. I love you. Should I try to call you later?”
Chad Daybell
“Umm, I don’t know. I, I don’t know. Uh, you can try, yeah. I’ll answer if I can.”
Lori Daybell
“Okay.”
Chad Daybell
“I love you and we’ll talk soon.”
Lori Daybell
“Okay, baby, I love you.”
Chad Daybell
“Okay. Love you. Goodbye.”