Idaho court hears Chad Daybell’s chilling 911 call for late wife

The cult leader/novelist husband of “Doomsday Mom” Lori Vallow Daybell referred to his first wife as “clearly dead” and “frozen” in an eerie 911 call played in court Friday morning.

Vallow Daybell, 49, is on trial in Idaho for the murders of her children Tylee Ryan, 16, and Joshua “J.J.” Vallow, 7 — and for conspiring to kill husband Chad Daybell’s wife, Tammy, who was found dead Oct. 19, 2019.

Chad Daybell had also been charged in connection with the three deaths and will stand trial at a later date.

On Friday, emergency dispatcher Christina West testified in Ada County Court that she answered the 911 call from the Daybells’ Salem home on the morning of Tammy’s death, the East Idaho News reported.

“I’m Chad, the husband. She’s clearly dead,” Chad, 54, can be heard telling West in the audio recording played for the court.

“She’s frozen,” he continued through tears.

The upsetting call was initially placed by Tammy and Chad’s son, who told West he had just found his mom “on the ground frozen.”

“Or she’s stiff…I don’t know,” the son said.

Chad, an apocalyptic novelist, then took the phone from his son to give the dispatcher his address.

Officer Alyssa Greenhalgh testified Friday that Chad was “distraught” when officers arrived at the home — and brought the first responders to the couple’s bedroom, where he said he had moved Tammy, 49, back onto the bed after she apparently fell off.

The sobbing husband was quick to tell authorities that Tammy woke up coughing and vomiting at midnight that night, Greenhalgh said. He claimed she partially fell off the mattress, with her torso and head on the ground, around 5:45 a.m.

Chad also insisted his wife of nearly three decades was wary of doctors, despite having a history of blood pressure issues.

Vallow Daybell sat with her arms crossed as the courtroom viewed pictures of Tammy with pink foam around her mouth, the East Idaho News said.

Fremont County coroner Brenda Dye later explained to the jury that Tammy’s death was initially attributed to natural causes after Chad and the couple’s daughter, Emma, declined an autopsy.

Tammy was buried on Oct. 22, 2019 – the same day Vallow Daybell, who was then Chad’s lover and close doomsday cult follower, looked up wedding dresses online.

Within a few weeks of Tammy’s sudden death, Chad and Vallow Daybell were married in Hawaii.

Tammy’s sister, Samantha Gwilliam, told the court her family was devastated by her brother-in-law’s callousness following of Tammy’s passing, KTVB reported.

“You don’t get married four weeks after you just buried your wife of almost 30 years,” she insisted.

“[Chad] wouldn’t even tell my parents he had gotten remarried. He made his daughter call my mom.”

In December 2019, an autopsy on Tammy’s remains ruled her death a homicide by asphyxiation.

Prosecutors now claim Vallow Daybell and Chad plotted to kill his wife in the weeks after they allegedly killed Vallow Daybell’s two children and buried their remains on his property.

Earlier this week, the courtroom heard gruesome descriptions of how J.J. and Tylee were slain, including grisly details of “carnivore activity” on the back of Tylee’s legs.

Onlookers also learned that J.J. – who was on the autism spectrum – was asphyxiated with a plastic bag and duct tape.

On Thursday, Tara Martinez, a forensic scientist with the Idaho State Police, testified fingerprints belonging to Vallow Daybell’s brother, Alex Cox, were found on the plastic bag containing J.J. ‘s remains, NewsNation said.

“For a long time, many of us had suspected that Alex did in fact have something to do, at least, with the hiding of these bodies. Whether or not he was actually the perpetrator, no one will ever know,” forensics expert Joseph Scott Morgan clarified to “Elizabeth Vargas Reports.”

Cox – who died in December 2019 – shot and killed Vallow Daybell’s husband Charles Vallow in July of that year, shortly before Tylee and J.J. went missing. He claimed self-defense, and police did not pursue the case at the time.

Due to DNA evidence being found too late to submit as evidence, Vallow Daybell is not facing the death penalty. She pleaded not guilty to all three charges.