BOISE, Idaho — Content warning: This story contains graphic language that may be disturbing to some readers.
When Samantha Gwilliam got the call that her sister Tammy Daybell was dead, Gwilliam was told she died in her sleep after a bout of coughing and vomiting in the middle of the night.
But that didn't make sense to Gwilliam. Her sister was healthy and active. She said she had a spiritual feeling that the situation didn't feel right.
"My sister was telling me something had happened to her," Gwilliam said.
Tammy Daybell is described by her sister as an animal lover who cared deeply for her family. She was a librarian and computer lab teacher in the Sugar-Salem School District.
"Animals were drawn to her... She loved people, she loved taking care of them. She loved her grandkids," Gwilliam said through tears.
Tammy Daybell died the year before her 50th birthday, Gwilliam said, and she remembered planning the celebration with her sister. The two were close -- they talked every day and saw each other often when they lived in Utah.
Tammy Daybell's cause of death was originally ruled as a pulmonary edema from "natural causes" -- but when her body was exhumed for further investigation in December 2019, the medical examiner determined this wasn't the case, according to the Fremont County coroner.
Tammy Daybell was murdered, and someone had asphyxiated her.
Chad Daybell, Tammy Daybell's husband, is charged with her murder. Lori Vallow Daybell, who is Chad Daybell's most recent wife, is charged with conspiracy to commit murder in her death. The Daybell couple is also charged with murder and conspiracy in the death of Lori Vallow's children, JJ Vallow and Tylee Ryan.
On Oct. 19, 2019, a 911 call came through to Christina West, a Fremont County dispatcher. The call was from the Daybell residence at the 200 block of 1900 East in Salem, Idaho. West testified to this call in the murder trial of Lori Vallow on Friday.
Garth Daybell, the son of Tammy and Chad Daybell, tells West over the phone that they found his mom.
"She's on the ground frozen... Stiff... I don't know," he said.
Chad Daybell then took over the phone, identifying himself as Tammy Daybell's husband.
"She's clearly dead," Chad Daybell said. "Oh my... Oh man."
Wailing and crying is heard in the background of the call. West replied she is sending law enforcement and medical personnel to the home.
"I'm so sorry," West said.
Brenda Dye, the Fremont County coroner, and Cammy Willmore, the Fremont County deputy coroner, arrived at the Daybell residence within an hour of each other early that morning between 6-7 a.m.
Willmore said she went to the bedroom where Tammy Daybell's body was and found her on the bed. Evidence photos show she was wrapped up in a blue comforter laying sideways on the bed, with red and pink foam leaking from her mouth and running down her cheek. The coroner later determined Tammy Daybell was dead sometime around 12-2 a.m.
"The first thing that stuck with me was the foam coming out of her mouth, quite a bit of foam... That was odd," Willmore said on the witness stand.
Rexburg Police Officer Alyssa Greenhalgh also responded to the call, and she testified that she questioned Chad Daybell about what happened that morning.
"He had told me she woke up in a coughing fit, vomited in the bathroom... He went into the bathroom to help her clean up, and got her back to bed. He said about 5:40 a.m... The covers fell off the bed... He said he got up, turned on the lights... She had partially fallen off the bed," Greenhalgh said.
She was told Chad Daybell and his son Garth Daybell moved the body back to the bed and covered it up with blankets.
Dye also questioned Chad Daybell -- she said he was "distraught" but told her his wife was "feeling off" and having some type of convulsions, fainting spells and seizures when it was brought up. Dye asked Chad Daybell how Tammy Daybell could have fallen off the bed if she was already dead.
Dye said he told her he "must've pulled the top sheet in his sleep, releasing her" because she liked to sleep on the edge of the bed.
No one in the family wanted an autopsy, Dye said, including Chad Daybell.
There was no funeral in Idaho for Tammy Daybell, although her family held a service in Utah, where she is currently buried.
Gwilliam said the family learned -- one month to the day of Tammy Daybell's burial -- that Chad Daybell had married Lori Vallow.
She was completely devastated, she said.
"You don’t get married four weeks after you just buried your wife of almost 30 years," Gwilliam said.
Gwilliam said Tammy Daybell's parents didn't know Chad Daybell had gotten married -- "He wouldn't even tell my parents he had gotten remarried. He made his daughter call my mom," she told the jury.
So who was Chad Daybell's new wife? According to him, Gwilliam said "she had a hard life" and the two bonded from grieving a spouse. He told Gwilliam her name was Lori Ryan, she said.
Gwilliam took to the internet, searching Lori Ryan's name. The search results included stories on Charles Vallow, her former husband, when he was shot in Arizona by Alex Cox. She also found stories about the missing children, JJ Vallow and Tylee Ryan, which stood out to her.
Once police got involved in investigating more about Tammy Daybell's death, Gwilliam called up Chad Daybell and told him to "stop lying" to her.
She asked if the two were going to raise any children together. Gwilliam said his response was the couple were "going to be empty nesters."
Tylee Ryan and JJ Vallow were later found buried on Chad Daybell's property on June 9, 2020. Tylee Ryan experienced some sort of trauma with a bladed tool. Her body was covered in gasoline and burned. JJ Vallow was discovered bound in duct tape with a plastic bag over his head, his body lying in black plastic bags.
Charles Vallow, Lori Vallow's former husband who was shot and killed, tried to warn Tammy Daybell about the affair he discovered his wife having with Chad Daybell. He emailed his entire family and even emailed Tammy Daybell at work -- but the technology director for the Sugar-Salem School District said he observed the email and it was clear Tammy Daybell had blocked Charles Vallow and deleted the email about the affair.
Gwilliam said her sister never seemed suspicious about an affair. Things between her and Chad Daybell seemed off for a bit, but her sister was a close confidant to Gwilliam -- and never brought it up.
Even so, Tammy Daybell was healthy before her death, her friends testified on Friday. They took workout classes with her and she never fell behind, seemed exhausted or sick, even in the weeks before she died suddenly.
Shannan Miller, who also worked in the Sugar-Salem School District, said the day Tammy Daybell died, she seemed happy.
"Friday I see her at school -- things are great. The next morning, I hear she passed," Miller said. "There was going to be no funeral. People at my school wanted to honor her. The community wanted to honor her."
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