Lori Vallow Daybell's Sister Testifies, Jurors Hear Phone Call About Kids: 'You Threw Them Away Like Garbage' (2024)

Content warning: This story contains disturbing details.

The older sister of Lori Vallow Daybell — the Idaho mother accused of murdering her two children and conspiring to murder her fifth husband's first wife — took the stand today in Boise, Idaho during her sister's ongoing murder trial.

Summer Cox Shiflet wiped tears from her face as she testified, East Idaho News reports.

Shiflet said she spoke to her sister in February 2020 after Lori's children, Joshua "J.J." Vallow, 7, and Tylee Ryan, 16, were reported missing in late 2019.

"I don't remember the exact wording, but she basically told me she knew where they were and they were safe," Shiflet said on the stand, East Idaho News reports.

An emotional call between the sisters was then played for the jury.

"You went off to Hawaii and were dancing on the beach as the kids were in the ground," Shiflet yells at Lori during the call, according to East Idaho News. "You had to know they were there! I don't understand! They were just little kids! I don't understand!"

On June 9, 2020, the remains of Lori's children were found buried on the Idaho property of Chad Daybell, who married Lori in November 2019.

"Lori if you let this happen to them and put them in the ground like a piece of trash, I don't know you..." Shiflet adds on the call. "We would have taken them!"

When Shiflet asks Lori on the call to tell her the truth about the deaths of J.J. and Tylee, Lori responds: "I would love to."

Lori asks later in the call, "You don't think I'm in pain?"

"No I don't," Shiflet responds. "You were dancing on the beach having a great time! You got wedding pictures while your kids are in the ground?"

"I am telling you, because I love you with all my heart, please consider that Chad has lied and been [deceitful] and you have been deceived and this is not what you think it is, Shiflet says on the call. "There is nothing OK about killing children. Nothing."

"And even if you didn't kill them and Alex didn't kill them and Chad didn't kill them, you threw them away like garbage! In a pet cemetery."

"They were innocent and they were loved," Shiflet says before the call ends.

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Shortly after the remains of J.J. and Tylee were found, Shiflet spoke out and said that she "was wrong" to support her sister.

"Words are hard and inadequate," Shiflet wrote on her Facebook page on June 22, 2020. "Trying to type through this pain is difficult. The last few months have been hard. The last week has been excruciating. Losing our precious Tylee and JJ in this horrific way is more than we can bear."

Shiflet said she prayed for the authorities who found the children's remains and that she prayed for J.J.'s grandparents, Larry and Kay Woodco*ck, who called authorities in Rexburg, Idaho, in November 2019 and asked them to conduct a welfare check on the children. When authorities did, it was discovered that the children hadn't been seen since September of that year.

"We have prayed for the truth to come to light, but we never thought it would look like this," Shiflet continued later in the post. "Believe me when I say, this has looked very different from my perspective than what the public has seen. It's easy to jump on a bandwagon when you don't personally know all the people involved. When you have been up close and personal, you can't discount your own interactions, and just go by what everyone else says and thinks."

"I know there are people waiting for me to admit I was wrong. If that's all you want to know… here it is… I was wrong. I am an extremely imperfect person that loves my family with all my heart, and I wanted to believe the best in them, and I held out hope for the best possible outcome."

During Lori's trial on April 11, Rexburg, Idaho, police detective Ray Hermosillo revealed chilling details about the day he found the remains of J.J. and Tylee on an Idaho property belonging to Chad Daybell, who married Lori on Nov. 5, 2019 in Hawaii.

"A few of us got on our hands and knees and began digging around this moist section of dirt," Hermosillo testified, adding that investigators began to smell a decomposing body.

"We eventually uncovered bits and pieces of Tylee — whom we assumed it was Tylee — that had been burned. There were pieces of bone, charred flesh, just globs of flesh that were falling apart," Hermosillo continued.

Tylee had been dismembered and burned; J.J. was wrapped in plastic and bound by duct tape.

On Oct. 19, 2019, Chad reported the death of his first wife Tammy, saying she had gone to bed with a cough and didn't wake up. The manner of death was initially ruled as "natural causes," and no autopsy was done. However, Tammy's death was later deemed "suspicious."

In December of that same year, Tammy's body was exhumed for an autopsy to be conducted. During opening statements, Fremont County Prosecuting Attorney Lindsey Blake revealed that Tammy died from asphyxiation.

Chad is also charged in connection with the deaths of J.J., Tylee and Tammy and has pleaded not guilty. He will be tried at a separate time.

If you suspect child abuse, call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child or 1-800-422-4453, or go to www.childhelp.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.

* With reporting by Christine Pelisek in Boise, Idaho