Chad Daybell trial: Lori Vallow’s friend confronted with subpoena outside court in cult prophet case

FBI Tactical Specialist Nicole Heideman testified about her search of Daybell and Vallow’s online searches from October 2018 - 2020.

Heideman said that on 5 May 2019, Daybell searched for malachite ebay and malachite jewelry. She said Daybell and Vallow’s wedding bands were made of malachite. They were married less than three weeks after Tammy Daybell died.

At the point they were searching for malachite, Tammy was still alive.

Heideman testified that Daybell searched for “ssw wind” and “what is definition of ssw direction” on 8 September 2019.

She said this was important to the investigation because investigators believe that Tylee Ryan, 16, was killed, and that her remains were burned and buried on Daybell’s property the next day.

Other searches included “Ned Schiender” which Heideman said was an entity name for Charles Vallow, Lori Vallow’s fourth husband who said she had referred to him as that name, according to police reports. The name also showed up on her gmail account.

Another search of Daybell’s account revealed the word “hiplos” which Heideman said is another entity name for Charles Vallow, replacing Ned Schiender.

Daybell’s defence attorney is cross examining Heideman about his client’s google searches.

He asks why the searches don’t include Melanie Gibb or David Warwick.

Gibb and Warick were around on the day JJ Vallow died, as was Vallow’s late brother Alex Cox.

Heideman said she doesn’t write the search warrants.

Derfence attorney John Prior pointed out on cross with Heideman that Daybell sent text to his wife Tammy Daybell on 9 September, that he was going to “burn some limbs in the yard.”

This was a day after he searched the wind direction, Prior said.

Heideman had testified that Daybell searched for “ssw wind” and “what is definition of ssw direction” on 8 September 2019.

She said this was important to the investigation because investigators believe that Tylee Ryan, 16, was killed, and that her remains were burned and buried on Daybell’s property the next day.

Prior is going through Daybell’s searches and points out there were no searches on life insurance for children - which was found in Lori Vallow’s searches as presented to court.

He asks Heideman:

“There’s no email or search on ‘let’s kill two children’ is there?”

Heideman responds there is not.

The next witness to take the stand is Detective Nathan Duncan.

He was the Chandler, Arizona officer who investigated the shooting death of Charles Vallow.

This investigation led to Lori Vallow to be indicted on a charge of conspiracy to commit murder.

Detective Duncan is describing what he saw when he arrived at the Chandler home in response to the shooting of Charles Vallow on 11 July 2019.

Lori Vallow’s brother Alex Cox made the 911 call. He said he shot Charles in self-defence after Charles struck him with a baseball bat.

It was claimed that Alex Cox had done CPR on Charles.

But the detective testified that he did not see a lot of blood, and he says he would expect more more blood if CPR had been done as claimed.

Detective Duncan said indentation on floor indicated Charles Vallow was shot while lying on the ground.

Alex Cox told police he was standing in the southwest corner of the living room and that he and Charles Vallow were face to face with each other when he shot Charles twice while they were standing up.

However, Duncan testified says that as police were cleaning up the scene, he noticed an indentation in the floor that would have been consistent with Charles being shot while lying on the ground.

Detective Duncan testified that he had determined that Charles Vallow’s phone was the catalyst of an argument that happened between him and Lori Vallow on the day he was shot by Alex Cox in Chandler, Arizona.

Lori Vallow left with his phone after the shooting and later returned it to police who did an extraction.

Judge Steven Boyce dismissed the court for morning break.

Court will resume in 30 minutes.

Detective Duncan will return to the stand.