GILBERT, Ariz. — Newly released police body camera footage and 911 calls outline how Charles Vallow, Lori Vallow Daybell’s former husband, pleaded with officers to get his wife help.
Footage from the morning of Jan. 31, 2019, shows Vallow talking with Gilbert Police officers outside a hotel about how his wife lost touch with reality. She was expressing strange beliefs and telling people she knew when the Second Coming of Jesus Christ would be happening.
“I tried to support her as much as I could, but it’s gotten really bad lately,” Vallow told officers. “She’s had a break. Says I’m Nick Schneider, I’ve taken over Charles’ body and Charles had been killed.”
It’s unknown who Schneider is, but Vallow says Daybell wants him dead, a story he told officers hours earlier after arriving home from a business trip.
“I never thought she would do anything like this, but she’s just lost touch with reality,” Vallow said. “She’s unhinged. It scares the crap out of me.”
Vallow told police in the earlier exchange that Daybell considered herself a translated being and a God who spoke with an ancient prophet and Jesus Christ daily. He said her strange religious views were several years in the making but became increasingly worse.
Vallow said Daybell told him, “I can murder you now with my powers.”
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Since meeting with police that night, Vallow said he found Daybell’s car at the parking lot of a school where she dropped of their son Joshua “JJ” Vallow. While there, Vallow said he took Daybell’s keys, phone and wallet.
Vallow said a hotel key in her wallet helped him find her and he wanted to get Daybell picked up on a court order for her to receive a mental health examination.
An officer told Vallow they could not go into the hotel and check on Daybell if employees did not want them to. She said a sergeant with proper paperwork would need to come to the hotel and have Daybell admitted for a psychological evaluation.
“I don’t want her hurt. I don’t want her to hurt anyone else,” Vallow said. “Her religious stuff has gone way off the deep end.”
Police tell Vallow his main focus should be on the safety of JJ.
“If you don’t feel comfortable with her state of mind, then maybe figure out a way to keep him safe even if that means not being at school,” an officer tells Vallow.
The officer advises Vallow to not take JJ out of state too long and reminds him there are two sides to every story.
Later in the day, Daybell, Tylee and their friend, Melanie Gibb, visit the Gilbert Police Department to file a report against Vallow. Daybell corroborates that Vallow took her phone, keys and wallet and she says she just wants her property back.
“During my contact with Lori, I found her to be in a normal state of mind but only slightly upset she did not have her property,” a Gilbert officer wrote in a police report. “Lori showed no signs of mental distress as she described what was occurring and appeared to be in a good mood. Talking with Lori`s daughter and friend, they did not seem concerned for anything other than Lori getting her property back.”
Daybell agreed to go to the Community Bridges mental health facility on her own. Due to her apparent normal state of mind, the officer felt it best to not take her involuntarily as the order allowed, according to the report.
Community Bridges medically cleared Vallow later that day.
In the months following, Lori’s brother, Alex Cox, shot and killed Vallow at a home in Chandler, Arizona, on July 11. In August, Lori took her family to live in Rexburg. By the end of September, Joshua and Tylee had vanished.
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