The missing kids of doomsday-obsessed mom Lori Vallow are “safe,” her husband has claimed — while failing to offer clues to help the monthslong search, according to a report.
Chad Daybell, 51, was filmed by ABC News as he left Hawaii after his 46-year-old wife agreed to be extradited to Idaho to face trial on two felony counts of child abandonment.
Vallow’s children — Joshua “JJ” Vallow, 7, and Tylee Ryan, 17 — have been missing since September, and police in Rexburg, Idaho, have said they fear their lives are in danger. She was arrested in Hawaii last month after failing to meet a deadline to hand them over to authorities.
“The kids are safe,” stepdad Daybell insisted to ABC.
However, Daybell failed to offer any evidence or clues to their whereabouts, leaving other worried relatives still relying on faith.
“I just think that we have to believe that they’re safe,” the children’s grandfather, Larry Woodcock, told the station.
Daybell and his wife had both been questioned by Rexburg police about the missing children in late November — but when detectives returned the next day, they discovered the couple had left town. Police accuse the couple of lying about the children’s whereabouts.
Daybell has not been arrested or charged in the case.
Vallow reportedly believes she is a “god assigned to carry out the work of the 144,000 at Christ’s second coming in July 2020,” according to divorce documents her late husband Charles Vallow filed before his death.
Daybell has written several apocalyptic novels based loosely on the theology of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Both he and Vallow have been involved in Preparing a People, a group that promotes preparing for the biblical end times.