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Lori Vallow trial: Testimony attempts to pinpoint when her kids died

  • The trial of Lori Vallow, accused of killing her two kids, continued Thursday
  • Her deceased son's principal and babysitter both testified 
  • The babysitter was hired in September 2019 — the month the kids went missing

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(NewsNation) — The former nanny of JJ Vallow, and the principal of an elementary school he briefly attended gave testimony at the murder trial of so-called Doomsday Mom Lori Vallow, who is accused of killing the 7-year-old and his teen sister, Tylee Ryan.

The testimony attempted to pinpoint exactly when the children died.

Both Tylee Ryan and JJ were last seen in September 2019. Later, their bodies were found buried in Chad Daybell’s yard.

On Thursday, a nanny for JJ testified that she was one of the last people likely to see JJ, and said the night when she was actually babysitting him, he was throwing a bit of a tantrum and that was really hard on Vallow.

Sidney Woodbury Schenk, 26, said Lori Vallow replied to her nanny listing, and the two later met in person in September of 2019 — the same month the kids went missing — to see if Schenk would be a good fit to watch JJ.

Schenk testified that Lori Vallow was “warm,” and greeted her with a hug. About her son, Lori Vallow said JJ “had some tendencies” and could get emotional and frustrated.

Lori Vallow, Schenk testified, mentioned Charles Vallow, JJ’s adoptive father, who recently died of a heart attack. JJ, Lori Vallow said, was struggling to understand it. While Lori Vallow did mention that she had a daughter who lived in the area, Shenk said Vallow claimed the girl was busy in college and didn’t want to babysit unless she was getting paid.

After Schenk was hired, she babysat JJ the next day while Lori Vallow went to the airport to pick up a friend. JJ got upset that day after fighting with a friend, Schenk said, but Lori Vallow was able to calm him down.

When Schenk left, she did so with the understanding that she had been hired to watch JJ full-time — but a few days later, the babysitter was told JJ had gone to his grandparents’ home for a few months. In response to a question from the defense, Schenk said while there wasn’t a specific employment timeline at the time, she had expected to be on the job for at least several months.

A month passed, and Schenk reached out about JJ’s whereabouts — but Lori Vallow never communicated with her again, and she never saw JJ after that.

Another witness, Josh Wilson, principal of Kennedy Elementary in Rexburg, Idaho, said JJ was enrolled at the school from Sept. 3, 2019 through Sept. 24, 2019. The last day JJ was physically present at the school, Wilson testified, was Friday, Sept. 20, 2019.

It was on Sept. 24, Wilson said, that Lori Vallow sent an email to the school indicating JJ was being sent to Louisiana to live with his grandparents. When he called Lori, Wilson said, he was informed that JJ would be homeschooled due to his special needs.

JJ being unenrolled in the school only three weeks after he started attending was surprising, Wilson said.

The principal said that he never actually got any records that JJ was enrolled at a different school, and that the whole thing just seemed bizarre to him.

Vallow reportedly has repeatedly said to many different people that her daughter Tylee Ryan was enrolled at BYU Idaho.

The Dean of Students from BYU Idaho was at the courthouse and said that law enforcement contacted him, but he had no record at all from his school that she ever actually enrolled.

There was more discussion in the second week of testimony regarding Vallow’s deceased ex-husband, Charles Vallow, who was shot and killed by her brother Alex Cox.

The jury was especially interested in hearing from a detective from Arizona, one of the first people to arrive at that crime scene, where Charles Vallow was shot and killed.

The investigator testified the evidence from that crime scene didn’t necessarily match up with what Cox told investigators.

Cox pleaded self-defense, saying that Charles Vallow actually attacked him with a baseball bat.

The investigator testified that when you actually looked at the bullet shells that came out from the gun, one of them was lodged underneath Charles Vallow’s body.

That suggested to the investigator that the second shot came when Charles Vallow was already on the ground, likely shooting from point-blank range.

In additional courtroom drama Thursday, witness David Warwick was reprimanded by Judge Steven Boyce.

Warwick is the husband of Melanie Gibb a former friend of Vallow’s and one of the last people known to have seen JJ Vallow alive. 

Right around lunchtime, Warwick attended court proceedings, having listened to his wife’s testimony last week from his home, saying he wanted to hear how his wife was doing. He was concerned about what she might have been saying.

He listened to her testimony for about 45 minutes.

Boyce stated that a future witness in the trial is not supposed to be listening to other people’s testimony because it might influence their own.

Warwick got some chastising from the judge about that. but ultimately the judge allowed him to move forward and actually testify.

The trial is expected to last for weeks.

This story is developing. Refresh for updates.

Lori Vallow

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