Chad Daybell had massive bonfires on his Idaho property last fall — in the same area where the remains of his two stepchildren were found, his neighbor said Thursday.
Matthew Price, who lives across the street from Daybell in Rexburg, recalled Daybell’s strange behavior last year just before Daybell’s wife Tammy Daybell died and after stepkids Joshua “JJ” Vallow and Tylee Ryan went missing.
“We noticed they were having a few bonfires that were kind of out of the ordinary,” Price told Fox 13. “They had a big bonfire last fall, and they had two or three big bonfires this spring.”
The fires were in the same spot where investigators used a backhoe this week to dig into the ground, where it appears the children’s remains were found, Price said.
Joshua, 7, and his sister Tylee, 17, were last seen in September. Tammy died in October.
Daybell and his wife Lori Vallow, the mom of the two kids, have been under investigation since.
Price said he noticed something was off about Daybell’s behavior when Daybell and Vallow knocked on his door to buy pumpkins — a week before Tammy’s death.
“He was strange, he was different,” Price said. “He didn’t talk a lot, didn’t make eye contact with us very much. Normally he would.”
The couple, who were involved in a doomsday cult called Preparing a People, fled from Idaho to Hawaii in November after authorities tried to do a welfare check on the children.
Vallow was arrested in February on child desertion charges. Price said Daybell returned home around that time but rarely left the house, only at night.
Daybell, who has five of his own children, was arrested Tuesday and charged with two counts of destruction, alteration or concealment of evidence after authorities dug up the remains on his property.
They were positively identified as those of Joshua and Tylee.
Daybell and Vallow are being held on $1 million bail each in separate jails.
