Wednesday morning testimony between Chad Daybell’s defense attorney John Prior and Fremont County Coroner Brenda Dye grew heated as the two argued about when Tammy Daybell died and what she died from.
It was the 10th day of the Chad Daybell murder trial in Ada County. Chad faces murder charges in the deaths of his first wife Tammy Daybell, and in the killings of J.J. Vallow, 7, and Tylee Ryan 16, the children of his current wife Lori Vallow-Daybell. He also faces life insurance fraud after allegedly accepting $430,000 in life insurance payouts following Tammy Daybell’s death. He married Vallow-Daybell just two weeks after Tammy’s death.
It was around 6 a.m., Oct 19, when Dye learned of Tammy Daybell’s “unattended” death. Dye then called Fremont County Deputy Coroner Cammy Wilmore who was about 10 minutes away from the Daybell home.
“Dispatch had called me a few times,” Dye said. “The husband (Chad) was very upset and crying. I had my deputy go and start the investigation before I showed up.”
Fremont County Deputy Prosecutor Rocky Wixom asked Dye what she noticed first about Tammy Daybell’s remains.
“I observed the blood-tinged sputum coming out of her mouth — kind of a pink foam,” Dye said. “She was wrapped in a blanket. I asked if that’s the position she was in when found. Chad told me she was hanging off the bed with her face off the bed on the left side. When he discovered her, she was deceased. He picked her up and covered her with a blanket.”
Dye noticed how cold Tammy’s body was, and that her stomach was also without warmth.
“The abdominal part of the stomach is the last (part of the body) to lose its warmth. If it loses warmth, they’ve been deceased for a while.”
Tammy’s body also showed signs of “lividity.” According to Sciencedirect.com, lividity “is the settling of blood in the lowest part of the body due to gravity,” and starts shortly after death. As blood is no longer being pumped throughout the body, it starts pressing on the skin leaving red or purple marks on the body.”
Chad insisted Tammy died shortly before he woke up, but Dye said Tammy must have been dead for several hours because her remains were so cold after Dye arrived.
Wixom asked Dye what lividity had to do with someone’s death.
“What, if anything, did that lividity tell you?” Wixom asked
“That she died on her back,” Dye said.
She also disagreed with Chad Daybell’s assessment of Tammy’s cause of death.
“He said he felt her body roll off the bed,” Dye said. “That’s what awakened him.”
Dye asked him how Tammy’s deceased body could roll out of bed.
“If someone’s dead, they can’t roll out of bed; they can’t move,” she said. “The lividity, the coldness — I asked him how that was possible. He said it may have been him pulling on the sheets. Tammy was going through menopause and had hot flashes, and she slept with her feet outside the covers.”
None of what Chad claimed made any sense, Dye said.
“Pulling on that sheet released her body? No,” she said. “It would take a lot of force to roll a body out of bed.”
Chad Daybell also claimed Tammy suffered from fainting spells, and had “felt outside her body — not normal.” Dye said. “He said she had extremely low blood pressure. Chad said (Tammy) had been having fainting spells on occasion. Kneeling at the alter in the Temple, she went to stand up and fainted.”
The Daybell children didn’t want to do an autopsy on Tammy, and Dye wouldn’t have ordered one if it hadn’t been for the concern she felt over Tammy’s lungs containing “a lot of foam”
Dye said she found Tammy’s organs to be healthy except for her lungs.
“There should not have been that foam in her lungs still. It was two months since she was exhumed, and an autopsy was done,” she said.
After Dye heard from the Arizona police who wanted to see her coroner records, she grew suspicious.
“There had been a death in Arizona, and Chad’s name had been brought up,” she said. “There was also a (murder) attempt. When I heard all those names with an investigation going on, it did change my mind.”
Tammy Daybell’s death had originally been attributed to natural causes, but following an autopsy, it was changed to “Asphyxiation by Suffocation.”
It took nearly a year before the Fremont County Sheriff’s office released Tammy’s cause of death as “asphyxiation by suffocation.”
Dye reported she’d received training in Boise and in Los Vegas for her work. Prior asked her what the primary function of her job was.
“We respond to unattended deaths,” she said. “We determine the cause of death. We make sure our decedent gets to the proper funeral home. I sign off on the death certificate.”
Unattended deaths involve someone who dies while not under a doctor’s care, Dye said.
“We look for weapons, medications,” she said. “We look for the family to give us information, health history for the decedent.”
Prior asked Dye if she had contacted any of Tammy’s family before the autopsy was performed, and she personally hadn’t.
“We were working with the FBI,” Dye said.
“At this point, you wanted her body dug up.” Prior said.
Prior asked Tammy’s clogging teacher Kelsie Harris if she thought Tammy was in good physical shape.
“Would you describe Tammy’s figure as the body of somebody who is very fit?” he asked.
“I would say, ‘she is a very fit woman.’ I would,” Harris said.
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