Chad Daybell’s home near Rexburg has been demolished

SALEM, Idaho (eastidahonews.com) — Chad Daybell’s former home and the outbuildings on his Fremont County property were demolished Friday.

SJ Healing Crossroads, a local nonprofit organization, took ownership of the 3.75-acre lot at 202 North 1900 East last month. Plans to remove the house, a shed and other buildings on the property were immediately put in place.

The demolition was completed by companies that volunteered their time and equipment including Taylor Excavation, Tupper Excavating, Depatco, Anderson Earthworks, Double JJ DirtWorks, Tupco, POCONO Coast West, and Chad Ball Construction.

Crews began removing the outbuildings around 7:30 a.m. By 10:30 a.m., excavators and backhoes were tearing down the four-bedroom, one-bathroom house and everything was complete by 4 p.m. A tree was also removed near the spot where Joshua “JJ” Vallow’s body was found.

‘That’s probably the hardest thing to think about that we have to deal with, and Dusty and I were thinking about it earlier that those kids didn’t have a choice, and their lives were taken from them, and they didn’t have say,” Colton Andersen with Andersen Earthworks told KSL TV.

Dozens of truckloads full of debris were taken to the landfill as neighbors and others gathered to watch the demolition.

“I’m just out here seeing it through to the end,” Rexburg Police Lt. Ray Hermosillo told EastIdahoNews.com. “It is a different feeling today than it was June 9 and 10 for sure. It feels a lot more peaceful than it did that day.”

Hermosillo was one of many law enforcement officers from multiple agencies who discovered the remains of Tylee Ryan and JJ Vallow buried on the property in June 2020. Daybell was arrested and charged with their murders, along with the murder of his former wife Tammy Daybell. She died inside the house in October 2019.

Daybell’s attorney, John Prior, took possession of the home in 2021. Daybell’s children continued to live in the house but after he was sentenced to death in June, Prior listed the property for $350,000. A local couple, who wants to remain anonymous, created SJ Healing Crossroads and purchased the lot.

“When you drive by the house, you can’t help but think about the tragedy that happened here. Now seeing it anymore will help people close those memories and start the healing process,” Hermosillo said.

Matt and Heather Daybell, Chad Daybell’s brother and sister-in-law, stopped to watch some of the demolition. Other family members of the victims were consulted before the project began and many in other states watched a livestream video of the house coming down.

SJ Healing Crossroads has not announced plans for the property going forward but says the goal is to turn it into a “positive place where such a tragedy occurred.”

“A feeling of somberness with this, it comes up because we watched it all happen throughout everything and now we’re here trying to, not that it’s going to erase the things that happened, but hopefully it will smooth some things out for some people,” Justin Tupper with Tupper Excavation told KSL TV.

Daybell is on death row at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution in Kuna. His wife, Lori Vallow Daybell, was sentenced to life in prison for the murders of JJ and Tylee. She is in Arizona awaiting trial on charges of conspiracy to murder her fourth husband, Charles Vallow, and former nephew-in-law, Brandon Boudreaux.

Contributing: Garna Mejia, KSL TV