I considered that, too. It almost seems like a setup, like maybe Lori rolled on Chad, and she agreed to call him at that exact moment. I don't know their jail-call rules, but it seems like a strange coincidence. Chad also seemed to sense something a bit wrong with it, which may be why he didn't say much.
It would explain Prior's attitude of seeming to throw Lori under the bus. Perhaps, Lori threw Chad under the bus first.
JMOO of course.
If that were true, Lori would have had to know, as would LE with whom she spoke, at what time approximately they would uncover at least one of the bodies. She would have had to know precisely how long it would take for initial entry, establishing sites of interest, and early excavation of "Burial Site 1" to find the human remains which all happened before 11:00. MOO: She didn't know because LE and FBI didn't know.
Maybe Lori was calling Chad at the same hour every day. The call started at 11:03am.
This is possible. It is also possible that Chad attempted to call her, or asked Means to have her call.
Someone correct me if I'm wrong but I don't believe they've been allowed to speak to each other since Chad was arrested. MOO.
I agree with this.
Transcript of Lori Daybell's call to Chad Daybell on day of children's discovery. This transcript is more along the lines of what I hear when I listen to the call between CD and LV as they were discovering the bodies of the children. He says no to prayer. I wonder how long between the hang up and him bolting?
He left the house some time between the call 11:03 call (ended 11:06-ish
Transcript of Lori Daybell's call to Chad Daybell on day of children's discovery) and being arrested 1.7 miles down the road outside of the roadblock toward Rexburg but still in Salem just before 11:30 (
Chad Daybell arrested, booked into jail | East Idaho News).
I'm sorry to prolong the raccoon controversy, but I thought I'd add my thoughts on it. MOO, but the raccoon was just an attempt at a believable cover story to explain to Tammy why there was disturbed ground. I've read a lot of people, in a lot of places, questioning why one would shoot a raccoon that was just walking around in the day, but:
1) there's a common perception that only sick/rabid raccoons come out during the day, as they are primarily nocturnal animals (really, though, there can be other reasons that they might be out during daylight), and
2) raccoons can be major pests on a farm or homestead or anywhere, really. Tammy had ducks. Raccoons can harass or kill ducks, or steal their eggs or eat their feed.
I can imagine that maybe Chad and Tammy had previously had the "ugh, raccoons are getting in the duck coop" conversation before, and thus, this text message both proves him heroic to his duck-keeping wife and provides an explanation for a grave-like area in the pet cemetery. And yes, if my husband shot a raccoon on our farm, he'd probably haul it out to the woods to decay. BUT, if he shot a raccoon on the Daybells' 4 acres, what else do you do with a dead critter to keep other critters from flocking to the carcass, but bury it?
All MOO and no, it still doesn't explain why Prior was so fixated on this fictional trash panda.
It's a flawed theory he's trying to promote. See below.
LOL, fictional trash panda. I prefer miracle raccoon.
I think that Prior's point was Chad wasn't lying in his text to Tammy concerning the raccoon, i.e., killing one and burying it in the gigantic pet cemetery.
I agree. I think Prior was trying to prove CD didn't lie about the raccoon being buried on the property. I have no doubt a raccoon may still buried on the property because of a prior (no pun intended) claim that CD shot one out of a tree.
The defense argument implies the intent of the June 9-10 search was to find the children's bodies under the assumption that CD lied about the raccoon, and the argument attempts to exonerate CD by:
if TR was buried there and a raccoon is also buried on the property then AC concealed the remains of TR on his own. His argument seemed to be that: as no raccoon was found, LE will say CD lied to cover his own involvement in the activities. So if CD didn't lie about shooting and burying the raccoon, it should still be in the ground, and LE didn't even look for it. It is an argument that there exists a witch hunt or CD was framed. The argument implies that someone, possibly AC, could have planted the remains of the children there to frame CD. Such argument negates the fact that if there is a raccoon still buried there it could be from the previous (July 2019) account where CD shot one from out of a tree. Whether said raccoon carcass still exists (from July 2019) and even if a second one exists to prove CD buried it on 9/9/2019, it doesn't matter.
That argument will fail. Human remains belonging to JJ and TR were buried on CD's property. TR was last seen on 9/8/2019. AC was on the property on 9/9/2019. The reason that the validity and location of any alleged raccoon carcass doesn't matter is that the day and time CD
claimed to have buried it was the same day and time that the phone pings for the device belonging to AC was also on the property in the same vicinity for a substantial length of time (with ping resolution of appx. 4 meters). Prior will have a very hard time convincing a jury that two men just happened to be working in the yard burning limb debris and burying a raccoon in close proximity (if even greater than 4 meters apart or even 15 meters) of each other without the knowledge of what the other was doing. Have you seen the property? There is one tree by the pond area, and another 80 feet from the pet cemetery, the rest of the property was relatively free of vegetation that could obscure the activities of the two men.
Lets review the facts:
AC's device on the property for 2.5 hours ending at 11:39 a.m. Testimony from LE was that the pings were accurate to 4 meters (13 feet).
CD said he burned limb debris, shot a raccoon, and buried it the "pet cemetery" and completed the task by 11:53 a.m. such that 3 minutes later he needed a shower ostensibly because of the labor involved in the yard work.
The "pet cemetery" is noted by the location of a ceramic dog statue, placed in memory of a dog that is buried nearby.
Satellite imagery shows the 4' x 3' area of disturbed ground very near the location of the known "pet cemetery".
Testimony during the preliminary hearing was that the hole wherein the green bucket and remains was found was approximately 2 feet deep.
Such fanciful argument is an attempt to convince a jury that AC snuck TR's remains onsite, burned/dismembered her onsite, dug a 4' x 3' wide hole 2-3 feet deep or assisted CD in digging it, placed said remains into a 2' - 3' deep hole in the open area by the "pet cemetery", covered the remains with bricks, placed a dead dog and cat nearly over the remains, and filled in the hole all while CD didn't know AC was there while he himself was elsewhere on the property but near enough to still be considered within the area of the pet cemetery so he wasn't lying to his wife.
OR
If CD knew AC was there and assisting with the burning and digging, AC was quick enough to burn/dismember and bury TR's remains without CD knowing or consenting. Right. Maybe if while AC was assisting CD with the yard work, random
miracle raccoon appears just in time for CD to get distracted, shoot it, and bury it
elsewhere on the property so he's too far away to see what AC is doing. While CD is doing that, AC sneaks TR's remains into the fire and subsequently the ground.
Either way if the miracle raccoon exists, CD lied about burying the raccoon in the "pet cemetery" as it wasn't in the "pet cemetery". He lied about "I've had an interesting morning. I...I...I" when in fact it should have been "We've had...we" or "Alex and I've had..." and explain who Alex is...without acknowledging Lori to Tammy.
OR (even less likely)
AC planted his phone on CD's body before CD went about burning debris, shooting the miracle raccoon, burying it in the pet cemetery and texting TD at 11:53, while AC snuck in, burned and buried TR's remains and removed the raccoon and stole back the phone
all without CD seeing, took it to Del Taco and then on to his own home.
There's no way AC was there without CD knowing/consenting. CD's admission of the "limbs" and raccoon in the pet cemetery and AC's phone pings are the perfect combination for
at least conspiracy of felony concealment.
That doesn't even consider the issue of JJ in "Burial Site 1" on September 23rd. If CD wasn't involved, AC was at CD's for twenty minutes and was able to without any assistance from CD dig a four foot hole deep enough to bury a seven-year-old, cover with paneling and stones and bury the hole...
in twenty minutes. Forget doing so without assistance. Forget doing so without consent. If that's what happened, AC is the fastest hole-digger I've ever heard of. He should have hired himself out as a digger in Sugar City,
Home of the Diggers (Sugar Beet diggers that is). Salem is notoriously rocky soil. It's a high-sub water river valley with more rocks than fertile dirt. There's no one who can dig a hole that big and that deep in that pasture, bury a child and cover it all within 20 minutes–without some assistance.
