10 Feb 2020
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Owner of Dog Training Elite Neal Mestas said he knew the Vallows well. He met the family in December 2017 and said he helped train a Goldendoodle puppy to become a service dog for J.J., who has autism. The dog's name was Bailey.
"Sometimes kids with autism will wander off, they will get distracted. Bailey was there to keep him on task and alert the parents if he was wandering off," he said.
Bailey's biggest assignment was to help J.J. with sleep and anxiety.
"He would get up in the middle of the night and they had to have all the doors locked and everything secured so he wouldn’t wander off into the neighborhood," said Mestas. "One of the first nights that J.J. slept through the night and stayed in his bed was the first night that Bailey stayed there with him.”
In August, Mestas said Lori called him saying he needed to get Bailey and find him a new home. She told him her husband had passed away and they were moving to Idaho. Mestas said he thought it was odd that they'd get rid of the dog.
“The dog was for J.J., and I would think, especially after your dad has passed away, that’s when you’d really need that emotional support," said Mestas. A few days later, Mestas went to the Vallow's Gilbert home to pick up Bailey.
“When I got to the house, J.J. was in the backseat of the SUV with his tablet. She (Lori) was loading bags," he said.
"She asked me if I had found a home for Bailey and I said, 'No I hadn’t, I didn’t have time to do that.' She said, 'Well if my daughter asks just say that you have because she’s really upset about all of this.' 'I said, 'Okay' but the daughter never came out. I never saw if she was there.”
He said at the time, he had no idea Lori's husband
Charles Vallow had been shot to death. “It was hard to believe at first, very hard to believe," said Mestas.
Missing Idaho kids update: Gilbert dog trainer may have been last person to see missing kids in Arizona
