New Daybell podcast explores theories of the case
Published at | Updated atREXBURG — A new podcast about the Daybell case was released Wednesday.
“The Followers: Madness of Two” dives into the twist and turns of Chad and Lori Daybell, their arrests and other aspects of the case that has garnered national attention. The five-part podcast, produced by USG Audio and Antica Productions, features never-before-heard interviews and the insights of EastIdahoNews.com Managing Editor Nate Sunderland.
“There are so many interesting aspects of this story and it seems almost endless,” Sarah Treleaven, host of “The Followers: Madness of Two,” told EastIdahoNews.com. “In my research, I kind of kept going down rabbit holes because there are so many tentacles of this story, and it involves so many players.”
Treleaven said the story captivated her attention when she read Lori was in Hawaii while her two kids were missing and she would not help find them.
“It just struck me as so profoundly off, so counter normative in terms of what we understand about how the world functions,” Treleaven said. “I kind of had this real sense of foreboding due to the doom of whatever was going on couldn’t be good.”
The bodies of Lori’s two children, 7-year-old Joshua “JJ” Vallow, 16-year-old Tylee Ryan, were eventually found buried in Chad Daybell’s backyard after they were brutally killed. Chad’s first wife, Tammy Daybell, also died. Chad and Lori Daybell are charged with multiple counts of conspiracy to commit murder and first-degree murder, among other crimes in relation to JJ, Tylee and Tammy’s deaths.
When producing “The Followers: Madness of Two,” Treleaven and other executive producers, Kathleen Goldhar and Katrina Onstad, wanted to look at the story in a new way.
“We’re really presenting theories of how something like this happens,” Treleaven said. “We’re trying to kind of take the black and white and put it back in the gray and look at how all these lives intersected – where the key turning points were, why people made the decisions they made and how these things that seem completely wild and completely irrational came to seem like rational choices for the people involved.”
Chad has pleaded not guilty to all charges while Lori’s case is on hold. In June, District Judge Steven Boyce committed her to the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare after a mental health professional found her not competent for trial.
‘The Followers: Madness of Two’ can be found on all podcast platforms. You can listen to the trailer below.