Episode Details

Day twenty-six of Chad Daybell’s trial marked the beginning of the defense case, with Daybell’s children taking the stand to challenge the prosecution’s portrayal of Tammy Daybell as healthy before her death. Emma Murray testified that Tammy had been increasingly tired, suffered from medical problems including what Emma described as anemia and sleep apnea, bruised easily and sometimes struggled with physical activity. She also said Tammy had voluntarily increased her life-insurance coverage through a workplace program and insisted that Chad had appeared genuinely devastated after Tammy died. Under cross-examination, however, prosecutors confronted Emma with the absence of anemia and sleep-apnea diagnoses in Tammy’s medical records and reminded jurors that Tammy had remained active, participated in exercise classes and competed in Fitbit challenges. Emma also acknowledged that Chad had taught her about “castings,” that he told her JJ and Tylee were in a “safe place” after they disappeared, and that both children were ultimately found buried on his property. Prosecutors then replayed the June 9, 2020 patrol-car conversation in which Chad, after the bodies were discovered, discussed bank accounts, approximately $9,000 in cash, payments for Lori’s commissary account and other financial arrangements before telling Emma, “I’m not coming back.”

Chad’s son Garth Daybell then testified that Tammy had become easily exhausted before her death and had experienced what he described as fainting spells. He said that on the night she died, he returned home around 1 a.m., saw what appeared to be both of his parents lying in bed as he passed their room and later awoke after hearing a thump and Chad calling for help. Garth said he found Tammy partially out of bed, cold, stiff and gray, and insisted he had heard no struggle during the night. He also accused investigators and prosecutors of pressuring him to change his account, saying he had been questioned for hours and later summoned before a second grand jury where he believed he was being threatened with possible perjury charges; he was never charged. Emma’s husband, Joseph Murray, finished the day by testifying that Tammy appeared exhausted and was coughing heavily on the evening before her death, while also discussing raccoon problems around the property and access routes near the areas where JJ and Tylee were later found. Day twenty-six therefore revealed the defense strategy clearly: portray Tammy as legitimately ill, Chad as a grieving husband and law enforcement as overly aggressive, while prosecutors used the family’s own testimony to highlight contradictions, missing medical documentation and Chad’s behavior once the children’s bodies were discovered.


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