Keith Morrison discusses ‘incredibly sad’ developments in Daybell story, previews Monday’s Dateline

IDAHO FALLS — Dateline NBC will air a new program Monday night featuring the latest developments on the Daybell case and an interview with one of Chad and Lori Daybell’s closest friends.

This is third show Dateline has produced since February focused on the complicated story that took a sudden turn June 9 when the bodies of Joshua “JJ” Vallow and Tylee Ryan were found buried on Chad’s Salem property.

“This is such an incredibly sad story when you think about those children in the backyard – a place where the people living in the house would be going back and forth,” NBC News Correspondent Keith Morrison tells EastIdahoNews.com. “It’s hard to fathom how you could live with that right in your backyard.”

Chad was arrested on two felony counts of destruction, alteration or concealment of evidence. Lori is charged with desertion of children and three misdemeanors. Court documents unsealed Friday detail the gruesome manner in how the children were allegedly found.

“Her moment of unglueing, if I can put it that way, was when Lori and Chad called and asked her to lie for them,” Morrison says. “That’s when she understood this was all a sham. (Melanie says) Lori was like velcro. She took you in and didn’t let you go. She was such a remarkable embracing personality. I think that she certainly wanted to believe Lori and I think she went with what Chad and lori were telling each other as a number of other people did.”

The show also includes interviews with Lori’s friends, David Warwick and April Raymond, and EastIdahoNews.com reporters Nate Eaton and Eric Grossarth.

‘What Happened to JJ and Tylee’ airs Monday, June 22 at 9 p.m. MST on NBC.