Peggy Jeppesen poses for a photo beside a memorial for Tylee Ryan and JJ Vallow, which she helped set up across the street from Chad Daybell’s property, where the two children’s remains were found, in Salem, Idaho on Wednesday, March 29, 2023.
Rexburg, Idaho is pictured late in the evening on Wednesday, March 29, 2023.
Chad Daybell’s property in Salem, Idaho is pictured late in the evening on Wednesday, March 29, 2023. In June 2020 the remains of JJ Vallow and Tylee Ryan, the children of Chad’s wife Lori Vallow, were found on the property.
Nate Eaton, co-founder of East Idaho News, poses for a photo in his office at the news outlet in Idaho Falls, Idaho on Wednesday, March 29, 2023. Eaton and his small shop of journalists pursued the case of the missing children doggedly, confronting Chad and Lori as they headed for the beach in Hawaii during the search for their kids.
Chad Daybell’s property, bottom, in Salem, Idaho is pictured on Thursday, March 30, 2023.
A sign that is part of a memorial to JJ Vallow, pictured at bottom, and Tylee Ryan bears the signatures of JJ’s grandparents, Kay and Larry Woodcock, who went by Paw Paw and Maw Maw to the children, on Wednesday, March 29, 2023.
Matt Nielson, chief finance officer for the City of Rexburg, Idaho, is pictured on Thursday, March 30, 2023.
Freshly fallen snow blankets a memorial to Tylee Ryan and JJ Vallow on a neighbor’s fence just across the street from Chad Daybell’s property, where the two children’s remains were found, in Salem, Idaho on Thursday, March 30, 2023.
Chris Tunnell, 47, pauses from shoveling his driveway on Thursday, March 30, 2023 at his home in Salem, Idaho, just down the street from Chad Daybell’s property.
An irrigation pivot and a distant house on the outskirts of Rexburg, Idaho are pictured on Wednesday, March 29, 2023.
A traffic sign flashes red late outside Chad Daybell’s property in Salem, Idaho late in the evening on Wednesday, March 29, 2023.
A look at how the sleepy college town of Rexburg, Idaho and the surrounding area has reacted to the grisly case of Chad Daybell, Lori Vallow and her murdered children. With reporting by Kyle Dunphey:
The bodies were discovered on the other side of the fence near a brick home surrounded by farmland, where Peggy Jeppesen now stands on a cold and snowy spring night in southern Idaho. Miles to the east, the Grand Teton looms.
It’s there, about three years ago, police discovered the remains of two children, killed and buried in a shallow grave, in a disappearance that captured the attention of the country and weighed on the small, southern Idaho community.
“A long time ago, sometime in the early ’90s, there was a horrible car accident right here, taking the life of five or six youths,” says Jeppesen, who lives several miles down the road.
She points to the intersection about 20 yards away. “I feel like this area never recovered from that dark cloud. That’s how I feel. Our town has a dark cloud over it.”