GUT-WRENTCHING

FBI Forensic Examiner Describes Tools Used to Dismember Lori Vallow’s Teen Daughter

While the expert could not determine the exact weapon used on Tylee Ryan, he told jurors it was a bladed tool resembling a cleaver or machete.

An FBI forensic examiner told Idaho jurors Thursday that Lori Vallow’s teenage daughter was likely dismembered with a bladed tool resembling a cleaver or machete. Douglas Halepaska, who works for the FBI lab in the firearms and tool marks division, described to jurors how he examined Tylee Ryan’s bones after she was discovered in Chad Daybell’s backyard in June 2020. He said he found evidence of a stabbing and chopping action on Tylee’s hipbone, which he speculates came from a bladed tool. Halepaska, however, noticed that he could not determine the exact tools used to dismember Tylee, who prosecutors say was also severely burned after the September 2019 murder. Halepaska added that he also found a crack in her bone, which indicated to him “some type of serrated edge on the blade” that was used in the chopping action, according to EastIdahoNews.