The Death of Chad Daybell's First Wife Was First Ruled Natural — Coroner Brenda Dye Disagreed

"It's just hard to imagine someone doing that to someone they care for and love," said Brenda Dye.

Apr. 25 2024, Published 5:53 p.m. ET

According to Tammy Daybell's obituary, she "passed away peacefully in her sleep on Saturday, Oct. 19, 2019, in Salem, Idaho." When she died, Tammy was married to Chad Daybell, who would later marry convicted killer Lori Vallow mere weeks after his first spouse's demise. In lifestyles, Tammy put much of her love and focus into her circle of relatives, which incorporated the five kids she shared with Chad.

When Daybell called 911 after finding his spouse's dead body, he said Tammy was frozen. "She's clearly dead," he told the operator. Eventually Brenda Dye, the Fremont County coroner, arrived on the scene and showed Tammy was dead and took be aware of bruises on her fingers and "pink foam at her mouth," according to KSL News Radio. It was later determined that Tammy died of pulmonary edema, but that cause of dying was later modified.

Brenda Dye is the coroner who was tasked with changing the reason for demise on Tammy Daybell's dying certificates.

On Dec. 11, 2019, the body of Tammy Daybell was exhumed when police began to suspect she died underneath suspicious circumstances, per ABC News. At the time of her loss of life, there was no autopsy performed on Tammy's frame as Idaho is a coroner state, which means that they are not legally obligated to take action. While testifying during Daybell's trial in April 2024, Dye said she modified the explanation for demise on Tammy's demise certificate. It was now deemed a murder with a cause of death being asphyxiation by means of suffocation.

After her body was exhumed, a scientific examiner from Utah oversaw the autopsy whilst Dye was in attendance. While testifying, Dye defined there were inconsistencies based on what Daybell said about his spouse's activities the evening ahead of she died. Daybell instructed government she had thrown up, but the autopsy revealed that Tammy still had something found in her abdomen.

Daybell additionally claimed Tammy were affected by seizures, but Dye said her organs and mind have been each healthy. There was no indication that any seizure-like task had long past on. What they did find was a considerable amount of foam still in Tammy's lungs. "There shouldn't have been that foam in the lungs," said Dye. It had been two months since she died.

Brenda Dye is haunted by way of the deaths of J.J. Vallow and Tylee Ryan.

While speaking with KSL in November 2023, Dye said her involvement in the demise investigations of two of Lori Vallow's kids, 16-year-old Tylee Ryan and 7-year-old Joshua "JJ" Vallow, have been the most tough instances she had ever worked on. (Vallow was found guilty of their homicide; Daybell is lately on trial for their homicide in addition to the homicide of Tammy.) "It's just hard to imagine someone doing that to someone they care for and love," said Dye. "I have kids and I just can't imagine what the family has had to go through." She advised the outlet that every time she has to speak about this situation, it conjures up scary images.

Learning to procedure these emotions is part of the task, however every so often it truly gets to Dye, who was drawn the paintings because she loves "trying to save people and get them to the hospital in time. If that's not possible, then I want to (be involved) in determining the cause of death." She in the past labored in the emergency clinical services and products box, hence the life-saving part. What she values most is helping folks get closure. Hopefully the households of Tammy Daybell, J.J. Vallow, and Tylee Ryan were ready to seek out some.

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