Backstory
If you're new to the case, or just this app, you can learn about what drove me to create this app here.
Source
East Idaho News is the sole data source for the app. There have been many reporters who have gone above and beyond in reporting on this case, but Nate Eaton's liveblogging of the trials has been absolutely legendary—and is the only reason this app exists as purchasing transcripts from the trials is cost prohibitive. You can follow EIN's coverage of the case by navigating to its dedicated Daybell case page.
Process
With permission from East Idaho News, I isolated articles that have been tagged 'Daybell case' and imported them into the app. I then identified articles that are liveblogging from the trials. By default, the app only searches trial coverage, but there's a toggle that will search all Daybell case articles.
I include article previews in the app because they allow keywords and phrases to be highlighted for quick scans. So a search for 'forensic pathology' with the 'Include related keywords' toggle activated, will highlight a number of keywords and phrases that are unique to this case that a user may want to review if they're researching evidence around the autopsies pertinent to the case, for example.
You can navigate to the next match by selecting one of the arrows in the lower-right corner of the screen—or use your arrow keys if you have access to a keyboard.
Each article page in the app also links to its respective article page on the EIN website, which oftentimes includes a video from that day of the trial.
Related Keywords Toggle
The 'Include related keywords' toggle will expand your search term/phrase to include similar terms using AI and/or use custom dictionaries I've created that are specific to this case, which you can access from the Case Lexicon page.
Trials Included
The app currently includes trials from Idaho and Arizona:
- Lori Vallow Daybell (Idaho): Apr - May, 2023
- Chad Daybell (Idaho): Apr - May, 2024
- Lori Vallow Daybell (Arizona // Charles Vallow): Mar - Apr, 2025
- Lori Vallow Daybell (Arizona // Brandon Boudreaux): Jun - Jul, 2025
Changelog
- 5/31/25: Refactored the scraper app to run daily to keep the app updated
- 5/24/25: Refactored keyword groupings to make them mostly one-to-many matches
- 5/8/25: Launched app