Doomsday writer Chad Daybell was arrested after human remains were found on his property

• Human remains have been found in the Idaho home of the writer Chad Daybell.
• Police executed a search warrant on his home Tuesday and took Daybell into custody for questioning, East Idaho News reported.
• Daybell's stepchildren, JJ Vallow and Tylee Ryan, have been missing since September.
• Their mother, Lori Vallow, was arrested on child-abandonment charges in February after failing to tell a judge their whereabouts.

Human remains have been found at the home of author Chad Daybell, the Rexburg Police Department announced during a press conference Tuesday.

Daybell was arrested Tuesday on a charge of destruction or concealment of evidence and expected to appear in court Wednesday. His wife, Lori Vallow, was arrested on child-abandonment charges after refusing to tell Idaho state authorities about the status of her missing children.

"Throughout the investigation, detectives and investigators have discovered what are believed to be human remains that have not been identified at this time," Assistant Rexburg Police Chief Gary Hagen said during a brief press conference Tuesday. "I do want to add that Chad Daybell, who resides at that residence, has also been taken into custody for questioning in regards to that."

An autopsy will be conducted, he said.

While the police have not said whether there was one or two bodies, or whether the remains belonged to children or adults, Rexburg Mayor Jerry Merrill slipped up during an interview with ABC4, calling the discovery of the remains a "sad say for the people who knew those kids."

"It's a sad day for Rexburg to find out the news about the kids," Merrill said in the interview. "On the other hand, it's a good day to try and find some closure for the family and to this story."

The couple, who had recently married, were vacationing in Hawaii while the case of her missing children — JJ Vallow and Tylee Ryan — drew national attention.

On Tuesday, police executed a search warrant on Daybell's Salem, Idaho, home. A backhoe was on-site.

This was the second search of the Idaho home. The first in January resulted in the collection of 43 items, according to East Idaho News.

Rexburg police didn't identify the human remains found Tuesday.

Vallow, who is connected to the doomsday group Preparing the People and has claimed to have supernatural powers, fled her home in Idaho in November to a vacation home in Hawaii when police came to check on her 7-year-old son with autism, JJ.

Vallow and Daybell are at the center of several investigations involving the deaths of their previous spouses.

JJ and Tylee were last seen on September 23

Rexburg police went to the home of Daybell and Vallow to conduct a well-being check on November 26, but when they got there, Vallow and Daybell told police that the children had been staying with friends in Arizona, which authorities learned wasn't true.

When the police returned with a search warrant the next day, Vallow and Daybell were gone. When they were found in Hawaii, they repeatedly refused to tell investigators, and then a judge, where the children were.

The disappearance of JJ and Tylee came two months after Vallow's ex-husband — and JJ's adoptive father — Charles Vallow, was killed in her Arizona home.

Charles Vallow had filed for divorce from Lori Vallow in February 2019. In court documents, he alleged that his wife believed she was a god, according to AZCentral.

At the time, Charles Vallow claimed that Lori didn't want anything to do with him or JJ "because she had a more important mission to carry out," according to court documents.

In July, Charles Vallow was shot in their home and Lori's brother Alex Cox told police he fired the gun during an altercation in self-defense.

Then in October, Lori Vallow married Daybell, whose wife, Tammy Daybell, had died only two weeks earlier.

On December 12, Cox was found dead at his home in Gilbert, Arizona, according to Brenda Carrasco, a spokeswoman for the Gilbert Police Department.

Daybell and Lori Vallow are being investigated by the Idaho Attorney General's Office on suspicion of conspiracy, attempted murder, and murder in connection to Tammy Daybell's death, East Idaho News reported.

This article has been updated.

• Read more:
• The doomsday couple whose children haven't been seen since September are also at the center of several death investigations
• Doomsday couple Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell were found vacationing in Hawaii — but their kids are still nowhere to be found
• Doomsday author Chad Daybell claims his deceased wife helped him 'reconnect' with new wife Lori Vallow
• Lori Vallow didn't meet the Thursday deadline to turn her kids over to the state. Their grandma believes the 'monster' will face consequences.