Authorities also recently found an abandoned storage locker with many items that belong to the teen and her little brother, who is also missing.
The cell phone of a 17-year-old who went missing with her 7-year-old brother in Idaho has been found in her mom’s possession in Hawaii, CBS News reported.
Tylee Ryan and her little, adopted brother, JJ Vallow, have been missing since September and her mother, Lori Vallow, and mom’s husband, Chad Daybell, have both been identified as persons of interest in the case, but neither have been charged and both deny any wrongdoing.
The teen's phone had been used on a few occasions since the teen disappeared, but it's not clear by whom. In October, a text had been sent from Tylee’s phone to a friend who was worried about her, but her friend said what Tylee allegedly wrote didn’t sound like her, according to CBS News. Also in October, two small Venmo payments were made from Tylee's account to family members, the news station reported.
Vallow and Daybell were located in Hawaii in January, but the two children were nowhere to be found, and there was no indication that they’d ever been in Hawaii, according to police. Authorities then mandated in a court order that Vallow needed to show her children physically to police in Idaho by Jan. 30, but the mom missed the deadline.
The discovery of Tylee’s phone comes on the heels of police finding several items belonging to the children in an abandoned storage locker in Idaho.
"Inside the storage unit, officers found bikes, a scooter, winter clothing, a photo album with pictures of JJ and Tylee, sports equipment, a backpack with JJ’s initials and a jersey with Colby Ryan’s (Lori Daybell’s oldest son) name on it. There were blankets showing photos of the children – one focused on JJ, and the other had pictures of Tylee," EastIdahoNews.com reported.
Vallow’s other son, Colby Ryan, who has openly pleaded on YouTube for his mother to reveal where his siblings are, told KSAZ-TV that his relationship with his mother began to change a year ago.
Ryan told the station that his mother abruptly moved to Hawaii with Tylee, leaving JJ and her then-husband, Charles Vallow, back in Arizona where they were living at the time.
She moved back to Arizona a month later, Ryan told the station, and then Charles and Lori separated.
Ryan told KSAZ-TV that his mother had told him Charles had a heart attack, but later revealed he had been shot and killed by Lori's brother, Alex Cox, on July 11, 2019, in Chandler, Arizona, at the home where JJ and Tylee were living with their mother.
Alex Cox, Lori's brother, told police he acted in self-defense when he shot Charles Vallow, according to body cam footage released by the Chandler Police Department. Cox was not charged in the incident.
Cox died himself on Dec. 12. Both Cox and Charles Vallows' deaths are now under investigation.
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