Chad Daybell was taken into custody on Tuesday after human remains were found on his property in Salem, Idaho, Rexburg Police Assistant Chief Gary Hagen said.
The remains have not been identified, and Daybell has not been charged with anything. Rexburg police, FBI investigators, and members of the Fremont County Sheriff's Office searched the property as part of an investigation into the disappearance of Tylee Ryan, 17, and Joshua "JJ" Vallow, 7. Their mother, Lori Vallow Daybell, is Chad Daybell's new wife. The children have not been seen since September, and the Daybells previously told investigators they were staying with friends.
The case has received national attention, due to its strange twists and turns. The Daybells, who married in October, slipped out of Idaho and were tracked down to Hawaii earlier this year. Lori Daybell has since been charged with child abandonment and obstructing the investigation; she has pleaded not guilty.
Chad Daybell is a podcaster who talks about the biblical end times, and has self-published fiction books about the apocalypse. Last summer, Lori Daybell's brother, Alex Cox, shot and killed her estranged husband, Charles Vallow, in Arizona, claiming it was in self-defense. Vallow had filed for divorce from Lori Daybell, saying she believed she was "a resurrected being of God" who could kill him with her "powers." Cox died in December of a pulmonary blood clot.
Chad Daybell is also under investigation in the death of his first wife, Tammy Daybell. She died in October, two weeks before Chad and Lori Daybell were married. Chad said she died in her sleep, but authorities became suspicious in December and exhumed her body; the autopsy results have not been made public.