REXBURG, Idaho — Note: The video above is from a June 30 court appearance.
A Madison County judge has dismissed two felony charges against Lori Vallow, whose children were found dead on her new husband's property north of Rexburg in June.
The two counts of desertion or nonsupport of minor children were dropped by Judge Michelle Mallard on Thursday. Vallow still faces two felony charges of conspiracy to destroy or conceal evidence, as well as misdemeanors for contempt, resisting and obstructing, and criminal solicitation to commit a crime.
Neither Vallow nor her husband Chad Daybell has been formally charged with killing 7-year-old JJ Vallow and 17-year-old Tylee Ryan, who were found buried in Daybell's pet cemetery after a months-long investigation into their whereabouts.
Daybell is charged with two counts of destruction or concealment of evidence, and two counts of conspiracy to destoy or conceal evidence. All four charges are felonies.
Vallow was arrested in Hawaii on the desertion charges in February, while Daybell was taken into custody June 9 after the bodies of the children were discovered. JJ's body was wrapped in plastic and bound with duct tape, while Tylee had been dismembered and burned, according to a probable cause affidavit filed in the case.
The judge did not include specifics in her order of why the desertion charges were being dropped. The statute for the felony mandates that prosecutors prove that a parent failed to provide "necessary food, clothing, shelter, or medical attendance" to his or her child.
Investigators have suggested JJ and Tylee may have been dead as early as September. The results of forensic pathology testing to determine how and when the children died have not yet been made public.
Both Daybell and Vallow remain held in jail on bonds of $1 million each. They are due back in court in August.
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