Dateline Highlights Case of Missing Rexburg Kids In Two Hour Episode

Before plunging into what turned out to be a rather entertaining recap of The Bachelor, Twitter user @askericamarie suggested that Dateline look into the twisted case of Lori Vallow, her missing children and new husband, Chad Daybell.

To her surprise, she got a tweet back from host, Keith Morrison letting her know that she'll want to tune in this Friday, February 14.  On Tuesday evening, the show's Twitter account dropped a trailer previewing the two hour episode.

If by some chance you're not familiar with the case, Lori Vallow's children, 17 year-old Tylee Ryan and 7 year-old JJ Vallow, haven't been seen since September.  The family relocated to Idaho not long after Vallow's brother, Alex Cox, killed her estranged husband, Charles Vallow, during an altercation at her rental home in Arizona. According to East Idaho News, the initial police investigation said Cox shot Charles Vallow in self-defense and he was never charged with a crime. Cox died unexpectedly in December.

She married Chad Daybell just weeks after his wife of 30 years, Tammy Daybell, passed away from what was originally deemed natural causes. Since then, investigators have had her body exhumed for further investigation. Daybell is Vallow's fifth husband. Two of her previous spouses are deceased.

The timeline is long and twisted. It includes alleged involvement in a religious cult, Vallow telling police that Tylee had died years ago (which was not true) and the couple's failure to produce the children by a deadline given by Idaho Health and Welfare. They are believed to still be on the island of Kaui in Hawaii, where they were seen in late January.

That's a crash course, but you can view the entire timeline of the unusual events surrounding Lori Vallow HERE to get up to speed before the Dateline episode airs on NBC this weekend.

The is the second week in a row that the true crime series has had an Idaho connection. Last week's episode featured an Idaho nurse's role in the death of Colorado mom, Kelsey Berreth.