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Lori Vallow Daybell: Verdict Reached in Husband Charles Vallow's Murder Conspiracy Case
When Lori Vallowwas arrested in February 2020, five months after anyonehad last seen her sonJoshua "JJ" Vallow, 7,and daughterTylee Ryan, 16, police said sherefused to provide a straight answer about either child's whereabouts.
Three years later she was found guilty of killing her children and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
After a month-long trial during which the defense didn't call any witnesses, Lori was convicted of first-degree murder in the deaths of JJ and Tylee, as well asconspiracy to commit murder in the 2019 death of Tammy Daybell, her husband ChadDaybell's ex-wife. She was also found guilty of grand theft by deception for continuing to collect Social Securitybenefits on her kids' behalf after they were dead.
Chad has since been sentenced to death after being found guilty of murdering JJ, Tylee and Tammy.
And on April 22, Lori was convicted of conspiring to kill her fourth husband, Charles Vallow, who was fatally shot by her late brother Alex Cox.
Before being sentenced for murder in 2023, Lori told the court that she'd been in touch with the "spirit world," and knew that Tylee and JJ were happy.
"Jesus knows me and Jesus understands me," she said, perNBC News. "I mourn with all of you who mourn my children and Tammy. Jesus Christ knows the truth of what happened here, Jesus Christ knows no one was murdered in this case. Accidental deaths happen, suicides happen, fatal side effects from medications happen."
More recently, she toldDateline's Keith Morrison that she and Chad expected to be exonerated.
"After I get exonerated," she added, "maybe I'll go on Dancing With the Stars, and you can come."
Natalie Behring/Getty Images
Lori didn't take the stand in her defense during the 2023 trial, but grisly testimony did shed some light on what happened to her kids.
JJ and Tyleewere confirmed deadby authorities in June 2020after their remains were found buried in the backyard of Chad's house in Fremont County, Idaho. During the trial,Ada County Coroner Dr. Garth Warrentestified JJ's cause of death was asphyxia from his mouth being covered with duct tape and a plastic bag put over his head, while Tylee's was homicide by unspecified means.
REXBURG POLICE DEPARTMENT
Meanwhile, Lori's behavior became the subject of rampant speculation and scrutiny, but the question of how she went from eccentric mom to convicted killer is perhaps unanswerable.
"I don't know if we will ever know exactly what motivated Lori to commit such unspeakable crimes," Skye Borgman, director of the 2022Netflix documentarySins of Our Mother, told E! Newsahead of its premiere. "But to formulate any answer we must look at Lori through the eyes of the people who knew her best."
Lori questioned that approach to telling her story. "How do you know a person if you've never talked to them in five years?" she said on Dateline in 2025 of those who purported to speak to her state of mind. "How do you know anything about them? How do you know anything about their life, how it really is?"
What those who knewLori seemed to agree onwas that meeting Chad changed everything.
"I saw him as the hand and her as the puppet on that hand," Melanie Gibb, a former friend of Lori's, told NBC News' Dateline in 2020after the children's remains had been identified. "They were both like gasoline and fire. Not a good match. But equally destructive to each other. So in a way, they were their equal match, in that they were destructive to each other. They both had deception in them."
What happened toLori Vallow's daughter Tylee Ryan and son JJ Vallow?
Tylee was last seen with JJ on Sept. 8, 2019, during atrip to Yellowstone National Park with their mom and Lori's brotherAlex Cox—who had fatally shot Lori's fourth husband, Charles Vallow, that July.(Cox, who died in December 2019 after suffering a pulmonary embolism, maintained he fired in self-defense.)
JJ was lastseen at his Idaho elementary school on Sept. 23, 2019.Lori told the school that she planned to start homeschooling her son, who had autism, according to the Rexburg Police, whichshared photos from the family's last vacation to aid in the search.
John Roark/The Idaho Post-Register via AP
JJ's grandparents on his dad's side, Larry and Kay Woodcock, reported the children missing in late November 2019, after which Lori andChad left town and turned upon the Hawaiian island of Kauaiin January 2020, stillmaintaining that JJ and Tylee were fine.
Authorities said they suspected the children were in danger.
"From the moment we first heard about it, it was pretty clear from the start that something very bad had happened to these children,"Dateline's Morrison, who hosted the 2021 podcastMommy Doomsdayabout the Vallowcase, told E! News."For a little while, I think that there was some hope that those children would be found alive. And certainly, anybody who cared about them, as obviously their families did—what was left to their families—was desperately hoping that they were okay."
"But, you know," he continued, "there was certainly an understanding as well, that the outcome of this was probably not going to be good."
After her niece and nephew's remains were positively identified on June 13, 2020, Lori's sister Summer Cox Shiflet—who had previously defended Lori to those who expected the worse—took to Facebook to admit that she was wrong, though she was going to continue to see where the investigation went.
"Tylee and JJ are completely irreplaceable in our family," she wrote. "I have loved them greatly all of their lives. There are no words that can capture this loss. Words are just inadequate. We have dozens of Tylee and JJ stories that we love and share frequently.We had prayed our hearts out for them and hoped with all of our hearts they were safe. But we sadly have to face this new reality and our family will never ever be the same."
Police had previously searchedChad's house in Salem, Idaho, in January 2020, carrying out more than three dozen items, including computers, cell phones, medication and paperwork.
Uncredited/AP/Shutterstock
Madison County Prosecutor Rob Wood said via Zoom duringa June 10, 2020, court hearing that the "manner of concealment" of one of the bodies was "particularly egregious," per NBC News.The criminal complaint allegedthe remains had been in Chad's yard since sometime between Sept. 22, 2019, and June 9, 2020.
"This whole process is really hard," Colby Ryan, Lori's son from her second marriage, told East Idaho News inJune 2021after Chad had joinedLoriin pleading not guilty to murder. "We've all had to go through it but he's going to say what he's going to say. He's going to lie about it. From the beginning, they have lied about it. So, there's nothing you can do about it."
InAugust 2021, however, Chad's children told48 Hoursthat they believed their father didn't kill anyone, including their mom Tammy. Daughter Emma Murray alleged that Chad was framed; when asked by who, she replied, "I think it's pretty clear it was Lori and Alex."
John Roark/The Idaho Post-Register via AP
Yet by all accounts, Lori hadn't uttered a word against Chad since their arrest.
"The stories that we have heard from her jailers are that she's reading Chad's books, she's writing him letters, she's dancing in her cell," Morrison told E! News in 2021. "She still seems to be caught up in the belief that she is going to be swept out of all this and taken up to heaven sometime in the next little while."
How Lori may have reached that conclusion is a complicated story.
What happened to Tammy Daybell?
Up until just a few weeks before he wed Lori, Chad had been married to Tammy, the mother of his five grown children, for almost 30 years. Tammy died in her sleep at her Salem home on Oct. 19, 2019,her death initially assumed to be of natural causes. Her kidslater told CBS News that the family decided against having an autopsy performed.
But police opened an investigation, callingthe 49-year-old's death "suspicious."
At first local detectives called to the scene didn'tnotice anything particularly off, Fremont County Sheriff Len Humphries told EastIdahoNews.comin January 2020,but then Arizona authorities got in touch with his office. "There is a lot of concern for the safety of the kids," Humphriessaid. "The information that is coming out of Arizona in reference to deaths of multiple people is concerning."
Tammy's body was exhumedDec. 11, 2019, andon Feb. 4, 2021, authorities announced her autopsy was complete and the Utah Medical Examiner'sfindings had been handed over to the Fremont County Sheriff's Office.
"The contents of this report will not be made public at this time as it is evidence in an open and ongoing investigation," Humphries stated in a news release. "We will release additional information as it becomes available."
Though the official report was still under wraps, Chad's son Garth Daybelltold CBS News'48 Hoursin 2022 that investigators determinedTammy'scause of deathwas asphyxiation. (Fremont County Prosecutor Lindsey A. Blakeconfirmed as much during Lori's trial.)
But, his brother Mark Daybell added, that didn'tnecessarily mean their mom was smothered. "There's more facts we need," Mark said. "We don't just say, 'Oh, well, bye, Chad.' No, there's still love, there's still connection."
After Tylee and JJ's bodies were found in June 2020, Matt and Heather Daybell, Chad's brother and sister-in-law, said in astatementto E! News, "The events of the past nine months have weighed heavily on our family—it has been one of the most difficult things we have ever had to go through. Some in our extended family are still struggling to accept the reality that Chad could have been involved in something so terribly wrong."
"We also continue to pray for Tammy and Chad's adult children and their spouses,"the couplecontinued. "Because of the difficulty of this situation, our relationship with them has been significantly strained. As a result, we have had no contact with them or Chad for the last many months—we do not know where his children stand at this time."
East Idaho News received a statementcredited to Tammy's parents, siblings and extended family in response to the grisly discovery on Chad's property: "As the family of our beloved Tammy, we want to extend our deepest and heartfelt love and sympathy to the families of Tylee and JJ. We share the pain of the tremendous and shocking loss you are enduring. We still suffer and we will suffer with you for many years to come. Please know we will continue our prayers to strengthen your families, as you are finally able to properly lay to rest your precious Tylee and JJ."
"As matters move through the judicial process," they continued, "we pray that each of our families can be strengthened and trust that justice will be swiftly served. We wish to thank the many members of law enforcement and the FBI who continue to work tirelessly as investigations continue, and the public who have shown such love and support for our families. We also ask that our privacy continue to be respected at this time as we continue to grieve for Tammy, and the Woodcock and the Ryan families grieve this unfathomable loss."
Was Charles Vallow Murdered?
Tylee's father and Lori's third husband, Joseph Ryan, died in April 2018 of a heart attack.Authorities opted to reviewthe circumstances ofhis deathin 2020 after a recording surfaced, purportedly from an October 2018 religious gathering, in which Loriwas heard saying, "I was going to murder him. I'm going to kill him like the scriptures say."
Per East Idaho News, the context indicated that she was talking about Joseph. Upon further review, Phoenix Policedetermined that there wasnothing criminal aboutJoseph's death.
Lori married Charles Vallow in 2006 and they adopted JJ in 2014. (Kay Woodcockis Charles' sister, so Charles was biologically JJ's great-uncle.)
Charles filed for divorce from Lori in February 2019, noting in his divorce petition—filed in Arizona, where they lived—that he was increasingly concerned by his wife's behavior since she had gotten involved with an extreme offshoot of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saintswhose main focus is preparing for the impending end of the world.
According to court documents obtained by Phoenix's Fox 10, Charles alleged that Lori had threatened to kill him if she got in his way, that the end was coming in July 2019 and he wouldn't stop her from being ready. "Mother [Lori] believes that she is receiving spiritual revelations and visions to help her gather and prepare those chosen to live in the New Jerusalem after the Great War as prophesied in the Book of Revelations," the petition reads.
Also noted in the filing, Charles said that Lori had transferred 2,000 Enterprise Rent-A-Car points from his account andhad moved a total of $35,000 among their various bank accounts, leaving him worried she was planning to leave the state with JJ. Charles was seeking sole custody.
The divorce petition was dismissed that March, however, and Charles' son from another relationship told Fox 10 that his father wanted to try to save the marriage. However,the son(he didn'twant his name made public) helped his father move from Arizona to Texas with JJ that month as well.
"Lori had basically just disappeared," the son said, "and he had no idea where she went for I think two-ish months, and so eventually he was like, 'Alright, I have to move away for JJ's sake, for JJ's safety,' and so he decided to move to Houston."
Uncredited/AP/Shutterstock
Charles eventually took JJback to Arizona, where Loriand Tylee were still living, and it was attheir homein Chandler wherethe 63-year-old was fatally shot by Lori's brother, Alex Cox, on July 11, 2019. Local headlines reported that the shooting occurred during a "family fight," or "family argument."
"I got in a fight with my brother-in-law and I shot him in self-defense,"Alex told the 911 dispatcher.
According to Alex, Charles and Lori had been having an argument and he went to intervene, worried that Charles would get violent with his sister. Tylee then came into the room with a bat, ostensibly to defend her mom, but Charles took the bat and hitAlex in the head with it.Alex told Chandler police that he then went to his room to get his gun. Charles was shot twice in the chest.
Alexfirst told police that Lori had left with the kids before he shot Charles, but Lori told investigators she heard the gunshots from the kitchen and then went outside to check on the kids, who were waiting in Charles' rental car, and then drove away in that vehicle.
How did Lori Vallow meet Chad Daybell?
Loriwas first linked toChad when they appeared on an episode of Preparing a People Podcast Network'sTime to Warrior Uptoward the end of 2018.(Episodes featuring Chad and the two of them togetherwere later removed and Preparing a People distanced itself fromboth Chadand Lori, according to the East Idaho News.)
Chad, who married Tammy in 1990 in Utah, is the author of numerous faith-themed books, including theStanding in Holy Places series with titles likeThe Great GatheringandThe Renewed Earth.
Atthe end of August 2019, Lori moved with JJ and Tylee toRexburg, Idaho. Herniece Melani Boudreaux, who had also been living in Arizona, said in aninterviewthat she moved to Idaho that November.
Before leaving Arizona,Melani filed for divorce from her husband, Brandon Boudreaux, wholater stated in child custody-related court documents and told media outletsthat his now ex-wife got caught up in the same extreme religious teachingsthat Lori started following.
What happened when Tylee and JJ disappeared?
A self-identified friend of Tylee'sfrom Arizona, who didn't want her name reported, told the Boise Post Registerin January 2020 that she had texted Tylee on Oct. 19, 2019, that she missed her, and received a reply from Tylee's number on Oct. 25, reading, "hi. miss you guys too ...luv ya."
The friend, who showed the paper a screenshot of the text via Facebook Messenger, recalled thinking the wording didn't sound like Tylee.
"When she lived here, she responded immediately," the friend said. "And when she moved [to Rexburg], it slowly decreased in response time." The friend said Tylee hadn't wanted to move to Idaho and originally planned to stay at her family's house, but ultimately Tylee decided to gobecause she was"protective of JJ, 'cause he was her little brother."
The friend also told thePost Register that Tylee had already earned her GED, which is why she didn't attend school in Idaho.
Meanwhile, Lori rented a storage unit in Rexburg on Oct. 1, 2019, and visited it nine times and once the following month, according to the East Idaho News, which reviewed surveillance footage.
On Oct. 9, Tammy Daybellcalled 911 to reportthat a masked man had shot a paintball gun at her, and she had no idea why. She died on Oct. 19 and her funeral was held Oct. 22.
Chad and Lori married on Nov. 5, 2019.
According to authorities' timeline of events, police showed up at the couple's address on Nov. 26 to conduct a welfare check on JJ at the behest of his grandparents, who hadn't heard from him for months. Chad and Lori said he was staying with friends in Arizona.
By the next day, Chad and Lorihad left their townhouse in Rexburg.
Authorities later discovered thattheyflew to Hawaii on Dec. 1, airline records indicating it was just the two of them.
On Dec. 12, 2019, Lori's brother Alex died in Gilbert, Ariz., at the age of 51. Autopsy results released in May 2020stated he suffered from blood clots in his lungs, brought on by other health problems, and died of natural causes.
His family, including his widow, mother, sister and Melani, said in a statement toEast Idaho News: "Rampant rumors of evil plots and conspiracy robbed the family of their time to grieve the loss of their husband, son, brother, and uncle. Even so, the family finds comfort in the medical examiner's finding that Alex Cox died of natural causes."
Later that month, withthe search for Tylee and JJ ongoing, Melani's ex BrandontoldSalt Lake City's Fox 13, "I spent the last 11 years of my life spending time with Lori and her now-deceased husband Charles.I don't know what happened to those kids, but I know there's people who do, and they're not talking… I love them both. I hope they're safe. They're both just innocent and they didn't deserve to be involved in any of this."
How did police catch Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell?
In the first week of January 2020, Kay and Larry Woodcock, JJ's grandparents, traveled from their home in Louisiana to Rexburg and announced a reward of $20,000 for information leading to answers about the kids' whereabouts.
"These are beautiful young children. They're two extremely intelligent young children, and we want them back. We want them back in our family," Larry said. "We don't say the 'D word.' We don't want to and we're not going to because we truly believe and we hope and pray these kids are alive."
John Roark/The Idaho Post-Register via AP
At the time, the Woodcocks didn't know where Chad and Lori were, either, the couplehaving not yetbeen located in Hawaii.
"I'm terrified for JJ," Charles' son told Fox 10. "I'm terrified for Tylee. I'm terrified for everyone surrounding them and their safety. I'm terrified for my family's safety."
On Jan. 10, 2020, Chad's brother Matt Daybell—who said he'd last seen Chad at Tammy's funeral—issued a public statement urging his big brother tocooperate in thesearch for the kids.
Dennis Fujimoto/The Garden Island via AP, Pool
"I have not been close to Chad since childhood," read part of the statement. "My immediate family has had little association with Chad the last many years due to our concerns with his religious claims and particular books he had chosen to publish, including his own. We are deeply saddened at the recent events that have played out the last several months. It is our hope and prayer that JJ and Tylee are safe."
"We want for the truth to be found—whatever that truth turns out to be," the note continued. "Neither I, nor my wife and children have any more information than what has been reported by the news media. I plead again for Chad to come forward and cooperate with the investigation so that this very difficult situation might be resolved."
JOHN ROARK/AP/Shutterstock
On Jan. 25, 2020, Kauai Police served Lori with a notice ordering her to produce the kidsfor police in Rexburg or the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare within five days (the notice remains sealed becauseit concerns welfare of a minor case).
The Jan. 30 deadline passed.
Reportersshowed up inHawaii to find Lori and Chad and swarmed into Idaho as the case turned into a national media sensation.
After she failed to comply with the order, Lori was arrested on Feb. 20, 2020. After six days in jail in Hawaii shewas sent back to Idaho, and she's been locked up ever since. (In June 2021, she was declared unfit for trial and ordered into treatment at a mental health facility, delaying the proceedings for months. At her arraignment in April 2022, Lori refused to enterher own plea, prompting a judge to enterit on her behalf.)
Dennis Fujimoto/AP/Shutterstock
In April 2020, theEast Idaho News obtained a lettersent from the Idaho Attorney General's Office toFremont County prosecutorsthat confirmed that Chad and Lori were underinvestigationfor conspiracy, attempted murder and murder in the death ofTammy Daybell.
Lori's son Colby RyantoldDateline's Morrisonin an episode that aired May 1, 2020, that it hurt "so much" not knowing where JJ and Tylee were. "And on top of that, we have a million questions. So you can't call your own mom. You can't go to your house or her house and see your siblings. You're just out in the cold...Like, how do you not produce the kids? That's the whole reason you're in jail in the first place right now."
John Roark/The Idaho Post-Register via AP, Pool
Also before Tylee and JJ were confirmed dead, Melanitold Phoenix's CBS 5that she "absolutely" felt she'd see them again.
"I know Lori wouldn't ever do anything to hurt her kids,"she said. "I don't have the answers as to why she does the things she does, and why she hasn't spoken as to where they are, but I can't judge her because I don't know what she's going through. I can only love and support her, and hope for everyone to be safe."
Melani, who said Lori was like a second mom as well as an aunt and friend, said she saw a lot of "judgment" and "a lot of lies" in the way her aunt was being portrayed in the public eye. "I don't know where my cousins are, her children JJ and Tylee, but I love all of them and I know she's doing whatever she can to keep her kids safe."
She saidBrandon "took" her kids from her, and denied abandoning or otherwise choosing to be apart from them. (Brandonwas granted emergency custody of his and Melani's children because the "Mother was being investigated for numerous felonious acts across numerous jurisdictions," according tocourt documentsfiled in Maricopa County.)
But Melani's new husband wasn't so sure that Lori's kids were safe.
"It was a shock finding out Chad and Lori are gone, [that Lori's] kids are missing, people's doors are being kicked down because they can't find the kids," Ian Pawloskialso said in the interview.
azfamily.com
Ian said that he got a call from his own mother, who told him that Melani's ex had alleged that Melani and Lori were in a doomsday cult, that Chad was a cult leader and thatthey had plotted to kill Brandon and succeeded in killing Charles Vallow.
So, Ian agreed to go talk to the police, and FBI agents were there as well. "I was open to sharing everything I knew at that point," he said.
And, he added, "It seems the information I shared with them just turned into this nationwide frenzy."
(Originally published June 13, 2020, at 7 a.m. PT)
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