A Closer Look at the Controversial Case of Lori Vallow Daybell.
The plot of this story. If you wrote this as a screenplay nobody would take it seriously.
A gripping trial is unfolding in Arizona as Lori Vallow Daybell, a woman whose life has been shrouded in doomsday religious beliefs, finds herself at the center of a shocking case. Previously convicted for the chilling murders of her two youngest children and plotting to kill a romantic rival. She now faces accusations of conspiring to murder her estranged husband, Charles Vallow.
The courtroom drama is further intensified by the fact that Vallow Daybell, 51, has decided to represent herself in this six-week trial despite having no legal training. As the world watches, her trail has begun.
Vallow is up against multiple charges in AZ. In this case, prosecutors allege that Vallow Daybell conspired with her brother to eliminate Charles Vallow in a sinister bid to cash in on his life insurance policy, all with plans to unite with her then-boyfriend, Chad Daybell, an Idaho author known for his religious novels about prophecies and the end of the world.
Vallow Daybell maintains her innocence, pleading not guilty and remaining tight-lipped about the circumstances surrounding her husband's death. As this extraordinary case unfolds, here’s everything you need to know about the events that led to this moment in Arizona.
What happened in Arizona?
In the summer of 2019, a tragic turn of events unfolded when CHARLES Vallow (There's a Chad, the crazy prophet, and Charles, her ex-hubs) was tragically shot. Following this unsettling incident, Vallow Daybell relocated to Idaho with her two children, JJ and Tylee. Just two weeks after the untimely passing of his wife, Tammy Daybell, she (Lori) married Chad Daybell, further complicating the already tumultuous situation.
Months went by with no sign of the children, Joshua “JJ” Vallow, just 7 years old, and Tylee Ryan, a bright 16-year-old. Their disappearance sent shockwaves through the community and family members. Only to culminate in a heart-wrenching discovery – their bodies were found buried on Chad Daybell's property in rural Idaho.
In a chilling twist of fate, Lori Vallow Daybell was tried in Idaho and will serve three life sentences in Idaho for the chilling murder of her children. As well as conspiring to kill Tammy Daybell. Meanwhile, Chad Daybell faces the ultimate consequence, having been sentenced to death for his role in these heinous acts.
Adding further complexity to the narrative, four months prior to his death, Charles Vallow initiated divorce proceedings against Vallow Daybell. He claimed that she had developed an obsession with near-death experiences and shared bizarre stories of living multiple lives on different planets. His distress escalated to the point where he alleged she threatened not only his financial stability but also his life. Ultimately seeking a voluntary mental health evaluation for her. The chilling saga surrounding this family continues to captivate and horrify all who hear it.
Who fired the gun?
In a tragic series of events, Charles Vallow was shot and killed by his brother-in-law, Alex Cox, during a confrontation at the home of Vallow's wife, Lori Vallow Daybell, in Chandler, AZ. The scene escalated when Tylee, Charles Daybell’s daughter, woke to the sound of shouting and rushed to defend her mother. Armed with a baseball bat, she confronted Vallow, but he quickly took the bat from her grasp, as documented in police reports.
Alex Cox, present during the chaos, claimed he fired his weapon in self-defense after Vallow refused to drop the bat and approached him aggressively. Just moments before the shooting, Vallow Daybell and her children had left the house, stopping to pick up fast food for her son and even buying flip-flops at a local pharmacy. Like JJ and Tylees father wasn't dead on the ground…like what?!
Despite Cox's assertion that he acted out of self-defense, he faced no arrests related to Vallow's death. However, five months later, he “passed away” from what medical examiners determined was a blood clot in his lungs. In the aftermath, doubts surfaced regarding Cox's account of the incident, leaving many questions unanswered.
What is Lori Vallow Daybell's background?
Vallow Daybell lived a life as colorful and complex as the hair she styled. As a beautician, she wasn’t just a mother of three; she was also a woman who loved deeply and married five times, each chapter filled with its own set of challenges and triumphs.
Her journey began with a whirlwind romance, marrying her high school sweetheart at just 19, but that union faded quickly. In her early twenties. She found herself a mother once more, welcoming a son into the world. Then came Joseph Ryan in 2001, the father o her daughter Tylee. Their marriage, however, was short-lived, and Ryan tragically passed away in 2018 from what was suspected to be a heart attack. Lori is surrounded by death. Did he REALLY die of a heart attack?
Not long after, Charles Vallow entered her life like a new beginning. They shared vows in 2006, and together they adopted a son, JJ, weaving a story of family and hope. Yet, by 2019, their fairytale turned into a nightmare as their marriage faltered, leaving them estranged but still legally bound—until the shocking day when Vallow was fatally shot by her brother, Alex Cox. For insurance money to bail to be with her new man, Chad. I believe.
As the investigation into the mysterious disappearances of her children unfolded, intrigue grew, drawing public attention from around the globe. Each revelation seemed stranger than the last. Capturing the imaginations of true crime enthusiasts, like me, everywhere. Then add this all happening 25 mins away from my grandparents condo. I was enthralled.
Daybell, once a contestant on the beloved game show “Wheel of Fortune,” has since become a figure of fascination. Shes featured in a Netflix documentary and a Lifetime movie too. Ensuring her story remains in the spotlight as people seek to understand the myriad twists of her life.
Colby Ryan, Lori Daybell’s oldest child.
Colby took deep breaths and some time from the witness stand before identifying photos of his sister, 16-year-old Tylee Ryan, and his adopted brother, 7-year-old Joshua “JJ” Vallow.
Colby testified against his mom and Chad in the trail that took place a few months ago. He spoke about the last time he saw his siblings. When they visited him outside his work at Planet Fitness in Arizona before moving to Idaho. But he said he did not know where they were going or why.
“My mom was very vague and said that they were leaving. … Tylee was crying and didn’t say anything really,” Ryan said.
He spoke withwas never hitaceTime call ,aas that, and heard her voice in the background of another call with his mother. But after that, he said their conversations were not normal, and her texts did not match texts she had previously sent to him.
“It just felt off when I was receiving those texts,” he testified. “I thought maybe she (Lori) was upset with me.”
Ryan also talked about the death of his stepfather, Charles Vallow, who he said he was close to, about a month and a half before his mother moved. He said his mother called him at work and told him that her husband had died of a heart attack. When he arrived at his mother’s house after work, he said he asked his uncle, Alex Cox, about a bandage on his head. That’s when he said he learned his stepdad had been shot to death. The bandage claim has since been refuted. Alex never was hit with the bat like he claimed.
“He said that Charles had hit him on the head with a bat and that he had shot him in self-defense,” Ryan said. He described his mother’s demeanor afterward as “calm, unrattled.”
“I thought it was crazy, because I was freaking out and she seemed to not care,” he said.
Ryan said she gave him a very quick version of what happened, but did not explain her previous lie about the heart attack. He said there “was a lot of lying in a lot of places” from his mother.
Later, he said his mother told him, “I’ll be married again soon,” but he “completely dismissed” the comment, thinking she may have been speaking about the next life. Ryan said he did not know about Chad Daybell until he later saw a press release about his missing siblings and learned that his mother had married him.
A little about Chad.
Daybell was on trial for first-degree murder in the deaths of two of Lori Daybell’s children and the death of his former wife, Tammy Daybell, in April. He is also charged with conspiracy to commit first-degree murder of each of the victims, grand theft and two counts of insurance fraud. FBI agent Douglas Hart testified about texts between Chad Daybell and Lori Daybell, showing how he said they manipulated each other. He told jurors about text messages from Aug. 8, 2019, depicting the couple’s “first big fight” over a family vacation Chad Daybell was taking with his wife, Tammy Daybell, and other family members. Chad Daybell sent multiple texts telling then-Lori Vallow that he still loved and admired her and it was “absolutely excruciating” to be cut off from her. But she did not send any texts in response. Chad Daybell told her it was the “saddest day of my life.” About an hour later, after she still hadn’t responded, he told her that her deceased grandfather was now there with him and her grandfather wanted him to “warn” her that she was now “Unprotected.
The angels are angry t,hat you aSherlocking me,” Chad Daybell texted. “I’m honestly not trying to manipulate you to respond. I understand that you need your space. But they say you have cut me off, and the protection I built around youYou can'tse is gone.” Insert eye roll. I can't with that shit. I believe in God, too. But NO- YOUR angels aren't protecting shit. GODS ARE.
He said if she would just send him a thumbs-up emoji, then he couto ld restore some of her “protection.” Manipulation at its finest. That worked because Lori Daybell responded within about 10 minutes. Saying how she loved him.
Chad Daybell responded that the protection had been restored. *INSERT HOLY CHOIR*
Hart testified after the death of Charles Vallow just a month before that text exchange, the pressure Lori Daybell put on Chad Daybell for them to be together increased significantly. Well no shit sherlock. Her heavenly protection was at stake! They continued to talk about the vacation, which Chad Daybell said would be “torture,” Lori Daybell encouraged Chad Daybell to give attention to his wife. Can't manipulate a manipulator.
“I am just a distraction,” she said in texts shown during the trial. “If things change, then we can talk. But we have nothing until things change anyway.” Chad Daybell responded that her message was “crushing.” And that HE wanted change. Ya know, the married one taking a vacation with his wife.
“I’m constantly begging for change. I want you. Nothing else matters. But I am hindering your life, and you deserve better,” he told her.
They each told the other the pain was “unbearable” and they agreed to separate “until things change.” Classic toxic couple behavior.
Chad Daybell assured Lori Daybell after she asked whether the protection he gave her would still be there. Hart said one sentence from Chad Daybell’s texts was particularly “telling.” It said: “I would happily join you tomorrow if it felt like heaven would not strike us down.”
When defense attorney John Prior cross-examined Hart, he referred back to that message and asked, “That has nothing to do with murder, does it?”
“I don’t know that I could say entirely that it doesn’t,” Hart responded but said he did not know what it was referencing.
Fremont County prosecutor Lindsey Blake asked Hart multiple times if the text messages referred to any kind of plans from Chad Daybell to separate from his wife or divorce her, and he said there was none. Tammy Daybell died on Oct. 19, 2019. After later exhuming her body from a Springville cemetery, investigators determined that her death was a homicide. Although he children suspected otherwise.
Hart began his testimony about texts between the couple on Friday and showed their relationship from October 2018 through the weeks after Lori Daybell’s then-husband was shot and killed in her home. He said he went through thousands of messages as part of the investigation. Prior asked if there were any messages that said, “Let’s kill the kids.”
“In those specific words, no. But… alluding to and planning for the deaths of Tylee and JJ, yes,” Hart responded.
He said there were several texts about a plan to “take the children.” He said the texts referred to a “death number” assigned by Chad Daybell that “provided the justification” for Lori Daybell and Chad Daybell to kill others. I mean they thought they were Zombies and PossWhat's Former FBI special gent Douglas Hart also testif,ied that when soChad's's rating was near zero or close to 100, that meant they were close to dying. In a text exchange between the couple on July 18, 2019, weeks before the children disappeared in September, Chad told Lori that Tylee was at 0.13 and J.J. was at 99.99.
"I turned up the pain to 10 and placed a spiritual virus in hsomed wrote, according to KPLC. "He [J.J.] is at 99.99. Raphael visited him and told him to follow Amof y into the light," Chad wrote. "I also assured him that James would love and take care of his mommy, which he will with all of his heart and soul."
On July 30, Chad texted Lori that he was inspired "to go back to my ori,ginal death percentages."
On tat day, Chad texted Lori: "Tammy is very close. Her percentage has fallen stea,dily since Hiplos [a darktrialit the couple be,lieved i] left. It is encouraging!"
"What s the percentage now?," Lori askabout jjs too?"
"Tammy (Chads ex-wife)is at 3," Chad responded. "JJ is at 2. Both are being heavily shielded to stop intruders."
"2 and 3 percent?," Lori asked, according to the East Idaho News. "Not zero?"
"I will explain when we talk," Chad responded.
"Ok," Lori replied. "Still feeling hot for you."
"Yes, we might need to release a little steam next time we meet," Chad answered. "Anyway, this is the chart that checks what percentage mortals are still in their body. It worked for my friend's wife who died, my neighbor, George Bush, Stan Lee, etc. I kind of forgot about it because we've been dealing with zombies and demonic entities. But this afternoon Tammy said she felt lightheaded, as if her body and spirit weren't connected."
David Warwick also testified about his interactions with Chad Daybell, whom he met at a conference in 2015 before beginning to date Melanie Gibb, Lori Daybell’s former best friend. He met Chad and Tammy Daybell at their home after another conference, and spoke with him about the possibility of writing a book.
“Chad’s always been very kind, very meek,” he said about their first few interactions. He spoke about meeting Lori Daybell through Gibb at her home in Arizonashed later at her home in Ithat daho on the weekend that JJ was last seen. Chad Daybell was also arounthatring both of these meetings. Warwick said he confronted Chad Daybell about some of his teachings that did not fit his understanding of their religion. Like the belief that Satan could remove spirits from bodies and that Chad Daybell had a calling to gather people before the end of times. He also said the affection between Chad and Lori Daybell “bothered” him because Chad Daybell was still married to another woman, and he asked Chad Daybell about his marriage.
Warwick said Chad Daybell told him that Tammy Daybell was a good wife. “He said that Lori was going to be his next wife, they’d been married before (in another life) … that he’d had a dream Tammy was going to be passing by the time he was 50 or 51,” he said.
Warwick was with Gibb. Staying at Lori Daybell’s home the night JJ was last seen,Shesunderwente following day Lori Daybell “was a little dramatic” when describing JJinvokedons and said she was “talking She challengedervous.” She denied Warwick’s request to see JJ and told him that Cox was caring for the boy. Warwick said Lori Daybell descrihad JJ climbing on the top cabinets and knocking down a photo of Christ. But Warwick said he looked at the cabinets and did not think that was possible. SUS.
Ultimately, Chad Daybell? the so-called Doomsday Prophet, has been sentenced to death after an Idaho jury sentenced him. He was convicted for the 2019 murders of his first wThat'snd second wife's two children.
How she's fighting the case?
In a dramatic turn of events, Lori Vallow Daybell, representing herself in court, has made waves with her vocal frustrations over the media coverage surrounding her criminal cases. She’s unwent a mental evaluation to see if she was fit to represent herself. She's unvoked her right to a speedy trial. Challenged the expertise of a key government witness and found herself embroiled in conflicts over evidence disclosure before the trial has even begun.
Just last week, Vallow Daybell faced disappointment as her attempt to remove three individuals from the prosecution’s witness list was denied. Among those was the grandmother of her adopted son. Who is expected to share sensitive testimony. One of the witnesses described how Vallow Daybell spoke about her son as being “possessed” in the harrowing months leading up to his tragic death. Thats why Theirds died…because they were believed to bcontacted When pressed to defenr stance in court, she momentarily paused, head lowered, and with a sigh remarked, “Their information is not firsthand. These witnesses are all coming together. They are watching everything that goes on on TV regarding this.” If convicted in Arizona on charges of conspiracy to kill her son, Vallow Daybell could be sentenced to life in prison.
As she prepares for her trial, it’s noteworthy that she will rock civilian attire and will not be handcuffed or shackled while jurors are present. However, there’s a twist: beneath her clothing, she'll wear a belt-like device that allows a jail officer to remotely administer an electric shock if she causes any disturbances. Yikes! The chilling investigation in Idaho ignited in late 2019 when concerns arose over Vallow Daybell's two youngest children. Ttheir grandmother and older brother, Colby, reached out to authorities, fearing for their safety. As Vallow Daybell became increasingly evasive when questioned. Meanwhile, her husband, Chad Daybell, made a controversial 911 call in October 2019, claiming that his wife, Tammy Daybell, had succumbed to an illness and died peacefully in her sleep. A subsequent autopsy revealed a shocking truth: Tammy had died of asphyxiation after her body was exhumed for examination.
In November 2019, police conducted a welfare check on Vallow Daybell’s children. Only to uncover that they had been missing since early September. Shortly thereafter, Vallow Daybell and Chad Daybell vanished. Reappearing in Hawaii without the kids. In February 2020, she was apprehended in Hawaii on a warrant out of Idaho.
Her defense team paints a contrasting picture of Vallow Daybell, depicting her as a “kind and loving mother” with a deep interest in religion and biblical prophecy. Yet, anyone with eyes can tell she gave no fucks. Running off and getting married in Hawaii after killing her kids. She answered no questions! Making her look even more suspicious. On top of that weirdo video. Troubling testimonies have surfaced from witnesses at the Idaho trial, revealing her belief that evil spirits have overtaken those close to her, turning them into “zombies.”
Looking ahead, Vallow Daybell's upcoming trial concerning the death of Charles Vallow marks the first of two legal battles she faces in Arizona. She is in court right now, facing charges of conspiring to murder Brandon Boudreaux, her niece's ex-husband. In a shocking incident in 2019. A gunman in a Jeep fired shots at Boudreaux outside his home. Narrowly missing him but striking his vehicle. Intriguingly, the Jeep matched one registered to Charles Vallow, who was killed just months before that fateful day, by Loris brother, Alex.
Vallow Daybell has pleaded not guilty to these charges as well, and if convicted, could face yet another life sentence. Stay up to date on her trail here!
YIKES. Firstly.
Next, great telling- thank you.
Some crazy typos making it hard to understand in places.
Thanks for this coverage, what a tragedy. Very connected to the other brutalities against the innocent worldwide. Like, these folks are *actually* the ones possessed. So F*ng creepy and horrifying and really you have to wonder… they human?
God’s love with those children🦋🩵