People know Lori Vallow Daybell aka “doomsday mom” or “cult mom.”
Vallow Daybell, accused along with her husband Chad Daybell, was sentenced to life without parole after an Idaho jury found her guilty in May 2023 on all charges for her role in the deaths of her 16-year-old daughter, Tylee Ryan, her 7-year-old adopted son, Joshua “JJ” Vallow, and her husband’s first wife, Tammy Daybell. Chad Daybell was sentenced to death upon the recommendation of the jury that convicted him of first-degree murder and conspiracy charges in the killings of his first wife and two children of his second wife.
Authorities determined that 7-year-old J.J. died of asphyxia with a plastic bag over his head. J.J.’s mouth and ankles were reportedly bound with duct tape, and bruising was found on his arms and neck that occurred before he died.
The coroner also said the manner of Tylee Ryan’s death was a homicide, but the cause of death remains unknown. The teen’s remains were found severely decomposed and had been badly burned. The couple’s son, Garth Daybell, said Tammy died in bed and that he and Chad Daybell called 911. The Daybell children told that they declined an autopsy. They say the coroner told them Tammy’s death appeared to be natural causes. They believed that because they say their mom was in ill health prior to her death.
She’s framing her motives through this lens of ego protective all good religious beliefs. But the things that she wanted were to be with this new lover and have money. Because she is the one chosen. Lori Vallow Daybell craved “money, power and sex” and killed her two kids because they were “obstacles” to her desires.
In May 2024, Chad Daybell was convicted on all counts. His defense was that Lori Daybell was responsible, that she seduced him and manipulated him. The evidence suggested that both were equally involved in planning and executing the plan.
The married couple also face other charges related to the mysterious deaths of their former spouses. Both pleaded not guilty.
Lori Vallow Daybell was born Lori Norene Cox on June 26, 1973, in San Bernadino, Calif. She got married for the first time when she was 19 years old, to her high school sweetheart, Nelson Yanes. The pair divorced not long after marrying and shared no children.
In 1995, Lori married William Lagioia, with whom she shares a son Colby Ryan, and the marriage was short-lived, as she and Lagioia divorced in 1996.
They divorced in 2004 and shared a daughter Tylee. He died of a heart attack in 2018 and had been in a bitter custody battle with Vallow over Tylee. Keith Taniguchi, his former attorney, told that Vallow had accused Ryan of sexually abusing their daughter and that he had lost custody. Taniguchi said that there was an “extensive” analysis but that no evidence that Tylee had been abused was ever found.
Ryan died in 2018 of an apparent heart attack, which authorities confirmed after looking into his death when an audio recording surfaced of Lori saying, “I went through a lot of years of this kind of hard stuff, and I was going to murder him. I was going to kill him, like the scripture says. Like Nephi killed — just to stop the pain and to stop him coming after me and to stop him coming after my children.”
In 2005, Lori married Charles Vallow, with whom she adopted J.J. Joshua had special needs. The boy was the son of Charles Vallow’s nephew.
Those closest to Lori say that before 2018, she was a doting mother to Tylee and J.J., as well as a devoted member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Sometime around 2017, relatives say Lori Vallow’s relationship with her children changed. Her friends say she had been reading the books of doomsday author Chad Daybell. Daybell, who wrote several fiction books about preparing for the end of the world, lived outside Rexburg, Idaho. Lori met author and self-proclaimed doomsday prophet Chad Daybell in 2018.
Charles filed for divorce from Lori in 2019, citing her religious beliefs and alleged threats against his life if he got in the way of what he said she believed to be her mission. Lori’s husband Charles Vallow claimed in a February 2019 court filing that part of why he wanted to divorce her was because of her extreme religious beliefs, some of which allegedly threatened him with violence. “Mother [Lori Vallow] informed Father [Charles Vallow] that she was a God assigned to carry out the work of the 144,000 at Christ’s second coming in July 2020 and that if Father got in her way of her mission she would murder him,” a 2019 court filing read in part. Elsewhere in the filing, Charles alleged that Lori had “recently become infatuated at times obsessive about near-death experiences and spiritual visions” and that Lori told him she was eternally married to “the ancient Book of Mormon prophet Moroni and that she has lived numerous lives on numerous planets prior to this current life.”
Cox wasn’t charged with a crime in relation to the slaying, and has since died of natural causes. Charles Vallow went to the house where Lori Vallow was living with the children in Chandler, Arizona. Charles was supposed to drop their son JJ off at school. But when he went inside the home, Charles was shot dead by Lori’s brother, Alex Cox. Cox told police that Lori and Charles got into a fight. Alex claimed he was protecting his sister and shot Charles in self-defense. Lori and Tylee — who both say they heard the shooting — told similar stories of self-defense.
Lori Vallow moved closer to Chad Daybell. She relocated her kids to Rexburg, Idaho. Lori’s brother, Alex Cox, moved into the same apartment complex.
Lori Vallow, Tylee, JJ, and Alex Cox went to Yellowstone National Park. Police say this is where the last known photo of Tylee was taken before she vanished. The morning after Tylee Ryan disappeared, investigators say that Alex Cox’s cellphone GPS placed him in Chad Daybell’s backyard, on the property for about 2 hours. About 14 minutes after Cox’s GPS showed him leaving the property, Chad Daybell texted his wife, Tammy Daybell. The text read: “… I spotted a big racoon [sic] along the fence. I hurried and got my gun, and he was still walking along. I got close enough that one shot did the trick. He is now in our pet cemetery…”
Melanie Gibb says that she and her boyfriend, David Warwick, were staying with Lori Vallow in Rexburg that weekend. On the night of September 22, Warwick says he saw Alex Cox carry JJ into Lori’s apartment. But the next morning, according to Warwick, when he asked to see JJ, Lori reportedly told them that JJ was “being a zombie” and that Cox had to take him away. The day after JJ was last seen, investigators say Alex Cox’s cellphone showed that Cox returned to Chad Daybell’s backyard. This time, Cox was there for only 17 minutes.
Court documents show he received $430,000 in life insurance money after Tammy died. Multiple sources say the funds came from several policies and Chad made “significant” increases to at least one policy before Tammy passed away.
Later that month, JJ’s grandmother, Kay Woodcock, asked police to check on JJ’s welfare. Woodcock said she was concerned and hadn’t heard from JJ in months.
On November 26, 2019, Rexburg police went to Lori Vallow Daybell’s house looking for JJ. Police say Vallow Daybell lied to them, claiming that JJ was safe and staying in Arizona with her friend, Melanie Gibb. At first, Gibb wasn’t forthcoming about JJ’s whereabouts but later called police and told them JJ hadn’t been with her. While Rexburg police attempted to locate JJ, investigators soon realized that his sister, Tylee Ryan was also missing, and launched a nationwide search for the children.
Hi, Lori! Lori, I’m Lieutenant Ball, Police Department. How are you? Are you alone? – My brother is here. She is smiling, trying to be relaxed, flirt with them in order to talk her way out of it, by stating that she was moving a lot because her other brother wanted to kill her. She is using her appearance as well.
In December 2019, Fremont County Sheriff’s Investigators grew suspicious about Tammy Daybell’s death. They exhumed her body to conduct an autopsy.
That same month, Lori’s brother, Alex Cox, died in Arizona. Cox died from a pulmonary embolism.
On January 25, 2020, authorities served Lori Vallow Daybell an order requiring her to produce her children.
Police officers – Do you have any questions regarding that? Have a nice day.
Hours later…
I’m Nate Eaton with East Idaho news.com in Hawaii where Chad and Lori Daybell were served with two search warrants. Just hours ago law enforcement officers from eastern Idaho along with Federal agents and the Hawaii’ Police Department pulled Lori and Chad over. They were driving a black SUV. They pulled into this resort where I am standing. They put Chad into one vehicle. Lori into another. That’s when their vehicle was seized. And they had no way to get home. We had a chance to ask them so many questions that need answers. – Lori, Nate Eaton with East Idaho news. Can you tell me where your kids are? Where are your kids? – No comment. -They’ve been missing for four months. You have nothing to say? You’re over here in Hawaii. Where are your children? Why don’t you just tell us where they are? Chad, where Lori’s kids? What happened to Tammy? Chad, can you tell us what happened to Tammy? Why have you guys been in Hawaii for so long? Listen, just tell people what’s happening! There’s people around the country praying for your children, praying for you guys. Why don’t you give us answers? Lori – That’s great. – That’s great? That they’re praying for you, praying for your kids, what? You have nothing to say? Did you do something to your children? Are your children still alive? That’s a simple question. …
On February 20, 2020, after failing to comply, Lori Vallow Daybell was arrested in Hawaii. Two weeks later, she was extradited to Idaho.
On June 9, 2020, police searched Chad Daybell’s backyard. Even after Vallow Daybell’s arrest, the couple refused to say where the children were. On June 9, 2020, the FBI, Rexburg Police and Fremont County Sheriff’s Office descended upon Chad Daybell’s home and property.
Authorities dug in areas of the backyard where Alex Cox’s cellphone had pinged in September 2019. Tragically, they uncovered human remains buried in shallow graves.
Prosecutors believe she was buried in the same location Chad Daybell referenced when he texted Tammy Daybell nine months earlier, saying he was burying a raccoon.
Investigators dug up part of the pet cemetery and found no raccoon. But Daybell’s family told” 48 Hours” there was a second pet cemetery on the property that was not searched.
In June 2020, authorities confirmed that they identified the remains as JJ Vallow and Tylee Ryan. A memorial was built along the Daybell’s fence to honor the victims.
In May 2021, Chad Daybell and Lori Vallow Daybell were charged with first-degree murder for the deaths of JJ and Tylee. Daybell was also charged with murdering his first wife, Tammy Daybell.
In June 2021, Chad Daybell pleaded not guilty to all the charges.
That same month, a judge ruled Lori incompetent to stand trial while she receives mental health treatment.
In August, 2021, Prosecutors announced they will seek the death penalty against Chad Daybell.
In September 2021, Chad and Tammy Daybell’s children — speaking publicly for the first time together — told “48 Hours” they believe their father is innocent. Daybell’s daughter, Emma Murray, says she believes Chad was framed by Alex Cox and Lori Vallow Daybell.
On April 11, 2022, Judge Steven Boyce ruled Lori Vallow Daybell is now mentally competent to stand trial in the Idaho murder case.
Lori Vallow Daybell refused to enter a plea to murder and other charges, prompting Judge Steven Boyce to enter a not guilty plea on her behalf.
Lori Vallow Daybell will qualify for capital punishment if she is convicted at her trial later this year because the slayings were exceptionally depraved and carried out for financial gain, according to court documents filed by prosecuting attorneys from Fremont and Madison counties on May 2, 2022.
Prosecutors were seeking the death penalty for both defendants, but Lori Vallow Daybell’s attorneys said it should be taken off the table in her case because they will not have time to fully review a large amount of evidence that was turned over in recent weeks. During a hearing, Judge Steven Boyce agreed. He noted that Vallow Daybell has not waived her right to a speedy trial, so the proceeding could not be rescheduled to give her defense team ample time to review the evidence. The death penalty still applies to Chad Daybell’s case.
On December 7, 2023, Lori Vallow Daybell was charged with conspiracy to commit murder in the 2019 death of her fourth husband, Charles Vallow, who died after police say he was shot by her brother, Alexander Lamar Cox.
Daybell and Cox, who also died in 2019, were also accused of trying to murder her niece’s husband, Brandon Boudreaux, who was shot at in 2019 while driving near his home. She also faces a charge of conspiracy to commit murder in that case. Boudreaux was unhurt in the incident.
The court entered pleas of not guilty for Daybell on both charges.
Vallow Daybell filed documents notifying the court that she wants to represent herself in her Arizona trial.
At one point, Lori allegedly told a friend that Tylee and J.J. were “zombies” and that she and Chad were on a mission to eradicate zombies before the second coming of Jesus Christ. “The term ‘zombie’ refers to an individual whose mortal spirit has left their body and that their body is now the host of another spirit,” Rexburg police Lt. Ron Ball wrote in an affidavit. “The new spirit in a ‘zombie’ is always considered a ‘dark spirit.’ “
In March 2020, Lori allegedly also told her niece, Melani Boudreaux Pawlowski, that Pawlowski’s children had become “possessed” and were “zombies,” per a court filing in Pawlowski’s custody case against her ex-husband Brandon Boudreaux. The filing, submitted by Brandon’s legal team, also alleged that Lori claimed Brandon “needed to die and that may indicate that Tylee and J.J. needed to die as well.”
According to a probable cause affidavit in July 2020, Lori allegedly told her friend Melanie Gibb that she convinced her son J.J.’s grandmother, Kay Woodcock, to take him in because she had cancer.
“Vallow further told Gibb she had told Kay that she had cancer in order to convince Kay Woodcock to take JJ,” a police report read in part. “Vallow further elaborated to Gibb that she had traveled with JJ and handed him off to Kay in an airport.”
Lori did not have cancer, and it was Woodcock who later reported J.J. missing to authorities.
A February 2023 psychiatric diagnosis revealed that Vallow suffers from a “delusional disorder” mixed with “hyper-religiosity” and a “continuous and unspecified personality disorder” with narcissistic features, according to Boyce.
Andrew van der Vaart, MD, PhD suggested an explanation:
“One trait of Narcissistic Personality Disorder which is ‘a preoccupation with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love.’ When we look at the timeline of Lori Vallow’s life, one thing that sticks out is the number of marriages. Not everyone that has multiple marriages is motivated by a continuing seeking for something more perfect and more ideal. In this case, it makes sense to ask whether looking for this idealized version of a spiritual giant, and an obsession with an idealized love is what kept her unsatisfied through all these relationships and motivated the next one, the next and the next. And that it was only when she met someone who actually believed that he was Messianic. That he was essentially a prophet and a spiritual ideal himself, when the seeking seemed to reach its ultimate end point. He also had his first near death experience. He’s bumped against the cliffs and he claims he’s knocked unconscious. So she finds someone who actually reinforces this obsession with ideal, pure, all good love. Because he’s perfect. He’s a Christ-like figure.
Prior to this ultimate end point of someone who shares this extreme spiritual idealism, delusional or not, Lori Vallow is perpetually seeking fame, recognition, ideal beauty… Where her romantic relationships lack is in stability. Her relationships with her children is a particularly intense form of attachment, because she is not getting a stable attachment from a lover or a partner, because she’s always obsessing and looking for a better one. What she ends up with is a kind of controlling obsessiveness with the attachment from her children. Religious belief was covering for an emotional need. That theme of religious beliefs working to justify certain emotional reactions. A tendency towards splitting the world into the all good or the all-bed also matched perfectly with these extreme religious beliefs. Because counterbalancing against that seeking for something ideal and perfect is the reality that things will always fall short of that. In in this world of humans who are not perfect, you will be forever disappointed if you are only looking for a perfect, all-good love. But one way of dealing with that is by saying ‘All those that fall short of my ideal version of them are in fact all bad.’ In Object relations theory the idea is that to young children the world is made of things that are either all good or all bad. There’s the all good object of the loving mother and the all bad object when the mother is or the caretaker is neglectful or not present. But with time and good enough parenting these things are consolidated into the gradations of people that we see as adults. People that are neither perfect, nor all evil. So splitting is something that’s more often associated with Borderline Personality Disorder, another cluster B pathology. Here, chosen versus unchosen is the ultimate split, good versus evil. It can lead itself to a psychotic level of splitting, meaning it is no longer reality based. It does not respond to evidence to the contrary. Hyper-religiosity plays so well into the preoccupation with the ideal, and with the splitting people into good versus evil.”
People with Narcissistic Personality Disorder can: Have an unreasonably high sense of self-importance and require constant, excessive admiration. Feel that they deserve privileges and special treatment. Expect to be recognized as superior even without achievements. Chad Daybell validated her. He confirmed something she had already thought – she is special. And not only special, but Goddess, Jesus Christ’s friend. She was above others. She was the chosen one. Given his infatuation, in his eyes, she was Goddess.
Daybell was born in Provo, Utah, in 1968, and grew up in Springville, Utah, graduating from Springville High School and then Brigham Young University after studying communication.
A college writer, Daybell published a book about his cemetery experiences called “One Foot In The Grave,” but also wrote personal memoirs that included what he called his near-death experiences.
He also wrote a series of books about the end times for a religious audience and was a prominent enough writer and podcaster to be called one of “15 amazing speakers” at a two-day conference in St. George.
It seemed that they met each others needs.
Lori Vallow Daybell has been deemed competent and will now represent herself at her next trial.
