Lori Vallow was silent when authorities demanded to know the place her lacking youngsters JJ Vallow and Tylee Ryan had been.
She wouldn’t converse when their stays had been discovered – Tylee hacked to items and burned, JJ nonetheless in his purple pyjamas – in shallow graves on her new husband Chad Daybell’s property.
She refused to present any solutions when confronted by her distraught surviving baby, sister and different family members as they begged her to inform them the reality in heartbreaking jailhouse telephone calls.
She even continued to remain quiet over the subsequent three years as she was hit with new costs for the murders of her fourth husband Charles Vallow and Mr Daybell’s first spouse Tammy Daybell, hung out in a psychiatric facility and had her case severed from her alleged co-conspirator.
And now, whilst she stares down the prospect of spending the remainder of her life behind bars, she remains to be silent.
This week, throughout her high-profile homicide trial, the 49-year-old shocked the courtroom when she not solely declined to take the stand to testify in her personal defence – however refused to entertain placing on any defence case in any respect.
In a ultimate bid to save lots of herself from life in jail, Ms Vallow’s attorneys turned on her lover, fellow cult member and alleged confederate Mr Daybell in closing arguments – arguing that she was “underneath his management” however that she was not concerned in any of the murders.
Now, as jurors retire for deliberations, the one story they’ve about what occurred to little JJ, 7, teenager Tylee, 16, and mother-of-five Tammy, 49, is the one laid out by the state of Idaho.
And it’s a horrifying story at that – one involving a warped plot to kill off virtually everybody across the couple.
“Cash, energy, and intercourse – that’s what this case is about,” prosecutors stated in each opening and shutting statements.
Lori Vallow sits in a police automobile after an August 2022 courtroom listening to
Over 27 days of trial, prosecutors have laid out their case alleging that Ms Vallow conspired with Mr Daybell and her brother Alex Cox to homicide JJ, Tylee and Tammy – pushed by her doomsday cult beliefs, her lust to be with Mr Daybell and greed.
The trio allegedly spent months orchestrating a plot whereby they justified their plans to kill by claiming that the victims had been “demons” or “darkish spirits”.
Then, after brutally murdering the 2 youngsters and mother-of-five, Ms Vallow allegedly regarded her involved household, pals and authorities within the eye, refusing to disclose the place her son and daughter had been.
As an alternative, she and Mr Daybell started a brand new life collectively, swanning off to Hawaii to get married in what gave the impression to be each inch the proper fairytale romance.
This picture of Tylee Ryan and her brother Joshua “JJ” Vallow with their uncle Alex Cox was taken days earlier than they had been killed
(Handout)
Doomsday cult beliefs
Over a dramatic month-long trial, jurors have heard how weird cult beliefs lie on the centre of the case in opposition to Ms Vallow.
Jurors heard how the lethal saga started when Ms Vallow – a member of the Church of the Latter-Day Saints – and Mr Daybell – an LDS member and self-published doomsday books creator – launched into a romance.
After talking for a while, they finally met in individual at a non secular convention in October 2018 whereas they had been each married and prosecutors say their love affair, cult beliefs – and murderous plans – all grew from there.
Ms Vallow and Mr Daybell believed that they had been on a non secular mission to assemble the 144,000 and so they believed in a “ranking system of sunshine and darkish” for a way they ranked the spirits of the folks round them.
Over time, this developed into the assumption that some folks – together with the kids – had been “zombies” and the one method to do away with the zombies was for the human physique to be destroyed.
Prosecutors allege that these beliefs had been used to “justify” the murders of these round them.
Within the weeks and months main as much as the murders, Ms Vallow instructed pals that her youngsters and fourth husband Charles Vallow had turn into “demons” or “darkish spirits” – a few of them bearing names.
In February 2019, Ms Vallow allegedly instructed a buddy that she believed Charles was possessed by demon referred to as Ned Schneider and that he was “already lifeless” with the demon “utilizing his physique as a number”.
Two days earlier than Charles was murdered, Ms Vallow texted her niece Melani Boudreaux: “They’ve an elaborate plan… This week will change every part.”
Two days later, in July 2019, Cox shot Charles lifeless at Ms Vallow’s residence in Arizona in what was claimed to be self defence on the time. (Now, Ms Vallow is going through homicide costs in Arizona.)
Chad Daybell is ready to face his personal trial for the murders
(Submit Register)
Then, in September 2019, Ms Vallow allegedly instructed one other buddy that JJ and Tylee had been taken over by “darkish spirits” and that JJ would say issues like “I really like Devil”. Tylee was possessed by a demon named Hillary and “needed to be freed,” Ms Vallow instructed one other buddy.
Textual content messages between Ms Vallow and Mr Daybell additionally reveal her complaining about being “uninterested in taking good care of demons” whereas referring to her youngsters.
“We r each so uninterested in taking good care of demons,” she wrote in a bombshell textual content in August. “We’re weary. Please ask the Lord to take them.”
Jurors additionally heard how the couple mentioned inflicting ache on the kids, giving them “a cause to scream” and in addition spoke in regards to the so-called “loss of life percentages” of Tylee and JJ.
Within the defence’s closing assertion, Ms Vallow’s attorneys argued that Ms Vallow was solely a “follower” of her new lover Mr Daybell and was “underneath his management” and the “craziness” of his cult beliefs.
Conspiracy and greed
Prosecutors allege that – in addition to the cult beliefs – greed additionally drove the three alleged accomplices to conspire to kill the victims.
And primarily based on textual content messages, web searches, monetary data and witness testimony offered in courtroom, the murders had been months within the making.
Web searches revealed that Ms Vallow shopped for all times insurance coverage insurance policies for her youngsters in July 2019 – two months earlier than they had been murdered.
That very same month, her Gmail account additionally looked for tips on how to promote a service canine – just like the one JJ, who had autism, was utilizing on the time.
Within the months main as much as the murders, jurors heard that Ms Vallow additionally made a number of suspicious adjustments to Social Safety funds meant for Tylee and JJ.
It was a sample the place Ms Vallow altered the funds to go on to her after which the respective baby wound up lifeless days later.
Even after the deaths of JJ and Tylee, prosecutors say Ms Vallow continued to gather the Social Safety funds.
Mr Daybell, in the meantime, additionally made a life insurance coverage declare for Tammy simply days after she died.
The doomsday couple was additionally planning for his or her new – spouse-less and child-less – life collectively in different methods, jurors heard.
In August 2019 – whereas Tammy was nonetheless alive – Ms Vallow looked for “malachite wedding ceremony rings”. She then purchased a pair on 2 October 2019 – days earlier than Tammy was killed – and wedding ceremony photographs present her and Mr Daybell carrying matching rings.
Chad and Tammy Daybell earlier than her loss of life in October 2019
(Fb)
Brutal murders
Probably the most harrowing and disturbing a part of the trial got here as jurors realized harrowing particulars of the kids’s murders and noticed graphic photographs of the state of their stays.
Tylee was final seen alive on 8 September 2019 when she, JJ, Cox and Ms Vallow went on a visit to Yellowstone Nationwide Park. A photograph of {the teenager} on the park marks her final proof of life.
The following day, Mr Daybell despatched a chilling textual content message to Tammy claiming he had shot a raccoon and buried it within the pet cemetery on the grounds of their property in Rexburg – the identical location the place Tylee’s stays can be discovered months later.
Days afterward 22 September, JJ was final seen alive at his mom’s condo. A photograph taken that night time confirmed the little boy sitting on a settee wearing an identical set of purple pyjamas.
Ms Vallow’s former buddy David Warwick testified that he noticed JJ that night time when he and his spouse Melanie Gibb had been staying together with her for the weekend. The following morning, JJ was gone.
When he requested in regards to the boy’s whereabouts, Ms Vallow allegedly instructed him that JJ had “an episode and knocked over an image of Christ”.
It wasn’t till 9 June 2020 that the kids’s stays had been found on Mr Daybell’s property – JJ’s physique buried in a shallow grave near a tree and Tylee’s stays near a fireplace pit within the pet cemetery.
Graphic photographs revealed that JJ was nonetheless carrying his purple pyjamas and a pull-up nighttime diaper.
His arms had been wrapped in duct tape and his head was wrapped in plastic luggage with thick layers of duct tape over his mouth.
Post-mortem findings confirmed that the little boy had the date rape drug GHB in his system when he was smothered to loss of life with the plastic luggage. He additionally had scratch marks on his neck suggesting he was awake and fought for his life to get the bag off his head.
Jurors heard that Cox’s fingerprints had been discovered on the plastic bag.
Tylee’s physique in the meantime was so badly burned that an post-mortem to find out her reason behind loss of life was not possible with jurors listening to grotesque testimony of how search groups discovered “items of bone, charred flesh, simply globs of flesh” belonging to the 16-year-old.
Investigators are seen digging up the our bodies of JJ and Tylee in June 2020
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Earlier than her stays had been dispersed on the grounds, the killer or killers had brutally tried to dismember her physique with a pickaxe which was discovered on the Daybell residence, with Tylee’s DNA discovered on each the pickaxe and on a shovel.
Regardless of the efforts to hack on the teenager’s physique, the killer didn’t seem to handle to dismember her and her burned physique elements had been scattered within the grounds.
Whereas all horrifying, maybe essentially the most damning proof tying Ms Vallow alone to the murders was the invention of a hair.
DNA analyst Keeley Coleman testified {that a} single hair had been discovered on the duct tape used to wrap the plastic bag round little JJ’s head. That hair belonged to Ms Vallow.
Jurors heard that the probabilities of discovering a match had been one in 71 billion.
A search of Ms Vallow’s residence in November 2019 – when the kids had been reported lacking – additionally uncovered a trove of regarding objects together with a number of weapons, ammunition, empty magazines, silencers, Military-grade knives and Hazmat-style fits. In the meantime, JJ’s toys and prescription medicine had been present in black trash luggage and Tylee’s in a storage unit.
Only one month after the kids had been final seen alive, Tammy was additionally murdered.
Jurors heard how the wholesome 49-year-old died abruptly on 19 October 2019, with a chilling 911 name revealing Mr Daybell bluntly saying she’s “clearly” lifeless. On the time, Mr Daybell declined an post-mortem and her loss of life was dominated pure causes.
Tammy’s sister Samantha Gwilliam instructed the courtroom that she sensed issues didn’t add up as her sister was completely wholesome when she noticed her two weeks earlier.
Jurors additionally heard how 10 days earlier than her loss of life, Tammy had been shot at by a masked man on the driveway of her residence.
Two separate witnesses had testified that Mr Daybell had a dream or “imaginative and prescient” that his spouse would die earlier than she turned 50.
When Tammy’s loss of life was tied to the disappearance of the kids, her physique was exhumed and an post-mortem revealed she died of asphyxiation.
Cox allegedly raised considerations about being made the “fall man” for her loss of life by the doomsday couple.
Someday after he made that remark – on 11 December 2019 – Cox additionally died abruptly on the age of 51. His loss of life was additionally dominated pure causes, nevertheless the overdose drug Narcan was additionally present in his system.
Silence and secrecy
Within the aftermath of the murders, Ms Vallow confirmed no concern for her youngsters and refused to disclose what had occurred to them.
Regardless of repeatedly being confronted by relations and authorities, she made a sequence of lies about the place they had been.
In a single occasion, she allegedly instructed police that JJ had gone to see Frozen 2 with Ms Gibb and had requested her to take photographs of random youngsters to indicate to authorities.
In one other occasion, she allegedly threatened to kill one other buddy, “minimize her up” after which bury her stays “in a spot no one would ever discover” when she questioned her in regards to the lacking youngsters.
Following the June 2020 discovery of the our bodies, Ms Vallow confirmed no indicators of her shock at their deaths.
Video exhibits the second Lori Vallow was served with courtroom paperwork over her lacking children
(FOX 10/ screenshot)
As an alternative, in a single jailhouse telephone name together with her sister, she appeared to admit that she was conscious the kids had been lifeless all alongside.
Within the 24 June 2020 name, a distraught Summer time Shiflet accuses her sibling of throwing her murdered youngsters “away like rubbish” and questions how she may have gone to Hawaii and married Mr Daybell in a fairytale wedding ceremony on the seaside realizing that her youngsters had been lifeless and buried in a pet cemetery.
“You had been dancing on a seaside with a smile in your face taking wedding ceremony photographs,” she shouts.
At this level of the decision – the place she repeatedly dodges questions on what she knew – Ms Vallow seems to unwittingly slip up.
“Yeah, months later,” she says of the hole between the deaths and her wedding ceremony.
In each this name and a distressing name together with her eldest son Colby Ryan, Ms Vallow continues to present no account as to what occurred even within the face of confrontation from a few of her closest relations.
Whereas the stays of her youngsters lay buried on Mr Daybell’s property, the couple headed to Hawaii the place they acquired married on the seaside on 5 November 2019.
They had been nonetheless there two months later enjoyable by a pool when Ms Vallow was served with courtroom papers demanding that she current her youngsters to authorities.
Stunning video, taken in January 2020, captured the bikini-clad mother-of-three sunbathing by a pool with Mr Daybell in Hawaii when she was confronted about JJ and Tylee’s whereabouts.
There was no effort to argue in opposition to the official. No clarification for the place the kids may truly be. No concern for his or her security.
As an alternative – true to type – Ms Vallow merely requested: “Do you want one thing from me?”