Doomsday Mom Lori Vallow Part 2

A Downward Spiral

In September of 2019, Lori told Tylee to pack her things, that they were moving. Lori’s mother remembered last seeing her granddaughter crying as she packed her belongings. Colby said that Tylee was so upset that she wouldn’t even talk, and that they didn’t even know where the family was going. The next morning, Lori, JJ, and Tylee left Arizona to move closer to Chad. They relocated to Rexburg, Idaho.

Colby, still in Arizona, and preparing to welcome a new baby with his wife, wasn’t able to talk to his sister as much as he had in the past. He sent her a text on September 24th. Tylee responded to him, typing in all lowercase. Something seemed off and Colby was immediately worried. It didn’t sound like her. Colby called his mother, asking her what was going on with Tylee and if she was okay. Lori told him that Tylee was in a new school and trying to move on from Charles’ death. She assured Colby that Tylee would call him when she was ready. Not assured at all, Colby texted his sister back, asking her why she was texting so strangely, that she didn’t sound like herself at all. Tylee stopped responding and Lori shut her phone off.

Convinced that something was wrong with Tylee, Colby and his wife began looking through all of the emails that Charles had sent before he died. Most of these emails had been ignored by family members due to the stories that Lori told everyone about him. However, now looking through them, Kelsee found them very concerning. 

There were lists that Lori had made of which of her friends and family were light spirits and which were dark spirits. Charles wrote that Lori often referred to Tylee as a dark spirit. Chad said that there were 20,000 zombies on Earth and that the only way to free them was to kill them. He also said that he was the only one who knew who the zombies were of course. Lori told Alex that their brother, Adam, was a zombie as of earlier that year. 

She also told Alex that her niece’s ex-husband, Brandon—who’d previously been very close to Lori and even baptized Tylee into the LDS Church—was the final zombie. In October of 2019, when Brandon was pulling into his driveway, someone in a Jeep Wrangler drove by and shot at him. The bullet missed him and struck his car. The Jeep sped off. He told police that the Jeep looked just like the Jeep that Charles had given Tylee when she got her driver’s license. Brandon said he believed the shooter was Alex Cox.

On October 9th, 2019, Chad’s wife, Tammy, arrived home to find a man in a ski mask. He shot at her, but missed. Tammy screamed for Chad, who came out running, like he was trying to talk to the gunman. It turned out that the gun was actually a paintball gun. Less than two weeks later, on October 19th, first responders arrived on scene to the Daybell home to find 49-year-old Tammy dead. Chad told investigators that she’d been having fainting episodes recently. It was determined that she died of natural causes. Chad declined an autopsy. He received $430,000 from Tammy’s life insurance policy.

Where are the kids???

In late November, Kay Woodcock, Charles’ mother, called police to report that she couldn’t get in contact with Lori, Tylee or JJ. She said that she hadn’t seen them in two months and was desperate for help finding them. The last time she’d seen JJ was during a 36 second Facetime call with him in August. She had no idea where the family even was. While looking for any clues as to where Lori and the kids might be, Kay was able to get into Charles’ email. She found an Amazon order made on his account for a women’s malachite wedding ring. The shipping address was in Rexburg, Idaho. Armed with an address, Kay contacted police again, now hopeful they could locate her grandchildren. 

Police in Rexburg went to Lori’s residence to see if they could make contact with JJ and Tylee. Lori wasn’t home, however Chad and Alex were both there. They asked where JJ was and Alex told them that he was with his grandma Kay in Louisiana. Officers were like, not true, she’s the one who called in the welfare check. They told them that Lori was in nearby apartment 107, which was the home of a friend.

Officers had a really weird feeling, so they called for backup before approaching apartment 107. Lori answered and told them that JJ was with one of her friends in Arizona, Melanie Gibb. She offered to call Melanie so they could speak to him. Melanie didn’t answer, but Lori told officers that they might be at the movies. Officers asked Lori to please get in touch with JJ and Melanie and to then get back in touch with police.

When officers were finally able to get in touch with Melanie, she was initially resistant, but finally admitted that she had no idea where JJ was. She said that she’d called Lori and Chad and asked them why they’d told the police he’d been with her. Lori, who’d accused her of recording the phone call, said that she needed an excuse for where JJ was so she didn’t have to tell them where he actually was, but she assured Melanie that he was happy and safe. 

Still unable to get in touch with JJ, investigators noticed that no one had seen or heard from Tylee either. Colby tried to call and text his sister, but everything bounced back. On December 20th, 2019, Tylee and JJ were officially declared missing. It was also discovered that in November, Lori and Chad had traveled to Hawaii and got married on the beach. JJ and Tylee were not with them.

It was difficult to nail down exact dates, but investigators were able to determine when JJ and Tylee were last seen. With warrants, detectives obtained access to Lori’s Icloud account. They found a picture from September 8th, 2019 of JJ, Tylee, and Alex at Yellowstone National Park. This was the last time that anyone could prove Tylee was alive. Detectives released a statement, asking anyone who’d been at Yellowstone during that time to please send any photos or videos they’d taken.

On September 3rd, Lori had enrolled JJ at Kennedy Elementary School in Rexburg. On September 20th, she unenrolled him, telling school officials that she was going to homeschool him. No one had seen him since. Lori’s internet searches showed that on that day she searched for the elementary school’s phone number, as well as “define possess”.

As suspicion of Lori and Chad began to grow, investigators started looking at other things, including Tammy’s death. Now ruled suspicious, her body was exhumed on December 11th and sent for an autopsy. It was then determined that she had actually died from asphyxiation. On December 12th, 51-year-old Alex Cox was found dead in his home. Prior to his death, Alex had told his wife that he felt he was going to be the fall guy for everything Lori and Chad had done. Alex’s death was ruled as being from natural causes, due to hereditary blood clots in his lungs. Additionally, police in Phoenix began re-examining the death of Lori’s third husband and Tylee’s biological father, Joseph Ryan. It was ultimately determined that Joseph’s death was TRULY from natural causes.

On December 21st, Chad and Lori were officially announced as persons of interest in JJ and Tylee’s disappearances. Not long after, they released a statement saying that they’ve got information that indicates that Lori either knew where the children were or what happened to them. Despite the mounting evidence against them, Chad and Lori refused to cooperate with police. 

On January 3rd, 2020, officers served a search warrant on Chad’s home, removing at least 43 items, including electronics, documents, and journals. On the 25th, Lori, who had left Idaho with Chad and was now in Hawaii, was served with a notice that said she must produce the children to the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare or the Rexburg Police within five days. Not surprisingly, the five day deadline came and went.

In February, Lori’s storage locker in Idaho was located, which contained several items belonging to JJ and Tylee. On February 20th, Lori was arrested in Kauai on a $5 million warrant and charged with two felony counts of desertion and nonsupport of dependent children, in addition to charges of obstructing officers, criminal solicitation to commit a crime, and contempt of court. Both she and Chad remained under investigation for conspiracy and attempted murder/murder. 

On March 6th, 2020, Lori had her bail hearing. Her bail was set at $1 million and she was returned to the Madison County Jail. Colby called his mother, begging her to tell him where his brother and sister were. All she’d tell him was that they were okay, they were in a very safe place, and that she’d never hurt them. 

Detectives subpoenaed Alex’s phone records and were able to track his movements and locations around the time that JJ and Tylee went missing. His phone placed him in Chad’s backyard for 2 and a half hours on September 9th. 14 minutes after Alex left the property, Chad texted Tammy saying,

“Well, I have had an interesting morning. I felt I should burn all the limb debris by the fire pit before it got too soaked by the coming storms. While I did so I spotted a big raccoon along the fence. I hurried and got my gun and he was still walking the wall. I got close enough that one shot did the trick. He is now in our pet cemetery.”

On June 9th, 2020, detectives arrived at the Daybell property with a search warrant, along with the FBI, tons of officers, search dogs, all who seemed to be focused on the backyard. Chad spoke to Lori over the jailhouse phone and told her that his backyard was being searched. Those on scene reported that Chad was watching the search closely, then tried to leave in his SUV. Just after he sped off, police followed him and arrested him. Two sets of human remains had been found buried in Chad’s backyard. Chad was charged with two felonies, including concealment, distribution, or alteration of evidence. 

Ugh

Officers on scene said they knew immediately that one of the sets of remains belonged to JJ. He was still wearing the red pajamas that he’d had on in a photo found in Lori’s Icloud. The photo was taken on September 22nd inside of Lori’s apartment in Rexburg. Both sets of remains were taken to the Ada County morgue. 

JJ had been bound with duct tape and had duct tape on his mouth. He had a plastic bag over his head, which had also been sealed with duct tape. His cause of death was ruled as asphyxiation from the plastic bag.

Tylee’s remains were burned and in pieces. It was obvious that she’d been the victim of a homicide, however the cause of death was difficult to determine. It was ultimately ruled as a homicide by unspecified means. Her remains were later sent to an FBI Forensic Anthropologist who found evidence of sharp trauma. Tylee’s DNA was noted to have been found on a pickaxe in the Daybell shed. 

On August 3rd, 2020, a preliminary hearing was held for Chad. Rexburg police officers testified about how they’d attempted to do a welfare check on JJ, and that Chad had originally told them that he last saw JJ in October. They also said that initially Chad told them that he didn’t have Lori’s phone number, but then finally admitted he did. During the hearing, he said that he lied about having her phone number because he felt as though officers were accusing him of something

Melanie Gibb also testified to the fact that Chad called her that evening to tell her that Rexburg Police would be calling her and that she shouldn’t pick up. He told Melanie that they were going to tell the police that JJ was with her. 

Melanie and her boyfriend David said that they’d been told that Tylee was at BYU-Idaho with her roommates, although she’d actually never been enrolled at any school in Idaho. On September 22nd, Melanie said that she saw Alex taking JJ upstairs around 10:30PM. This was the same day that the last known photo of JJ was taken. The next morning, Lori told David that JJ had an outburst the night before, climbing on furniture and knocking over a picture of Jesus. David offered to give JJ a blessing, but Lori reportedly told her that Alex had already taken care of him. Detectives believe that this is the night that JJ was murdered. 

Both Chad and Lori were indicted on charges of murdering Tylee and JJ. Chad was indicted for the murder of his former wife, Tammy. Lori was indicted for conspiracy to commit murder for the shooting death of her former husband, Charles. 

The Trial

In April of 2023, Lori went on trial for the murder of her two children. She, of course, pleaded not guilty. During one of the first days of the trial, after photos were shown of both childrens’ remains, Lori’s attorney requested that she be excused for the remainder of the day because “the graphic evidence that was to be shown would be detrimental to her already fraught mental health”. This request was denied.

The prosecution did their best to present Lori as someone who would and DID everything she needed to to get what she wanted. What she wanted was Chad Daybell. Multiple people took the stand to testify regarding how she would refer to both children as zombies and dark spirits before they disappeared. Some also said that they’d heard Lori talk about how, much like she used to describe Charles, that demons had taken over the bodies of Tylee and JJ.

When Melanie Gibb took the stand, she elaborated more on the light and dark scale that Lori and Chad used:

“…the light and dark scale that she and Chad reportedly believed in. She said people who were light had signed contracts with the Savior, and those who were dark signed contracts with Satan before coming to earth. Lori taught her friends and others about the scale and reportedly told them someone could switch from dark to light, and light to dark.”

A Forensic Scientist testified about Tylee’s DNA being found on the pickaxe and a shovel in Chad’s shed. She also revealed that Alex’s fingerprints were found on the plastic bag around JJ’s head.

Text messages that had been exchanged between Lori and Chad were shown to the court. These demonstrated that a plan had been in place to murder Tylee and JJ for months. The texts also emphasized what friends had testified about regarding Lori and Chad calling the children demons.

July 18th, Chad: “been instructed to focus my efforts on Hillary so I will…she is at 0.13. I turned up the pain to 10 and placed a spiritual virus in her.” Friends said that Hillary was the name Chad and Lori used for the demon that they claimed was possessing Tylee. They also said that the closer the person was to 0, the closer they were to death. 

July 29th, Chad: “do you want me to cause pain yet to those two 3’s you’re riding with?” The “3’s” were Tylee and JJ. 

Lori responded, “Probably hold off on them till we arrive. They will be miserable to deal with. But I’ll text you if they start acting up and we can zap them.”

Chad then texted, “Yes, if they are going to act up we’ll at least give them a reason to scream. I love, cherish, treasure, and adore you.”

August 10th, Lori: “Do you think there is a perfectly orchestrated plan to take the children? And we just have to wait for it to be carried out? I feel lost. Like I should be doing something to help.” Chad responded, “There is a plan being orchestrated for the children.”

Lori’s defense attorney continuously referred to these text messages as fantasy.

On May 12th, 2023, after a seven hour deliberation, the jury unanimously found Lori Vallow Daybell guilty on charges of murder and conspiracy to commit murder in the death of Tammy Daybell. Before her sentencing, Lori was allowed to make a statement to the court:

“I mourn with all of you who mourn my children and Tammy. Jesus Christ knows the truth of what happened here. Jesus Christ knows that no one was murdered in this case…I have had many communications from people now living in heaven, including my children, Tylee Ashlyn, and Joshua Jackson. I have had many communications with Jesus Christ, the Savior of this world, and our Heavenly Parents. I’ve had many angelic visitors that have come and communicated with me and even manifested themselves to me. Because of these communications. I know for a fact that my children are happy and busy in the spirit world…I am the only person on this earth who knows how much Tylee suffered in her life. She had pain every single day. She never felt good. Her body did not work right…She had a very difficult life.”

Lori continued to talk about how she’d been visited by not only her two children, but Tammy Daybell also, who she described as her “eternal friend”. 

49-year-old Lori was sentenced to five life sentences in prison without the possibility of parole. 

Summer, Lori’s sister, reflected on how incredibly heartbreaking it was, not only to lose her niece and nephew, but to see what her sister had become:

“The world would have been a better place with Tylee in it. The world would have been a better place with JJ in it. We will always be grief-stricken over their untimely deaths and are beyond sad that they were betrayed by the very mother they loved. There are no excuses for Lori’s actions regarding Tylee and JJ; but we do see that she is mentally ill.”

When Larry Woodcock, JJ’s grandfather, walked out of the courthouse after the ruling the crowd was chanting and singing one of JJ’s favorite songs, “We Will Rock You” by Queen.

Chad Daybell’s trial is set for April of 2024. In 2021, Chad’s five children finally broke their silence in an interview with 48 Hours. They expressed that they believe their father is innocent, and that he was set up by Alex and Lori. His daughter Emma said that none of this would’ve happened if Lori hadn’t met her father. All five of the siblings agreed that they never believed that their father could have killed their mother so he could marry Lori.

Lori is currently housed at the Pocatello Women’s Correctional Center in Pocatello, Idaho.