Police discovered they were missing a month later after an extended family member became worried that she wasn’t able to get ahold of JJ. The children were last seen alive in September of 2019.

She moved to eastern Idaho with her brother and kids to be closer to Chad Daybell. Lori Vallow Daybell was later charged in Arizona in connection with Charles Vallow’s death she has not yet had the opportunity to enter a plea in that case.Īccording to prosecutors, Vallow Daybell was already in a relationship with Chad Daybell, who was still married to his wife, Tammy Daybell, at the time. Cox died later that year of what authorities determined were natural causes. Lori and Charles were estranged, and he had filed divorce documents claiming that she believed she was a goddess sent to usher in the Biblical apocalypse.Īt the time, Cox told police he acted in self-defense, and he was never charged in connection with the death. The case began in July 2019, when Vallow Daybell’s then-husband, Charles Vallow, was shot and killed by her brother, Alex Cox, at his home in a Phoenix suburb. “Of the 15,000 texts you have in evidence, show me one where Lori is part of that conspiracy,” Archibald said in closing arguments. Instead, Archibald asserted that prosecutors had not proven their case, suggesting that there was not enough evidence to find beyond a reasonable doubt that she committed a crime. Vallow Daybell’s defense did not call any witnesses, and Vallow Daybell declined to testify. Hair belonging to Vallow Daybell was found on a piece of duct tape used to wrap JJ, a DNA analyst testified.

JJ’s body had been wrapped in duct tape and plastic, and Tylee’s remains had been destroyed and burned with her bones showing evidence of chopping or stabbing marks, the witnesses said. It has also been gruesome, such as when law enforcement officers testified about finding JJ and Tylee’s remains buried in Chad Daybell’s yard. Four of the people the defendant described as “zombies” were later killed or shot at, according to the testimony. Other testimony has been strange, such as when Vallow Daybell’s former friend Melanie Gibb testified that Vallow Daybell believed people in her life had been taken over by evil spirits and turned into “zombies” - including her two youngest kids. Wood also reviewed the evidence and testimony presented to jurors over the past four weeks and reminded the jurors that under Idaho law, aiding and abetting, such as by helping in the planning of a crime, is the same as a person committing it herself.Īt times, the testimony in the case has been heartbreaking - such as when Vallow Daybell’s only surviving child, Colby Ryan, accused her of murdering his siblings in a recorded jailhouse phone call. She was asphyxiated in her own home,” Wood said. “Tammy Daybell, a loving, active mother of five and a school librarian, was murdered in her own home. “What does justice for these victims require? It requires a conviction on each and every count,” Wood said.ĭefense attorney Jim Archibald countered that there was no evidence tying his client to the killings but plenty showing she was a loving, protective mother whose life took a sharp turn when she met her fifth husband, Chad Daybell, and fell for the “weird” apocalyptic religious claims of a cult leader. “ Money, power and sex,” Madison County Prosecutor Rob Wood said, urging the jury to convict Lori Vallow Daybell in the deaths of 7-year-old Joshua “JJ” Vallow, 16-year-old Tylee Ryan, and her fifth husband’s previous wife Tammy Daybell. The panel of 12 jurors began deliberations shortly after 2 p.m. Lori Vallow Daybell wanted the victims’ money, so she used sex and power to manipulate her brother and a lover into carrying out the crimes, Idaho prosecutors told jurors Thursday at the close of the weekslong case. BOISE, Idaho (AP) - An Idaho jury is weighing the fate of a woman charged in the slayings of her two youngest children and a romantic rival in what prosecutors say was a strange doomsday-focused plot.

Doomsday mom