Lori Vallow, an Idaho cult mom, is being convicted today of murdering her two children and plotting to murder her husband’s ex-wife.
Vallow 50, faces life in prison without parole. Earlier this year, the judge in her case agreed to her request that the death penalty be taken off the table as punishment for prosecutors who violated a judicial rule during the discovery phase of the trial.
Vallow was found guilty in May of the murder of her two youngest children, 7-year-old Joshua “JJ” Vallow and 16-year-old Tylee Ryan, and of conspiracy to murder Tammy Daybell, the previous wife of her fifth husband.
The husband, Chad Daybell, is awaiting trial on the same murder charge. He is scheduled to stand trial in April 2024.
Vallow Daybell also faces two other Arizona cases – one on charges of conspiring with her brother to kill her fourth husband, Charles Vallow, and one on charges of conspiracy to kill her niece’s ex-husband. Charles Vallow was shot dead in 2019, but her niece’s ex survived an attack later that year.
Lori Vallow, 50, was convicted of murder in the deaths of 16-year-old Tylee Ryan and 7-year-old JJ Vallow, and conspiracy to murder her husband Chad Daybell’s previous wife, Tammy Daybell
JJ Vallow and Tylee Ryan disappeared in September 2019. Their bodies were found buried in Daybell’s backyard in June 2020
Monday’s sentencing will take place at the Fremont County Courthouse in St. Anthony, Idaho. Judge Steven W. Boyce is expected to hear testimony from several representatives of the victims, including Vallow’s only surviving son, Colby Ryan.
The case began in July 2019, when Vallow’s brother, Alex Cox, shot and killed her estranged husband, Charles Vallow, at a home in suburban Phoenix.
Cox told police he acted in self-defense.
He was never charged in the case and died later that year of what authorities said were natural causes.
Vallow was already in a relationship with Chad Daybell, a self-published author who wrote doomsday-focused fiction loosely based on Mormon teachings. She moved to Idaho with her children and brother to be closer to him.
The “charred remains” of Tylee Ryan, 16, and JJ Vallow, 7, were found at the couple’s home in Salem, Idaho. In the photo: Investigators search the property on June 9, 2020
The children were last seen alive in September 2019. Police discovered they were missing a month later after a family member became concerned. Their bodies were found buried in Chad Daybell’s yard the following summer.
Chad Daybell and Lori Vallow married in November 2019, about two weeks after Daybell’s previous wife, Tammy, was killed.
Tammy Daybell was initially said to have died of natural causes, but an autopsy later showed she had suffocated, authorities said.
Daybell, 54, was scheduled to go on trial with Vallow before their cases were separated
Defense attorney Jim Archibald argued at trial that there was no evidence linking Vallow Daybell to the murders, but there was enough to show she was a loving, protective mother whose life took a sharp turn when she met Chad Daybell. met and fell for his “weird” apocalyptic religious claims.
Archibald suggested that Daybell and Vallow’s brother, Alex Cox, was responsible for the deaths.
Daybell told her they had been married in several past lives and that she was a “sexual goddess” who was supposed to help him save the world by amassing 144,000 followers so that Jesus could return, Archibald said.
Vallow’s former girlfriend Melanie Gibb testified at the trial that Vallow believed people in her life had been taken over by evil spirits and turned into “zombies,” including JJ and Tylee.
The family and business were featured in the popular Netflix TV documentary Sins of our Mother.
Netflix’s series, which stars her surviving child Colby Ryan, 26, reveals the details behind the murders, and Lori’s beliefs that convinced her there was a “dark spirit” inside her daughter, and the only way to “liberate the mind is to kill the mind.” body.’
Chad and Tammy Daybell pictured before she was killed in October 2019