Global Courant 2023-05-13 00:15:29
Lori Vallow, the Idaho mother accused of killing two of her children and conspiring to kill her husband’s first wife, was convicted of all charges on Friday, ending a weeks-long murder trial that heard about angry ghosts, zombies and doomsday scenarios.
The jury in Boise reached a unanimous decision. Vallow was charged with murder, conspiracy and grand larceny in the deaths of Joshua “JJ” Vallow, 7, and Tylee Ryan, 16.
She stood beside her lawyers as the verdict was read and remained silent.
Joshua and Tylee disappeared in September 2019. Their disappearance sparked a months-long search that ended in June 2020 when police found their remains on a property belonging to Vallow’s fifth and current husband, Chad Daybell.
A memorial to Tylee Ryan and Joshua “JJ” Vallow in Rexburg, Idaho, in 2020.John Roark / AP file
Daybell was arrested and charged with murder and conspiracy in connection with the children’s deaths. He will have a separate trial that has not yet been scheduled.
Witnesses have testified that the couple were deeply involved in a doomsday scenario, claiming they saw “zombies” and demonic possession all around them.
They are also both charged with conspiracy to commit first degree murder in the death of Daybell’s first wife, Tammy Daybell. He faces additional charges of murder and insurance fraud.
They have both pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Prosecutors and defense paint very different pictures of Vallow
The prosecution described Vallow as a woman who would “remove any obstacle in her way” and “use money, power and sex to get what she wanted”.
“It didn’t matter what it was,” Fremont County Prosecutor Lindsey Blake told jurors beginning of the process.
She said that Tylee, Joshua, and Tammy Daybell were all killed because they got in the way of Vallow and Daybell’s relationship.
“Remember, the defendant will remove any obstacle in her way to get what she wants, and she wanted Chad Daybell,” Blake said.
However, Vallow’s defense team argued that she is a “kind and loving mother to her children” who happened to be interested in religion and biblical prophecies about the end of the world.
“Some people care less about biblical prophecies, some people care a lot about them. Fortunately, in this country we can worship as we please,” said attorney Jim Archibald.
He told jurors that based on the charges – which charge Vallow with leading, aiding, assisting or participating in the murders – it appears that prosecutors don’t really know what happened.
“Did she kill or did she help or did she encourage or did she lead? They’re not sure,” he said.
Witnesses describe zombie claims and find remains
The Idaho Police Department began an investigation into Vallow and Daybell, an author of Doomsday, in November 2019 after family members reported that the two children were missing. The couple refused to cooperate with the investigation and left the state; they were later found in Hawaii and extradited to Idaho.
Authorities would find the children’s remains on Daybell’s property in Fremont County, Idaho. According to court documents, Joshua, who was adopted and had special needs, was buried in a pet cemetery and that Tylee’s remains were dismembered and burned in a fire pit.
During the trial, several witnesses took the stand for the prosecution. The defense called no witnesses and Vallow chose not to testify.
Rexburg Police Detective Ray Hermosillo told jurors that Joshua’s arms were visibly bruised after his partially decomposed body was found buried near a tree. The child was wearing red pajamas and socks, had duct tape over his mouth, and tied his arms and legs together. Black plastic covered his remains. Vallow’s hair was found on a piece of duct tape used to wrap the boy, a DNA analyst testified.
Tylee’s remains had been destroyed and burned, packed in a molten green bucket and buried elsewhere on the property, the detective said.
Another witness who took the stand was Vallow’s former boyfriend, Melanie Gibb. Trying to use Gibb as her alibi, Vallow told the police investigating the children’s disappearance that Joshua was visiting her in Arizona.
Gibb told the court that Vallow believed that some people were “zombies” or possessed by evil spirits, including her two younger children and her fourth husband, Charles Vallow. Joshua was the second cousin of Charles Vallow, who adopted the child with Lori Vallow.
Charles Vallow was shot and killed in his home in Arizona in July 2019 by Vallow’s brother, Alex Cox. Cox – who died in 2019 of what was reportedly a natural death – claimed it was self-defense. But in 2021, Vallow was charged with conspiracy to commit first-degree murder in the death of Charles Vallow. She has not yet been able to plead in that case.
Gibb said that after Charles Vallow’s death, Vallow found it difficult to care for Joshua and felt she didn’t have enough time with Daybell. The family moved from Arizona to Idaho, Gibb testified, and then Vallow began claiming that Joshua was possessed.
More on the Lori Vallow case
Colby Ryan, Vallow’s adult son, also testified and suggested so someone posing as Tylee texted him from her phone after she disappeared. He told jurors she texted him regularly and that the tone and punctuation of the messages changed after his sister disappeared but before she was reported missing.
Jurors also heard a taped phone conversation from Ryan confronting his mother. He accused her of killing his siblings, Joshua and Tylee, and then lying to him.
“To know they’re gone, and you knew it! And my phone is being texted by my little sister, who isn’t even alive!” Ryan said. “My poor brother, who is the sweetest little child ever – for what purpose? Tell me this is God’s will: that my whole family, including my stepfather, be dead.”
In the call, Vallow denied killing the children and told Ryan that everything would become clear in the afterlife.
Testimony about Tammy Daybell’s bruises and time of death
The trial also focused on Tammy Daybell’s death in 2019. Prosecutors said Vallow was already in a relationship with Daybell while still married to Tammy Daybell and moved to eastern Idaho to be closer to him.
Daybell and Vallow got married weeks after Tammy Daybell died.
Utah’s lead investigator, Dr. Erik Christensen, testified that bruises were discovered on Tammy Daybell’s body and that she may have been tied up when she died, according to NBC affiliate KSL from Salt Lake City. He also said he believes she died hours before Daybell reported her death, the news station reported.
Her death was initially ruled natural causes, but authorities had her body exhumed and an autopsy determined it was homicide and she died of asphyxia.