Doomsday cultist brutally murdered two children and a woman in Idaho to 'cast out dark spirits'

An Idaho woman from a doomsday cult was found guilty of killing two of her children and her husband's ex-wife. The edition told in more detail with the BBC.

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Lori Vallow and her husband Chad Daybell were charged with murder, conspiracy and grand larceny.

Lori Vallow faces life in prison.

The bodies of 7-year-old Joshua "JJ" Vallow and 16-year-old Tylee Ryan were found buried at Mr. Daybell's home in 2020.

Vallow, accompanied by her lawyers, sat impassively as the jury reached a verdict, finding her guilty of all six counts of murder, conspiracy and grand larceny.

The tearful relatives sat hand in hand in court as the judge ended the nearly five-week trial.

During the trial, prosecutors presented 60 witnesses and produced at times gruesome evidence of how the children were killed and their remains discovered.

Vallow's lawyers produced no witnesses, and she did not testify in her defense.

Chad Daybell's trial is still months away.

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Mr. Daybell is a writer who has written several apocalyptic novels based on Mormon religious teachings.

It is believed that the couple met through participation in the movement, which contributed to the preparation for the end of the world.

Vallow's lawyer, Jim Archibald, argued that she was a loving mother who fell in love with a "weird" religious cult leader, and that there was no evidence linking her to the murders.

But prosecutors said Wallow set off a series of disturbing events that led to the deaths of JJ, Tylee, and Daybell's late wife, Tammy.

“Remember that the defendant will remove any obstacles in her way to get what she wants, and she wanted Chad Daybell,” Fremont County Prosecutor Lindsay Blake said during the trial. “The defendant used money, power and sex to get what she wanted.”

dark spirits

In 2006, Vallow married businessman Charles Vallow and the two raised Tylee, Laurie's daughter from a previous marriage, together. In 2014, Vallow adopted JJ, the grandson of Charles' sister.

But in 2017, family and friends said Vallow's behavior changed when she started reading books by Chad Daybell, a religious author whose apocalyptic fiction books were based on the beliefs of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

They eventually met sometime in 2018 and started recording a religious podcast together.

At that time, both were married. But together, Vallow and Daybell's views leaned toward extremes, the prosecutor said.

The two considered people to be "light" or "dark" spirits and referred to those who were captured by evil spirits as "zombies".

According to the couple, the only way to free someone's soul from darkness is to kill it.

Vallow 'thought she was a god'

In January 2019, Charles Vallow went to police, saying his wife had become "unbalanced" and thought she was a god preparing for the end of the world. He also told authorities that she had threatened to kill him.

Vallow eventually filed for divorce from his wife, saying in court papers that he feared for his safety and the safety of his children.

Police records show that Mr Vallow visited the house where his ex-wife lived with her brother Alex Cox to pick up his son.

Once inside, there was a confrontation that ended with Cox shooting Vallow.

Cox told police that he killed his former son-in-law in self-defense. He was never charged.

In the fall of 2019, Laurie Vallow moved with JJ and Tylee to Rexburg, Idaho, a city nestled in the foothills of the Teton Mountains, not far from where Daybell lived.

The following month, Tammy Daybell, Mr Daybell's 28-year-old wife, died suddenly.

Daybell's children said they were told by the local coroner that their mother, who was in poor health, had died in her sleep.

They refused an autopsy because they believed Tammy's death was natural.

Her body was exhumed in December 2019 during the Vallow and Daybell investigation. An autopsy revealed that Tammy died of asphyxiation.

About two weeks after his wife's death, Chad Daybell and Lori Vallow got married in Hawaii.

Where are children

Around this time, JJ's grandparents, Kay and Larry Woodcock, called the Rexburg, Idaho police and demanded a welfare check on the seven-year-old.

The call was to start a nationwide manhunt for the two children after police learned they had not been seen for weeks.

For several months, Vallow and Mr. Daybell refused to say where the children were. Instead, they told relatives and friends that the children were "safe and happy."

In December 2019, while investigators continued their search, Vallow and Daybell went on vacation to Hawaii, where she remained until she was extradited and arrested in February 2020.

Eventually, in June 2020, JJ and Tylee's remains were found by authorities in the backyard of Daybell's home.

“The charred remains are what is left of Tylee,” the prosecutor said at trial, showing the jury a photo. “This is what is left of this beautiful young woman.”

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Investigators believe Vallow took her children on a trip to Yellowstone National Park on September 8, 2019. According to police, this was the last time they were seen alive.

According to police, Tylee Ryan disappeared the same day. The jurors were shown mobile phone GPS data the next morning, according to which Laurie Vallow's brother, Alex Cox, was in Chad Daybell's backyard, where he remained on the lot for nearly two hours.

According to police, JJ Vallow was last seen on September 22, 2019. The next day, investigators again traced Cox's GPS data to Daybell's backyard, where he remained for 17 minutes, according to notes taken during the trial.

Mr Cox died of natural causes in December 2019.

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