Vallow-Daybell Doomsday Cult Murders Part I

 The Vallow–Daybell doomsday murders are a series of killings—including child murder, filicide, and spousal murder—committed by an American couple, Lori Vallow Daybell and Chad Daybell, who led a Mormon religious group described in the media as a "doomsday cult." The case was set in motion when Lori's daughter, Tylee Ryan (16), and younger adopted son, Joshua Jaxon "J. J." Vallow (7), disappeared respectively on September 9 and September 23, 2019. Their remains were found in Rexburg, Idaho, on June 9, 2020; they had been buried on property belonging to Chad, who was Lori's lover at the time of their deaths and had become her husband by the time their bodies were found. The case also involved the killings of Lori's previous husband, Charles Vallow, and of Chad's wife, Tammy Daybell, as well as the attempted murder of Lori's nephew-in-law, Brandon Boudreaux. Lori's brother Alex Cox, who is believed by authorities to have participated in the crimes, died before he could be brought to justice.

At the time of the murders, Chad and Lori belonged to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church); however, their beliefs had significantly deviated from mainstream Mormonism. Chad was an apocalyptic author and publisher who claimed to have visions from the future and to have lived through multiple past lives, and prophesied the world would end in July 2020. Lori had come to share her lover's fringe beliefs; she became convinced that she was a deity destined to play a role in the coming apocalypse and that her family was getting in the way of her mission.

Tylee was last seen alive on September 8, and J.J. on September 22. In late November, after police questioned Lori about J.J.'s whereabouts, she and Chad abruptly vacated their homes in Idaho and left for Hawaii. As police searched for J.J., they discovered that Tylee was also missing. The children's case soon attracted media attention as Lori and Chad refused to cooperate with law enforcement. Investigations revealed that the children's disappearances had been preceded and followed by the suspicious deaths of Lori and Chad's respective spouses, and by a murder attempt against Brandon Boudreaux, then-husband of Lori's niece. Also, Lori and Chad had married two weeks after the death of Chad's first wife Tammy. After the children's disappearances became known, Tammy's body was exhumed by law enforcement officials, revealing that she had been asphyxiated.

On February 20, 2020, Lori was arrested for desertion and non-support of her children. On June 9, police discovered the remains of Tylee and J.J. during a search at Chad's home in Idaho. Chad was arrested on charges of destruction or concealment of evidence. On May 25, 2021, Lori and Chad were charged with the first-degree murders of Tylee, J.J., and Tammy. Prosecutors said that the couple had conspired with Cox to commit the murders, not only as part of their apocalyptic beliefs but also to remove obstacles to their affair and to collect life insurance money and the children's Social Security benefits, using religion to justify their crimes.

Lori and Chad were tried separately. On May 12, 2023, Lori was found guilty of all charges related to the killings of Tylee, J.J., and Tammy; on July 31, she was sentenced to life imprisonment with no possibility of parole. On May 30, 2024, Chad was also found guilty of all charges. On June 1, he was sentenced to death. After her sentencing in Idaho, Lori was extradited to Arizona where she will have to stand trial twice, first for the killing of Charles Vallow, then for the shooting of Brandon Boudreaux. Her first trial is scheduled to begin on March 31, 2025.

Background

Chad Daybell

Born: Chad Guy Daybell, August 11, 1968 (age 56), Provo, Utah, U.S.

Other names      "Doomsday Dad", "Doomsday Prophet"

Occupation(s): author, publisher

Spouses: Tamara Douglas-(m. 1990; died 2019); Lori Vallow (m. 2019)​

Children: 5

Conviction(s): First degree murder; Conspiracy to commit murder; Grand theft; Insurance fraud

Criminal penalty: Death

Date apprehended: June 9, 2020; 4 years ago

Chad Guy Daybell was born on August 11, 1968, Provo, Utah, to a Mormon family and grew up in the neighboring city of Springville. He was accepted at Brigham Young University (BYU). One year into college, he applied to be a missionary, for which he spent two years in New Jersey. He then resumed his studies and graduated from BYU with a B.A. in journalism. He married Tamara "Tammy" Douglas on March 9, 1990. They had five children.

Chad worked for a time as a copy editor for the Standard-Examiner in Ogden. At various times during and after his studies, he supported himself by working as a gravedigger, then as the cemetery sexton for Springville.

Chad's first religion-themed novel, An Errand for Emma, was published in 1999 by Springville-based Cedar Fort, Inc. He eventually left his employment at the cemetery to focus on his writing. In 2001 he published One Foot in the Grave, a non-fiction book that chronicled his experiences working in cemeteries. In 2004, Chad and his wife founded Spring Creek Book Company, which he used to self-publish his beliefs regarding the end times as well as other religion-themed books aimed at a Latter Day Saint audience.

By the end of the 2000s, the Daybells were facing financial problems. At that time, Chad's publishing business provided an annual income of approximately $2,000. Both spouses had to work part-time to supplement that income, with Chad being employed again as a cemetery sexton. Eventually, Chad salvaged his company and found an audience among people concerned by the Second Coming of Jesus, becoming a popular author and speaker in some radical Mormon circles. He published dozens of fiction and non-fiction books, by himself or other authors.

Chad's novels often depicted apocalyptic situations and dystopian futures, and featured characters based on his own family. A recurring theme in Chad's memoirs and novels was a supernatural voice giving instructions and advice to him or to his characters. He claimed to have had two near-death experiences that allowed him to receive supernatural visions from "beyond the veil." He commented: "I don't fictionalize any of the events portrayed [in my books]. I'm really not that creative... My torn veil allows information to be downloaded into my brain from the other side. The scenes I am shown are real events that will happen." Chad was also a regular contributor to "Another Voice of Warning" (AVOW), a Mormon paid forum where he would discuss his near-death experiences and thoughts on the future.

Over time, Chad's religious beliefs became increasingly extreme. Jason Gwilliam, the husband of Tammy's sister, later recalled that Chad's views had started changing around 2006–2007, as he became "hyper-focused on preparing for end of times." In 2010 or 2011, Chad started claiming he had visions about how the end of the world would occur. In 2013, he began prophesying there would be earthquakes, war, and destruction in the Americas.

During the 2010s, Chad became the publisher of apocalyptic author and self-proclaimed clairvoyant Julie Rowe. She and Chad made similar prophecies about the end times and claims about their own connections to the "spirit world." Both were particularly popular among Mormon "preppers" who believed the end of the world to be imminent and considered regrouping in tent cities to await doomsday. Suzanne Freeman, another author published by Chad, later said that she had stopped working with him in the 2010s over concerns about his radicalization and his deviation from Mormon teachings, becoming convinced that his beliefs were dangerous.

In 2015, Chad claimed he heard the "voice" telling him to relocate to Rexburg, Idaho. He and Tammy moved there from Springville that June. Chad said that he had had a vision that Utah would be devastated by an earthquake in 2015.

Lori Vallow Daybell

Born: Lori Norene Cox, June 26, 1973 (age 51), Loma Linda, California, U.S.

Other names: Lori Norene Ryan; Lori Norene Vallow; Lori Ryan Vallow; Lori Ryan Daybell; "Doomsday Mom"; "Cult Mom"

Spouses: 5, including: Joseph Anthony Ryan Jr. (m. 2001; div. 2005); Leland Charles Anthony Vallow (m. 2006; died 2019); Chad Daybell (m. 2019)​

Children: Colby Ryan; Tylee Ryan; Joshua Jaxon "J.J." Vallow

Conviction(s): First degree murder; Conspiracy to commit murder; Grand theft

Criminal penalty: 3 consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole

Date apprehended: February 20, 2020; 5 years ago

Lori Ryan Daybell, also referred to as Lori Vallow Daybell, was born Lori Norene Cox on June 26, 1973, in Loma Linda, California. She grew up in a Mormon family. In 1992, at the age of 19, Lori married her high school boyfriend, but the marriage ended in divorce shortly afterward. In October 1995, Lori married again and had a son named Colby in 1996, before divorcing in 1998. She worked for some time as a hairdresser. In 2004, she was a contestant in the Mrs. Texas beauty pageant, and on Wheel of Fortune.

In 2001, Lori married Joseph Anthony Ryan Jr., who legally adopted Colby. The couple's biological daughter, Tylee, was born in 2002. Lori and Ryan divorced in 2005, subsequently engaging in a bitter custody battle during which she accused him of sexually assaulting their children. Ryan eventually lost equal custody. Lori's brother Alex Cox attacked Ryan in 2007, claiming he had been abusive to Lori and the children; Cox served ninety days in jail for the incident. In 2020, Colby claimed during an interview that as a child, he had been sexually abused by Ryan.

In 2018, Ryan was found dead in his apartment from what was determined to be arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease. After Lori's arrest in 2020, and after a recording surfaced in which she mentioned wanting to kill Ryan "like Nephi killed," police reviewed Ryan's death. Nothing was found to suspect foul play.

In February 2006, Lori married Leland Charles Anthony Vallow, who commonly went by the name Charles. In 2013 the couple adopted Charles' grandnephew, Joshua Jaxon "J.J." Vallow, as the boy's birth parents were unable to care for him. Because of his biological parents' substance abuse, J.J. was born with drugs in his system and spent time in the neonatal intensive care unit. As a baby, he was taken care of for nearly a year by his grandparents, Kay and Larry Woodcock, before being adopted by Charles. J.J. was eventually diagnosed with autism.

Vallow and Daybell meet

Around 2015, Lori became interested in Chad's Standing in Holy Places series of books. Over the next few years she became increasingly invested in radical religious beliefs, reading books about near-death experiences and listening to podcasts by excommunicated Mormons.

In October 2018, together with Melanie Gibb and Zulema Pastenes whom she had recently befriended, Lori attended a "Preparing a People" event where she met Chad for the first time. Gibb and Pastenes both said that Lori had behaved in a very flirtatious manner with Chad at the conference. Chad claimed to Lori that they had been married in multiple previous lifetimes. They started communicating privately afterwards.

After their initial meeting, Lori's husband went on a business trip, giving her the opportunity to hold a small overnight gathering at her home. Chad and Gibb were among the attendees, with Chad captivating Lori and the group by sharing his Mormon-influenced, but unique, beliefs. Lori developed a strong attachment to Chad and his teachings. The two eventually became lovers.

On December 5, 2018, Chad and Lori appeared together on the Preparing a People podcast episode "Time to Warrior Up." The two were featured in several other episodes.

A religious group formed around Chad and his teachings: He and Lori told their followers that they belonged to the "Church of the Firstborn," of which Chad was the leader. The group included Lori's niece, Melani Boudreaux; Gibb; Cox; and Pastenes, who eventually became Cox's girlfriend and then wife. Gibb also co-hosted a radical religious podcast with Lori.

Lori and Chad's beliefs

Reincarnation – a concept which is not accepted by the LDS Church – played a key part in Chad's religious views. He claimed to have lived thirty-one previous lives on different planets and that Lori had lived twenty-one separate lives, five of which coincided with his own experiences on Earth. Lori eventually told Gibb that she and Chad were sealed due to their previous marriages in their past lives, despite their respective spouses still being alive. When Gibb suggested that Chad and Lori should divorce their spouses, Lori told her they were "not allowed to" because of information they were receiving "from the other side of the veil."

Chad also claimed to be a reincarnation of James the Less, that Lori had been James' wife under the name "Elena" and that in other past lives Lori had been Mary French, the great-grandmother of Joseph Smith, as well as the wife of the prophet Moroni. According to Chad, past lives were "multiple probations" on Earth. This belief is shared by some Mormon fundamentalist groups who consider that such "probations" are necessary for one to reach exaltation.

Chad categorized people as "light" or "dark" based on his assigning them an affiliation with Jesus Christ or Satan. He and Lori employed a unique "scoring system" for good and evil, assigning every person a rating from "light" to "dark." According to their belief system, "dark" people were possessed by evil spirits. The group often joined in "castings," ceremonies where they would try to cast away evil spirits through prayers and scripture readings. They claimed that in some cases "possessed" people could become "zombies," and that the only way to banish a zombie was to kill the person. Seven women within the group, including Lori and Zulema Pastenes, called themselves the "seven gatherers" and would do "castings" together, sometimes via Zoom.

Chad and Lori also scored people on a "vibration" scale, and deemed those having enough "vibrations" to possess special powers, or to be translated. Their beliefs also included teleportation and "dark and light portals." Chad claimed that he could create such supernatural "portals," which he used to "interact spiritually" with Lori, receive revelations and travel to other realms.

Chad predicted that the world would come to an end on July 22, 2020. He told his followers that he was guided by angels and could see hidden truths, while Lori claimed to have direct communications with God and Jesus. Lori came to believe that she was an "exalted goddess" with visionary powers, and that she and Chad were destined to lead the 144,000 people who would survive when the world ended. Zulema Pastenes later told investigators that Lori believed that, as an exalted being, she couldn't be held responsible for her actions on Earth.

Lindsay Park, executive director of the Sunstone Education Foundation, commented that these beliefs could be categorized as Mormon fundamentalism (though without the polygamy aspects) or "Mormon fanfic," as they took the fundamental tenets of the LDS Church and rewrote them to the extreme. Journalist Leah Sottile, who wrote When the Moon Turns to Blood about the case, said that Chad and Lori had been active "at the fringes, the far right fringes of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints," and were able to meet due to an "ecosystem of extremism" that exists in those circles.

Killing of Charles Vallow

By February 2019, Lori reportedly informed Charles that "she no longer cared about him or J.J.". She then vanished for 58 days. The same month, Charles filed for divorce, citing threats to his life, as well as the theft of his truck and US$35,000 from their joint bank accounts. According to Charles' filing, Lori had told him that he was possessed by a "dark spirit" called "Ned Schneider", that she was "a God assigned to carry out the work of the 144,000 at Christ's Second Coming" which would happen in July 2020, and that she would murder him if he got in the way of her mission.

Charles sought a protective order against Lori at the advice of his attorney. He withdrew the petition one month later, saying he "wanted to try to make the marriage work." Nevertheless, Charles had become so worried by Lori's actions that in February 2019, he changed his $1 million life insurance policy so the beneficiary would be his sister Kay rather than his wife. Lori was unaware of this until after Charles' death.

Arizona police detectives later retrieved text messages between Chad, Lori and her brother Alex Cox which referred to Charles as "Ned" or "Hiplos", the names of the "spirit" said to possess him. Lori told members of her religious group that her husband had become a "zombie". Several followers repeatedly joined to pray for Charles' demise.

Having discovered his wife's affair with Chad Daybell, Charles Vallow confronted Lori about it. Eleven days before his death, he sent an email to Tammy Daybell to inform her that their spouses were cheating. Evidence later showed that Tammy had opened and deleted the message, and blocked Charles' email address. On July 1, 2019, Charles told Lori that he planned to meet Tammy in person. At that point, Lori and Chad were communicating constantly with burner phones.

On July 11, 2019, Charles went to pick up J.J. at Lori's home in Chandler, Arizona. Alex Cox was present. An altercation occurred and Cox shot and killed Charles, later claiming self-defense. Cox alleged that he had confronted Charles about abusing his sister and retrieved his gun in response to being struck with a bat. Tylee told the police that she had witnessed part of the incident, but had run away from the house with J.J. before the shooting. No charges were pressed. Neighbors reported that later that day, they heard a pool party with "loud music" at Lori's home. Cox told Zulema Pastenes that he did not feel bad because he had killed a "zombie".

Before Charles' death, his attorneys stated he had been primarily concerned for J.J.'s safety and well-being, as the boy needed a consistent routine due to his special needs. Charles was also concerned for Tylee, but he was unable to include her in the filings as she was not his biological daughter, nor had he filed to legally adopt her, and thus he had no legal standing.

Days after Charles' death, Chad sent Lori a love story in the form of a series of text messages. The story, which investigators called a "romance novel", told the meeting of "James" and "Elena" – the names Chad substituted for himself and Lori – and gave a detailed description of their sexual relationship.

Disappearances of Tylee and J.J

Tylee Ryan disappeared on September 9, 2019 (aged 16)

Joshua Jaxon "J. J." Vallow, disappeared on September 23, 2019 (aged 7)

By the end of August, Lori relocated to Rexburg, Idaho, with her children. Alex Cox also moved there. Just before moving to Idaho, Lori sold J.J.'s service dog.

While Lori and her children resided in Rexburg, neighbors noticed J.J.'s erratic behavior as Lori often left him outside without adult supervision for long periods. When confronted about this, Lori did not mention that J.J. was autistic but told neighbors that he was "her niece's drug baby".

Tylee was last seen on September 8, 2019, at Yellowstone National Park with her brother J.J., her mother Lori, and her uncle Alex Cox. She was never enrolled at any school in Idaho, even though her mother had claimed she was attending BYU-Idaho.

On September 17, 2019, a doorbell video captured J.J. playing with a friend, the last known footage of him. He last attended Rexburg's Kennedy Elementary School on September 20. On September 22, Melanie Gibb and her boyfriend, David Warwick, were staying at Lori's home. Around 10:30 p.m, Warwick saw Alex Cox take J.J., who was sleeping, upstairs to his bedroom. This was J.J.'s last confirmed sighting. On the next morning, J.J. was absent: Lori told Gibb and Warwick that J.J. had been misbehaving so his uncle Alex had picked him up.

On September 23, J.J. had an unexcused absence from school. The next day, Lori informed Rexburg Elementary School that she would now be homeschooling J.J. In the months that followed her children's disappearances, Lori kept collecting the Social Security Survivor benefits that each received after the death of their respective father.

In October 2019, two Venmo payments were made from Tylee's account to her older half-brother, Colby Ryan, with love-expressing messages attached, which was the last time Colby had heard from Tylee. When he expressed concern towards Tylee via text, he received responses from her cell phone indicating she was safe but too busy to talk. After repeated calls to Tylee went unanswered, Colby became more worried.

Brandon Boudreaux and Melanie Gibb later said that Lori and Chad were convinced Tylee and J.J. were "possessed" and had become "zombies". Zulema Pastenes testified that Chad had told his followers that J.J. would die soon, only to come back as Colby's son.

The FBI uncovered text messages in which Lori and Chad discussed Tylee and J.J.'s "possession" and mentioned "a perfectly orchestrated plan to take the children". A text exchange between Lori and Alex Cox mentioned "working on Z's", referring to zombies.

Shooting of Brandon Boudreaux

On October 2, 2019, Brandon Boudreaux, the estranged husband of Lori's niece Melani, was shot at from a Jeep while driving home in Gilbert, Arizona. The bullet missed Boudreaux's head by inches. Boudreaux, who had been close to Charles and Lori Vallow's family, recognized the Jeep as a vehicle used by Tylee Ryan. The Jeep drove away, but Boudreaux could give its license plate number to the police who identified it as being registered to Charles Vallow.

Melani had become very involved with her aunt's religious activities during 2018 and had insisted that she and her husband buy food stockpiles for the end of the world. During the summer of 2019, she had demanded a divorce, which was not yet finalized when Boudreaux was shot at. Boudreaux said he had been blindsided by the divorce request, which he blamed on Melani's involvement in her aunt's "cult".

After it became known that Tylee and J.J. were missing, Boudreaux was convinced that Charles' death, the children's disappearance and the attempt on his life were all connected to Lori's religious group.

In February 2020, Boudreaux filed a court document claiming that the attempt on his life was motivated by insurance money, that the gunman was probably Lori's recently deceased brother Alex Cox, and that Melani was likely aware of Tylee and J.J.'s whereabouts.

By tracking Alex Cox's cell phone data, investigators later found that Cox had searched on the Internet for directions to Boudreaux's address and had been present near Boudreaux's home during the hours before the shooting. On that day, Cox and Lori had communicated several times. Lori had later made Internet searches about a shooting in Gilbert, Arizona.

Murder of Tammy Daybell

In February 2019, Chad told his neighbors, Todd and Alice Gilbert, that he had had a vision that Tammy would pass away before her 50th birthday.

On October 9, 2019, Tammy reported being shot at in her driveway by a masked man with what she thought was a paintball gun. The man pulled the trigger several times, but the gun was apparently unloaded. Police believed this to be a prank and could not identify the man.

Ten days later, Tammy was found dead in her home, apparently from natural causes. Chad claimed that she had retired the previous night "with a terrible cough" and died in her sleep. He said that Tammy had been experiencing low blood pressure, seizures, and negative reactions with homeopathic medicines, though nothing in her medical records supported this.

Tammy's funeral was organized in Utah three days after her death. Alice Gilbert later said she had been surprised that the funeral came so soon, and felt like it had been "planned". The Gilberts also testified that, unlike his children, Chad did not seem devastated and had acted in a "businesslike" manner. Chad's sister-in-law, Heather Daybell, said that Chad's behavior at Tammy's funeral did not ring true and that he "just didn't seem upset". Jason Gwilliam said that he felt Chad was "not crying but trying to cry." During the service, Chad mentioned in his talk that Tammy suffered from depression, commented that she was not easy to live with and called her "lazy".

According to police reports, Chad Daybell received life insurance payouts after Tammy's death totaling US$430,000 (equivalent to about $529,000 in 2024).

Tammy's body was not autopsied initially due to Chad's refusal and the coroner's acceptance of his decision. However, after Tammy's body was exhumed and autopsied, it was determined that she had been asphyxiated by someone else. The autopsy results, completed by February 2021, were not publicly revealed until April 2023 during Lori Vallow Daybell's trial.

Investigators later uncovered text messages between Chad and Lori, claiming that Tammy was in "limbo" and possessed by a spirit named "Viola". At some point, Chad and Lori told their followers that Tammy had become a "zombie".

Alex Cox's phone was located near the Daybells' residence on October 9, four hours before Tammy was shot at. It pinged again in the same area ten days later, on the night Tammy died. Police found at Cox's home an AR-15 that resembled the description Tammy had made of the supposed paintball gun. Cox had made several Internet searches about the use of an AR-15 and on how a Grendel round would impact a Dodge Dakota, which was the car the Daybells owned. Prosecutors later said the "paintball gun" spotted by Tammy on October 9 was a real gun, that may have jammed or misfired, and that the shooter was probably Alex Cox. Zulema Pastenes testified that she had been with Lori and her niece Melani to do a "casting" on the night Tammy was attacked in her driveway. At some point during that night, Lori talked with someone on the phone and became very angry, calling the other person "idiot, moron, stupid". After hanging up, she commented: "idiot can't do anything by himself".