More than five years after her children were last seen alive, “doomsday cult mom” Lori Vallow is now behind bars staring down a life in prison – but she is back in court to face a jury once again for murder as the bizarre saga is far from over.
Vallow’s children, Tylee Ryan, 16, and Joshua “JJ” Vallow, 8, vanished without a trace in September 2019, sparking a multi-state search while their mother married an apocalyptic author and so-called “doomsday prophet” Chad Daybell on a beach in Hawaii.
The children’s bodies were finally discovered nine months later buried in a pet cemetery on Daybell’s property in Idaho. Their disappearances and deaths mark only part of a dramatic case that spans a deeply disturbing pattern of murders, unexplained deaths and bizarre cult beliefs about killing zombies.
In 2023, Vallow found guilty of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and grand theft over the deaths of her two youngest children in Ada County Court in Boise, Idaho. She was also found guilty of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder in the death of Daybell’s first wife Tammy, 49. Vallow was sentenced to life in prison without parole on on July 31, 2023.
But now she about to stand trial on another murder case in Arizona on charges of conspiring to murder her fourth husband Charles Vallow, with the help of her now-deceased brother Alex Cox, who mysteriously also died three months after the children’s disappearance.
She is also charged with conspiracy to murder her niece’s estranged husband Brandon Boudreaux after he narrowly escaped a drive-by shooting. The two cases will be tried separately and then Vallow will be returned to Idaho to finish out her life sentences.
Representing herself, Vallow is back in court this week for jury selection. Opening statements are slated for April 7.
The Independent outlines the complicated saga that has spanned several states and multiple deaths of people connected to the couple.
1990 – Chad Daybell marries first wife Tammy Daybell and the couple found Spring Creek Book Company together in Utah. The company publishes Daybell’s doomsday books. The couple have five children together and move to Salem, Idaho, in 2015.
1992 – Lori Vallow marries her first husband, high school sweetheart Nelson Yanes.
1995 – After divorcing Yanes, Lori Vallow marries her second husband William Lagioia. The couple have a son, Colby, but divorce after around a year of marriage.
2001 – Lori Vallow marries for a third time. She and husband Joseph Ryan have a daughter, Tylee Ryan. The couple divorce in 2004.
2006 – Lori Vallow marries her fourth husband Charles Vallow. Colby and Tylee live with the couple while Vallow also has two children from a previous marriage.
2014 – Lori Vallow, Charles Vallow, Tylee and Colby move to Kauai, Hawaii, together. The same year, the couple adopts Joshua “JJ” Vallow. JJ is the biological grandson of Charles Vallow’s sister Kay Woodcock.
