48 Hours - Lori Vallow Daybell: Guilty

Episode Date: May 14, 2023

A jury in Idaho found Lori Vallow Daybell guilty on all charges, including the murders of her two children and conspiracy to commit murder in the death of her husband's first wife. "48 Hours" contributor Jonathan Vigliotti takes you inside the case that gripped the nation.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to this podcast ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app today. Even if you love the thrill of true crime stories as much as I do, there are times when you want to mix it up. And that's where Audible comes in, with all the genres you love and new ones to discover. Explore thousands of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals, with more added all the time. thousands of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals, with more added all the time. Listening to Audible can lead to positive change in your mood, your habits,

and even your overall well-being. And you can enjoy Audible anytime, while doing household chores, exercising, commuting, you name it. There's more to imagine when you listen. Sign up for a free 30-day Audible trial and your first audiobook is free. Visit audible.ca. In 2014, Laura Heavlin was in her home in Tennessee when she received a call from California. Her daughter, Erin Corwin, was missing. The young wife of a Marine had moved to the California desert

to a remote base near Joshua Tree National Park. They have to alert the military. And when they do, the NCIS gets involved. From CBS Studios and CBS News, this is 48 Hours NCIS. Listen to 48 Hours NCIS ad-free starting October 29th on Amazon Music. state of idaho plaintiff versus laurie noreen ballo aka laurie noreen daybell defendant count one conspiracy to commit first degree murder count two first degree murder count three conspiracy to commit first degree murder and count Count four, first-degree murder. Count five, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder. The crimes are unimaginable. Lori Vallow Daybell stood trial

for the murder of her own children, 16-year-old Tylee and seven-year-old JJ. She was also accused of killing Tammy Daybell, the wife of her current husband, Chad. The judge in the case did not allow cameras in the Idaho courtroom during testimony, but we have audio and transcripts of the proceedings. Here was prosecutor Lindsay Blake. Money, power, and sex. That's what this case is about. It didn't matter what obstacle she had to remove to get what she wanted. And if it was a person, it didn't matter what obstacle she had to remove to get what she wanted.

And if it was a person, it didn't matter who. Lori was a beauty contestant. Anybody you spoke to who knew Lori back then said that she was like the mother of the year. The problem really seems to have started when Lori started following Chad Daybell. Chad was a podcaster and author of doomsday novels. Then in late 2019, Lori's two children mysteriously disappeared. Meantime, Lori and Chad are on the beach in Hawaii having the time of their lives. They get married and they wouldn't talk to police at all and they wouldn't tell anybody where the kids were. Even after Lori was arrested, she still refused to say anything about where the kids were. How come you're not telling anybody where your kids are? People looked all over the country for these kids. Months after vanishing into thin air, the remains of J.J. Vallow and Tylee Ryan were found buried here in Chad Daybell's backyard.

What we have gathered was that Chad had this belief that some people who were on this earth weren't really the people they were supposed to be. They were zombies. And the only way to release their spirits was to kill the bodies. And if that's not disturbing enough, Lori started referring to her children as zombies. She had this grading system where she could read people's auras and they were either dark or light.

And she had described Tylee as having a dark spirit. I feel like she's kind of a monster. But defense attorney Jim Archibald claimed there was no way for Lori to have committed the crimes. Lori Vallow was in her own apartment in Rexford, Idaho, when J.J. Vallow and Tylee Ryan died. And Lori was in Hawaii when Tammy Daybell died. I've thought a lot about why this story hits such a chord with a wide variety of people. And I think it's because these kids. And then when you throw in the cult aspect of this, we've certainly seen movies with all of this, but I'm not sure we've ever seen anything like this in real life in true crime.

In regards to count one of the amended indictment, answer guilty. Count two, guilty. Count three, guilty. Count four, guilty. Count five, guilty. Count seven, guilty. Count 4 guilty. Count 5 guilty. Count 7 guilty. In the Pacific Ocean, halfway between Peru and New Zealand, lies a tiny volcanic island. It's a little-known British territory called Pitcairn, and it harboured a deep, dark scandal. There wouldn't be a girl on Pitcairn once they reached the age of 10 that would still a virgin. It just happens to all of us.

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Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. As a kid growing up in Chicago, there was one horror movie I was too scared to watch. It was called Candyman. It was Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. by both how spooky it was, but also how outrageous it was. Listen to Candyman, the true story behind the bathroom mirror murder, early and ad-free, with a 48-hour plus subscription on Apple Podcasts. Can you tell me where your kids are? Did you do something to your children? Where are your children? Welcome back, Lori. Where are your kids? Did you do something to your children? Where are your children? Welcome back, Lori.

Where are your kids? Anything you want to say, Lori? Lori? Beginning in 2019, Lori Vallow Daybell spent months denying her missing children were in danger. Many, including her sister Summer Shifflett, believed her at the time. Something's not adding up here. Where are they? Where is JJ and Tylee? It's a great question. We would love to know the answer to that.

We don't know, but we know we are very confident that Lori would never harm her children. Ever. But during four weeks of testimony, the prosecution chipped away at the facade of the former beauty contestant until it exposed Lori Vallow Daybell for the person it claimed she really was. Prosecutors have painted a picture of somebody who was ruthless. Morgan Lowe is an investigative reporter and CBS News consultant. Somebody who would do anything to get what she wants. According to the prosecution, Lori was a master puppeteer, pulling the strings in a heinous murder plot that left three innocent people dead. Her 16-year-old daughter, Tylee Ryan, her 7-year-old son, J.J. Vallow, and Tammy Daybell, Chad Daybell's wife of almost 30 years.

It didn't matter what obstacles she had to remove to get what she wanted. 48 Hours has been following the twisted saga of the so-called cult mom and her paramour, Chad Daybell, since the story broke in 2019, months before the remains of her two children were discovered in shallow graves in Chad Daybell's backyard. When we started, it was almost inconceivable to friends like April Raymond that she would harm her children. She did everything for JJ, that she would harm her children.

She did everything for JJ, everything for Tylee. They were the center of her world. And so I'm not sure what hijacked that priority. April met Lori in 2015 in Hawaii. At the time, Lori was married to businessman Charles Vallow. The couple were raising two children, Tylee, Lori's teenage daughter from a former marriage, and their adopted son, JJ, who was diagnosed with autism. JJ was very difficult to take care of.

So I really admired how patient she was with him and how much care she took of him. His big sister was just as devoted to him, says Tylee's best friend, Vaisiya Ita'aiho. I loved being around JJ and Tylee. Tylee was really protective over JJ, and she was kind of like another mama to him. Are you taking a video of my child? Your child? My child. I just kind of loved how she would just play with him and just always have like a really good time with him. And I really love JJ. He's

the sweetest soul I've ever met. But around 2017, friends say Lori's relationships with her kids began to shift. About the time she started reading the books of Chad Daybell. I've recently released my autobiography. Daybell was a former gravedigger turned doomsday novelist and podcaster from Rexburg, Idaho. He tapped into this prepper element out there, people who wanted to prepare for Armageddon. Lori met Chad for the first time in 2018 at a conference in St. George, Utah. The first time Chad met Lori, he told her that they had been married in a past life. He said he was James and she was Elena, and that they had lived this

biblical life in the past. And instead of scaring her off, that seems to have attracted her. Even though Lori was still married to Charles Vallow and Chad was married to the mother of his five children, Tammy Daybell, Lori's friend Melanie Gibb testified the two soon began an affair. Did Lori ever tell you directly that she and Chad would meet at hotels or motels? Yes. Did Lori ever indicate to you whether or not she and Chad were engaged in an affair? She would just share that they were intimate. Witnesses testified that Lori took on Chad's extreme religious beliefs, says Morgan Lowe. Lori believed that she was chosen to lead the 144,000 after the apocalypse, to lead the survivors of the human race to an eternal life while the rest of society burned.

She also believed she had been appointed another, more ominous role, says April. Part of her mission on Earth was to eliminate the darkness, the demonic, the evil. April says one of those evil spirits, according to Lurie, was her then-husband, Charles Vallow. The way she had explained it to me about Charles was that Charles was already dead and that there was a demon living inside of him. For the first time, we heard at trial that Lori held what she called casting ceremonies. It involved getting into a circle with other like-minded followers and casting out dark spirits from people, getting rid of demons. Lori's friend, Zulema Pastenas, attended several of these castings. There are

certain spirits that can only be cast out by prayer and fasting. Here she is on the stand talking about one of the demons Lori claimed was living inside Charles. And what was that spirit or demon's name? I believe they called him Ned. Ned Schneider, to be precise. Why don't you come over here? In January of 2019, Charles was so spooked by Lori's ramblings about the demon named Ned, he called police. What did she say yesterday?

She said, you're not Charles. I don't know who you are, what you did with Charles. Their conversation was recorded on the officer's body cam. Okay, so what makes her a danger to herself and to others? She threatened me, murdered me, killed me. She threatened to murder you? Yes. In the winter of 2019, Charles changed the beneficiary

of his $1 million life insurance policy from Lori to his sister, Kay Woodcock, JJ's biological grandmother. After almost 13 years of marriage, Charles filed for divorce. She's a scared crap. 13 years of marriage, Charles filed for divorce. Charles Vallow had good reason to be scared. Hot shot Australian attorney Nicola Gaba was born into legal royalty.

Her specialty? Representing some of the city's most infamous gangland criminals. However, while Nicola held the underworld's darkest secrets, the most dangerous secret was her own. She's going to all the major groups within Melbourne's underworld, and she's informing on them all. I'm Marsha Clark, host of the new podcast, Informants Lawyer X. In my long career in criminal justice as a prosecutor and defense attorney, I've seen some crazy cases. And this one belongs right at the top of the list. She was addicted to the game she had created. She just didn't know how to stop.

Now, through dramatic interviews and access, I'll reveal the truth behind one of the world's most shocking legal scandals. Listen to Informant's Lawyer X exclusively on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify, and listen to more Exhibit C true crime shows early and ad-free right now. Have you ever wondered who created that bottle of sriracha that's living in your fridge? Or why nearly every house in America has at least one game of Monopoly. Introducing The Best Idea Yet, a brand new podcast from Wondery and T-Boy about the surprising origin stories of the products you're obsessed with and the bold risk takers

who brought them to life. Like, did you know that Super Mario, the best-selling video game character of all time, only exists because Nintendo couldn't get the rights to Popeye? Or Jack, that the idea for the McDonald's Happy Meal first came from a mom in Guatemala? From Pez dispensers to Levi's 501s to Air Jordans, discover the surprising stories of the most viral products. Plus, we guarantee that after listening, you're going to dominate your next dinner party.

So follow The Best Idea Yet on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to The Best Idea Yet early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus. It's just the best idea yet. On the morning of July 11, 2019, Charles Vallow went to the Chandler, Arizona home of his estranged wife, Lori Vallow, to pick up JJ and take him to school. He goes into the house. Lori and Tylee and JJ are there, and so is Alex Cox. Alex Cox, Lori's brother.

At trial, Lori's friend Zulema Pestanis, who would later marry Alex, testified that Chad had assigned him a mission ordained by God. Chad had told him that he was going to be a warrior, a defender, and the sole purpose for him coming to this earth was so that he could be Lori's protector and defender. Did Alex believe this? Absolutely. Shortly after Charles entered Lori's home that summer morning in 2019, Alex Cox, the defender, shot him dead. 911, where is your emergency? Sixcox, the defender, shot him dead.

911, where is your emergency? At 8.36 a.m., Alex calmly called 911. Is he breathing? I can't tell. He said, I need to report a shooting. I shot my brother-in-law in self-defense. And is he hurt or is he alive? Yeah, there's blood. He's not moving. The police arrived and shot this

video of Alex on the curb outside the home. Alex told them Charles and Lori got into a fight. So you both, so you get in an argument? What is it over? Well, it's over, my sister. He was getting physical with her. Alex told them he got between Charles and Lori and shot Charles in the chest when Charles charged at him. At some point, Lori, Tylee, and JJ got into the car and left. Lori takes JJ to school, and she comes back later with Tylee. Police body cam caught the moment. Tylee's face was blurred because she was a minor. How long have you lived here? Like three weeks. Oh, geez. Yeah. Okay. That's why the neighbors

don't know us. Gotcha. Like, hi neighbor, sorry. What was striking about the footage that we saw was that there's no remorse. There's no, oh my gosh, my husband's dead. Lori, Alex, and Tylee were questioned at the police headquarters. All told similar stories of self-defense and were sent home. Three days later, Chad and Lori were exchanging steamy texts. Here's FBI agent Doug Hart reading one on the stand. I need so badly to just gently kiss you for hours. It would likely lead to other activities. Likely or luckily, it would luckily lead to nakedness. But prosecutors say the lovers were in for a big surprise. They were about to find out that

Charles had changed the beneficiary of that $1 million life insurance policy. Here's Detective Nathan Duncan reading Lori's text to Chad after she found out. I just got the letter from the insurance company saying that I am not the beneficiary. It's a spear through my heart. This is one of the strongest points that prosecutors have made, is that Lori was motivated by money. She wanted Charles's money. According to prosecutors, Lori started drawing the social security death benefits JJ received from his father, Charles Vallow. She moved with her two kids to Rexburg, Idaho, not far from where

Chad Daybell lived with his wife, Tammy. Lori's brother, Alex Cox, her designated defender, moved into the same complex. He was there to take care of the problems. Prosecutors alleged Lori's first problem was her 16-year-old daughter, Tylee Ryan. According to Zalema, Lori told her that a demon named Hillary had taken over Tylee's body. Now, if somebody is possessed by a demon, are those people dangerous? They're considered to be dark and to bring only bad things to happen. Yeah. So yes, will be dangerous. These are the last known pictures

of Tylee Ryan. On September 8th, 2019, she was with Lori, JJ and Alex at Yellowstone National Park. The 16-year-old was never seen again. Tylee was JJ's protector. Once she was gone, Once she was gone, JJ had nobody. He had nobody to protect him or watch out for him. Just two weeks later, JJ Vallow went missing. This photo of JJ wearing red pajamas was taken on September 22, 2019. It is the last known photo of him. Melanie Gibb, who was staying at Lori's house that evening, says she saw Alex take JJ upstairs, she believes, to Lori's room. But the little boy was nowhere to be seen the next morning.

Is that when she told you JJ was a zombie? Yes. Melanie Gibb told prosecutors Alex Cox believed JJ was a zombie as well. He said he 100% believed it. According to their religious teachings, a zombie had to be killed. The body had to die. And the body count was climbing. According to prosecutors, Lori and Chad had identified another evil spirit in the way. What we learned from witness after witness is that Chad told some people that his wife was

not going to be around much longer and that he was going to have a life before Tammy and a life after Tammy. The week after JJ was last seen, and two months before the world would learn that the children were missing, Lori was planning her fifth wedding. At trial, prosecutors called an FBI specialist to the stand. Did you learn whether or not there was ever a successful purchase of wedding rings? There were on October 2nd, 2019. There was just one problem. Chad was still married to Tammy Daybell. But that was about to change. Garth Daybell is one of five Daybell children.

I was asleep and I heard a thump and heard my dad yell, Garth, Garth, come quick. Garth found his mother, 49-year-old Tammy Daybell, lying half on the bed, half on the floor. I just ran over and picked her up and put her back on the bed. I said to my dad, I said, I think she's dead. My dad, I said, I think she's dead. The coroner initially determined Tammy died of natural causes, and the family declined an autopsy.

Chad's neighbor, Alice Gilbert, testified that a week later, he had already moved on. We asked him how he was doing, and said, actually I'm doing really good. And that he'd met the woman he was going to marry. Did you find, did it surprise you that he seemed to be doing so well? Yes, we were shocked. Alice and her husband Todd Gilbert met Lori shortly after. They came to the house and his arm was around her and she was giggling and laughing and they look like teenagers. Alice says the conversation turned to children. Then Chad said and she recently just lost a daughter. So I told her, oh, I'm sorry.

She said, thank you. This is significant because at that time, Lori is still telling her sister and everybody else that the kids were okay. This is like a slip-up, an early slip-up, an admission against interest here. It did not seem to worry Chad and Lori on their big day. 17 days after Tammy Daybell's death, there was Lori dancing on the beach in Hawaii as her new husband strummed his ukulele, exchanging those rings. According to investigators, the cost of the wedding trip was courtesy of the

groom's dead wife's life insurance. Little do they know that the clock is now ticking. Soon after the newlyweds returned to Idaho, the Rexburg police came knocking on Lori's door, looking for JJ. His grandmother, Kay Woodcock, had asked authorities to do a welfare check. The conversation was recorded on the officer's body cam. Here's Lori talking about JJ. He's with one of my friends in Arizona. Who's the friend he's with? My friend, Melanie. Chad called that friend, Melanie Gibb, who testified he asked her not to pick up the phone when the police called. Later, she says Lori asked her to lie and tell the police that JJ was staying with her in Arizona. And I felt in a very weird and uncomfortable position, and I really did not know what to do.

At first, Melanie Gibb wasn't forthcoming to the police. But 12 days later, she made a call to Lori and Chad and secretly recorded it. Is JJ safe? He is safe and happy. Chad said they couldn't tell her where JJ was for her own security. If you knew, that puts you in danger. Melanie handed that secret recording to authorities, and investigators launched a nationwide search.

But not just for JJ. They would soon learn that his big sister, Tylee, was also missing. A search for two children from Idaho. Listen up, you may know something. The children mysteriously disappeared. It was huge news, especially to Lori's new stepchildren. When did you know that she had two kids? I first heard of her children when a detective came to my work and asked me about them.

I had never heard of them before that point. So even after your father weds Lori, you didn't know that there were two kids in the picture at that point? I did not. As the hunt for the children intensified, Lori and Chad again headed to Hawaii. But the honeymoon was over. Kauai authorities caught up with Lori by the pool. She would be arrested on child abandonment charges and extradited to Idaho. Please be seated.

Chad, the loyal husband, by her side. But now Chad himself was under suspicion. With the children missing, that's when the police took a closer look at the death of Tammy. Her body had been exhumed on December 11th, 2019. The Utah State Medical Examiner immediately saw bruising on her body. And he determined that Tammy died of asphyxiation. The medical examiner testified that that bruising was consistent with somebody being restrained, meaning she was held down and suffocated. Alex's wife, Zulema Pastenes, says that when she heard about Tammy, she started pressing

Alex for answers. By then, she says Lori and Chad had cut Alex off. Here she is on the stand talking about when she asked Alex what was happening. What did he say? He was very quiet and unresponsive. And then he said, I think I'm being their fall guy. I said, a fall guy for what? What is it that you have done? What have you done that you would be the fall guy for? And then he said, either I am a man of God or I am not. Here's the prosecutor addressing that mysterious statement. What exactly Alex meant by this or what he knew, we may never know because Alex Cox died the next

day on December 12th of 2019. In a truth is stranger than fiction plot twist, the man Lori and Chad designated her defender, her brother Alex Cox, suddenly dropped dead. An autopsy determined of natural causes. That was a jaw dropping moment right before his death. It does look like Alex was second guessing what he had done and why Chad and Lori had asked him to do what he did. They say dead men don't talk, but this one did. Alex Cox's cell phone harbored a tale of horrors waiting to be discovered in Chad Daybell's backyard, and it would give prosecutors the evidence they had been waiting for. On June 9th, 2020, law enforcement descended on Chad Daybell's backyard.

According to the prosecution, Alex Cox's cell phone data placed him here for two hours the day after Tylee Ryan was last seen. Authorities later discovered her remains in this same spot. It was an area the Daybell family once used as a pet cemetery. It now contained Tylee's badly burned remains. She had been dismembered. Detective Ray Hermosillo took the stand and described finding what was left of Tylee. There was a partial human skull underneath the melted bucket. Alex's cell phone led them to another section of the yard about 50 yards away under a shade tree. Investigators

started digging. They removed a layer of rocks. Beneath the rocks, they found wooden planks. Below that, a layer of black plastic. One of the crime scene investigators cut a hole in the top of this plastic, and beneath the black plastic was some white plastic, like plastic bag. They cut through that. That's when we were able to see what appeared to be brown human hair sticking out from the white plastic. It was JJ. He was still dressed in his red pajamas and covered head to toe in duct tape. Several layers of duct tape from his chin to his forehead area. His arms were duct taped with several layers of duct tape. His feet were also duct taped and bound. Forensic pathologist Garth Warren testified

how JJ had died. I determined the cause of death to be asphyxia by a plastic bag over the head and duct tape covering the mouth. It's unimaginable what his last minutes of life were like. Experts couldn't determine Tylee's cause of death because of the condition of her remains. But prosecutors alleged the way in which both children were killed aligned with Chad and Lori's teachings about demons and zombies. Zulema testifies that if they're trying to cast a demon or a zombie out of somebody, there's two minutes after the casting where another demon can enter that person. And the only way to prevent that is to burn the person or bind them. Tylee was burned. JJ was bound. Despite all the talk

of zombies and demons, prosecutors argued that Lori's true motive to murder her kids was much more mundane. Tylee had already lost her father, and she received Social Security benefits because of that. Tylee had money. Lori wanted it. Tylee's gone. J.J. also was entitled to Social Security benefits. The defendant didn't want to have to take care of J.J. anymore. She wanted the money. J.J.'s gone. While the prosecution's case was mostly circumstantial, DNA matching Tylee's profile was found on a shovel and pickaxe

in a garage on the Debo property. A forensic specialist testified they also found a finger and palm print belonging to Alex Cox on one of the black plastic bags that cover JJ. Investigators also found one strand of hair that was stuck in the tape that was around the bag. DNA showed that that hair belonged to Lori Vallow. That's significant because that's really the only physical evidence they have that ties Lori to JJ at the time of his death. Some of the most powerful testimony in the prosecution's case came from Lori's own family. They played an emotional jailhouse phone call between Lori and her only surviving child, son Colby Ryan. You ripped my heart out and you ripped out everyone in the stand's heart out. Then Lori's sister, Summer Shifflett, took the stand.

She told prosecutors that she believed Lori when she told her the children were safe. Did that change? Yes. Why? I felt lied to, and my trust in my sister was broken. Prosecutors played a jailhouse phone call between Summer and Lori after the children's bodies were found. You went up to Hawaii for testing on the beach while your sister was on the ground? This phone call is painful to listen to.

Summer is screaming at Lori. toward the end of its case the prosecution put on lori's former friend audrey barretaro she delivered some of the most damning testimony of the trial. She wasn't in the mental place to do that, but she would get herself in that place to be able to do it. But that she didn't want to have to because it would be so messy and there would be so much blood and bleach and something about trash bags. And that she would bury me where no one would ever find me. where no one would ever find me. Audrey Baratero's testimony is critical because this is a firsthand description of Lori being ruthless with the threat to kill her. This is the first time anyone in Lori's group of friends

really described her as being capable of killing. On cross, the defense aggressively tried to discredit Baratero's testimony. So you now want the jury to believe that even though you previously testified under oath and nothing of this sort was talked about, that you come here today and say you are so scared. That's why you didn't previously testify about it. Objection, Your Honor. Argumentative. It's overruled.

What was your question? You want the jury to believe that you just didn't make this last crap up? I did not make it up. crap up. I did not make it up. After 60 witnesses and four weeks of testimony, the prosecution rested its case. The defense declined to call any witnesses. Your Honor, after consultation with my client, we don't believe the state has proven its case, client. We don't believe the state has proven its case, so the defense rests. Each side would get a last chance stood before the jury and argued for his client's innocence. Who was Lori Vallow? What happened? Where did it happen? When did it happen? Why did it happen? That's what you've been asked to figure out.

Archibald painted a picture of Lori as a devoted mother, someone not capable of murder. He pointed to this early testimony from Lori's sister, Summer Shifflett. I think Lori was a loving mother and Tylee adored her mother. Are you ever concerned about the safety of Tylee around Lori? No. Would you ever imagine your sister wanting to kill her kids? No. He also directed the jury to this testimony from Lori's son, Colby Ryan. You said, my mom has spent her whole life protecting us kids. Yes. After she met Chad Daybell, she changed.

I don't remember, but yes. You never once thought your mom would hurt someone. Is that fair to say? Yes. Archibald argued that there is no evidence tying Lori to the murders of Tylee or JJ. And he said that hair stuck on the duct tape used to wrap JJ's body means nothing. Lori was raising JJ. JJ was living at Lori's house. The defense can easily argue that that hair could have gotten on JJ for a hundred reasons, none of them having anything to do with murder. Instead, Archibald shifted the blame towards Lori's husband, Chad Daybell, and her brother, Alex Cox. Remember all the GPS data? Lori's not in the backyard when Chad and Alex are. She's not there. There's not one smoking gun that ties Lori to any of these murders. And in order to explain Lori's lies to the police while the children were missing,

Archibald suggested that Lori was manipulated by Chad. How can someone have that much control over you? Reason and common sense just go out the window sometimes when religious principles are involved. Lori sees Chad as if Chad is Jesus. Chad sold his spiel to Lori and she bought it. And about Tammy Daybell's death, the defense questioned whether that was even a crime. Was she even murdered? Is it a natural death? All they need to do is raise a couple of questions in a

couple of the jurors. But prosecutor Rob Wood would get the last word. Lori's lies tell us she's guilty. The innocent don't need to lie. The guilty lie. Don't let Lori pin this all on one other person. She was 100% involved in this. You must convict her. When the case went to the jury, they deliberated for seven hours over the course of two days before returning with a verdict. The court shared video of Lori Vallow Daybell as she learned her fate. The Senate would please rise. In regards to count two of the amended indictment, is Lori Noreen Vallow not guilty or guilty of first degree murder of Tylee Ryan? Answer, guilty. In regards to count four of the amended indictment, is Lori Noreen Vallow not guilty or guilty of first degree murder of Joshua Jackson Vallow? Answer, guilty.

In regards to count five of the amended indictment, is Lori Noreen Vallow not guilty or guilty of conspiracy to commit firstdegree murder of Tamara Tammy Daybell. Answer, guilty. Guilty on all counts. Lori appeared emotionless. She will be sentenced at a later date. As JJ's grandparents, Larry and Kay Woodcock, exited the courthouse, the crowd outside greeted them by singing JJs favorite song, We Will Rock You. We will, we will rock you.

Larry Woodcock had been playing the song while awaiting the verdict. Love always wins. J.J., I love you. Papa. Papa, I wish you were here. Tylee, Papa loves you. Tammy, you are part of our life. My heart hurts for these three.

This is what this has been all about. Why, Lori? Why, Lori? Why? Power, sex, and greed. For what? For what? It's been nearly four years since the world lost Tylee,

a freckled-faced teenager, her baby brother, JJ, and Tammy, a mother of five. We'll never know the lives they would've gone on to live, but we do know what they left behind. Happy family. Their smiles. Their laughter. Their grace.

A couple disappears. We're in a million different directions. Trying to find her and him. A lot of people trusted him with a lot of money. He told me that he was adopted by Ronald Reagan's son. Who was the man last seen with Diana Duvet? Follow and listen to the 48 Hours Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts. If you like this podcast, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a quick survey at wondery.com slash survey.