Dateline Originals - Mommy Doomsday - Update: Keith Morrison and Producer Shane Bishop Discuss Latest Charges

Episode Date: December 18, 2023

Keith Morrison sat down with producer Shane Bishop to discuss the recent developments and charges in the case that has taken yet another bizarre turn.This episode was originally published on June 2, 2021. 

It's happened again. The case of Chad and Lori Vallow Daybell, so chock full of untoward events and untimely deaths and unlikely twists, has taken yet another bizarre turn. Months of quiet in the case ended with charges laid, followed almost immediately by new uncertainty. The order of things has been as follows. A grand jury in Fremont County, Idaho, long delayed by COVID, finally met to consider the case. Fremont County is where Chad lived with his now deceased wife,

Tammy, and where the bodies of Lori's two children, 16-year-old Tylee Ryan and 7-year-old J.J. Vallow, were found buried in June of 2020. And the grand jury issued indictments on multiple counts, including first-degree murder for Chad in Tammy's mysterious death. She died in 2019, two weeks before he married Lori. In addition, Chad and Lori were both charged with conspiracy to commit first-degree murder in Tammy's death. Both Chad and Lori were also indicted on counts of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder for the deaths of J.J. and Tylee. Prosecutors were given 60 days to decide if they'll seek the death penalty.

Sources have told us it's likely they will do so because they could always change their minds later and seek life in prison for both instead. And then Chad and Lori appeared in court to face the charges, which is where this latest twist comes in. Producer Shane Bishop has been one of my partners on this case since it hit the headlines nearly a year and a half ago. Shane, you watched the live feed as first Chad and then Lori made their initial appearances, and two people we've not seen for quite a while. How did they look? Well, we wanted to be there in person for these appearances, but they were done over Zoom. They're still doing some COVID protocol, so it was all Zoom. Chad, as always, was looking very chipper in a white shirt and a blue tie, smiling, even smirking strangely at a couple of things. The judge asked him, can you hear me? And he smirked strangely when he he said yes i can um laurie's appearance which was after that was quite the opposite she sat slumped in a chair her hair which was once blonde has now gone almost

completely dark she did not say a word um her appearance started late and was adjourned in fact we're now told that what was her initial appearance doesn't even count as an initial appearance. And she'll have another one at some point down the road. We're not sure when. So that seemed a little strange. Why would that be? What was the news that was revealed? I guess pretty remarkable news that that changed the course of events. So Lori has been deemed mentally unfit to stand trial. There's been a lot of chatter over the past couple of months that Lori had been taken out of the jail to a hospital for a mental evaluation, and that was apparently true because we now know that she

was examined on March 8th. The judge has now issued a ruling that at least stands for now that she's unfit to stand trial. The order said that Lori's attorney had asked for a mental evaluation in March, which, you know, to a lot of us begs the question, what took him so long? Why did it take him 13 months to ask for a mental evaluation when it was clear to many that this was a legitimate issue? I think only Mark Means can answer that. What we do know is that the evaluation was completed and a licensed clinical psychologist advised that she's not competent to proceed and recommended restorative treatment, which means medication and therapy. It's not clear from our sources if she'll be given that medication in jail or at a state hospital nearby. Now the prosecutors have contested that

ruling that Lori isn't competent. The interesting thing about the ruling is that it stops the clock on Lori's case because she didn't technically have an initial appearance in court or an arraignment. That 60-day clock on the death penalty decision has not yet started in her case. Okay, so there still could be a decision to go after the death penalty, depending on how she does in treatment. But my understanding is that she has been, recall, she's been looked at by mental health professionals a number of times over the years. This never showed up before? Well, you and I have talked a lot about that, what was missed. And in our last show, we had the two mental health experts who felt pretty strongly that an opportunity was missed back in 2007.

I think it's important to note that only one expert has said she's not competent. Prosecutors have contested that decision. That means that they could bring in their own expert to examine her and present their own findings to the court, which would then have to make a final ruling on competency. Or prosecutors just could just drop their objection and agree with it. As far as what happens if the court issues a final ruling that Lori is in fact incompetent, then restorative treatment begins, the medication and therapy. Well, is there a chance that Laurie would never face trial? Well, if at any point down the road, they mental health experts rule that Laurie has

regained competency, which means doctors would find that she was able to assist in her own defense. Then she'd have an opportunity to enter a plea and go to trial. This is the interesting part to me. If she cannot regain competency ever, she will likely be deemed criminally dangerous and serve the rest of her life in a mental hospital. And she might go to a mental hospital for the rest of her life without even going on trial. That's a possibility if she never regains competency in the opinion of the mental health experts. So the very day all these things were happening, the police in Gilbert, Arizona

announced that they had recommended charges in the case against her regarding her ex-husband, Charles Vallow. What happened there? Well, this is something that they told me would happen probably six or eight months ago when I visited Chandler PD. They said that as soon as the charges dropped against Lori in Idaho, they'd have something to say about the death of Charles. And they insist they've handled Charles's shooting death from the very beginning as they would handle any homicide investigation. And they have now submitted the case to the Maricopa County Attorney's Office and recommended that Laurie be charged with conspiracy to commit first-degree murder. You'll recall that Charles was shot and killed by Alex Cox, Laurie's brother. As you know, he died in ME-ruled natural causes, so he can't obviously be charged. And let me break in there for a moment. A lot of people have expressed doubt about the way alex died is there any further

investigation ongoing about that or is that done i think it's done i have heard nothing that indicates there's a new investigation or a reopening of investigation to alex's death well uh jj's grandparents um k and and larry wood, have been such a driving force in this case. Have they had any comment about the charges, about the condition that Lori is apparently in, about any of these matters? Well, they've indicated that they're happy that the charges have come down. The charges were actually announced on what would have been JJ's ninth birthday. And Kay Woodcock wrote on her Facebook page, Happy ninth birthday in heaven to our beautiful baby boy. You were tragically ripped from us and our lives are forever changed.

I cannot express how much we love and miss you. We have devoted the rest of our lives to ensure the evil people who violated your love and trust will pay for the rest of their lives on this planet, then forever in hell. Meanwhile, we keep you in our hearts and dreams every minute of every day until we meet again. Kiss your sweet face, hug you tightly and spend eternity together. We love you, little man. Happy birthday until we meet again. All right. Thank you, Shane.

And now we wait. Chad and Lori in their separate jails. She under psychiatric care and earthly justice. Thank you, Shane.