Law&Crime Sidebar - 11 Disturbing Moments from ‘Doomsday Cult’ Mom Lori Vallow Daybell’s Murder Trial — Week Three

Episode Date: April 28, 2023

Week three of Lori Vallow Daybell’s consisted of shocking and critical testimony from forensics experts, FBI agents, and people close to the “doomsday cult” mom, including her sister. Witnesses who took the stand detailed the gruesome crime scene at Chad Daybell’s property, where the bodies of J.J. Vallow and Tylee Ryan were recovered. Daybell faces three murder charges for the deaths of her children and her husband’s late wife, Tammy Daybell. The Law&Crime Network’s Angenette Levy breaks down 11 disturbing moments from week three of the triple murder trial. PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW:Save 10% on your entire POM Pepper Spray order by using code LAWCRIME10 at http://bit.ly/3IGNFxvSUBSCRIBE TO OUR OTHER PODCASTS:Court JunkieObjectionsThey Walk Among AmericaCoptales and CocktailsThe Disturbing TruthSpeaking FreelyLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee 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 binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondry Plus in the Wondery app Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Agent Nate Russo returns in Oracle 3, Murder at the Grandview, the latest installment of the gripping Audible Original series. When a reunion at an abandoned island hotel turns deadly, Russo must untangle accident from murder. But beware, something sinister lurks in the grand. View Shadows. Joshua Jackson delivers a bone-chilling performance in this supernatural thriller that

will keep you on the edge of your seat. Don't let your fears take hold of you as you dive into this addictive series. Love thrillers with a paranormal twist? The entire Oracle trilogy is available on Audible. Listen now on Audible. I determined the cause of death to be asphyxia by a plastic bag over the head and duct tape covering the mouth. Heartbreaking details. about how J.J. Vallow died revealed in court as Lori Vallow-Dabell's sister realizes, she's been betrayed. Hi, Warren. You are dancing on a beach with a smile on your face. Take the red photos. These are just two of 11 of the most critical moments in week three of the doomsday cult mom's trial.

I've covered a lot of crime stories over the years, many of them here at law and crime, and it always makes me think about how many ways there are for us to all stay safe. palm pepper spray is one thing that can help you do it it's a small but mighty self-defense tool palm pepper spray shoots up to 12 feet using the strongest legal form of pepper spray on the market it's safe it's easy you just point it and you spray and if you want to try it you can get 10% off just log on to palmpeper spray.com and use the promo code law crime 10 and remember if you or anyone else is ever in danger always call 9-1-1 I'm janet levy and welcome Welcome to Law and Crime Sidebar podcast. The third week of testimony in the trial of Lori Vallow Daybell has come to an end and we are nearing the end of the state's case. We heard very graphic testimony this week about what happened to J.J. Valo and Tiley Ryan, along with details about how seven-year-old JJ died. But first, let's start with Tiley. Detectives found her charred remains on Chad Daybell's property in June of 2020. Attempts had been made to dismember her.

and her remains were burned. But some of her organs survived the trauma, despite being damaged. I've covered a few cases where people actually tried to dismember bodies. It's incredibly difficult. People don't realize what goes into this. And frankly, it's quite sickening and disgusting to listen to some of this testimony. So we want you to be aware of that. Forensic pathologist Dr. Garth Warren described examining Tiley's heart. So as we mentioned before, there were some organs that were identified. within that, the remains. So this is the heart right in the middle.

And then on both sides of the heart are the right and left lung. So they're still attached to one another. You can see the great vessels. They look like straws kind of coming out. So those are some of the great vessels that come off the aorta. and now this is not what a normal heart and lung looks like, just so you know, this is significantly shrunken. The heart and the lungs are both significantly shrunken. They're disrupted, they're charred, they're burned, they're falling apart. And so that was what was

found, at least part of the organs that were found. After going through a lot of gruesome detail about Tiley's remains. Dr. Warren summed up what he determined about Tiley's cause of death and manner of death. Dr. Warren, based on your autopsy of Tiley Ryan and based upon your education, training, and experience, have you formed an expert opinion concerning the cause of death of Tiley Ryan? Yes. What is that cause of death? I determine the cause of death to be homicide by unspecified means. And homicide by unspecified means. And homicide by unspecified means, does that have a specific definition? It does.

So, homicide by unspecified means is a term that is or can be used for the cause of death. When the forensic pathologist is essentially looked at the totality of the case, including the circumstances of the death, the autopsy findings, and lack thereof autopsy findings in this case, the toxicology. and also based on medical and social records that the forensic pathologist, which is me in this case, feels that the cause of death was by homicide, but I just can't pinpoint exactly what that was. Now, as the state goes through the case and really tries to connect the dots here,

the prosecution called a forensic biologist from the, Idaho State Police Lab. She testified about testing that was performed on items that were found on Chad Daybell's property, including several tools that were charred with flesh and tested positive for presumptive blood. Those tools included shears, handsaws, and a pickax. Here's Catherine Dase discussing that pickax. These are the larger pieces of fragments that I removed from that dark kind of black material from the eye of the pickax. And then, at the bottom, that blue line is pointing to the piece that I selected to photograph and run for DNA.

From your comparative analysis, did you come to any conclusions? Yes. What were those? Tiley Ryan is a potential contributor to this partial DNA profile. This DNA profile is at least 159 trillion times more likely to be seen if it originated from Tiley Ryan than if it originated from an unrelated randomly selected individual from the general population. Dr. Warren then talked about the autopsy of J.J. Valo, and of course his body was in much

different condition than his sisters. He was intact and had been wrapped in plastic and duct tape. He was essentially mummified. I also found some injuries that jumped out. One injury was a scratch. appeared to be, there were abrasions, it appeared to be scratched-like abrasions on the left side of the neck. And, Dr. If I can ask you, why was that significant to you? That was significant to me in a case like this, considering the way he was found, if there's any kind of injuries to the neck, you know, it's a, it's a red, flag. Do I know exactly what it means? No, but I think some of the things that come to mind are, you know, did, you know, was JJ trying to get the bag off his head? And could they be

scratch marks trying to get the bag off of his head? You know, again, I wasn't there. I don't know exactly what happened, but those are the types of things that go through my, my head. This testimony is really hard to listen to, especially as a mother. J.J. was just seven years old, he was autistic. And from this testimony, you can tell that he was conscious and aware of what was going on and that he fought to live. Doctor, in regards to the bruising you found on JJ's arms, are you able to make any type of determination if that is pre or post-mortem? Based on my findings, I believe the bruising in the arms is anti-mortem. When you say anti-mortem, is that before?

Yes, before death. Okay. And what leads you to believe that? Well, essentially, because, well, one, they looked like bruises when you just looked at them. And then two, when I made the incisions and there was hemorrhage in the soft tissues and subdues. subcutaneous tissue, it definitely suggests that it was antimortem. When somebody dies, there's no longer circulation. So if, for instance, somebody's picked up after they're dead by the arms, you wouldn't

expect bruising, especially in the subcutaneous tissue like you saw in that case, in this case. case. And then in the area of the neck where you described the abrasions, I believe, could those abrasions just be decomposition? I don't believe so. The reason being is they look like abrasions. They, oftentimes abrasions that are post-mortem take on a certain look to them. They'll have yellow appearance. They'll have a very waxy appearance to them, very firm, and there's rarely, or if ever, any hemorrhage associated with them. The abrasions on the neck in this particular case on JJ's neck, they had more of a tan brown or red appearance, and there was hemorrhage associated with them. So that makes me believe that those are also antimortem as well. I've determined

the cause of death to be asphyxia by plastic bag over the head and duct tape covering the mouth. And then there's another segment that's other significant conditions. I put bound with duct tape, bruising into the arms, and abrasion to the neck. But ultimately the cause of death was asphyxia by plastic bag over the head and duct tape over the mouth. What's so disturbing about this is the fact that Lori Valadebel was the mother of JJ and Tiley. It was her job, her moral duty as just basically a human being to care for her children and to ensure that they were safe. These were minor children. We'll hear testimony a little bit later about what Lori was up to after her children were killed. Let's go back to the

plastic bag in the duct tape that were wrapped around J.J. Valo's head. Both of those items were sent to the lab for additional testing this time for fingerprints. The bag is referred to as item 11. Tara Martinez, a forensic scientist for the Idaho state police, testified about what she found. And was there sufficient quality to that print for you to be able to do any comparison to that one? Yes. Who did you compare it to? What knowns did you compare it to? For both prints, I compared to Lori Valo, Chad Daybell, J.J. Valo, and Alexander Cox. Okay. And did your comparison yield any conclusions? Yes, I identified it to the right palm.

So this part of your hand in here, to Alexander Lamar Cox. Okay. And so evaluation of item 11 in the lab, the black plastic with the duct tape, yielded two latent prints. Correct. And both of those latent prints matched the known prince of whom? Alexander Lamar Cox. The defense did not cross-examine Tara Martinez about her findings about Alex Cox's fingerprints. Not one question did they ask.

And this has happened several times throughout this trial. And it's possible they didn't do that because they're thinking, hey, this implicates our client's brother who's dead, Alex Cox, not her. The jury also heard testimony about burner phones owned by Chad. Daybell and Lori Valodaybel. More than 15 of them, if you can actually imagine that. And if you don't know, a burner phone is literally one of those prepaid phones that you can buy at the store. You pay for it. And it's really not supposed to be traced back to you. But Gmail accounts were actually linked to some of these phones. So that's how they could identify them as belonging to Chad Daybell or Lori Valadebel.

Now listen to a Rexford police officer testify about the search history in a phone used by Chad And what did you find when you looked at his search history? One thing that I found was that on the 8th in the afternoon hours, the user of this account, the owner of the account was Chad Daybell. The user of this account looked up what the wind direction was going to be for the next day. And the next day would be September 9th of 2019. That's correct. Okay.

Did that have any significance to you as an investigator? It did because of other things that I had learned and that is the day that Chad Daybell had said he was going to burn limbs and killed a raccoon in his yard. Okay. And he did a wind search on September 8th. on September 8th. That's right. And the wind search reflected the wind was going to be south-southwest. I think that testimony was really significant, especially for Chad Daybell, because this is right around the time that Tiley died. Why would he care about the wind direction if you're going to burn some limbs and bury a raccoon? It really gets you thinking about

what he was really intending to do, possibly. Jurors also heard testimony from Tammy Daybell's sister. Her name is Samantha Gwilliam, and she talked about one of Chad Daybell's prior jobs and her sister's help. Was he also involved in ever-dicking graves that you know of? Yeah, that was part of their job, is that they would dig all the graves that came through for any of the burials at the cemetery. Eventually, he came back and was the sexton at that Springville. It was at the Evergreen Cemetery in Springville, and then eventually he was a sexton at the Spanish Fork Cemetery. How did you find out about your sister's passing? Chad called me the morning that she passed away.

Do you recall what he told you? He told me that she had been really sick and that she'd been coughing all night and she'd gone to, you had gotten up and with a coughing fit around men. midnight, one o'clock, and had gone back to sleep, and he was awakened by her that morning when she rolled out of bed dead. Did that make any sense to you? No, because I had just seen her two weeks previous to that, and she hadn't been, that's, she wasn't that sick at all.

She was very healthy. Did she indicate to you any activities that she was participating in? Yeah, she was in a clogging class, and she was showing us some of her, cloggy moves, but she was also preparing to run a smaller race in their town. So she was trying to stay fit and healthy. And how old was she? She wasn't 50 yet. We were going to get ready to celebrate her 50th birthday. William also testified about the last time she saw her sister Tammy before she died. When she came to visit in October, was that a normal visit? No, it was out of the blue. Does anyone come with her?

No, she came by herself and that was unusual because Tammy didn't like to travel alone. Did she tell you why she came down to visit? Chad told her that she needed to come visit her family. Was she able to see all of the siblings? No, it was me and my mom and dad. Did Tammy ever indicate to you that she had suspicion that Chad was having an affair? No, she never said anything about it. I don't, if she did have any inkling, I think he probably brushed it away.

Did you notice any change in Chad and Tammy's relationship? Yes, they stayed with us the first week in June of 2019, and something seemed off. They were very awkward. at our house and Chad wouldn't converse with my husband like they normally do. It just seemed really strange and we weren't sure what was going on.

Were there any other instances where things seemed a little off? Yes, in my birthday in July Tammy showed up at my front door to give me my birthday present. I didn't even know they were in town and he stayed in the car the whole time with it running.

So she literally stood in my house for five minutes to talk and then they just left and he didn't even bother to come in and say anything. It was really weird. And that was of 2019? Yes. Had you and Chad had any kind of a falling out? No. This was really, really odd. You have to wonder what the jurors were thinking as they're listening to Tammy Daybell's sister talk about the last time that she saw her and how she behaved. Now, the jury also heard a gut-wrenching phone call between Lori Valo-Daybell and her sister, Summer Shiflet. Summer Shiflet stood by her sister in the very beginning, but things changed dramatically after J.J. and Tiley's remains were found on Chad's Daybell's property in June of 2020.

That's correct. And if you did it happen to them and didn't tell us if the thing in the ground like a piece of trash that I don't know you. You would never know anything like that. That's correct. And if you knew I didn't Tell us that's awful. Thank you. We lost them. We want to take the death. We would not taking care of them. You could have gone out and done anything you wanted. That's what you think? I don't know what to think. I'm going to do you and haven't told us anything. We believe you. We stood off for you. I can't hear nothing. I would love to.

You caught me and mom for four months and told everyone not to trust us because we tell Adam. And now we find this out, and you expect me to just keep going on face when there's been zero explanation, and you expect me to just keep leaving me without ever having a question? I don't say that. That's what you're saying. Either explain it or don't expect me to not be upset and tell you when the kids are on chest property. I'm not okay. I love that with all my words. I want to take it entirely because it would hurt me.

And everybody else wanted to, you know that. You don't think that's going to cost pain through our entire family. That's cigarette. You don't think I will? No, I don't. I think you were dancing on the beach having a great time. Getting married. And you took pictures of approach. pictures and don't deserve marital, but you mean to get wedding pictures?

You don't think that's a saying? Nobody knows. I'm sorry. Then nobody knows, except for you and the Lord. I have. And guess what? I don't have one scripture that says it's okay for children to me. drawn away like garbage in the ground and if that's okay there is nothing in the scriptures that has thought me about hurting to be child nothing and they deserve a proper burial with family and lost them in the least it's really heartbreaking to listen to that summer said that she would

have taken the children a lot of people would have taken jay jay and tiley and given them a good life and kept them safe. Some people in the courtroom said that they actually saw Lori Vallow Daybell crying during her sister's testimony. And that's it as we recapped the third week of testimony in the trial of Lori Vallow Daybell. And that's it for this edition of Law and Crime Sidebar podcast. You can listen to and download Sidebar on Apple, Spotify, Google, and wherever else you get your podcast. And of course, you can always watch it on Law and Crimes YouTube channel. I'm Ann Jeanette Levy, and we will see you next time. You can binge all episodes of this law and crime series ad free right now on Wondery Plus.

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