Law&Crime Sidebar - 11 Shocking Moments From ‘Doomsday Cult’ Mom Lori Vallow Daybell’s Triple Murder Trial So Far

Episode Date: April 14, 2023

From zombies — to spell castings — and bizarre audio recordings, the first week of Lori Vallow Daybell’s triple murder trial has been anything but ordinary. The ‘doomsday cult’ mom is accused of killing two of her children, Tylee Ryan and J.J. Vallow, along with her fifth husband’s late wife, Tammy Daybell. The Law&Crime Network’s Angenette Levy details the most shocking moments from this unique trial so far.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW:Save 10% on your entire POM Pepper Spray order by using code LAWCRIME10 at http://bit.ly/3IGNFxvLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokePodcasting - Sam GoldbergWriting & Video Editing - Michael DeiningerGuest Booking - Alyssa FisherSocial Media Management - Vanessa Bein & Kiera BronsonSUBSCRIBE 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.

Wonderly Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wonderly 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. Did she ever tell you if JJ was taken over or possessed by an evil spirit? Yes. She did. Lori Valladay Bell's former best friend takes the stand and offers damning testimony against the doomsday cult mom who's accused of murdering her daughter and son and conspiring to murder the wife of her current husband. I've covered a lot of crime stories over the years. Many here at law and crime and it always gets me thinking about ways we can all stay safe. Well, one way you can do that is by trying out palm pepper spray. 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 and easy. You just point it and spray. And if you want to try it, you can get 10% off. Just log on to palmpeper spray.com and put in the code law crime 10. And remember, if you or anyone else is ever in danger, call 911. Welcome to Law and Crime Sidebar podcast. I'm Ann Jeanette Levy. Week one of testimony in the trial of doomsday call mom Lori Valo Daybell is in the books. And let me tell you, this is one of the strangest, weirdest stories I've ever covered. It's a twisted tale of murder, zombies, and religious extremism. And just in case, you haven't been following the case and you're not familiar with it,

here's a little recap. Lori Valo Daybell is accused of murdering her daughter, Tiley Ryan, and her adopted son, J.J. Valo, in September of 2019. J.J. was seven years old and an autistic person. Tyley was just 16 years old. Lori is accused of conspiring with her current husband, Chad Daybell, to murder his late wife, Tammy Daybell, around the same time. A new fact came to light this week in Tammy Daybell's death. We found out in opening statements that an autopsy conducted after her body had been exhumed revealed that she died of asphyxiation.

Originally, her death had been deemed due to natural causes from a medical issue, but now they're saying that's not true. The state started its case by calling J.J. Valo's grandmother, Kay Woodcock. She is the sister of Charles Vallow, Lori's fourth husband, who was killed by her brother Alex Cox in July of 2019. Cameras are not allowed in the courtroom, of course, but we're getting the audio at the end of each day. This is what Kay said about Lori's relationship with JJ. What did you observe in the relationship between Lori and JJ? I witnessed. She was a doting mom. She was very engaged. She was, I know one time when we went, he was probably a year old. She had a photo album and she had pictures in it. And she had pictures of me and Larry and other people. And she was reinforcing that we were here.

his grandparents. It's pretty strange to hear Kay Woodcock talk about Lori Valo in such pleasant terms, calling her a good mother to JJ. Obviously, things changed over the years. If you've been following the case, you'll know that Charles Valo, her estranged husband back in 2019, had called police early that year saying that Lori really had gone off the deep end with her religious beliefs and that she believed that he was a zombie. Kay Woodcock testified about the last last time she ever had any contact with JJ. Did you have any other contact with JJ Valo? The last FaceTime, the last contact that we ever had with them was on August the 10th of 19.

And that was a 35 second FaceTime. And he, again, was not holding the iPad or the device. He just said, hi, Mama, hi, Papa. And then he looked up as if someone, whoever was holding the device, and he goes, got to go, Mama, got to go, how do you say, got to go, Mama, got to go, Papa, bye. And that was it. So that was the end of the conversation.

Yes. So it was a short conversation. Yes. And that was the last time you ever had contact with JJ Valo. Yes. On August 10th, 2019? Yes. Okay.

Did you attempt to have contact with JJ after that? Yes. So that was August of 2019, and JJ was killed in September the following month. Now, Kay Woodcock also testified about coming across her late brother's Amazon account in his email, and she found some searches that were awfully suspicious around the same time. Yes. I got into the browsing history in the Amazon account, and I saw that there was browsing for a beach wedding dress, a bathing suit, men's large size, I think it was large, white linen, top and pants. And Malachite wedding rings.

And there were a couple other little odd-in-in-things, I believe, maybe flip-flops or something. Was there a date associated with that browsing history that you saw? Yes. What date was that? October 2nd. Of what year? 2019. Was there a reason that caught your attention?

Yes, because I had learned before that that Tammy Daybill had passed away. on October the 19th, and this was her looking at wedding rings and wedding stuff. Kay Woodcock's call to Rexburg, Idaho Police in the fall of 2019, really set off the missing person's investigation. She couldn't reach JJ, certainly, and she couldn't reach Tiley either. Rexburg police detective Ray or Massio is the lead detective on the case. He testified about finding human remains on Chad Daybell's property in June 2020 in a pet cemetery. Eventually, we uncovered bits and pieces of tiley, who we assumed was tiley, that had been burned. There were pieces of bone, like I said, charred flesh.

Just the best I can describe is just globs of. of a flesh that were falling apart okay and did you keep digging down we did did you find anything further once we removed some of that underneath there was another that's underneath there was another round a glob of and sorry for the that's the best way I can describe it. Just burnt flesh, bone, all kind of, what appeared to be in a put in a green bucket. The bucket had melted so it was kind of disformed and the flesh and bone and was was all kind of stuffed in that melted bucket.

Detective Hermesio described a gruesome scene. Then he described finding little JJ's body. Eventually all the dirt was removed from the small body wrapped in plastic. The body was then photographed, ERT, took their measurements. The body was eventually removed from the burial site and put into a black body bag, which was locked for evidence purposes, placed in the back of the coroner's vehicle on scene. I want to ask you a clarifying question. You're referring to a body.

had you, other than the slit in the head area, you testified correct that this body was in a black plastic bag? Correct. Did you remove any of the other black plastic at that time? No, it was just, when I testified to that, it was just the shape of a small body wrapped in black plastic. This testimony was apparently so incredibly upsetting to Lori Valo-Daybell that she asked that her attorneys asked the judge to allow her to skip the rest of the day. Your Honor, my client wishes to waive her presence at the testimony for the remainder of the day. It was emotional this morning, and she indicated to us she did not want to attend this afternoon. There is a rule that contemplates a defendant waiving their presence.

would ask the court to review that rule and any relevant case law. We would remind the court of the history of this case with my client, her fragile state of mind, the mental health concerns, the myriad reports that have been filed about her mental health do justify such a request. Judge Stephen Boyce denied that request. Now, we know that Lori Valdebel has serious mental health issues. It took 10 months for mental health professionals to restore her to competency so she could go to trial. But we still don't know her exact mental health diagnosis. Some of the week's most damning testimony came from a woman named Melanie Gibb. She is the former best friend of Lori Valo DeBelle. Gibb testified that Lori Valo met Chad Daybell in October of 2018. Gibb described their religious beliefs. Lori and Chad were members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Did Lori ever indicate anything about having a special mission here on Earth? Yes. And what did she tell you about that? She felt that she was part of the 144,000. And then as she developed her relationship with Chad, she felt like, They were the head leaders of it. And when you talk about the 144,000, can you explain a little bit about what that would mean? It's referenced from scripture and the Bible and in the Docter and Covenants about a group of 144,000 that would be here during the return of our Savior.

And they would help do a great mission of missionary work throughout the world. and they would have, you know, a lot of a spiritual endowment from on high. Gibb also told the jury about how she and the daybells participated in what they called castings. It was to drive out evil spirits from the bodies of the people that they labeled as, quote, dark. Do you recall if they told you anything, if they, excuse me, I say they, do you recall if Lori ever used the term zombie? Yes. Do you recall approximately when she? used that term? It wasn't in the beginning, but I would say weeks, weeks after the original

idea that someone taken over the body, they just started calling, using that terminology. I would just say weeks after that. By all accounts, jurors seemed to be absolutely stunned by Melanie Gibbs's testimony. Some of their jaws were dropping from what we've been told when the word zombie was actually used. Gibbs said the first time that she ever heard Lori, described someone as dark was in early 2019 and she used that word to describe her then husband, Charles Vallow. You'll recall Lori's brother, Alex Cox, shot and killed Charles in the summer of 2019 in Arizona and claimed it was self-defense. Then Gibbs said Lori claimed that JJ was possessed. Did she ever tell you if JJ was taken over or possessed by an evil spirit?

Yes. She did. and do you recall approximately when that would have been um so sorry i'm getting my september was it september 2019 is that when i was yeah yeah september yeah september yeah september in 2019 yeah and was that the first time you'd heard of j j being possessed yes gibb also testified about Lori telling her about her intimate relationship with Chad Daybell. Did Lori indicate whether or not she thought it was okay that they were engaging in intimate relations? She did. She felt it was according to God's will. And did she tell you ever expand on why she believed it was according to God's will?

Yes. She explained that because they had been married in multiple lives and they had a mission together, that it was okay. The jury then heard a phone call that Melanie Gibbs secretly recorded. This was when Lori and Melanie were speaking by phone after JJ and Tiley had been reported missing. I don't know why you're being controversial to me or if you're reporting this conversation for the police or whatever. I don't know what your intention is on this phone call. I'm up with all my heart and I have forever and I will always see you. I appreciate those words, but if you really love me, you wouldn't have told me. the police that I had

Jesu with me. That's not what a friend does. I mean, that just makes me look weird and it just it's not safe for me. That doesn't look good. You mean, you had to think of my welfare if you love me.

I do, and I did exactly what I felt the Lord was instructing me to do. And I appreciate you and I love you. And I don't know anything to harm you. And you can have all this confirmed to you by the Lord? I have.

And my conscience is clear. I feel very understanding what's really going on, Lori. And I believe that you have been very deceived by Satan. I believe that he has tricked you. And I just, I don't believe that what you're doing is correct. In another part of that phone call, Lori tells Melanie Gibb that she knows where JJ is. This was after he was killed.

I'm just worried for you guys because, you know, he's missing and, you know. I know exactly where he is. You're perfectly fine. Okay. Well, I hope so. I have a scripture I wanted to share with you if you don't mind. I love it. 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 podcasts. And of course, you can always watch it on Law and Crimes YouTube channel. I'm Ann Janette 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. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app. podcasts or Spotify.