Law&Crime Sidebar - 7 Surprising Facts About ‘Doomsday Cult’ Mom Lori Vallow Daybell

Episode Date: April 6, 2023

Lori Vallow Daybell is on trial in Idaho for her alleged role in the murders of her children, Tylee Ryan and J.J. Vallow, and Tammy Daybell, the late wife of her current husband, “Prophet�� Chad Daybell. She's been described as the "doomsday cult" mom and has been married five times. But is there more to her than meets the eye? The Law&Crime Network's Angenette Levy talks with author John Glatt about seven surprising things people may not know about her.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW:Click this link to make some cash for giving your opinion! https://www.inflcr.co/SHGDq Thanks YouGov for sponsoring!LAW&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.

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. views 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. Yeah, and then I was kind of turned around and we were all right there in that room except where the kids had been outside by that time and I hurt the gunshot. Lori Valo Daibel, known to the world as one half of the doomsday couple, but there's more to her than that. We found seven things about her you may not have known until now. All right, before we kick off our latest episode of Sidebar, we got to thank our sponsor of this video, UGov. So, UGov is the go-to side hustle for so many people.

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Lori Valdebel has spent the week in a courtroom in Ada County, Idaho that's in the Boise area, and this is where jury selection has been taking place. Judge Stephen Boyce has barred cameras from Lori Valo DeBell's trial, but a courtroom artist is capturing images of the process. Opening statements are scheduled for Monday. April 10th, and law and crime will have those covered for you. But back to Lori. We know that she's incredibly religious, that she was raised a Mormon. She met Chad Daybell while she was still married to her late husband, Charles Vallow. Chad Daybell is a self-proclaimed prophet, author, and podcast host.

Chad will be tried separately for the murders of Lori's children, Tiley Ryan and J.J. Valo and Chad's wife, Tammy Daybell. Lori is accused of murdering Tiley and J.J. and conspiring to kill Tammy. She's also accused of using social security benefits for JJ and Tiley after they died. Lori lived in Arizona when she met Chad and then later moved to Idaho where he lived. Chad is Lori's fifth husband. We've heard from Lori in an interview with police in Arizona after her brother Alex Cox shot her fourth husband Charles. Take a listen to a little bit of that interview. Lori really has a gift for gab. He was just so angry like super scary. Did you? How do you take your phone from like a 16 year old and they freak out like their world disintegrates like

I've taken my phone away from the 16 year old boy before and he like he's like wanted to kill itself because like they cannot function that's how it was it was like is something on his phone that he does not want me to see that he was like freaking out like to the point where I thought he would hit me in the bat with a head to get the phone okay so you thought and not I don't want to put words in your mouth, but um, you thought it was possible that he was going to hurt you? Absolutely. He was going to hurt me and highly. Okay. Not JJ. You've never heard JJ. Okay. And he hurt my brother. Like, he was going like ballistic about, it was bad.

Okay. John Vlad is the author of the book, The Doomsday Mother. So he knows a lot about Lori Valo Debel. And he is here with us to discuss these seven surprising facts about, about Lori Valadebel. So John, welcome to Sidebar. Thanks for coming on. Thanks for having me. It's good to see you. I'm really interested in hearing about how you became interested in this case and why you wrote the book. Yeah, well, I think like a lot of other people, I read about it very early on when they were still looking for the, you know, JJ entirely. Where are the children? I got interested. I've written a lot of true crime books, but I just thought this really piqued my curiosity. I wanted to find out more and I took it to my publishers, Martin's Press, and they commissioned it. So I went

ahead. Did you talk to a lot of people who knew her? Oh yes. Yeah. I mean, I spoke to a lot of her friends, whatever. I spoke to Kay and Larry Woodstock briefly, although they wouldn't be quoted in the book because they were doing their own. But I spoke to a lot of people that knew them, especially spoke to one of Laurie's best friends at school who knew her very well that gave me a lot of new insight into her. Very interesting. So, John, let's talk about these seven things that we are looking at. Things some people may not know.

People who follow this case incredibly closely may be aware of these things. But one of the things that shocked me when I was looking at this topic was the fact that Lori Valo Deval was a contestant on the wheel of fortune. I had no idea. So let's take a quick look at one of the clips, and then we'll talk about it. Hi, how are you doing, Lori Ryan from Austin, Texas, hair stylist in Austin, hey? That's right, the best. How's the hair in Austin?

It's good. Good. Us is it's a happening place. Probably thanks to you. Pretty much. Talk about your family a little bit. I have a wonderful husband, Joseph, at home, who is watching our two beautiful children, Colby, who's seven, and Tiley, who is one.

Yeah, what do you guys like to do for fun? We like to play all kinds of sports on our three acres. Okay, sounds like you have a nice life there. We do. Congratulations. Nice to have you with us. John, what do you think of that? How does Laurie Valadebel end up on the Wheel of Fortune?

Well, Laurie says she told her sister, in fact, that she had a message from God, that she was needed to appear on the Wheel of Fortune, and she entered for it. She actually got on the show. Very interesting that she mentioned her husband at the time, Joe Ryan, who she was in the process of divorcing, but also her children. Kylie and Kobe, she mentions. And she was bantering with Pat Sejack and in fact ended up winning $17,500. And she told everybody it was a gift from God.

Do we know about what year this was? I think it was 2001. It was about 20 years ago, maybe 2002. She just looks like a nice young woman, you know, mom, you know, blonde woman. I guess when I watched that clip, I was shocked because it seems like a much different person And then the person we see now, we only know her through this case. But so even back then, she's talking about getting messages from God and it sounds like believing in some type of religion. Oh, yes.

I mean, this goes back, predates that even, you know. She was, you know, she was always talking that she was in contact with the spirits from behind the veil. Especially this is another point, her late sister, Stacey, who died of diabetes. years earlier. She believed that she, you know, spoke to her every night and that Tiley was actually the reincarnation of her dead sister Stacey. And she firmly believed that, you know, so she was, she did this from many, many years. It wasn't something new. Interesting. Okay, so let's get to that part because you said that she believed that Tiley was the reincarnation of her dead elder sister Stacy. Let's talk about that. How tell me about this. Well, Stacy had an eating disorder.

and I think she was like five or six years older than Laurie and she died very tragically because she wasn't taking her medicine and she wasn't eating and she died of sort of diabetes-related things. The family were very, very upset. And Laurie became very close to Stacey's daughter, also called Melanie and became like a second mother to her. And she was convinced that she would, you know, she was in constant contact with Stacey.

Let's talk about this now, John. It sounds like Lori Valo Daybell dances to religious music in front of her room-length mirror late at night. What do we know about this? Well, this goes back a long way. I mean, she even had her third husband, Charles Vallow, give her a special room. He built a special room with a full-length mirror. And late at night, she would just turn on the music and dance in front of it. And this is something she did constantly, you know, wherever she lives, she always had mirrors up and she would dance.

And in fact, I understand that when she was in jail, the inmates would say that she still danced late at night in her cell, in fact. So this was just how she communicated with God, I guess. You know, I'm not sure. So this is something that she was, this is something that she's been doing for a while. Oh, absolutely, yes. Yeah. Okay, let's talk about this.

Her bedroom closet portal where she believed that Chad spiritually visited her late at night. Tell us a little bit about this, John. Yeah, she told her best friend, Melanie. give that, that, you know, wherever Chad was, he would come and visit and they had a special portal in her bedroom closet. Although he didn't come physically, he came spiritually, and they would be able to talk and pray together and commune, you know, and make their plans, you know, for the end of the world and how they were going to, you know, lead the 144,000 chosen people to the next life. Next up, there's a, let's talk about this, John, how she persuaded inmates to make her

red lipstick out of Jolly Rancher Candies and eyeliner from pencils for her court appearances, convincing other people to do this for her. Why isn't this something maybe that she could have done for herself? Obviously, this is somebody who is concerned about her appearance. Oh, absolutely. I mean, Narcise. Sorry, Lori was a total narcissist. I mean, and she really cared about her appearance. And she liked to look the best in court. And I think she befriended the other inmates, you know, who were more experienced. They've been there longer than her when she was first arrested, and they taught her how to make bright red lipstick out of Jolly Rancher candy. And you can see in the videos of her court appearances, this garish red lipstick that she had.

And they also, you know, she did an eyeliner from pencils. And this was like surviving behind bars for Laurie to look her best, you know, when the cameras were on her, you know, when she did court appearances. And I can't help but think this may be one of the reasons there were no cameras that Judge Boyce did not allow cameras in the court because he knew Laurie would play up to it and act like she was, you know, at a Hollywood opening or something. I find this odd, though, because she's able to convince these people. She's obviously made friends in jail. That's not unusual.

But the whole thing about being able to convince people to do something, this kind of reminds me of going back to the body camera footage when Charles Valo was killed by her brother, Alex Cox. And she seemed to be able to convince these police officers of, nothing, you know, that she didn't do anything wrong, her brother didn't do anything wrong. Oh, she was very persuasive. I mean, she knew how to make people that put people at their ease, communicate to them and relate to them. And that's one of the things she was very good at. She had a natural gift for relating to people. And I'm sure that's what she did with the other inmates,

you know, who probably really liked her and wanted to help her. Now let's talk about this part, because I always kind of wondered, what did Lori Daybell do for a living? And apparently, Lori Debele, Lori Valo Debel, she's had several different names, had a home salon where she cut her client's hair. Tell us about that. Yeah, I mean, that's what Laurie did for a living right from the beginning. She was a hairdresser. She worked in salons, in Texas, Arizona, and whatever. And when she married Charles Valo, he actually gave her a home salon.

And also her previous husband, Joe Ryan, had given her home salon too. So she would have her clients over, cut her hair, she'd cut relations hair and whatever, and that's what she liked to do. And supposedly she was very good at it, you know. Is this something that she had done for years and years, or what do we know about that? Well, that's the only job I could ever find Laurie had, you know, was working salons, cutting hair, you know, beautician. So that's what she did for a living before she met, you know, the men that would keep her, you know. I know that there are sometimes, you know, in jails at least, they'll have somebody come in, a barber or some type of person to provide this service.

Is there any chance? I can't imagine giving an inmate somebody who is charged with as serious as crime as murder, a pair of scissors and having her have that kind of job in jail. Is there any indication that she's doing things for her fellow female inmates with this? No, I don't have a clue. It's been very, you know, hush, hush, what's gone on. behind bars since she was arrested. But I can say every court appearance, she looks really quaffed. Her hair looks perfect. She's got the makeup and everything. So, I mean, she's gone to a great

deal of trouble to look good for these court appearances. But whether she's cutting other people's hair in return, I have no way of knowing. Okay. Interesting. That's just something I wondered about since she seems to be very focused on appearance. Our next topic here, our next little factoid, is the fact that she competed in a beauty pageant. So is this something in your research that you found that went on for her whole life? Or talk to us a little bit about what you discovered? No. She actually won, I think, Mrs. Hayes County competition,

beauty pageant in Texas. She competed with that, actually. She didn't win it. She was one of the finalists, and there's video of her, you know. being interviewed, you know, there was a swimsuit part of it, there was a costume part of it, and then she was interviewed. You know, she gave a very, very interesting interview for that. But I think she wanted to compete for Mrs. Texas. That was her next thing. But unfortunately, she didn't get through to it. I want to go back to the religion part of this, John.

Do we have any indication that this is something, I mean, was she raised in an incredibly religious household. Was she always a Mormon? Do we know? What do we know about that? Well, her parents were Mormon. She was raised in a Mormon family. I mean, they went to church, they practiced. But I mean, Laurie's childhood friend told me that they were always very surprised because Laura's mother Janice would go out in hot pants and leopard skin tops and everything and looked anything but a devout Mormon. You know, she was very fashionable in that way. So nobody really knows. But Laurie always claimed to be the religion, you know, and later on she got more and more devout. As far as the beauty pageant stuff, John, was this, I forgot what you said about whether or not

she was doing this for long periods of time or... No, I think that was the only one, you know, the Mrs. She was looking for Mrs. Texas, so she went in the early stages and went to Mrs. Hayes County, you know, and didn't win that. John, do you think that you'll be traveling to Idaho for this trial at all? No, I don't. I probably wouldn't get in the courtroom. I'd finished the book over a year ago. I've moved on since then, you know, to other projects. So no, I'm not going to be going to Idaho. And unfortunately, I would have been watching it on television if it had been loud cameras in the court, like the Murdoch trial for the book I've just written on Alex Murdoch, but that's not going to happen. So like everyone else, I'm just, you know, getting it through Twitter and other, you know, reportage. So not something you're continuing to follow very closely, but obviously something that captivated your attention and you decided, hey, this could make a good book.

Pretty much, yes. But, you know, I've been following it pretty closely, you know, since I finished the book. But for me to go to Idaho and cover it, I don't think so. All right. Well, John Glad, author of The Doomsday Mother, we appreciate your time and appreciate you joining us. Thanks so much. And we look forward to having you on again.

My pleasure. Thank you very much. And that's it for this edition of Law and Crime Sidebar podcast. You can listen to 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 Janette Levy, and we will see you next time. You can binge all episodes of this Law and Crime series. right now on Wondery Plus.

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