Law&Crime Sidebar - 9 Bombshells Dropped in ‘Doomsday Cult’ Mom Lori Vallow Daybell’s Trial So Far

Episode Date: May 6, 2023

Doomsday cult” mom Lori Vallow Daybell has been on trial for nearly a month for the alleged murders of her two children, Tylee Ryan and J.J. Vallow, and her “prophet” husband Chad Daybell’s late wife, Tammy Daybell. The Law&Crime Network’s Jesse Weber breaks down nine incriminating bombshells dropped in Daybell’s triple murder trial so far.SUBSCRIBE TO OUR OTHER PODCASTS:Court JunkieObjectionsThey Walk Among AmericaDevil In The DormThe 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.

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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 pray for you. I pray for him. You've ripped my heart out and you've ripped out everyone in the stand his heart out. What a month it has been in the Lorry, Vallow Daybell murder trial, from haunting phone calls to new details surrounding the deaths of three people, we break down some of the biggest revelations over the past several weeks. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by Law and Crime.

I'm Jesse Weber. As someone who's been following the Lori Vallow Daybell saga for the past several years, I have to tell you, I was really curious to see what would be presented at this Idaho murder trial. And yeah, we have certainly learned a lot. And honestly, it is more disturbing than I could have imagined. This again is the case of the 49-year-old mother charged with first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and grand theft in connection with the deaths of her two children, seven-year-old J.J. Valo, 16-year-old Tiley Ryan. But she's also charged with conspiracy to commit murder and the death of 49-year-old Tammy Davell, the deceased wife of her current.

current husband and co-defendant, Chad Daybell. He's facing similar charges. He's going to be tried separately. After all, the kids' bodies were found on his property, and he is charged with the murder of Tammy. Now, let's actually start with Tammy. Okay? So one of the biggest revelations, something that we didn't know before this trial, was how

Tammy died. For anyone following this case, you may recall that when Tammy died back in October of 2019, her death was initially classified as natural. This was based a lot on Chad's version of events that night that his wife got ill. She suddenly died in her sleep. But when everything happened with JJ and Tiley, her body was exhumed. And during this trial, we learned not only her cause and manner of death, but also what may have happened to her right before she died. And in conducting the autopsy on Tammy Daybell, did you in fact reach a conclusion as to the cause and manner of death?

Yes, we did. And what were those? We determined her cause of death to be the result of asphyxia and her manner of death to be homicide. And as you were going through this process with the bruising on Ms. Debeau, were you able to make any determination with regard to the age of the bruising? All of it, all of the sections that we look at under the microscope showed only hemorrhage. They were acute injuries.

And would you be able to say if they occurred prior to or after her death? Most likely prior. Certainly you can inflict bruises on an individual who has recently died. If you strike them, drop them, any number of other things. But once circulation stops, you tend to not have a lot of accumulation of hemorrhage within the tissues, simply because there's no circulation, no blood pressure. And so those are the sort of the basic things. In addition to having no anatomical abnormalities, no organ pathology, per se, no pneumonia,

no other pathologic process that would explain her death. She did also have some injuries on her arms, very nonspecific blunt injuries, bruises on her right arm, left arm and on her left chest, which were determined to be relatively acute injuries had happened, you know, within the hours around the time of her death, would be, by their nature, those types of blunt injuries are not specific, but they are certainly consistent with someone being restrained and would be, you know, consistent with asphyxia as a cause of death as well. So she died from someone basically suffocating her, and it seems that she was attacked and restrained. Was it Chad? Was it Alex Cox, Lori's dead brother, who the evidence has been suggesting

as the person that killed the kids? Was it the both of them? Well, we know that Chad is charged with the first-degree murder of his wife, Tammy, and his suspicious behavior before and after her death, something that we covered in a previous sidebar, can certainly lead one to the conclusion that he was behind this. But it's just chilling to think of that. For Tammy, she was none the wiser about her husband's affair with Lori, and she was killed, and then her husband gets married to Lori two weeks after her death. Now, speaking of these new revelations, I will say right now, some of the most difficult testimony that we have heard in this case, and there's been a lot, but really, I don't think anything compares to what we learned about what happened to JJ and Tiley. Their bodies were

found as i mentioned on chad's property we had ideas of what happened to them but never really knew exactly what happened and i warn you right now this is graphic and this is very very hard to hear doctor were you involved in the autopsy of joshua jackson valo yes okay if it's okay with you, I'm going to refer to him as JJ from here on out. When were you involved in that autopsy? On June 11, 2020. And where did that take place? That took place at the Ada County morgue. Was this the first time you had ever seen JJ Valo? Yes. And approximately how long did that autopsy last? It took approximately four hours. Okay. And did you write report summarizing your findings for that autopsy?

I did. Based on that particular autopsy and based upon your education, training, and experience, have you formed an expert opinion concerning the cause of death of J.J. Valo? I have. What was that? I determined the cause of death to be asphyxia by a 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 of the asphyxia, by plastic bag over the head and duct tape over the mouth. 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, 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 has 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 me in this case, feels that the cause of death was by homicide, but I just can't pinpoint exactly what that was. It's just unthinkable. It's just unthinkable. To really process and understand what happened to these two innocent children, it's horrifying. It's evil.

And it's heartbreaking. And from our reporter, Gigi McElvey, who was in that courthouse. She said it was a very difficult day for the jurors and everyone in that courtroom. And then we heard another bombshell, another devastating bombshell. This audio recording between Lori Valo Daibel

and her surviving son, Colby Ryan. This was recorded while she was in jail after the kid's bodies were found, and Colby doesn't hold anything back. He confronts his mother, but listen very carefully. to Lori's reaction. You have no idea how much pain.

I have felt in my body. I feel like I could die. My own mom, my siblings, and my whole family, my dad are everyone that's gone except for you and you're in jail because of it. I have prayed to Heavenly Father himself and asked him to help me survive this. I pray. Every day, I pray no matter how mad I am at you, no matter how bad I want to hit your husband in a face with a shovel. I pray for you. I pray for him.

You can judge me, Colby, all day long. Go ahead and judge me. The whole world has. The whole world has judged me. They don't know and you don't know. You don't know what I've been through, and you may even give a crap what they've been through. Nobody does. Except for me.

I'm the one that knows. I'm the one that was in the hospital of Tiley for hundreds of days watching her suffer. I'm the one that was there doing everything with JJ every day. I was the one who did it all these years. You did it all to throw it in a garbage. You don't know what happened. You don't get what happened.

Freaky matters what happened if they're buried in your new husband's backyard. Tell me that matters what. you tell me that you did this in Jesus name mom I have to hear that out of you believe it and you are not afraid every witness of Christ will scream his name when he comes back so you are that person I am that person I am that person and she will confirm you oh yeah because that's what it is to know that they've gone and you knew and my phone is being texted by my little sister

who's not even alive my little brother who's the sweetest little kid ever for what purpose and you tell me this is God's will for my whole family including my stepfather

to be dead after everything that you try to do Your can tell me right now that Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world, is on your side. You tell me that with all the conviction in your heart that Jesus Christ is on your side right now. Please. You're going to hang up? I don't. I don't have anything else to say.

You obviously don't know because you weren't there. You weren't there. Summer wasn't there. My mom wasn't there. The police weren't there. the FBI weren't there. Your own was there? Highly and changing, mom.

Yeah, and just like, they know. They know exactly what happened. And they love me, and we are stilled together forever. They love me, and they are fine, and they do know the truth, and I know the truth. And we're the only people that do. To hear her laughing, to hear her saying, you don't understand what happened, to her son, talking about her dead kids. It's chilling.

But it's also important because it helps to show that she knew what was going on with her children, arguably, was a part of their killings. No? I mean, one way to look at it is if she really had nothing to hide, why not say what happened? But no, she doesn't go that far. She never goes so far to say what's going on. There was another piece of audio that was played for the jury. This is Lori and Chad on the phone when Lori's already in jail, but investigators are

searching Chad's property. This is before the kids were found. What, are they in the house? No, they're out from the property. Are they seizing, sir? Again? They're searching. Okay, thank you for you.

Okay. I'm, they feel pretty calm. Are they seizing stuff again? They're searching the property. and it shows just a lack of surprise at anything happening. Argument could be made that this is consciousness of guilt because they know what they did. A normal response from Lori would have been, what's going on? Where are my kids?

Why are they searching your property? This all goes towards once again knowledge. But again, it doesn't go so far to suggest that she was maybe a part of the actual killings. Maybe. Got one more phone call for you. Another person confronting Lori Valadebel. Big moment in this trial was from Summer Shifflet, Lori's sister, who had this very eerie phone call with her sister. Again, this is when Lori's in jail after the kids' remains are found.

Take a listen. Is there another explanation? I'm willing to hear it. I don't want it to get it. Absolutely, but I can't talk about it. Unity, if you were not comfortable, why you were dancing on the feet? while your kids are in the ground? You had no problem with you in there.

I just can't understand. I don't understand. I don't understand. I want to believe the best in you. I really do. I love you and love my part. And help me. You're just little kids.

I don't understand. I don't understand. That's what I said. You don't know what I thought. That's what I thought. Lori, if you let that happen to them and didn't tell us if the feet of the ground like a piece of trash, that I don't know you because you would never do anything like that. That's correct.

And if you knew it didn't tell us, That's not okay. We love them. We want to take them. We would not taking care of them. You could have gone up and done anything you wanted. That's what you think. I don't know what to think.

I'm not going to do you and I haven't told us anything. We believe you. We stood up for you. I can't. I would love to. You could meet and mom offer four months and told everyone not to trust us because we tell Adam. And now we find that down and you expect me to just keep going on face when there's been zero explanation and you expect me to just keep leaving without ever having a question. I won't say that.

That is what you're saying. Either explain it or don't expect me to not be upset and tell you when the kids are on trapped property. I'm not okay. I love that with all I've learned. I want to take it tiny because I'm doing it in a heartbeat, and everybody else would too. You know that. I've said it before. We don't have a smoking gun like a recorded phone call between Lori and Chad and Alex,

talking about how they're planning to kill everybody, right? But when you have this behavior, this lack of surprise, this mother who is seemingly showing no concern or remorse or sadness about her dead children, it is alarming. The question is, is it enough to convict? So I said the prosecution doesn't really have a smoking gun tying Lori Valo-Dabel to the murders of her children. And we're going to get more into her strange comments and behavior, but there was nothing indicating that she was a part of the actual killings. But that is until we heard about a key piece of evidence that was obtained during the course of this investigation.

This is Keely Coleman, a DNA analyst. You mentioned a piece of hair that had been stuck to adhesive. Yes. Was there an evidence number from the agency, submitting agency, assigned to that specific piece of evidence? Yes, there was, and I'm going to look at the report to refresh my memory. That was 11-16-8B. Thank you. How was this evidence processed?

So similar to the process that I described before, a portion of this submitted hair item, was taken forward and put into a test tube. It went through a series of washes to get rid of any extraneous DNA that may have been on the hair. We were trying to focus on the hair itself. Then additional reagents and chemicals were added to the sample, and it went through a series of heating and cooling steps to isolate any DNA that may have been present. We determined how much DNA was present in that sample, then made lots and lots of copies, put that on a genetic analyzer and analyze the data that was obtained

using a computer software program. What results were obtained from your analysis? So from the Bodie item E.01, which was the hair sample, a partial female profile was obtained. Were you able to make any conclusions based on those results? Yes. Tyree Ryan and Melanie Gibb were excluded as possible contributors of that partial DNA profile.

The partial DNA profile matched the DNA profile that was provided for Lori Valo-Dayville. Okay. Did you perform any statistics for the match? Yes, I did. The probability of randomly selecting an unrelated individual with that partial DNA profile is one in 71 billion. Now, that is big. A hair found on the tape that was wrapped around JJ matched Lori Valjeel. fellow day bell. That is huge for prosecutors. The question becomes now, was she present when the kids

were killed? Did she help carry it out? Sure, an argument could be made that maybe it's tough to know how material like that is transferred like hair. This was her son. Maybe it was on him from earlier on the night or something like that. But the bottom line, this is one of the few pieces, if any, of actual direct physical evidence tying Lori to the murder. But what about digital forensics. That brings me to another bombshell. Google searches. Here's Detective David Stubbs from the Rexburg Police Department talking about some of the searches of Chad and Lori. 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

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 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. That's right.

And the wind search reflected the wind was going to be south-southwest. Did you find anything of note in this investigation? Yes. in reviewing the lolly time forever at gmail.com this email address was associated with Lori Valo did you look at her search history

yes did you see anything of note around August 25th of 2019 August 5th 25th. 25th, yes. I thought you said 5th, sorry. August 25th, 2019, the user of this account looked for malachite wedding rings made of malachite.

Okay. Okay. Also went to a website where the user of this account ordered. an 11.5 size ring and a 4.25 malachite ring for, I think the total was $808 and some change. Now, why did this catch your attention? Well, it caught my attention. Number one, Charles had died. in July we had information that Chad and Lori were seeing each other but yet Chad was still married to his wife Tammy at that time so we we were thinking it was kind

of odd for them to be looking or for her to be looking at wedding rings at that time. Yeah. In a case where prosecutors are arguing that Lori and Chad planned the murder of his wife, Tammy, that doesn't look great. That they were planning a life together while she was still alive and that she dies two months later. Oh, and as for Charles Valo, Lori's husband who was shot to death by her brother Alex Cox, she separately charged with conspiracy to commit murder in Arizona. And Chad's searching wind directions on the day that Tiley goes missing and and we know her body was burned on his property. And this search was, I believe, the day before Chad said to his wife, Tammy,

that he was going to burn tree limbs and then he killed a raccoon in his yard and that he was going to, that he was going to bury the raccoon. Very, very suspicious these searches. Now, again, I said it's their searches. They're tied to their accounts. Is it 100% sure that they were searching this? No. Looks like it.

All right. Let's move on to Lori's comments. Because that's really something. And that brings me to the testimony of her former close associates. We're going to start with Zulema Pestanis. She is the widow of Alex Cox. And listen to what she says about not only what Alex told her, but also strange comments that were made to her by Lori and Chad.

So then I stand up and I start walking away because I'm like, I don't know what to think at this point. and that's when he said, I think I am being their fall guy. And I'm like, the fall guy for what? What is it? Tell me, what is it that they're trying to pin on you? What did they do? And he just wouldn't say anything else.

And then, so then I get frustrated again because he's not answering my question. So I turn around and I'm going to walk away again, you know, because I'm just so frustrated that he's not. saying anything, and that's when he tells me, either I am a man of God or I am not. Did Lori ever talk to you, or Lori and Chad ever talked to you about how long JJ, they expected JJ to live? Laurie had said that he was going to have a very short life, and then in a meeting that we had at Lori's house in early August.

August of 2019, he said that JJ was going to have a very short life that he was going to live a short life was because he was going to come right back as Colby's child. So Lori and Chad allegedly foreshadowed the death of JJ. And if the jury believes that, that is very significant. And then according to Zilema, Alex, who the evidence, as I mentioned, suggested is the person that killed the kids, was afraid he was going to be their fall guy, their fall guy, seemingly meaning both Lori and Chad. So she's just as much a part of this as Chad, right? That's one way to interpret that. And then we know he dies, reporting that he died from natural causes, blood clots, but still just so strange he dies after all this.

I'm talking about Alex Cox. And Zulema would also provide testimony that on the night someone tried to shoot Tammy Daybell. Yes, someone allegedly, allegedly Alex Cox, tried to shoot and kill Tammy, but missed. Zulema over here is Lori on the phone. And then Lori say, idiot can't do anything right by himself. All right. Finally, some of the biggest bombshell testimony came from Lori Vallow's former best friend, Melanie Gibb. someone in Lori's close circle. This is someone that had actually engaged in close religious

practices with Lori. There was a lot to get to with this, but this is a sampling. This is what Melanie said that Lori told her about Tiley, about J.J., about what she was envisioning her dreams. Take a lesson. Were you ever told with regard to Tiley being dark, did Lori ever tell you whether or not an evil spirit had entered tightly. Yes. Do you recall approximately when that would have been? It was, sometime between probably February or March to June,

somewhere, I believe when she was in Texas, maybe she shared with me if she's Texas, which you probably can recall better when she was in Texas than I can, but it's probably like in May or April whenever she was there. That's what it feels like. That's what it was. Do you recall approximately when, well, actually let me back up, 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, sorry, was it September, was it September, was that when I was? Yeah, yeah, September, yeah, September. In 2019?

Yeah. And was that the first time you'd heard of JJ being possessed? Yes. And you indicated previously, I believe, that Lori had talked about how both Charles and Tammy were supposed to pass away. Correct. Do you know what she told you regarding Tammy passing away?

She learned from Chad that he knew years ago that she would be passing away, you know, early in her life. I believe you already testified that Lori had moved back to Arizona before Charles passed away. Correct. Were you in contact with Lori when she came back to Arizona? Arizona. Yes. Did you, in fact, stay at her house in July of 2019? I did. Do you recall what day you stayed at her house? It was, I believe, the 10th, or the night, spend the night, 10th, 10th, something like that. Around the 9th or 10th. Yeah. At some point did, were you going to stay there longer? No, I should just periodically stay with her, but I didn't.

I didn't have like agenda or anything. After you had left, do you know if anyone else ended up staying the night at her residence? Yes, I was told Alex was coming the next morning or the next day. Do you know if that would have been the night before Charles died? Right, correct. Did Lori tell you why she was going to have Alex stay there? She told me that he needed to stay there to protect her because child was going to kill her. According to Melanie Gibb, Lori believes her children are dark spirits.

And we know prosecutors are saying that Lori and Chad used warped religious beliefs as a justification to kill. And according to Melanie Gibb, Lori fantasized about her life with Chad and that their spouses would die, which they both did. And according to Melanie Gibb, Lori asked her to lie to police about having JJ. This is after he disappears, and we know, as you just heard, Melanie didn't have, JJ. It is incredibly chilling to think about, considering we know what happened to these kids. It has been quite a month of testimony. Let's see how this trial finishes up. That's all we have for you here on Sidebar, everybody.

Thank you so much for joining us. Please subscribe on Apple Podcast, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Jesse Weber. speak to you next time. You can binge all episodes of this long crime series, ad free right now on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.