Solved Murders - True Crime Stories - From Faith to Darkness Lori Vallow, Cult Obsession, Murder, and Missing Kids PART5 #27

Episode Date: November 9, 2025

#horrorstories #reddithorrorstories #ScaryStories #creepypasta #horrortales #truecrime #cultcrime #lorivallowcase #missingkids #deadlyobsession  From Faith to Darkness Part 5 concludes the terrifying saga of Lori Vallow, revealing the final outcomes of her cult obsession, manipulation, and the tragic fate of her missing children. This chapter covers the resolution of the investigation, legal consequences, and the lasting impact on surviving family members. It emphasizes the devastating power of obsession and the chilling reality of how extremist beliefs can lead to murder and unimaginable loss.  horrorstories, reddithorrorstories, scarystories, horrorstory, creepypasta, horrortales, truecrime, cultcrime, lorivallowcase, missingkids, deadlyobsession, shockingcases, familytragedy, manipulation, darkfaith, twistedobsession, crimeinvestigation, realcrime, realhorrorstories, culthorrorstory

The fall of Laurie and Chad, from disappearances to a trial of darkness. When police first tried reaching out to Melanie, Laurie's close friend and supposed caretaker of JJ, they hit a wall. Calls went unanswered, texts were ignored, and no one could find her. The excuse Lori had given, that JJ was safely with Melanie, crumbled instantly. So the very next day, officers returned to the Idaho House where Lori and Chad had been living. But by then, it was too late. The place was deserted. Alex, Lorry, and Chad had packed everything, vanished into thin air, and taken their secrets with them. The disappearance wasn't just suspicious anymore, it was chilling. The search intensifies.

Authorities wasted no time. They officially put out a missing person's alert for both Tiley and JJ. Photos of the kids were sent to every outlet. The FBI got involved. Relatives were contacted one by one, but every single person repeated the same heartbreaking answer. No one had seen the children. Colby, Laurie's oldest son, was among the most frantic. He called his mom nonstop.

He called Chad. He even reached out to Alex. Nothing. The only responses he got were vague text messages. from Lori herself. Don't worry, everything's fine. The kids are safe. You have to trust me.

Just let me handle it. But those words felt hollow. Colby could feel it in his gut. Something was terribly wrong. K., JJ's grandmother, echoed the same desperation. She begged Lori for any clue, any proof that the children were okay. Laurie brushed her off too, repeating the same mantra, trust me.

Social Media Storm As the story hit the news, it spread like wildfire. Social media was flooded with pictures of JJ in his little red pajamas and Tiley with her long hair and shy smile. Hashtags popped up overnight, hashtag find J Jan Tiley, hashtag justice for the kids, hashtag where are the children? Neighbors, strangers, even people overseas began sharing the story, hoping someone might have seen the kids at a store, a park, an airport, anywhere. Tips came pouring in, but none led anywhere. It was as if JJ and Tiley had simply vanished from the face of the earth. Digging into the past

While the search was ongoing, investigators turned their attention to Chad's late wife, Tammy. Her sudden death back in October had always seemed suspicious, but at the time, Chad had refused an autopsy and pushed through the funeral arrangements quickly. In December, the authorities made a bold decision, exhumed Tammy's body. Forensic experts ran a new series of tests, and what they uncovered was grim. Tammy hadn't died of natural causes. She had been killed by mechanical asphyxia, strangled or suffocated. That revelation changed everything.

Now, it wasn't just a disappearance case. It was murder. The death of Alex The very next day after Tammy's autopsy results came out, another shockwave hit. Alex Cox, Laurie's loyal brother and the man who had shot Charles, was found dead at his girlfriend's house. The official cause was listed as a pulmonary embolism, blood clots in his lungs. But given the timing, many believed it was too convenient. Alex had been the muscle, the enforcer, the one who carried out Laurie's dirtiest work.

And now he was gone, taking with him any secrets he hadn't yet revealed. A Hawaiian honeymoon By January 2020, after months of searching, authorities finally tracked Laurie and Chad down. Where were they? Living it up in Hawaii. Not hiding in fear, not mourning their children, but sunbathing and smiling like a newlywed couple. It turned out they had gotten married in November, just 13 days after Tammy's death. Even more twisted, investigators discovered that Laurie had ordered her wedding ring off Amazon just days before Tammy's so-called accident.

In other words, the marriage wasn't just a spontaneous fling, it had been planned before Tammy even died. Wedding photos later surfaced, showing Lori in a white dress, Chad in a Hawaiian shirt, both of them grinning, strumming a ukulele and dancing barefoot on the beach. It looked like paradise, but it was built on death. Most disturbing of all, there was no sign of JJ or Tiley in any of those photos. Court orders and arrest Hawaiian authorities served Lori with a court order demanding that she produced her children within five days. But the deadline came and went. The kids were nowhere to be found.

So, Lori was arrested. She was sent back to Idaho to face charges, while Chad stayed free for the moment. Inside jail, Lori remained evasive. When family members called, begging her to tell them where the children were, she gave the same robotic responses, trust me. They're fine. you'll see months dragged by with no answers just the same cold assurances digital trails investigators dug deeper they combed through every property lorry and chad had been associated with they analyzed every cell phone linked to the group that's when chilling new pieces of evidence came to light the last known photo of tiley had been taken on september 8th The last known photo of JJ was from September 22nd. After that, nothing.

Then, hidden in Chad's text history, they found a strange message he had sent to Laurie. It read almost casually, like he was talking about doing chores. Been out in the yard this morning. Spent some time cleaning up the property. Shot a raccoon and buried it in the pet cemetery. Kind of fun, actually. At first glance, it looked harmless. But when investigators checked the date of that message, their stomachs turned.

Chad had sent it on September 9th, the day after Tiley's last photo. The Dig Police obtained another warrant and went back to Chad's Idaho property. They walked the grounds carefully, scanning for anything unusual. That's when they noticed a patch of grass in the backyard. It was shorter, fresher, and looked disturbed compared to the rest of the lawn. Chad hovered nearby, visibly nervous, as officers began to dig. With every scoop of dirt, his agitation grew.

He even made a phone call from his truck to Lori, who was sitting in jail, whispering cryptic words like, They're looking for something, they might be close. When the digging crew unearthed something solid, Chad panicked. He jumped into his vehicle and tried to flee. Police chased him down the road, pulled him over, and arrested him on the spot. Back at the property, the excavation continued. And then, horror. Wrapped in black plastic, buried shallowly in the ground, where human remains.

Forensic teams carefully uncovered a small body dressed in the same red pajamas J.J. had been wearing in the last photo of him alive. Nearby, under a statue of a dog that marked the so-called pet cemetery, they dug deeper. Beneath melted plastic and a scorched bucket, they found a human skull. After testing, the truth was undeniable, the remains belonged to Tiley and JJ. The autopsies The autopsy results were devastating. J.J. had died from the same cause as Tammy, mechanical as He had been suffocated.

Tiley's cause of death could not be determined because her remains had been burned before being buried. The brutality of it all was almost too much to comprehend. Two innocent children silenced, hidden in shallow graves while their mother danced in Hawaii. Laurie faces the court. Laurie's defense team tried to argue that she was mentally incompetent, suffering from delusions so severe she didn't know right from wrong. For over 90 days, she was evaluated in a psychiatric facility. But experts determined she was perfectly competent. She knew exactly what she was doing. The very act of covering up the crimes, lying to family, moving states, hiding the kids,

proved she understood the difference between right and wrong. In 2023, the jury delivered their verdict, Laurie Vallow was guilty of murdering her two children, conspiring in the murder of Tammy Daybell, and defrauding the social security system by continuing to claim benefits after J.J. and Tiley's deaths. The sentence was crushing, three consecutive life sentences without parole, plus an extra ten years for the fraud. She would never walk free again. The loose ends. Alex, of course, never face trial, had closed his chapter. But police still linked him to the conspiracy, especially in Charles's murder. Another chilling thread surfaced during the investigation. Brandon Boudreau, who had once

been married to Laurie's niece, barely survived a drive-by shooting. A masked gunman had fired at him from a passing vehicle. The car used in the attack. It was registered to Charles Valo, who by then was already dead. Many suspected Alex was the trigger man. Then there was Joseph Ryan, Lori's third husband and father of Colby. He had died back in 2018, supposedly from natural causes. But whispers emerged from members of Laurie's inner circle, claiming she had long wished him dead and even celebrated when the news broke. Authorities reopened his case, combing through every detail for signs of foul play. Chad's trial

In 2024, it was Chad's turn to face justice. His own adult children came forward to defend him, insisting their father wasn't a monster and that their mother's health had been deteriorating before she died. But the evidence against him was overwhelming. Prosecutors laid it all out, he had manipulated followers with apocalyptic visions, categorized people as,

light or dark orchestrated killings with Lori and profited from Tammy's life insurance. The shallow graves in his backyard were the final nail in the coffin. Chad Daybell was convicted of murdering JJ, Tiley, and Tammy, as well as fraud for cashing in on Tammy's death. His sentence. The death penalty. He now sits on death row, awaiting execution. The Legacy of Horror What started as whispers of zombies and spiritual rankings ended in three bodies, two life sentences, and a looming execution. Families were shattered, children silenced, and communities scarred. Even today, people shake their heads, asking how two seemingly ordinary people could fall so deep into delusion, dragging others with them.

The photos of JJ in his red pajamas, Tiley with her shy half-smile, and Tammy's quiet, trusting face linger in the public consciousness, a reminder of what happens when obsession turns deadly. And while Laurie spends her days behind bars and Chad stares down his final years on death row, the story of the doomsday cult mom and her prophet lover continues to haunt every headline, every documentary, every whispered conversation about the case. Because in the end, this wasn't just a crime. It was a tragedy of faith twisted into madness. The final chapter, Laurie, Chad, and the web of manipulation.

At the time I'm writing this, Chad Daybell is sitting on death row, literally counting down the days until his execution. Laurie Valo, his partner in crime, is also behind bars, serving life sentences with no chance of parole. Despite being locked up in different states, they remain legally married, an unsettling detail that says a lot about the strange, twisted connection they shared. Even when separated by prison walls, they still cling to the idea of being bound together forever, as if what they did was some sort of divine mission rather than a string of calculated

crimes. One of the most frustrating parts of this case is that nobody has ever really been able to pinpoint exactly who did what when it came to the murders. Investigators pieced things together as best they could, but so much was clouded by manipulation, lies, and cover-ups. What most agree on is this, Alex Cox, Laurie's brother, probably played a huge role in the deaths of Charles Vallow, Laurie's fourth husband, the attempted murder of Brandon Boudreau, and quite possibly the killings of the children, J.J. entirely. Alex always seemed to be the muscle, the one Laurie could call on when she

wanted something done but didn't want to get her own hands dirty. Then there's Chad. Most people believe he was directly involved in his wife Tammy's death, staging it to look like she had simply passed away in her sleep. Later, evidence revealed she'd actually been asphyxiated. Chad, being the supposed spiritual leader, used his warped religious visions to justify everything, while also helping to cover up the children's deaths. His role in this mess was equal parts enabler, co-conspirator, and, ultimately, executioner. And Laurie, well, Laurie was the mastermind. The intellectual author, as prosecutors called her.

She didn't need to pull a trigger or strangle anyone herself. All she had to do was whisper commands, play with people's emotions, and manipulate Alex and Chad into doing the dirty work. That's why her sentence, while still severe, didn't end with the death penalty like Chad's did. She orchestrated, they carried out. But make no mistake, her responsibility. was massive. Things only got stranger when Laurie gave a televised interview for Dateline. In

that sit-down, she claimed that her conviction was completely unfair, insisting she had been railroaded. But she didn't stop there. Laurie told the interviewer, with a straight face, that she had personally spoken to Jesus Christ himself. According to her, Jesus showed her visions of the future, visions where she and Chad would both be freed from prison. And the kicker. She said Jesus told her that she and her husband would compete on dancing with the stars. I know that sounds like something straight out of a bad parody skit, but Laurie really said it. And she wasn't joking.

The producers of Dateline didn't even know how to react. Do you air that claim as is, or do you cut it out to avoid making the whole segment look ridiculous? They aired it, of course, because it highlights just how deep Laurie's delusion. run. For many people watching, that single interview cemented the idea that Lorry was not only manipulative but also mentally unstable in a way that defied logic. The truth, though, is that this case was too huge and too layered for any single documentary or interview to cover fully. Whole chunks of the story had to be left out because there simply wasn't enough airtime to explain every twist and turn. You could probably make a three-part series and still not capture it

all. That's how tangled this web of lies, death, and cult-like obsession was. At the heart of it, prosecutors summed the case up simply, Chad and Laurie eliminated anyone they saw as an obstacle. They wanted money, they wanted passion, and they wanted to live their twisted fantasy together without interference. Anyone who stood in the way, spouses, children, family members, ended up dead or targeted. Defense attorneys tried to bring mental health into the conversation, suggesting Lori wasn't fully competent or that Chad's apocalyptic visions meant he wasn't in control of himself.

But the prosecution pushed back hard, pointing to the obvious premeditation involved. These weren't spur-of-the-moment actions. They were carefully plotted, covered up, and manipulated. Lori, in particular, went out of her way to gaslight. her family, reassure them that her kids were safe, and even try to cash in on government benefits after her children were gone. So, while you can definitely argue there was madness in this case, because let's face it, only a deeply disturbed person could declare Jesus told them they'd be reality TV stars after murdering their own kids, the legal system saw through it. They weren't

crazy in the eyes of the law. They were calculating. They knew the difference between right and wrong, and they chose wrong over and over again. And that's where things get especially heartbreaking, because this whole situation could have been avoided if the early red flags had been taken seriously. Charles Vallow, Laurie's husband before Chad, saw it all coming. He went to police, he went to family, he tried desperately to warn anyone who would listen. His calls, his texts, his in-person please, they painted a clear picture of a man terrified for his life. He said, life and for the lives of the children.

Charles wasn't subtle about it. He would cry, shake, beg people to believe him. He told the police again and again that Laurie was dangerous, that she was wrapped up in some bizarre cult-like ideology, and that she posed a risk to their kids. He even tried to warn Tammy, Chad's wife, that Laurie and Chad were having an affair. Charles could feel the walls closing in, but because of how emotional he was, people brushed him off. And here's the cruel irony, Laurie's calm demeanor made her look sane, while Charles's panic

made him look unhinged. She played the part of the collected, rational woman. He looked like the one spiraling out of control. In reality, it was the exact opposite. Charles was desperate because he knew what was happening. Laurie was calm because she was the one orchestrating it. To make things worse, Laurie accused Charles of infidelity, something for which no evidence has ever been found. That was just another manipulation tactic. By painting Charles as the unfaithful husband, she gave herself more credibility and made his warning sound like the ramblings of a jealous, unstable man. It was all part of her game. Looking back now, it's impossible not to feel angry at how preventable this was. If the system had taken Charles seriously,

if family members had pushed harder, maybe JJ and Tiley would still be alive. Maybe Tammy would still be alive. Maybe Charles himself would have been saved. Instead, every single warning sign got lost in the noise until it was too late. This entire saga is one of those stories that sticks with you because it's not just about murder, it's about manipulation, delusion, and the failure of institutions to act in time. Laurie and Chad were two people who, on their own, might not have gone as far. But together, they amplified each other's worst impulses. They created a bubble where every twisted idea was reinforced, where killing a child could

be justified as part of a spiritual mission, and where lies became truths because they repeated them to each other often enough. And that's probably the scariest part of all, how two ordinary people, under the right, or wrong, circumstances, can spiral into something so dark and destructive. In the end, Lori got three consecutive life sentences plus extra years for trying to profit off her children's deaths. Chad got the death penalty.

Alex, the loyal brother and enforcer, died before he could face justice. Charles's warnings were ignored until his death became another entry in Laurie's long list of victims. And the kids, the most innocent of all, never had a chance. When you strip everything else away, the cult talk, the apocalyptic visions, the courtroom drama, this case is about two manipulative people who met at the exact wrong time and fed each other's worst desires. Together, they destroyed lives, families, and futures.

And even now, locked away, Laurie is still talking about being saved by Jesus and competing on national television. That alone shows just how far gone she is. So yeah, that's the story in a nutshell. Twisted love, blind devotion, and the tragic cost of ignoring warning signs. It's one of the darkest true crime tales out there, and even with all we know, it still leaves you shaking your head in disbelief. The end.