Lori Vallow, the Idaho mother accused of killing two of her children and plotting to kill her husband's first wife, was found guilty Friday.
The Boise jury made its decision Friday, ending a weeks-long trial in which Vallow was charged with seven counts, including murder, conspiracy and grand larceny in the deaths of Joshua 'JJ'Vallow and Tylee Ryan.
He stood with his lawyers as the verdict was read and remained silent.
The date for Vallow's sentencing will likely take at least three months to set, Judge Steven W. Boyce said Friday. The state of Idaho requires a pre-sentencing investigation before a date can be scheduled, he said.
Joshua, 7, and Tylee, 16, disappeared in September 2019. Her disappearance triggered a months-long search that ended in June 2020, when police found her remains on property belonging to Vallow's fifth and current husband, Chad Daybell.
According to court documents, Joshua, who was adopted and had special needs, was buried in a pet cemetery, and Tylee's remains were dismembered and burned in a fire pit.
[Two children mysteriously disappeared. Their mother said that they had become zombies. Now they are dead]
Daybell was arrested and charged with murder and conspiracy in connection with the children's deaths. He will have a separate trial that has not yet been scheduled.
The couple was also charged with first-degree murder in the October 2019 death of Daybell's ex-wife, Tammy Daybell. He faces additional charges of murder and insurance fraud. Both have pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Lori Vallow Daybell in a police car after a hearing at the Fremont County Courthouse in St. Anthony, Idaho, on Aug. 16, 2022.Tony Blakeslee/AP
Strange beliefs in "zombies"
The investigation captured global attention and was closely watched in the rural community of eastern Idaho, so Seventh District Judge Steven Boyce moved the trial more than 200 miles (320 kilometers) east to the city of Boise.
Prosecutors say the Daybells adopted bizarre doomsday beliefs to carry out their alleged plan to kill the children and Tammy Daybell to collect the money for life insurance and social security and child survivorship benefits.
Police documents detail interviews with friends and family who said the couple led a group that believed they could expel evil spirits by praying and that they sought revelations "beyond the spiritual veil." Melanie Gibb, Vallow Daybell's former close friend, told investigators that the couple believed people turned into "zombies" when possessed by evil spirits.
The group spent time praying to get rid of the zombies and believed that, if successful, the possessed person would die physically, freeing their trapped soul from "limbo." Vallow Daybell called JJ and Tylee "zombies" several times before they died, Gibb told investigators.
Joshua Vallow and Tylee Ryan.Fremont County Sheriff's Office
The trial
The prosecution described Vallow as a woman who would "remove any obstacle in her way" and use "money, power and sex to get what she wanted." "It didn't matter what it was," Fremont County Prosecutor Lindsey Blake told jurors at the start of the trial.
He said Tylee, Joshua and Tammy Daybell were killed because they got in the way of Vallow and Daybell's relationship. "Remember, the defendant will remove any obstacle in her way of getting what she wants, and she wanted Chad Daybell," Blake said.
Vallow's defense team, however, argued that she is a "kind and loving mother to her children" who happened to take an interest in religion and Bible prophecies about the end of the world. "Some people care less about Bible prophecy, others care a lot. Fortunately, in this country we can worship whatever we want," said defense attorney Jim Archibald.
Witnesses
Throughout the trial, several witnesses took the stand on behalf of the prosecution. The defense did not call any witnesses and Vallow chose not to testify.
Rexburg Police Detective Ray Hermosillo told jurors that Joshua's arms were visibly bruised after his partially decomposed body was found buried near a tree. The boy, who was wearing pajamas and red socks, had duct tape covering his mouth and tying his arms and legs. His remains were covered in black plastic. Hairs belonging to Vallow were found on a piece of duct tape used to wrap the boy, a DNA analyst said.
Lori Vallow Daybell during her hearing in Rexburg, Idaho, on March 6, 2020.John Roark/AP file
Tylee's remains had been destroyed and burned, stuffed into a melted green bucket and buried elsewhere on the property, according to the detective.
Another witness who took the stand was Vallow's longtime friend, Melanie Gibb. The woman reiterated to the court that Vallow believed some people were "zombies," including her two youngest children and her fourth husband, Charles Vallow. Joshua was the great-nephew of Charles Vallow, who along with Lori Vallow adopted the child.
Another suspicious death
Charles Vallow was shot and killed in his Arizona home by Vallow's brother, Alex Cox, in July 2019. Cox — who died in 2019 of what were reported as natural causes — claimed it was in self-defense. But in 2021, Vallow was charged with one count of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder in the death of Charles Vallow. She has not yet had a chance to plead guilty in that case.
Gibb said that after Charles Vallow's death, Vallow had difficulty caring for Joshua and felt he didn't have enough time with Daybell. The family moved from Arizona to Idaho, Gibb testified, and that's when Vallow began claiming Joshua was possessed.
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"To know that they are gone, and you knew it!"
Colby Ryan, Vallow's adult son, also testified and suggested that someone posing as Tylee was texting him from her phone after she disappeared. He told jurors that she texted him regularly and that the tone and punctuation of the messages changed after his sister disappeared but before she was reported missing.
Jurors also listened to a recorded phone conversation in which Ryan confronted his mother. He accused her of murdering her brothers, Joshua and Tylee, and then lying to her.
"To know that they are gone, and you knew it! And my little sister, who isn't even alive, is texting my phone," Ryan said. "My poor brother, who is the sweetest child in the world, for what purpose? Tell me it's God's will: that my whole family, including my stepfather, be dead." In the call, Vallow denied killing the children and told Ryan that everything would become clear in the afterlife.
The suspicious death of Tammy Daybell
The trial also focused on Tammy Daybell's death in 2019. Prosecutors said Vallow already had a relationship with Daybell while he was still married to Tammy Daybell and moved to eastern Idaho to be closer to him. Daybell and Vallow married weeks after Tammy Daybell's death.
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Utah's chief medical examiner, Dr. Erik Christensen, said bruises were discovered on Tammy Daybell's body and that she may have been subject when she died, according to NBC News affiliate KSL. He also said he believes he died hours before Daybell reported his death.
His death was initially considered to be due to natural causes, but authorities exhumed his body and an autopsy determined that it was a homicide and that he died of asphyxiation.
With information from NBC News.