Lori Vallow Daybell and Chad Daybell, who used their religious faith and belief in zombies to justify the killings to prosecutors, are set to appear in court in Idaho today.
The pair have been charged with a string of murders in a complicated case that dates back to 2019.
The couple were charged in May 2021 with conspiracy to commit murder and first-degree murder relating to the deaths of Lori Vallow Daybell’s two youngest children, her 7-year-old son Joshua “JJ” Vallow and her daughter Tylee Ryan, who was 16. Both youngsters disappeared around September 2019, with worried relatives raising the alarm in November of that year. Their bodies were found in June 2020, buried in the yard of Chad Daybell’s property. Their causes of death have not yet been revealed.
Chad Daybell is now also accused of murdering his ex-wife, Tammy Daybell, just weeks before he married Vallow in October 2019. The marriage was Chad Daybell’s second, and Lori Vallow Daybell’s fifth, ABC News reported.
Lori Vallow Daybell was also charged with conspiracy to commit murder after allegedly plotting to kill her estranged husband Charles Vallow with her now-deceased brother, Alex Cox. Cox fatally shot his brother-on-law on July 11, 2019, in Chandler, Arizona, but insisted he had been acting in self-defense and he was never charged. Cox himself later died in December that year, reportedly from a blood clot in his lung.
When Charles Vallow was killed, he had been seeking a divorce from Lori Vallow Daybell claiming she believed she had been transformed into a god-like figure. He reportedly also told his lawyer he feared for his life, according to ABC News. After his death, the newly-widowed woman and her children moved to Rexburg, Idaho, not far from Chad Daybell.
Tammy Daybell died in October 2019 apparently from natural causes, but suspicious authorities exhumed her body after Chad Daybell married Lori Vallow Daybell just two weeks later. While Chad Daybell has now been charged with his first wife’s murder, authorities have not yet released her cause of death.
Lori Vallow Daybell and Chad Daybell were reportedly part of a “Doomsday cult” and believed in zombies. The couple’s friends told investigators that the pair had believed people turned into zombies if they were possessed, and the only way to help free their soul was for their earthly body to die, according to police reports cited by USA Today. One friend, Melanie Gibb, told officers Lori Vallow Daybell had previously referred to her children as “zombies,” while Arizona police said the couple had also shared text messages in which they discussed how Tammy Daybell had been possessed by an evil spirit, according to the paper.
Lori Vallow Daybell was committed to a mental health facility in Idaho back in June 2021 to “restore her competency” and was finally ruled fit to stand trial last week.
Today’s arraignment hearings were set to begin at 9am with Chad Daybell due in the courthouse in St Anthony, Fremont County, Idaho. Lori Vallow Daybell is due to appear at the same court at 1pm, according to Komo News.
Chad Daybell has pleaded not guilty to all charges and Lori Vallow Daybell has not yet had an opportunity to enter a plea.
Newsweek is seeking comment from Chad Daybell’s attorney, John Prior, and Lori Vallow Daybell’s attorney, Jim Archibald.
