How Could You? Hall of Shame-Joshua “JJ” Vallow case-Child Death UPDATED
This will be an archive of heinous actions by those involved in child welfare, foster care and adoption. We forewarn you that these are deeply disturbing stories that may involve sex abuse, murder, kidnapping and other horrendous actions.
From Idaho, “Lori Vallow’s two children were not simply killed, but tortured as well, according to a disturbing new account in the so-called “cult mom” case.
Local Idaho reporter Nate Eaton told Fox Nation that the deaths of the two children – 17-year-old Tylee Ryan and her seven-year-old adopted brother Joshua “JJ” Vallow – may have been more gruesome than is currently being reported.
“I don’t think these kids were simply put to sleep and then buried,” Eaton said.
The remains of the two children were found on the property of Vallow’s fifth husband, doomsday writer Chad Daybell, in Idaho on June 9.
“We know that JJ was wrapped in plastic. He was wrapped in duct tape. There was a white plastic bag over his head,” Eaton told Fox.
Tylee’s remains showed signs of torture as well, according to Eaton.
“Tylee’s remains were burned,” he said. “She was dismembered. She was buried in the ground. It’s not like these bodies were simply buried in a decent manner. They were tortured, in a way.”
The reporter noted that it’s unclear at this time whether the teen was dismembered before or after she was killed.
Vallow, 46, and Daybell, 51, have both been arrested and are each being held on a $1million bond.
The case gets more disturbing as more details about the killings and Vallow and Daybell’s relationship come out.
Vallow and Daybell were not married at the time when her children disappeared.
In fact, Daybell was married to another woman – Tammy Daybell – until she passed away in October 2019. Daybell married Vallow two weeks later.
Tammy’s body was exhumed two months after her death and an investigation is ongoing into the mysterious circumstances of how she died, authorities previously told The Sun.
Family members have long suspected that Vallow and Daybell were members of a cult.
In divorce filings from Vallow’s fourth husband – Charles Vallow – he claimed that her behavior was becoming increasingly strange, and she seemed to believe she was on some sort of religious mission, according to The Idaho State Journal.
Shortly after the children’s remains were found, Daybell’s neighbor told Fox13 that he had been acting strange ever since Tylee and JJ disappeared in September 2019.
“He was strange, he was different,” the neighbor said. “He didn’t talk a lot, didn’t make eye contact with us – normally he would.”
She thought she was “a god assigned to carry out the work of the 144,000 at Christ’s second coming in July 2020.”
The fourth husband was killed by Vallow’s brother – Alex Cox – in an alleged act of self-defense in July 2019. Cox died of a pulmonary blood clot in December 2019.
A friend of Vallow’s, Melanie Gibb, has reportedly been cooperating with authorities for months, according to documents written by Lt Ron Ball, and told authorities that Vallow thought her children had become “zombies.”
“[She] reports that when she arrived in Rexburg, Lori Vallow informed her that JJ Vallow had become a ‘zombie,'” Ball wrote.
“Gibb further reports that the term ‘zombie’ refers to an individual whose mortal spirit has left their body and that their body is now the host of another spirit. The new spirit in a ‘zombie’ is always considered a ‘dark spirit.'””
Gibb also said that Vallow called Tylee a zombie as well in the spring of 2019, prompted by the teen not wanting to babysit her younger brother.
The “cult mom” is being held at Madison County Jail on charges of desertion of children and three misdemeanors. She has pleaded not guilty.
Daybell is being held at Fremont County Jail on charges of obstruction or concealment after the children’s bodies were “egregiously” hidden on his property. He has also pleaded not guilty.”
[The Sun 6/24/2020 by Laura Gesualdi-Gilmore]
Sick!
REFORM Puzzle Piece
Update:“Cult mom Lori Vallow sent her seven-year-old autistic son JJ to stay with her brother the last time he was seen alive after becoming frustrated with the boy for ‘climbing up’ kitchen cabinets and smashing a picture of Jesus.
Vallow told friends JJ was a ‘zombie’ and that she’d sent him to stay with her brother Alex Cox on September 22 last year because he was ‘out of control’.
It was the last time the boy was seen alive. His remains were found on Vallow’s husband Chad Daybell’s property, buried in a pet cemetery where a dog and cat had also been buried, earlier this year. His sister Tylee’s burned remains were found nearby on the Idaho property.
The day police made the grim discovery, Lori called Chad from jail where she was being held at the time for telling police where JJ and Tylee were for months.
At the time, Chad was still free. He was on the property and the pair spoke on the phone where he told Lori it was ‘logical’ for police to search the home.
The new details emerged on Tuesday at a preliminary hearing for Daybell to decide whether or not his trial should proceed. A judge later ruled that it should.
An emotionless Daybell listened as magistrate Judge Faren Eddins said probable cause was shown by the state, allowing the case to proceed to an arraignment before a district judge on August 21. Lori faces a hearing on the same charges next week.
Neither he nor Vallow have been charged with either of the children’s deaths and it remains unclear how they died.
To find JJ’s body, police tracked data from Lori’s brother Alex Cox’s phone. Family friend David Warwick testified on Tuesday that on September 22, the last day JJ was seen alive, Vallow asked her brother Alex to come and collect JJ.
‘She said JJ was being a zombie. He was out of control so she had Alex come get him,’ he told the courtroom in Idaho.
Lori had complained that JJ was climbing the cabinets and the refrigerator, and that he had smashed a photograph of Jesus. ”
Cult mom Lori Vallow ‘sent her 7-year-old autistic son JJ away to her brother the night he vanished’ because he was ‘out of control’ – as detectives describe finding his sister Tylee’s ‘skull and teeth’ among her burned remains in a green bucket
[Daily Mail 8/4/2020 by Jennifer Smith]
“Vallow Daybell is facing five counts in two different Idaho counties. The misdemeanor charges of resisting arrest or obstructing officers, contempt of court and solicitation to commit a crime were filed in February in Madison County after Vallow Daybell was arrested in Hawaii amidst a nationwide search for her children. She plead not guilty to these charges. Her jury trial has been set for Jan. 25-29, 2021 at 9 a.m.”
Police to submit charges against Lori Vallow Daybell in estranged husband’s death
[KUTV 8/7/2020 by Mc Kenzie Stauffer]
Update 2:“On Tuesday[May 25, 2021], prosecutors in Idaho announced that the husband and wife, Chad Daybell and Lori Vallow, had been charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of two of Ms. Vallow’s children. Mr. Daybell was also charged with first-degree murder in the death of his previous spouse, a case that received renewed attention after the disappearance of Ms. Vallow’s children.
The couple, who were indicted by a grand jury in Fremont County, Idaho, on Monday, could face the death penalty, prosecutors said.
“Members of the grand jury deliberated and determined there is probable cause to believe the Daybells willfully and knowingly conspired to commit several crimes that led to the death of three innocent people,” Lindsey Blake, the Fremont County prosecutor, said at a news conference.
The couple’s indictment came nearly a year after investigators found the remains of Ms. Vallow’s children Tylee Ryan, 17, and Joshua Vallow, 7, last June, buried at the home of Mr. Daybell, who was their stepfather.
Prosecutors did not say how the children had been killed, but the couple’s religious beliefs played a role, according to the indictment. Mr. Daybell and Ms. Vallow “did endorse and teach religious beliefs for the purpose of justifying” the murders, the indictment said.
Mr. Daybell’s previous wife, Tammy Daybell, 49, was found dead in October 2019 in her home in Idaho. Her death was initially attributed to natural causes, but the authorities ordered that her remains be exhumed, suspecting that her death might have been connected to Ms. Vallow’s missing children.
According to the indictment, Mr. Daybell and Ms. Vallow said in a text message exchange that Ms. Daybell had been in “limbo” and was “being possessed by a spirit named Viola.” Mr. Daybell had increased the amount of coverage in a life insurance policy for Ms. Daybell in September 2019, a little more than a month before her death.
Mr. Daybell, 52, and Ms. Vallow, 47, married shortly after their previous spouses had died.
A lawyer for Mr. Daybell did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Tuesday.
Ms. Vallow’s lawyer said in a text message on Tuesday that he was not immediately prepared to comment.
Both Mr. Daybell and Ms. Vallow have been in custody since last year, when Ms. Vallow was arrested in Hawaii on charges that included two felony counts of desertion and nonsupport of dependent children. Mr. Daybell was arrested last June on felony charges related to the disappearance of his stepchildren. He and Ms. Vallow have pleaded not guilty to those earlier charges.
In yet another layer of the story, Ms. Vallow’s previous husband, Charles Vallow, was shot and killed in Arizona in July 2019 by Ms. Vallow’s brother, Alexander Cox, who told the police that his brother-in-law had hit him in the head with a baseball bat and that the shooting was a case of self-defense. Ms. Vallow had been estranged from her first husband at the time, and Mr. Cox has since died.
The religious views of Mr. Daybell and Ms. Vallow have drawn international attention to the case.
Mr. Daybell has written several novels with recurring doomsday themes. In divorce records obtained by the Phoenix television station Fox 10, Ms. Vallow’s previous husband said that she had told him that she believed she was “receiving spiritual revelations and visions to help her gather and prepare those chosen to live in the New Jerusalem after the Great War as prophesied in the Book of Revelations.”
Both Mr. Daybell and Ms. Vallow have been linked to an entity called Preparing People, which aims to help prepare people for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, according to its website.
In addition to the murder charges, Mr. Daybell and Ms. Vallow were charged with two counts of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and grand theft by deception in connection with the children’s deaths, and one count of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder that stemmed from Ms. Daybell’s death.
The indictment said that Ms. Vallow had continued to collect several months’ worth of Social Security survivor benefits for both children and Social Security child care payments for one of them after their deaths.
Mr. Daybell was also charged with two counts of insurance fraud, and Ms. Vallow was charged with one count of grand theft.
In a news release last month, Lifetime announced that Ms. Vallow would be portrayed in a movie called “Doomsday Mom: The Lori Vallow Story” that is scheduled to be broadcast on June 26.
A spokeswoman for Lifetime said in an email on Tuesday night that the movie would still be broadcast and that the producers had been closely monitoring the developments in the case. An update will appear at the end of the movie, she said.”
Idaho Couple Face Murder Charges in Deaths of Children and a Former Spouse
[The NY Times 5/25/21 by Neil Vigdor]
Update 3:“A woman charged with conspiring to kill her two children and her new husband’s late wife says she has an alibi, and that the kids were killed while they were at her late brother’s apartment.
Attorneys for Lori Vallow Daybell made the claim in court documents filed in eastern Idaho last week in the triple murder case. She is also asking for permission to meet with her husband, who is also charged, for “strategy sessions” before the case goes to trial in April.
n the alibi notice, Vallow Daybell’s attorneys said she was in her own apartment in Rexburg when Tylee and JJ died at a nearby apartment where her brother, Alex Cox lived. The attorneys said she was with a couple of friends, “and/or Chad Daybell.” Her attorneys have also argued that she was in Hawaii with other friends when Chad Daybell’s previous wife died the next month.
Attorneys for Chad Daybell haven’t offered details about his planned defense, other than saying in court last November that Daybell and Vallow Daybell will have “mutually antagonistic defenses” — a legal term that generally means a jury would have to disbelieve one defendant in order to believe the other.
Idaho law enforcement officers started investigating the couple in November 2019 after extended family members reported that the children were missing. During that period, police said the couple lied about the children’s whereabouts. Their bodies were found buried later on Chad Daybell’s property in rural Idaho.
Chad and Lori Daybell married just two weeks after his previous wife, Tammy Daybell, died unexpectedly. Tammy Daybell’s death was initially reported as due to natural causes, but investigators had her body exhumed after growing suspicious when Chad Daybell quickly remarried.
Vallow Daybell is also separately charged with conspiracy to commit murder in Arizona in connection with the July 2019 death of her previous husband, Charles Vallow. He was shot and killed by Vallow Daybell’s brother, Alex Cox, who claimed it was self-defense.
The Arizona legal proceedings are on hold while the Idaho case is underway.
Court documents suggest that things began to unravel for the family in early 2019, when Lori was still married to Charles Vallow. The couple were estranged, and Vallow had filed for divorce, saying he feared she would kill him and that she had developed cult-like beliefs. He said she claimed to be “a god assigned to carry out the work of the 144,000 at Christ’s second coming in July 2020.”
The family was living in a Phoenix suburb in July 2019 when Lori’s brother, Alex Cox, shot and killed Vallow. He asserted that the shooting was in self-defense after Vallow came at him with a baseball bat. Police investigated, but the case didn’t go far before Cox died of a blood clot in his lung later that year.
Lori Vallow moved to Idaho with the kids after her late husband’s death, getting an apartment in the small town of Rexburg and spending time with Chad Daybell. The couple had known each other for a while, sometimes participating in podcasts about preparing for the biblical end times for an online organization aimed at members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Alex Cox also moved to Rexburg for a while that fall before returning to Arizona, where he died.
A judge in Idaho has set the date of a competency evaluation hearing for a woman who, along with her current husband, are accused of killing JJ Vallow and Tylee Ryan.
Meanwhile, JJ’s grandparents, Larry and Kay Woodcock of Louisiana, were growing increasingly worried about the kids, whom they weren’t able to reach on the phone. They said Lori Daybell wouldn’t tell them why the boy was always unavailable, and they asked police to check on the family.
Friends of the couple later told law enforcement investigators that the pair believed people could be taken over by dark spirits, and that Vallow Daybell referred to her children as “zombies,” a term they used to describe those who were possessed.
Prosecutors say the couple promoted the unusual beliefs to further their alleged plot to kill family members and steal their money, including the kids’ social security benefits.
Vallow Daybell was arrested in Hawaii in February 2020, and Daybell was arrested in June of that year. Since that time, the pair have spoken by phone only once, Vallow Daybell’s attorneys Jim Archibald and John Thomas wrote.
“With settlement proposals, mediation, motions and trial fast approaching, Lori and Chad would like to be able to talk together in person and on the phone about their options,” the attorneys wrote. If approved, the conversations won’t be recorded and will not be used as evidence, but the attorneys will attend. They would be considered for settlement purposes only, the attorneys wrote.
Chad Daybell’s attorney filed a motion of his own, asking the judge to push the trial out a year, to April 2024. John Prior said he needs more time to prepare for the complex trial and go over all the evidence — some of which he’s still waiting for prosecutors to hand over.
Judge Steven Boyce of the 7th District will consider the motions at a hearing set for Jan. 19.”
Lori Vallow accused of killing her kids in Idaho says she has an alibi
[Fox 5 DC 1/10/23 by Rebecca Boone]
Update 4:“Idaho mother Lori Vallow Daybell was convicted Friday in the murders of her two youngest children and a romantic rival, a verdict that culminates a three-year investigation that included bizarre claims that her son and daughter were zombies and she was a goddess sent to usher in the Biblical apocalypse.
For the victims’ family members, the verdict is only a temporary balm: Vallow Daybell must be sentenced, and her fifth husband, Chad Daybell, is awaiting trial on the same murder charges. Vallow Daybell herself is also facing another murder trial in Arizona — this one on a charge of conspiring to kill her fourth husband, Charles Vallow.
“This isn’t the end. Ninety days from today, we will be in Fremont County” for Vallow Daybell’s sentencing, said Larry Woodcock, the grandfather of the youngest victim. “And I will say, ‘Why, Lori? Why?’”
Prosecutors in the case described Vallow Daybell as a power-hungry manipulator who would kill her two youngest children for money, while the defense team said she was a normally protective mother who fell under the romantic sway of a wannabe cult leader.
The jurors sided with the prosecution, convicting Vallow Daybell of conspiring to commit the murders of 7-year-old Joshua “JJ” Vallow, 16-year-old Tylee Ryan, and Tammy Daybell. She was also convicted of grand theft as well as first-degree murder of the two children, a charge that indicates a more direct role in the crimes.
JJ’s grandparents, Larry and Kay Woodcock, held an emotional news conference after the conviction. When they first stepped outside court, the crowd of onlookers who had gathered to support the family and watch the verdict cheered. Some began singing, “We Will Rock You” — JJ’s favorite song.
“JJ, I love you. Papa wishes you were here,” Larry Woodcock said, choking up as he used the name JJ used to call him. “Tylee, Papa loves you. Tammy, I never met you, but you are part of our life. I am sorry for what happened.”
Asked if he had a message for Vallow Daybell, Woodcock recited the lyrics to a Willie Nelson song.”
Doomsday plot: Idaho jury convicts woman in murders of 2 children, romantic rival
[Our Midland 5/12/23 by Rebecca Boone/AP]
Update 5:“Judge Steven Boyce sentenced Lori Vallow Daybell to multiple fixed life terms in prison with no possibility of parole on Monday, handing down punishment for murdering two of her children and conspiring to murder a romantic rival.
The judge ordered Vallow Daybell to serve the prison terms consecutively rather than concurrently, saying it is important for her to be punished for each death.
Vallow Daybell, 50, was found guilty of first-degree murder and conspiracy charges in May, as a jury agreed with prosecutors who said she wanted to eliminate her youngest children as part of a plan to embark on a new life with Chad Daybell, as well as conspiring to murder Daybell’s then-wife, Tammy Daybell.”
Lori Vallow Daybell is sentenced to multiple life terms for killing her children
[NPR 7/31/23 by Bill Chappell]
Update 6:“A jury in Idaho unanimously agreed Saturday that convicted killer Chad Daybell deserves the death penalty for the gruesome murders of his wife and his girlfriend’s two youngest children, ending a grim case that began in 2019 with a search for two missing children.
The 55-year-old Daybell, wearing a dress shirt and tie, sat with his hands in his lap at the defense table. He showed no emotion when learning he would face the death penalty for the murders of Tammy Daybell, 16-year-old Tylee Ryan and 7-year-old Joshua “JJ” Vallow.
When asked by the judge whether he wanted to make a statement, Daybell declined.
Jurors found him guilty Thursday and decided on the death sentence after deliberating for just over a day.
The mother of the children is Lori Vallow Daybell,whom Chad Daybell married shortly after his wife’s death. Vallow Daybell was convicted last year in the three murders and is now awaiting trial in Arizona, charged with murder in connection with the shooting death of her fourth husband, Charles Vallow. Charles Vallow was JJ’s father.
The case began in 2019, when a family member called police. Investigators soon realized both children were missing, and a multistate search ensued. Nearly a year later, their remains were found buried on Chad Daybell’s property. Tylee’s DNA was later found on a pickaxe and shovel in a shed on the property, and JJ’s body was wrapped in trash bags and duct tape, prosecutors have said.
During a nearly two-month-long trial, prosecutors said Chad Daybell, a self-published author who wrote doomsday-laced fiction, promoted unusual spiritual beliefs including apocalyptic prophecies and tales of possession by evil spirits in order to justify the killings.
“This has been a tough case because of its complexity, both in telling the story of an investigation that spanned years and trying to figure out the best way to present it in a way that would make sense to others,” Fremont County Prosecutor Lindsey Blake said outside the Boise courthouse after the sentencing.
Relatives of the victims welcomed the jury’s decision.
“This is the best justice we can possibly get. And again, it doesn’t change the outcome, but it is good news, and it brings closure for everybody that’s been hurt,” Colby Ryan, Vallow Daybell’s oldest child, told reporters.
Larry Woodcock, JJ’s grandfather, thanked the judge, law enforcement and the people who have followed the case and shared their support over the years.
“You are family,” he said. “I look at the faces, and I’m going to tell you all: I’m going to miss you.”
“We saw justice,” he added. “Equal, honest and righteous.”
Daybell’s defense attorney, John Prior, argued during the trial that there wasn’t enough evidence to tie Daybell to the killings, and suggested Vallow Daybell’s older brother, Alex Cox, was the culprit. Cox died in late 2019 and was never charged, and Vallow Daybell was convicted last year and sentenced to life in prison without parole.”
Chad Daybed sentenced to death for killing wife and girlfriend’s 2 children in jury decision
[Fox 59 6/1/24 by AP]
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