Lori Vallow Daybell: Timeline of ‘doomsday cult mom’ case
Published By admin with Comments 0
More than five years after her children were last seen alive, “doomsday cult mom” Lori Vallow is now behind bars staring down a life in prison — but the bizarre saga is far from over.
Vallow is back in court to face a jury once again on murder charges, this time for the death of her fourth husband, Charles Vallow. Vallow’s children, Tylee Ryan, 16, and Joshua “JJ” Vallow, 8, vanished without a trace in September 2019, sparking a multi-state search while their mother married an apocalyptic author and so-called “doomsday prophet” Chad Daybell on a beach in Hawaii.
The children’s bodies were finally discovered nine months later buried in a pet cemetery on Daybell’s property in Idaho. Their disappearances and deaths mark only part of a dramatic case that spans a deeply disturbing pattern of murders, unexplained deaths and bizarre cult beliefs about killing zombies.
In 2023, Vallow found guilty of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and grand theft over the deaths of her two youngest children in Ada County Court in Boise, Idaho. She was also found guilty of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder in the death of Daybell’s first wife Tammy, 49. Vallow was sentenced to life in prison without parole on on July 31, 2023.
But now she about to stand trial on another murder case in Arizona on charges of conspiring to murder Charles Vallow, with the help of her now-deceased brother Alex Cox, who mysteriously also died three months after the children’s disappearance.
She is also charged with conspiracy to murder her niece’s estranged husband Brandon Boudreaux after he narrowly escaped a drive-by shooting. The two cases will be tried separately and then Vallow will be returned to Idaho to finish out her life sentences.
Representing herself, Vallow is back in court this week for jury selection. Opening statements are slated for April 7.
The Independent outlines the complicated saga that has spanned several states and multiple deaths of people connected to the couple.
Full timeline of the tragic and bizarre case
1990 – Chad Daybell marries first wife Tammy Daybell and the couple found Spring Creek Book Company together in Utah. The company publishes Daybell’s doomsday books. The couple have five children together and move to Salem, Idaho, in 2015.
1992 – Lori Vallow marries her first husband, high school sweetheart Nelson Yanes.
1995 – After divorcing Yanes, Lori Vallow marries her second husband William Lagioia. The couple have a son, Colby, but divorce after around a year of marriage.
2001 – Lori Vallow marries for a third time. She and husband Joseph Ryan have a daughter, Tylee Ryan. The couple divorce in 2004.
2006 – Lori Vallow marries her fourth husband Charles Vallow. Colby and Tylee live with the couple while Vallow also has two children from a previous marriage.
2014 – Lori Vallow, Charles Vallow, Tylee and Colby move to Kauai, Hawaii, together. The same year, the couple adopts Joshua “JJ” Vallow. JJ is the biological grandson of Charles Vallow’s sister Kay Woodcock.
2017 – The family moves back to the US mainland and lives together in Arizona. It is around this time that friends say Lori Vallow is reading Chad Daybell’s doomsday books and her behaviour begins to change.
April 2018 – Lori Vallow’s third husband Joseph Ryan dies from a heart attack. An investigation is later reopened into his death in the wake of the deaths of JJ and Tylee. It concludes that Ryan died of natural causes.
October 2018 – Chad Daybell and Lori Vallow finally meet in person for the first time at a religious conference in Utah.
February 2019 – Charles Vallow files for divorce saying he fears for the safety of himself and the children. This comes after he contacted police saying that Lori Vallow had threatened to kill him and that she believed she was a god preparing for a second coming. He had pleaded with authorities for mental health intervention for his wife but she was deemed competent at the time.
July 11, 2019 – Charles Vallow is shot dead by Lori Vallow’s brother Alex Cox at Vallow’s home in Chandler, Arizona. Cox claims that he shot Vallow in self-defence when Vallow tried to attack him with a baseball bat. Police interviews show Lori Vallow smiling as she recounts what happened. Tylee – who was at the home at the time – gives a similar version of events as her mother that Cox acted in self-defence. Cox did not perform CPR and waited 43 minutes to call police.
September 2019 – Lori Vallow moves with JJ, Tylee and Alex Cox to Rexburg, Idaho, where Chad Daybell lives.
September 8, 2019 – Lori Vallow, Alex Cox, JJ and Tylee visit Yellowstone National Park. Photos of the family members there mark the last signs of life for Tylee.
September 9, 2019 – Alex Cox’s cellphone places him in the yard of Chad Daybell’s property for around two hours in the morning. Chad Daybell texts his wife Tammy Daybell to say that he has shot a raccoon and buried the animal in the pet cemetery on the grounds of the property.
September 22, 2019 – JJ is last seen alive. He attends Kennedy Elementary School in Rexburg, Idaho, in the day and is also seen at Lori Vallow’s apartment that night by her friends Melanie Gibb and David Warwick who were staying with her that weekend. The friends say they saw Alex Cox carrying JJ into the apartment.
September 23, 2019 – The next morning, Lori Vallow tells Melanie Gibb and David Warwick that JJ had to be taken away because he was “being a zombie”. Alex Cox’s cellphone places him in Chad Daybell’s backyard again. Vallow also calls JJ’s school to say that he will no longer be attending and that she will homeschool him instead.
October 2, 2019 – Brandon Boudreaux, the ex-husband of Lori’s niece Melanie Pawlowski, is shot at in a drive-by shooting in Arizona but escapes unscathed. The assailant is driving Charles Vallow’s car.
October 9, 2019 – Tammy Daybell calls 911 after someone shoots at her with a paintball gun in the driveway of her home.
October 19, 2019 – Tammy Daybell dies suddenly in her sleep aged 49. Her death is ruled natural causes.
November 5, 2019 – Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell get married on a beach in Hawaii. Later this month, an investigation is launched to find the missing children after JJ’s grandparents contact law enforcement saying they haven’t been able to contact him for months.
December 11, 2019 – Alex Cox dies suddenly aged 51 of natural causes, with indications of a blood clot wedged in the arteries of his lungs. The overdose drug Narcan is also found in his system.
December 12, 2019 – Tammy Daybell’s body is exhumed so an autopsy can be completed. Her death is deemed suspicious but no cause of death is released.
January 3, 2020 – A search is carried out on Chad Daybell’s property for the first time.
January 25, 2020 – Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell are located by authorities in Hawaii. Vallow is served with a court order compelling her to physically produce her children by 30 January.
January 30, 2020 – Lori Vallow fails to produce her children or disclose to authorities where they are, in violation of the Madison County, Idaho, court order.
Content retrieved from: https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/crime/lori-vallow-daybell-trial-case-timeline-b2724732.html.
