4 chilling details in doomsday mum's trial from child murder to terrifying cult
![She carried out the killings in 2019 after becoming obsessed with the idea of a coming apocalypse (Image: Jam Press)](/upload/news/2023/08/01/81004.jpg)
A mum has been sentenced to life in prison after a lengthy trial for murdering two of her children with chilling details emerging from court.
Idaho mother Lori Vallow Daybell will never be allowed to leave prison after sentencing on Monday in the murders of her two youngest children and a woman she saw as a romantic rival in the bizarre case that included claims that her son and daughter were zombies and that she was a goddess tasked with ushering in an apocalypse.
Vallow, 50, was found guilty in May of killing her two youngest children, 7-year-old Joshua “JJ” Vallow and 16-year-old Tylee Ryan, as well as conspiring to kill Tammy Daybell, her fifth husband’s previous wife. Vallow Daybell will serve three life sentences one after the other, the judge said.
The case, which involves bizarre cult beliefs, mystery deaths and romantic rivalry has spanned the last four years, until Monday saw Vallow sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. Here are four chilling details which emerged from court.
![4 chilling details in doomsday mum's trial from child murder to terrifying cult eiqrkixxiddhinv](https://i2-prod.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article30597336.ece/ALTERNATES/s615b/1_Kids-Killed-Doomsday-Plot-23132709066020.jpg)
Lori Vallow maintained her cult religious beliefs until the end
Vallow justified the murders by “going down a bizarre religious rabbit hole, and clearly you are still down there”, the judge said.
![Greggs, Costa & Pret coffees have 'huge differences in caffeine', says report](/upload/news/2023/02/01/2_m.jpg)
“I don’t think to this day you have any remorse for the effort and heartache you caused,” he said.
In a statement in court as she was sentenced, the so-called “cult mom” read out a Bible quote, spoke of visiting “heaven” and continued to channel her doomsday cult beliefs while claiming “I have had many communications with Jesus Christ”.
The mum-of-three, who was sentenced on Monday in Boise, Idaho, by Judge Boyce began her address to the court by quoting John 8:7 - "He that is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone."
Vallow continued her bizarre statement by saying: "Jesus knows me. And Jesus understands me. I mourn with all of you who mourn my children and Tammy. Jesus Christ knows the truth of what happened here. Jesus Christ knows that no one was murdered in this case.
"Accidental deaths happen, suicides happen, fatal side effects from medications happen. I have a different perspective in life because in 2002, when I was pregnant with Tylee, I died in the hospital, while in labour with her. They tried to stop my labour, they put me on the table and they put something in my IV and I felt my spirit falling to the floor."
She claimed that she had communicated with her murdered children Tylee Ryan and Joshua “JJ” Vallow as well as “her friend” Tammy Daybell from beyond the grave – and that they are “very happy”.
Graphic photos show JJ was buried in pyjamas
![4 chilling details in doomsday mum's trial from child murder to terrifying cult](https://i2-prod.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article30597325.ece/ALTERNATES/s615b/1_Screenshot-2021-07-21-at-131743.jpg)
JJ was found in a shallow grave on the property. His arms and legs were bound in duct tape, and his head was wrapped in a plastic bag with layers of duct tape wrapped around it. Shocked jurors were shown images of JJ’s body found in the shallow grave – still dressed in the red pyjamas.
Tylee’s body was so badly burned that an autopsy to determine her cause of death was impossible, jurors heard. Her remains were found in a melted green bucket, which had been buried near fire pit next to a pet cemetery on Daybell's property. She had been dismembered, burned, and her body parts scattered around the grounds.
![4 chilling details in doomsday mum's trial from child murder to terrifying cult](https://i2-prod.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article30597330.ece/ALTERNATES/n310p/0_Screen-Shot-2021-08-18-at-113046.jpg)
She is confronted by victims’ sobbing families
In victim impact statements in court, Lori Vallow was confronted with the families of her victims. The murder scheme and Tammy Daybell’s death left a deep rift in her family, Tammy’s sister Samantha Gwilliam told the court.
“Why? Why plan something so heinous? You are not exalted beings, and your behaviour makes you ineligible to be one,” Samantha said, referring to a religious belief that Vallow Daybell incorporated into her claims. “Because of the choices you made, my family lost a beloved mother, sister and daughter.”
!['I tricked my sister into giving her baby a stupid name - she had it coming'](/upload/news/2023/02/01/174_m.jpg)
Judge Boyce heard testimony from several representatives of the victims, including Vallow Daybell's only surviving son, Colby Ryan.
Colby wrote in a statement read by prosecuting attorney Rob Wood: "Tylee will never have the opportunity to become a mother, wife or have the career she was destined to have. JJ will never be able to grow and spread his light with the world the way he did. My siblings and father deserve so much more than this. I want them to be remembered for who they were, not just a spectacle.”
![4 chilling details in doomsday mum's trial from child murder to terrifying cult](https://i2-prod.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article30597333.ece/ALTERNATES/s615b/0_ididf101-1_916.jpg)
She used “blood money” from deaths of her children
During the sentencing Judge Boyce said Lori Vallow used the “blood money” from the deaths of her children to fund a new life in Hawaii as the search for her children went on.
Tylee and JJ were last seen in September 2019, with concerns for their welfare raised in November. This sparked a major search while their mother jetted off to Hawaii to marry her fifth husband Chad Daybell.
Prosecutors allege that Vallow and Mr Daybell conspired with Vallow’s brother Alex Cox to murder Tammy, JJ and Tylee as part of their bizarre cult beliefs – but also for financial purposes so that they could collect Tammy’s life insurance money and the children’s social security and survivor benefits.
The judge the court “You wanted to be excused and not have to watch the evidence and were find to let everyone else in the courtroom — including the jurors — sit through that."
“The most shocking thing really I can imagine is that a mother killed her own children,” Boyce told Vallow Daybell, “and you simply have no remorse for that, even sitting here today.”
![4 chilling details in doomsday mum's trial from child murder to terrifying cult](https://i2-prod.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article30597331.ece/ALTERNATES/n310p/0_Lori-Vallow.jpg)
Now that she has been sentenced in Idaho, Lori also faces two other cases in Arizona — one on a charge of conspiring with her brother to kill her fourth husband, Charles Vallow, and one of conspiring to kill her niece's ex-husband. He was shot and killed in 2019, but her niece's ex survived an attempt later that year.
Lori and Charles had married in 2006, and adopted JJ, the biological son grandson of Vallow Daybell's sister. But in early 2019, a year after she met husband-to-be Chad Daybell, the couple became estranged and Charles filed for divorce. He said he feared for the safety of himself and the children, and that Lori had threatened to murder him.
He also shared concerns about his wife's mental state, telling investigators she had told him she "was a God assigned to carry out the work of the 144,000 at Christ's second coming in July 2020 and that if [Charles] got in the way of her mission she would murder him".
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