Chad Daybell led a splinter sect aligned with Mormon beliefs but espousing its own dogma. Daybell became a prolific author espousing end-of-times ideas that resonated with a small but widespread following. He would speak at different gatherings. Lori Vallow, who read and was drawn to his teaching, eventually met Daybell at one of his speaking engagements. The two, both married at the time, recognized a chemistry between them. Daybell, who promoted beliefs in reincarnation, told her they had been married in previous lives. Not long afterward, they began a secret affair.
At the time, Daybell’s wife Tammy was very involved in administratively supporting his publishing. She worked an extra job to support the family. Vallow, however, was in an unhappy marriage, raising two children. One of those children, six-year-old JJ, had been adopted from her husband’s family and had autism and significant special needs. The other, Tylee, was sixteen and a daughter from a previous marriage.
The progression of Daybell and Vallow’s relationship tracked electronic messaging which became a centerpiece of criminal investigations that followed. In February 2019, Vallow told her husband Charles that he was possessed by a “dark spirit” and that his name was “Ned.” Daybell and others referred to Charles as “Ned” and “Hiplos” and others were praying for his death. Charles discovered the affair in July 2019 and immediately notified Tammy Daybell by email. Her reaction to this news was never revealed.
Days after the discovery, Charles was shot and killed by Vallow’s brother Alex, himself an adherent of the Daybell and Vallow sect, in an alleged confrontation between Alex and Charles. Alex was not charged in a killing that he asserted to have been in self-defense.
Vallow moved with her children to Rexburg, ID, where Daybell resided, in August 2019. Alex Cox moved there as well. Shortly before leaving for Rexburg, Vallow sold JJ’s service dog. Tylee and JJ disappeared in September 2019. JJ had been enrolled in public school, and his mother told school officials that she was removing him to home school him going forward.
Chad told others he was having prophecy that his wife Tammy would die before her 50th birthday. And in October 2019, Tammy Daybell was found dead, with no obvious signs of foul play. Later investigation showed Alex Cox to have been near the Daybell home on the night of Tammy’s death. Although Tammy Daybell was popular and well-liked, she was buried within days. Others found Daybell’s behavior incongruous with a mourning spouse. Daybell asked for no autopsy to be performed. He characterized her as sickly; investigators later found his claims of her various medical illnesses to not be borne out by the medical record.
Daybell and Vallow married in Hawaii two weeks after Tammy died. He explained to people in their social circle that they were both “empty nesters,” and had both recently lost their spouses. In November, grandparents and other family unable to make contact with Tylee and JJ eventually called police. Alex Cox died unexpectedly in December 2019, of apparent medical causes.
By February, 2020, Vallow was arrested for the disappearance of her children. In June, investigators found the remains of Tylee and JJ on Daybell’s Rexburg property, and he was arrested as well.
Vallow’s persisted in religious-themed communication, prompting psychiatric assessment. Evaluations by psychologists and psychiatrists characterized her as incompetent to stand trial. In that context, prosecutors engaged The Forensic Panel to evaluate competency and diagnostic issues.
In order to best resolve the above, ensuing evaluation reviewed the entire record to focus on evidence distinguishing religious zeal from psychosis and then, the manipulative use of religion. The findings informed prosecutors of fundamental flaws in the competency assessments to date. These flaws were exposed in testimony at court proceedings. Vallow was ultimately found competent to stand trial and then, convicted of the murders.
