'Doomsday mom' Lori Vallow to be sentenced for murders of her children she thought were zombies
Lori Vallow was obsessed with a coming religious doomsday and believed two of her children were possessed by evil spirits. Even as she is sentenced for their murders, questions still remain about the horrific events that hit a small city in Idaho.
Monday 31 July 2023 09:27, UK
A so-called "doomsday mom" will be sentenced today for the murders of her two youngest children.
Lori Vallow allegedly believed her son and daughter were zombies - and that she was a goddess sent to usher in the Biblical apocalypse.
Seven-year-old Joshua "JJ" Vallow and Tylee Ryan, who was 16, had vanished in September 2019 - sparking a months-long search.
Their remains were found in June 2020 on a property that belonged to Vallow's fifth and current husband, Chad Daybell.
While a judge has confirmed that Vallow won't face the death penalty, she could be sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Daybell - who wrote doomsday-focused fiction - is due to face trial at a later date.
Vallow and Daybell married in November 2019, about two weeks after his previous wife Tammy was killed.
While it was initially thought that Tammy had died of natural causes, an autopsy later revealed she had been asphyxiated.
What happened to JJ and Tylee?
When the two children were reported missing, Vallow and Daybell had told police that JJ was in Arizona with a family friend - and Tylee had died a year before and had been attending a university.
But during the trial, the jury was told that Vallow believed her kids had to be destroyed so they could go to heaven.
It was also alleged that they were killed because they got in the way of Vallow and Daybell's relationship.
"Remember, the defendant will remove any obstacle in her way to get what she wants, and she wanted Chad Daybell," Fremont County prosecutor Lindsey Blake said.
Vallow's defence team had argued she was a "kind and loving mother to her children" who happened to take an interest in religion and biblical prophecies about the end of the world.
JJ's body was wrapped in rubbish bags, his arms bound in front of him with duct tape. Tylee's remains were charred.
'Church of the Firstborn'
Vallow's defence team say her religious beliefs began to change after she met Daybell.
But prosecutors claimed those beliefs veered toward the extreme, with the couple saying people were "dark" or "light", telling friends and acquaintances that "dark" people had been taken over by evil spirits.
They eventually began teaching friends that once those evil spirits were strong enough, the person became a "zombie" and the only way to free that person's soul was by killing them.
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The pair met at a conference in Utah in 2018 and felt an "instant connection", claiming they had been married to each other in a past life, according to police records.
Vallow's long-time best friend, Melanie Gibb, told investigators that Vallow and Daybell believed they were part of the "Church of the Firstborn" and that their mission in that church was to lead the "144,000" mentioned in the Book of Revelation.