DID THIS ‘CULT MURDER HER CHILDREN?
THREE MYSTERIOUS DEATHS, THE REMAINS OF TWO KIDS AND A WEB OF UNANSWERED QUESTIONS…
Lori Daybell appeared in an Idaho courtroom on March 6 sporting bleached-blond highlights, prison garb, handcuffs and a stone-cold expression.
One day earlier, she was extradited from Hawaii, where she’d been arrested two weeks earlier, so she could be charged with desertion and non-support of two of her children, 7year-old Joshua ‘JJ’ Vallow and Tylee Ryan, 17.
No-one had seen JJ – who is adopted and has special needs – or Tylee since September 2019.
Now the grim discovery of both the children’s remains on the Idaho property of their stepfather, Chad Daybell, in June has brought the search to a tragic end.
A two-day hearing revealed the body of a boy was unearthed with ducttape around it, and the charred and dismembered remains of the girl.
“We are filled with unfathomable sadness that these two bright stars were stolen from us and only hope that they died without pain or suffering,” JJ’S biological grandparents, Larry and Kay Woodcock, said in a statement.
Authorities have yet to file charges related to the deaths of the children, and couple Chad and Lori are saying little.
As the investigation continues, it intensifies by the day. Many are transfixed on the bizarre case and its twists that now include the mysterious deaths of former spouses and rumblings of doomsday cult-like beliefs.
Lori’s new, fifth husband, Chad Daybell,
51, is a Mormon author of apocalyptic novels about the biblical end of days, and Lori has links to Preparing a People, which has been described as a doomsday cult.
Both Lori’s and Chad’s previous spouses died suddenly last year, which has led to wild speculation about what Lori may be hiding.
As Chad left Hawaii for Rexburg, Idaho, ahead of his wife’s hearing to get her
bail reduced from $7 million to $1.4 million, he insisted, “The kids are safe,” though he wouldn’t elaborate and reportedly wasn’t cooperative with investigators.
As authorities spent months trying to unravel the mystery of the kids’ disappearance before the gruesome discovery of the bodies, they uncovered even more strange twists.
In February 2019, Lori’s fourth husband, Charles
Vallow, alleged in divorce papers that Lori told him: “She was a god assigned to carry out the work of 144,000 at Christ’s Second Coming in July 2020 and that if [Charles] got in her way of her mission, she would murder him.”
In July 2019, Charles was shot and killed at his Arizona home by Lori’s brother, Alex Cox, who claimed self-defence.
Then Alex died suddenly in December. In October, Chad’s wife Tammy also died under mysterious circumstances.
He said he awoke to discover his 49-year-old spouse of nearly 30 years, with whom he has five children, had passed away in her sleep in their home. Two weeks later, he married Lori, 46, in Hawaii. Authorities have since exhumed Tammy’s remains, and revealed Chad collected at least US$430,000 life insurance.
In November, Chad allegedly lied about where
JJ was when police showed up at Lori’s home looking for the boy – when grandmother, Kay, and her husband requested a welfare check, since they hadn’t seen or spoken to him in months.
When police returned shortly afterwards, the couple had vanished. It was soon discovered they were back in Hawaii, where Chad reportedly told witnesses Lori had no minor children and Lori told people Tylee had died years earlier.
As the plot thickens, in June, Chad was charged with concealing or destroying human remains.
Lori had already been
“WE ARE FILLED WITH UNFATHOMABLE SADNESS ... AND HOPE THEY DIED WITHOUT PAIN”
charged with child abandonment, obstructing an investigation, contempt of court and soliciting a crime.
Her lawyer said she intends to defend herself against the charges. The Daybells are both in jail on $US1 million bond.
If charged and found guilty of murdering her children, Lori faces the death penalty.