Lori Vallow Daybell and Chad Daybell Murdered Tylee, JJ, and Tammy, Then Wrapped It in a Doomsday Religion.

 

Lori Vallow Daybell and Chad Daybell Murdered Her Children and His Wife for a Doomsday Fantasy

Lori Vallow Daybell and Chad Daybell built a world around apocalyptic religious beliefs, supernatural visions, and the idea that certain people had become possessed by evil spirits.

Then people around them started dying.

In September 2019, Lori's children, 16-year-old Tylee Ryan and 7-year-old Joshua “JJ” Vallow, disappeared shortly after the family moved to Rexburg, Idaho.

Their mother never reported them missing.

Weeks later, Chad's wife, Tammy Daybell, suddenly died at their home. Her death was initially attributed to natural causes, but her body was later exhumed. Prosecutors ultimately proved that she had been murdered by asphyxiation.

Just weeks after Tammy died, Lori and Chad got married in Hawaii.

For months, Lori refused to tell authorities where her children were.

Then, in June 2020, investigators searched Chad's Idaho property.

They found Tylee and JJ buried in the backyard.

Prosecutors said Lori and Chad had adopted an extremist belief system in which people could become “zombies” possessed by evil spirits and that killing the person's body was the only way to release the spirit. Tylee, JJ, and Tammy were among those labeled this way.

Lori was convicted in 2023 of murdering her two children and conspiring to murder Tammy. She received multiple life sentences without parole.

Chad was convicted in 2024 of murdering Tylee, JJ, and Tammy and conspiring in their deaths. He was sentenced to death.

Strip away the prophecies, zombies, visions, and all the fucking mythology they wrapped around it, and what's left is brutally simple:

Tylee was 16. JJ was 7. Tammy was 49. Three human beings were murdered by people who had decided their lives were disposable.