Trial of Lori Vallow Daybell, mom accused of killing kids, begins in Idaho

BOISE, Idaho — Jurors heard opening statements Monday in the trial of Lori Vallow Daybell, the woman accused of killing her two children and conspiring to kill her husband’s former wife in 2019.

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Vallow Daybell is accused of killing 16-year-old Tylee Ryan and 7-year-old Joshua Jaxon “JJ” Vallow, who were found buried on property owned by her husband, Chad Daybell, one year after they were last seen in 2019. She is also charged with conspiring to kill Daybell’s late wife, Tammy Daybell, in 2019, according to KSL-TV.

Prosecutors said Vallow Daybell wanted to be with Daybell without the restrictions imposed by parenthood, KBOI-TV reported. Fremont County Prosecuting Attorney Lindsey Blake said that Vallow Daybell “used money, power and sex to get what she wanted. It didn’t matter what it was,” according to EastIdahoNews.com.

Tylee and JJ both received social security benefits, which Blake said Vallow Daybell collected after their deaths, the Idaho Statesman reported.

“Tylee had money, Lori wanted it, Tylee’s gone,” Blake said, according to EastIdahoNews.com. Later, she said JJ, who had special needs, “took time, and he also lost his father. When he lost his father, he became much more difficult to care for.

“He was entitled to Social Security benefits. The defendant didn’t want to have to take care of JJ anymore; he had money. JJ’s gone.”

Vallow Daybell and her husband believed that God had tasked them with gathering his chosen 144,000 for the end times, and Vallow Daybell told a friend that she wanted to focus her attention on that mission, according to KBOI and EastIdahoNews.com.

Defense attorney Jim Archibald told jurors that his client had alibis for the deaths of her children and of Tammy Daybell. He said she was at her apartment when Tylee and JJ died at her brother’s apartment and in Hawaii on the day that Tammy Daybell died, KBOI reported.

Vallow Daybell’s brother, Alex Cox, died of a pulmonary blood clot in December 2019, according to KBOI and The Associated Press. He lived in the same apartment complex as Vallow Daybell at the time of her children’s deaths, the Statesman reported.

Archibald told jurors that they needed to focus on the actions that Vallow Daybell took, “not on what Chad Daybell did or what Alex Cox did,” according to the Statesman.

A jury of 10 men and eight women, including six alternates, is hearing the case against Vallow Daybell, according to KIVI-TV.

Vallow Daybell is also charged with conspiracy to commit first-degree murder in connection with the 2019 death of her previous husband, Charles Vallow.