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Two of a mother’s children were killed, and she also planned to murder her husband’s ex-wife, according to her “doomsday” religious views, according to a verdict handed down on Friday.
In the state of Idaho in the northwest of the United States, Lori Vallow was on trial for the murders of her adoptive son Joshua “JJ” Vallow, then seven years old, and daughter Tylee Ryan, then sixteen.
Vallow, who allegedly claimed to be a goddess tasked with preparing the world for the second coming of Christ, could receive a sentence of life in jail without the possibility of release.
Her fifth spouse Chad Daybell, the self-published author of a number of dystopian novels, will shortly stand trial separately on comparable allegations, including the slaying of his first wife Tammy.
Prosecutors pointed to the couple’s “religious beliefs” as a contributing role in the killings, and “Sins of Our Mother,” a Netflix true-crime documentary series, featured their story last year.
Due to the disappearance of Vallow’s children, which Joshua’s grandparents first reported to the police, the story first made national headlines in late 2019.
When it became apparent that several people connected to Vallow and Daybell had just passed away, the police investigation swiftly took a gruesome turn, and she was eventually apprehended in Hawaii months later.
Joseph Ryan, Tylee’s father and Vallow’s third spouse, passed away after a heart attack in 2018.
Charles Vallow, her fourth husband, was due to be divorced when, in July 2019, he was shot and murdered by a bullet fired by her now-deceased brother.
Daybell’s wife Tammy passed away ostensibly from natural causes in October 2019. A few weeks later, Vallow and Daybell emigrated to Hawaii where they got hitched.
The children’s bodies were discovered in June 2020 on Daybell land in Idaho after Vallow and Daybell failed to notify authorities that they were missing.
The death penalty for Vallow, whose sentencing date has not been determined, was agreed to by the judge.
Daybell has entered a not guilty plea to all counts, and if proven guilty, he might still be executed.
Growing up a Mormon, Vallow’s religious views evolved over time and she eventually started to think she could talk to angels.
She first encountered Daybell in 2018 at a religious gathering in Utah, where he was the head of a radical Mormon sect that was getting ready for the end of the world.
According to her former husband Charles Vallow, she had asserted that she was “a god assigned to carry out the work of the 144,000 at Christ’s second coming.”
Some faiths hold that during the Apocalypse, 144,000 believers will rise from the dead and spend all of eternity in heaven.
The offences, according to the prosecution, were motivated by money.
In addition, Vallow was found guilty of grand theft for obtaining social security benefits meant for her previously deceased children. Daybell is accused of committing insurance fraud.
