CultNEWS101 Articles: 8/1/2025 (King's College, Jesus Fellowship, UK, Lori Vallow Daybell, Legal)

King's College,  Jesus Fellowship, UK,  Lori Vallow Daybell, Legal

Religion Unplugged: The King's College Will Permanently Close After 'Unable To Secure' Funding

" ... Founded in 1938 by preacher Percy Crawford and established in Belmar, New Jersey, the college relocated to Delaware in 1941 and later to Briarcliff Manor, New York, in 1955. After losing its accreditation, the college closed in 1994.

After being taken over by Cru (formerly known as Campus Crusade for Christ) and acquiring Northeastern Bible College, The King's College reopened in 1999 with space in the Empire State Building. The college became independent of Campus Crusade in 2012.

For nearly a decade, King largely relied on donations from wealthy and politically conservative donors such as Richard DeVos, the co-founder of Amway and father-in-law of former education secretary Betsy DeVos during President Donald Trump's first term."

The Guardian: The rise and fall of the British cult that hid in plain sight

Philippa Barnes was a child when her family joined the Jesus Fellowship. As an adult, she helped expose the shocking scale of abuse it had perpetrated.

" ... In 1979, John Everett, a student at Warwick University, began a sociological study of the Jesus Fellowship for his doctoral thesis. He had joined the group in the summer of 1977, experiencing it as a "pocket of utopian escape from a chaotic, frenetic, unsympathetic world", something "very close to a classless society" where people of all kinds were accepted. Now, he had been commissioned by Stanton himself to go and study its unique makeup. Yet as he conducted his research, examining the group's structure and practices through an academic lens, he began to reach a devastating conclusion: that the church was a cult.

As Everett writes in War and Defeat, a history of the organisation [Jesus Fellowship] that he self-published this year, he couldn't escape the fact that the authority structure and separation from the rest of the world were hallmarks of cultic groups. "It would have taken a huge amount of self-deceit to deny what I could plainly see: the key characteristics of a cult were in our DNA," he writes.

There is a school of sociology that rejects the term "cult", arguing that it has been used to dismiss unusual groups that challenge social norms, and preferring the category "new religious movements". Many other scholars and survivors disagree, arguing that the methods cults use to control their members are distinct. Alexandra Stein, a British psychologist and survivor of a political cult, says that whether religious or non-religious, cults are remarkably similar: "If you've seen one car, you know what machinery is in another car, even if it's a different colour."

In the popular imagination, cults are closed-off entities, physically removing their members from the outside world. The fellowship claimed to work differently: members were free to go to school, work, and live outside of community houses. But just as an abusive partner might exert influence over every aspect of a victim's life, Stanton [founder of Jesus Fellowship] had built a system of mental and emotional control that relied on a common cultic tactic: gradually severing members' attachments to the rest of society, to family members and even to one another. Those broken connections were replaced by a single reference point: the fellowship. With nowhere else to go, any feelings of fear and stress provoked by life in the organisation would only serve to drive members closer to it."

ABC: 'Doomsday mom' Lori Daybell given 2 life sentences in murder conspiracy trials

"Lori Vallow Daybell, the "Doomsday mom" who is already serving life sentences in Idaho in the deaths of her two youngest children and a romantic rival, received two more life sentences Friday in her murder conspiracy trials.

The sentences will run consecutively to each other and consecutively to the Idaho case, an Arizona judge said.

She was found guilty of conspiring to kill her fourth husband, Charles Vallow."

" ... Those who spend their childhoods in cults ... can find leaving particularly hard: "They struggle to know what is the self, and what is the cult." - Alexandra Stein

News, Education, Intervention, Recovery

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Intervention101.com to help families and friends understand and effectively respond to the complexity of a loved one's cult involvement.

CultRecovery101.com assists group members and their families make the sometimes difficult transition from coercion to renewed individual choice.

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CultNEWS101 Articles: 6/11/2025 (Legal, Lori Daybell, Meditation, Sudarshan Kriya)

Legal, Lori Daybell, Meditation, Sudarshan Kriya 

Court TV: Jury Seated in Lori Daybell's Cult Mom Conspiracy Trial

Lori Daybell is representing herself at trial in Arizona on charges she conspired in an attempt to kill her ex-nephew-in-law.

"Prosecutors allege Lori and her brother, Alex Cox, planned to kill Brandon Boudreaux in October 2019. Court documents allege Cox drove a Jeep that belonged to Lori's deceased husband, Charles Vallow, from Rexburg, Idaho, to Gilbert, Arizona, then shot at Boudreaux outside his home on Oct. 2. Boudreaux was not injured in the incident.

At the time of the shooting, Boudreaux was recently separated from Lori's niece, Melani Pawlowski. According to police reports, Lori and her fifth husband, Chad Daybell, along with Cox, told Pawlowski that Boudreaux had a "dark" soul when they allegedly began plotting his murder. Boudreaux previously testified about the shooting during Chad's Idaho trial."

Jewish Journal: Rabbi Aryeh Siegel on His Halachic Meditation Book, 'Kosher Calm'

"The year was 1971. Aryeh Siegel was a graduate student at Berkeley, and he had just learned about Transcendental Meditation, known as TM. Developed by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, TM involved silently repeating a mantra in one's head as a form of meditation, and it quickly caught on amongst young people and celebrities.

After becoming a TM teacher and a senior member of the organization, Siegel found that it was corrupt and, as he put it, a cult. He also learned that the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, a huge spiritual leader at the time, was against Jews practicing TM and other forms of meditation with Eastern religion roots, as it was not in line with Jewish law. However, the Rebbe still saw the value in meditation in general, and how it could help people; there just had to be a kosher way to do it.

This was the inspiration for Siegel to write a book. Now, he's released "Kosher Calm: Meditation & Self-Help Tools For Health & Healing Inspired by the Teachings of Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, The Lubavitcher Rebbe" to urge his fellow Jews to meditate while staying true to their values.

"Beginning in 1962, the Rebbe urged Jewish mental health professionals to create kosher meditation protocols, though those protocols never materialized," Siegel told The Journal. "My book is my attempt to finally answer that call. Drawing on my expertise in meditation, I share a simple, yet effective, technique fully aligned with Torah law, along with additional tools for stress relief and building emotional resilience."

"Kosher Calm" includes a curated selection of letters from the Lubavitcher Rebbe's extensive correspondence on the critical need for therapeutic meditation. Chapters cover topics like how to prepare to meditate, managing restlessness, mind-body techniques that help with certain health conditions, and mindfulness.

In the chapter on learning how to meditate, Siegel takes readers step by step; he also posts meditation videos on his YouTube channel for visual help. After instructing readers on how to meditate, he writes, 'During your session, you might have experienced moments of deep peace interspersed with periods of mental activity. Some people find that their awareness stays on the surface, dwelling on everyday thoughts. Others drift between states of calm and mental chatter. Whatever you experienced is exactly what needed to happen.'"

Medium: Merchant Navy Veteran Warns Of Health Risks from Fast Breathing Exercises, Questions Sudarshan Kriya

"Ajit Vadakayil, a retired Indian Merchant Navy captain and expert in maritime physiology, has raised red flags about Sudarshan Kriya — a core breathing practice taught in the Happiness Program of the Art of Living (AOL) foundation.

Citing his professional background in oxygen management and respiratory safety protocols, Vadakayil cautions that fast, forceful, or rapid breathing techniques may lead to hyperventilation and pose serious long-term health risks. He questions the widespread promotion of such practices, including Sudarshan Kriya, warning they may do more harm than good to some people in the long term."

News, Education, Intervention, Recovery

CultMediation.com   

Intervention101.com to help families and friends understand and effectively respond to the complexity of a loved one's cult involvement.

CultRecovery101.com assists group members and their families make the sometimes difficult transition from coercion to renewed individual choice.

CultNEWS101.com news, links, resources about: cults, cultic groups, abusive relationships, movements, religions, political organizations, and related topics.

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Jury Seated in Lori Daybell's Cult Mom Conspiracy Trial

Court TV

June 5, 2025

PHOENIX (Court TV) — Lori Daybell is representing herself at trial in Arizona on charges she conspired in an attempt to kill her ex-nephew-in-law.

Prosecutors allege Lori and her brother, Alex Cox, planned to kill Brandon Boudreaux in October 2019. Court documents allege Cox drove a Jeep that belonged to Lori’s deceased husband, Charles Vallow, from Rexburg, Idaho, to Gilbert, Arizona, then shot at Boudreaux outside his home on Oct. 2. Boudreaux was not injured in the incident.

At the time of the shooting, Boudreaux was recently separated from Lori’s niece, Melani Pawlowski. According to police reports, Lori and her fifth husband, Chad Daybell, along with Cox, told Pawlowski that Boudreaux had a “dark” soul when they allegedly began plotting his murder. Boudreaux previously testified about the shooting during Chad’s Idaho trial.

If convicted of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder in Boudreaux’s case, Lori is facing a potential sentence of life in prison. She is already awaiting another possible sentence of life in prison after an Arizona jury convicted her of conspiring to kill Charles Vallow in April.

The Arizona charges are in addition to her life sentences in Idaho. In 2023, she was convicted of murdering her two youngest children, JJ Vallow and Tylee Ryan, and conspiring to kill her fifth husband’s first wife, Tammy Daybell. Her husband, Chad Daybell, was convicted of the same charges and sentenced to death.

https://www.courttv.com/title/jury-seated-in-lori-daybells-cult-mom-conspiracy-trial/ 

Lori Vallow: US doomsday cult mum guilty of murdering children, rival

Chelsea Bailey & Holly Honderich
BBC News, Washington
May 13, 2023

An Idaho mother in a doomsday cult has been found guilty of murdering her two children and her husband's former wife, in a case that shocked the US.

Lori Vallow and her husband, Chad Daybell, were charged with murder, conspiracy and grand theft in the killings.

The 49-year-old beautician now faces up to life in prison.

The bodies of Joshua "JJ" Vallow, seven, and Tylee Ryan, 16, were found buried at Mr Daybell's home in 2020.

Vallow, flanked by her lawyers, sat impassively as the jury returned its verdict, finding her guilty on all six counts of murder, conspiracy and grand theft.

Tearful relatives inside court sat arm-in-arm as the judge closed the nearly five-week trial.

Prosecutors produced 60 witnesses over the course of the trial and detailed at times gruesome evidence of how the children were killed and their remains discovered.

Vallow's defence lawyers did not produce witnesses and she did not testify in her own defence.

Chad Daybell's trial is still months away.

Mr Daybell is an author who has written several apocalyptic novels loosely based on Mormon religious teachings.

The couple are thought to have met through their involvement in a movement that promoted preparing for the end of the world.

Vallow's attorney, Jim Archibald, argued that she was a loving mother who had fallen for a "weird" religious cult leader and that there was no evidence tying her to the killings.

But prosecutors said Vallow had joined Mr Daybell to set in motion a chain of disturbing events that led to the deaths of JJ, Tylee and Mr Daybell's late wife, Tammy.

"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 during the trial.

"The defendant used money, power and sex to get what she wanted."

Dark spirits

In 2006, Vallow married businessman Charles Vallow and the two raised Tylee - Lori's daughter from a previous marriage. In 2014, the Vallows adopted JJ, the grandson of Charles' sister.

But in 2017, family and friends said Vallow's demeanour changed as she began reading the books by Chad Daybell, a religious author whose fictional books focused on the apocalypse were loosely drawn from the beliefs of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The two eventually met sometime in 2018 and began recording a religious podcast together.

At the time, both were married. But together, Vallow and Mr Daybell's views veered towards the extreme, the prosecutor said.

Media caption,

Watch: 'Why Lori', asks JJ Vallow's grandfather

The two deemed people either "light" or "dark" spirits and called those who had been taken over by evil spirits "zombies".

The only way to free someone's soul from the darkness, the couple said, was to kill them.

Vallow 'thought she was a god'

In January 2019, Charles Vallow went to police, saying his wife had become "unhinged" and thought she was a god preparing for the end of days. He also told authorities she had threatened to murder him.

Mr Vallow eventually filed for divorce from his wife, saying in court documents he feared for his and the children's safety.

Police records show Mr Vallow visited a home where his estranged wife was staying with her brother, Alex Cox, to pick up his son.

Once inside, a confrontation occurred that ended when Mr Cox fatally shot Mr Vallow.

Mr Cox told police he killed his former brother-in-law in self-defence. He was never charged.

In the fall of 2019, Lori Vallow relocated with JJ and Tylee to Rexburg, Idaho, a town nestled at the base of the Teton mountains, close to where Mr Daybell lived.

The following month, Tammy Daybell, Mr Daybell's wife of 28 years, suddenly died.

In an interview with the CBS News programme 48 Hours, Mr Daybell's children said a local coroner had told them it appeared their mother, who had been in ill health, had died in her sleep.

They declined a post-mortem examination because they believed Tammy's death to be natural.

Her body was exhumed in December 2019 during the investigation into Vallow and Mr Daybell. An autopsy revealed Tammy was killed by asphyxiation, the trial heard.

Roughly two weeks after his wife's death, Chad Daybell and Lori Vallow were married in Hawaii.

Where are the children?

It was around this time that JJ's grandparents, Kay and Larry Woodcock, called Rexburg, Idaho, police to request a welfare check on the seven-year-old.

The call would launch a nationwide manhunt for the two children after police learned they had not been seen for weeks.

For months, Vallow and Mr Daybell refused to say where the children were. Instead they told relatives and friends that the children were "safe and happy", according to the CBS 48 Hours programme.

In December 2019, as investigators continued their search, Vallow and Mr Daybell went on holiday to Hawaii, where she remained until she was extradited and arrested in February 2020.

Authorities eventually found the remains of JJ and Tylee in the backyard Mr Daybell's home in June 2020.

"Charred remains, that's what was left of Tylee," a prosecutor said at trial, showing jurors a photo.

"You will hear it explained as a mass of bone and tissue. That's what was left of this beautiful young woman."

Investigators believe on 8 September 2019, Vallow took her children on a trip to Yellowstone National Park. It was the last time they were photographed alive, police said.

Tylee Ryan disappeared that day, police said. Jurors were shown GPS mobile phone data from the following morning that placed Lori Vallow's brother, Alex Cox, in Chad Daybell's backyard, where he remained on the property for nearly two hours.

JJ Vallow was last seen on 22 Sept 2019, according to police. The next day, investigators again traced Mr Cox's GPS data to Mr Daybell's backyard where he remained for 17 minutes, according to records produced during the trial.

Mr Cox died of natural causes in December 2019.



https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-65567072

Jury finds Lori Vallow Daybell guilty of murdering 2 of her children

Bill Chappell

NPR

May 12, 2023

A jury has found Lori Vallow Daybell guilty of murdering two of her children and conspiring to murder a romantic rival. The verdict was read aloud in court shortly after 3 p.m. ET, and jurors were dismissed moments later.

A sentencing hearing has not been set — it could be several months before one can be held, Judge Steven Boyce said. Vallow Daybell, 49, could face life in prison. She and her husband, Chad Daybell, 54, were indicted on multiple counts two years ago, but they're being tried separately.

Reading of the verdict was live-streamed from the Ada County Courthouse in Boise, Idaho — a departure from the trial's main phase, when Boyce declared daily proceedings would be depicted only via audio, to avoid the release of sensitive and upsetting images.

Prosecutors spent weeks laying out their case against Vallow Daybell, showing jurors graphic images from the scene where her children's bodies were found. The trial spanned more than a month — but in a stunning move, Vallow Daybell's defense team opted not to call a single witness, resting its case minutes after the prosecution finished its presentation.

The jury began deliberating Thursday afternoon, on a case that has attracted wide attention. Prosecutors cite Vallow Daybell's religious beliefs about zombies and a looming doomsday as partial motives for the alleged murders of her two youngest children and her husband's previous wife.

Here's a brief recap of Vallow Daybell's history, and the murder trial:
What is Vallow Daybell accused of?

Vallow Daybell and Chad Daybell were indicted in May 2021 on nine criminal charges, including murder and/or conspiracy charges in three deaths.

Vallow Daybell is accused of killing her two youngest children, Tylee Ryan and Joshua Jaxon "JJ" Vallow. Tylee was nearly 17 when she and JJ, 7, were last seen alive in September 2019. The children's bodies were found in June 2020, buried on property in Rexburg, Idaho, owned by Chad Daybell.

Even before the remains were found, Vallow Daybell was charged with felony desertion of a child and obstruction. Prosecutors accuse her of not reporting her children missing so she could keep collecting benefits.

She is also charged with conspiring to murder Tammy Daybell, Chad's then-wife who was found dead in her home in October 2019 — less than one month before he and Vallow got married in Hawaii. He is Vallow Daybell's fifth husband.

In a separate case in Arizona, Vallow Daybell was also indicted on conspiracy murder charges for allegedly arranging for her brother, Alex Cox, to shoot and kill her fourth husband, Charles Vallow, in July 2019. Alex Cox died in December 2019, of what was determined to be natural causes.

What happened during the trial?

The state called on dozens of witnesses and repeatedly showed jurors disturbing images that showed the horrific conditions of Tylee and JJ's bodies. Tylee's body had been burned and dismembered; JJ's body was wrapped in plastic, with his wrists and ankles bound. A plastic bag was duct-taped over his head.

Much of the evidence in the trial has been circumstantial, including scores of text messages from Vallow Daybell's phone. But a DNA expert also testified that a hair stuck to a segment of duct tape on JJ's body was found to be a match for his mother.

Rather than call its own witnesses, the defense tried — and failed — to get the judge to rule that the prosecution didn't present enough evidence to ask the jury to render a verdict.

"Your honor, we don't believe the state has proved its case, so the defense will rest," defense attorney James Archibald said on Tuesday. But Boyce ruled that there was sufficient evidence to proceed.

The prosecution says Vallow Daybell and Chad Daybell's entire relationship is entwined in a deadly criminal conspiracy they sought to justify with fantastical beliefs. Rather than simply starting a new life together after they met in October 2018, prosecutors say, the couple plotted to kill their closest relatives and benefit from their deaths through insurance payouts and Social Security benefits.

In his closing argument, Archibald said his client was in the thrall of a man she sees as a messiah and her eternal soulmate. He also said prosecutors failed to directly tie Vallow Daybell to her children's deaths. DNA evidence such as hair on a piece of tape, Archibald said, could have resulted from a mother's normal behavior.
How do her beliefs factor into the case?

Lori Vallow went from being a "suburban mom in yoga pants" to someone caught up in an extreme subculture, Oregon-based journalist Leah Sottile has said.

"I have found in my own reporting that Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell really existed at the fringes, the far right fringes of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints," Sottile told member station Boise State Public Radio, "and that they ... kind of were able to meet because of this ecosystem of extremism that exists there."

Fremont County Prosecutor Lindsey Blake told jurors that Chad Daybell and Lori Vallow Daybell portrayed themselves as religious figures called "James and Elaina." They purported to be able to "rate" people, detecting whether they might be under the thrall of an evil spirit's dark energy, Blake said.

"The defendant used 'casting' that involved prayer and energy work," Blake told the jury, according to East Idaho News. "Often this casting didn't work and the beliefs evolved to zombies. A common theme was the body had to be destroyed."

Vallow Daybell and Daybell were focused on the "end times" and doomsday scenarios, prosecutors said, and they shared beliefs about people manifesting dark energy.

During the trial and in their indictment, prosecutors have cited text messages between the pair "regarding death percentages for Tammy" Daybell, as well as messages about her being in limbo, and Tammy "being possessed by a spirit named Viola."
The zombie story emerged in 2020

In 2020, Rexburg police detective Ron Ball said in an affidavit that Vallow Daybell's close friend Melanie Gibb described hearing her say that Tylee had become a zombie — a concept Vallow Daybell had picked up from Daybell.

Gibb heard Vallow Daybell call Tylee a zombie — after Tylee had refused to babysit JJ — to which Tylee replied, "Not me, mom," according to the affidavit. Gibb said Vallow Daybell later concluded that JJ had also become a zombie.

Daybell and Vallow Daybell told Gibb that they were part of the "Church of the Firstborn" and had a special mission, directed by the Book of Revelation, Gibb told the detective.

"They also stated their mission was to rid the world of 'zombies,' " Ball wrote.

In their eyes, zombies are controlled by dark spirits — and the host body can only be released through physical death, Ball added.

"Gibb was present with Lori Vallow when Chad Daybell first instructed Lori about his theories of zombies over the phone in early 2019 in reference to Charles Vallow," Ball wrote. Months later, Charles Vallow was killed.
Money is also a big part of the case

"The defendant used money, power and sex to get what she wanted," Blake said in court, according to The Associated Press. "It didn't matter what it was."

Prosecutors say Vallow Daybell and Daybell benefited from the three deaths by funneling money toward themselves in the form of federal benefits and an insurance payout. Their goal, Blake said, was to create a new life, free from their relatives.

Charges against Vallow Daybell include grand theft, with the U.S. government as the victim, after she received Social Security funds intended for the care of Tylee Ryan and JJ Vallow and did not report Tylee's death.

Prosecutors also said that shortly before his wife died unexpectedly at age 49, Chad Daybell signed paperwork to boost her life insurance to the maximum allowed under the policy. An autopsy later determined she had been asphyxiated.

Mother linked to 'doomsday' group faces trial in her children's killings. Here's what to know.

Brittany Shammas and Marisa Iati
Washington Post
April 10, 2023

It started with a pair of grandparents worried about their grandson. But the investigation into the 2019 disappearance of J.J. Vallow expanded to encompass three states, fringe “doomsday” religious beliefs and several suspicious deaths.

The 7-year-old boy’s mother, Lori Vallow, is now on trial on charges of killing him and his 17-year-old sister, Tylee Ryan. She also stands accused of other crimes alongside her husband, Chad Daybell — all driven by their alleged belief in an extremist, end-times ideology.

Here’s what to know about the case against Vallow, whose Idaho murder trial begins Monday with opening statements.

WHAT TO KNOW

• Who is Lori Vallow?
• How did the case against Vallow begin?
• What is known about Vallow’s religious beliefs?
• What should we expect from Vallow’s trial?
• What other details of people linked to Vallow and Daybell have authorities investigated?
• What other charges do Vallow and Daybell face?

Who is Lori Vallow?

Before the disappearance of her children catapulted her into the national spotlight, Vallow was a onetime beauty pageant contestant who weathered failed marriages and was seen by friends and neighbors as a devoted mother.

Born Lori Cox, she grew up in a Mormon family in Southern California, Inside Edition reported. She was a cheerleader with a wide circle of friends who told the news outlet that they lost track of her after high school.

In 2004, while married to third husband Joseph Ryan, she competed for the title of “Mrs. Texas.” Footage obtained by ABC News’s “20/20” showed the smiling blonde striding across a stage in a blue bikini and a sparkling evening gown. When the judges asked what made her tick, she said, “Being a good mom is very important to me and a good wife and a good worker. And being all those things is not easy!”

Then she quipped, “So I’m basically a ticking time bomb.”

Those who knew Vallow described her as a cheerful and put-together mother to J.J. and Tylee and wife to fourth husband Charles Vallow. A neighbor in Hawaii, where the couple lived and ran a juice stand for a time, told People magazine that she “seemed like a supermom.”

But behind the scenes, Vallow had by 2018 become enamored with another man: Chad Daybell, an author of self-published apocalyptic novels who was alleged to belong to a fringe religious group. In February 2019, Charles filed for divorce from Lori, saying in court documents that she had taken on alarming beliefs. By his telling, she viewed herself as a reincarnated deity on a divine mission to prepare people for the second coming of Jesus.

By July, Charles Vallow was dead — shot and killed by Lori Vallow’s brother at the home where she was staying in Chandler, Ariz. The killing was considered self-defense at the time. Within a few weeks, Vallow had moved to Rexburg, Idaho, with her brother and children.

How did the case against Vallow begin?

After more than a month of being unable to speak with J.J. in the fall of 2019, his grandparents became concerned. They asked police to conduct a wellness check, noting that J.J. had special needs.

When officers arrived at Vallow’s townhouse in Rexburg two days before Thanksgiving, J.J. was nowhere to be found. Vallow and Daybell told them the boy was staying with a family friend in Arizona.

Authorities soon determined that the parents’ story was not true, but when they returned to Vallow’s home with a search warrant the next day, she and Daybell were gone. Investigators discovered Tylee was also missing and neither child had been seen since September.

Vallow and Daybell took off for Hawaii, where they got married and dodged questions from police and journalists about the children’s whereabouts.

The investigation continued for months, spanning several states and growing to include the deaths of other people close to the couple, before investigators found the children’s remains in June 2020 on Daybell’s property in Idaho. A grand jury would later indict Daybell and Vallow on charges including first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder.

Prosecutors also filed murder charges against the couple in the October 2019 death of Daybell’s first wife, Tammy. She was initially believed to have died of natural causes, but her death came under new scrutiny amid the ever-expanding probe into Vallow and Daybell.



What is known about Vallow’s religious beliefs?

Police and court records from several states offer a glimpse into Vallow and Daybell’s allegedly extremist beliefs.

In January 2019, Charles Vallow called police in Gilbert, Ariz., to express concern that his wife was falling prey to a darkening ideology. Body-camera footage obtained by Arizona-based TV station 12 News showed him telling officers that the couple had been Latter-day Saints but that Lori Vallow had come to see herself as a spiritual being who could “murder you now with my powers.” He petitioned to have her mental health evaluated, and she was cleared.

Records, published by Salt Lake City-based TV station KUTV, from the Gilbert police investigation into Charles Vallow’s eventual death state that “Lori Vallow believed she was an exalted Goddess.” She thought she and Daybell had been “directed to lead 144,000 people in preparing for the end of the world.” The two claimed to possess the ability to teleport, harm others, launch natural disasters and pray away demonic spirits occupying other people.

Using their purported powers, Vallow and Daybell determined whether a person had a “light” or “dark” scale, based on whether demonic spirits were attached to them, according to the records. A person who shared their belief system had a light scale, while someone who opposed it had a dark scale. Vallow and Daybell ascribed dark scales to Charles Vallow, J.J. and Tylee, whom they considered “zombies” possessed by others.

The pair had reportedly drawn a handful of followers who bought into their beliefs.

What should we expect from Vallow’s trial?

Jury selection began April 3 for what is expected to be a weeks-long trial in Boise over the killings of J.J., Tylee and Tammy Daybell. The witness list, which documents who is expected to testify, is sealed and not visible to the public.

Cameras will not be allowed in the courtroom under an order from Judge Steven Boyce, who ruled in September that visual coverage of the proceedings could impede the “fair administration of justice.” He noted that he had already moved the case from Fremont County, where the children’s remains were found, to Ada County because of the unlikelihood of finding enough Fremont jurors who were not intimately familiar with the case.

Prosecutors sought to impose the death penalty on Vallow in case of a conviction. But last month, Boyce sided with arguments by Vallow’s team that the death penalty should be off the table because of her mental state, minor prosecutorial violations and other reasons.

What other details of people linked to Vallow and Daybell have authorities investigated?

Three other people connected to Vallow and Daybell have died suddenly in recent years.

In 2019, Vallow’s brother, Alex Cox, fatally shot her estranged then-husband, Charles Vallow. Cox had intervened in a physical fight between the couple, according to a police report obtained by the Phoenix-based TV station Fox 10. When Charles Vallow hit Cox with a baseball bat, Cox fired a gun at him, Lori Vallow told police.

Months later, Cox died of natural causes, according to a medical examiner’s report obtained by the East Idaho News. He was never charged in Charles Vallow’s death.

The deaths of Charles Vallow, Tylee and J.J. also prompted authorities to take a closer look at the 2018 death of Lori Vallow’s third husband, Joseph Ryan, whom they initially said died of a heart attack. The renewed investigation led them to affirm that Ryan, Tylee’s father, had died of natural causes.

What other charges do Vallow and Daybell face?

Like Vallow, Daybell is charged with murder in the killings of Tylee and J.J., and with conspiracy to commit murder in Tammy Daybell’s death. He also faces a murder count related to her and two insurance fraud charges for allegedly collecting her life-insurance proceeds after her death. Prosecutors say he signed an application to max out her policy weeks before she was killed.

Vallow and Chad Daybell conspired in all three killings with Cox, and possibly others, the indictment says. Daybell, whose case was initially linked to Vallow’s, is expected to be tried later.

In addition to the murder charges, officials charged Vallow with grand theft for collecting Social Security money meant to be used to care for Tylee and J.J., after they were dead.

Vallow and Daybell have pleaded not guilty to all charges in Idaho. Vallow has maintained that she is innocent and has alibis for the days when her children and Tammy Daybell were killed.

Charles Vallow’s death has also ensnared Lori Vallow in legal trouble: An Arizona grand jury in 2021 indicted her on a charge of conspiracy to commit murder after police said they found evidence that she and Cox had planned Charles Vallow’s death.

A spokeswoman for the Maricopa County attorney told the Arizona Republic that Lori Vallow cannot be extradited to Phoenix to face that accusation until her case in Idaho is resolved.

By Brittany Shammas

Brittany Shammas is a general assignment reporter for The Washington Post. Before joining The Post in 2019, she spent eight years writing for newspapers in Florida, including the Miami New Times and the South Florida Sun Sentinel. Twitter

By Marisa Iati

Marisa Iati is a reporter on the general assignment desk at The Washington Post. She previously worked at the Star-Ledger and NJ.com in New Jersey, where she covered municipal mayhem, community issues, education and crime. Twitter

https://www.washingtonpost.com/crime-law/2023/04/10/lori-vallow-trial-idaho-killings-faq/