Sam Amico
Idaho mother Lori Vallow Daybell has been sentenced to life in prison following her conviction in May for killing her two children, as well as for conspiring to murder of her fifth husband’s first wife.
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Vallow Daybell will not be eligible for parole.
She received a life sentence for the death of each of her children, 16-year-old Tylee Ryan and 7-year-old Joshua “JJ” Vallow. The judge ruled that each of those sentences are to be served consecutively, with two additional life sentences and a sentence of 10 years for grand theft to be served concurrently. Included in that was the conspiracy to commit murder of Tammy Daybell, the ex-wife of Vallow Daybell’s husband, Chad Daybell.
Tylee and JJ Vallow were last seen in September 2019, and Tammy Daybell was killed the following month. Weeks following Tammy Daybell’s death, Vallow Daybell and Chad Daybell were married. The remains of Tylee and JJ were found in June 2020 in Daybell’s back yard in Fremont County, Idaho, which has a population of less than 14,000.
Chad Daybell will be tried separately in April 2024 on two felony counts of conspiracy to commit destruction; alteration or concealment of evidence; and two felony counts of destruction, alteration or concealment of evidence.
Per CNN:
“The case — which was featured in a true crime Netflix documentary — began unfolding in late November 2019, when relatives asked police in Rexburg, Idaho, to do a welfare check on JJ because they hadn’t talked to him recently. Police didn’t locate him at the family’s house but were told by Vallow Daybell and Daybell that he was staying with a family friend in Arizona, according to authorities.
“When police returned the next day to serve a search warrant, Vallow and Daybell were gone. They were found months later, in January 2020, in Hawaii.”
Vallow Daybell’s ex-husband told police in January 2019 that he was having trouble getting in touch with their children and that Vallow Daybell “thinks she’s a resurrected being and a god.”
Her attorney, Jim Archibald, told the court that Vallow Daybell was a “kind and loving mother” who valued religion, particularly when it came to the “end of times,” per CNN.
“Some people could care less about biblical prophecies; some people care a lot about it. Thankfully in this country we get the freedom to choose,” Archibald said in his own opening statement, according to East Idaho News, via CNN.
“Tylee and JJ brought so much light into this world,” Colby Ryan, Tylee and JJ’s older brother, said in a victim impact statement read by prosecutors Monday.
“Tylee will never have an opportunity to become a mother, wife, or have the career she was destined to have. She’ll never be able to have the life she deserved,” Ryan wrote. “JJ will never be able to grow and spread his light with this world the way he did. He will never have a chance to grow up.”
“I want them to be remembered for who they were,” he added, “and not to be just a spectacle or a headline to the world.”
