Lori Vallow’s older brother Adam Cox knew his sister to be a popular, fun-loving kid when they grew up with three other siblings within a Mormon household in Southern California.
They swam together. He taught her to play basketball. She became a cheerleader. But years later, Adam became concerned when Lori and another brother, Alex Cox, adopted religious beliefs that embraced doomsday prophecies. Even before Lori met her future fifth husband, Chad Daybell, an author who espoused such prophecies, she was listening to end-of-times podcasts, he says.
“Knowing what Lori and Alex were going through with these people that were talking about the end of the world, and knowing how Lori was — and Lori talked about death a lot actually, talked about the next life, how great the next life is and how it’s going to be perfect and how her kids won’t have to suffer in the next life,” Adam says.
Lori Vallow, center, with her children Joshua “J.J.” Vallow, at left, and Tylee Ryan.REXBURG POLICE DEPARTMENT
“I knew right then and there that the kids were dead,” Adam says.
Lori Ruled Psychologically Incompetent to Stand Trial
Lori was arrested in January 2020 in Hawaii – where she and Chad had relocated from Idaho while police searched for J.J. and Tylee – when she defied a court order to produce the children for child welfare agents. The children’s remains were discovered six months later buried on Chad’s property outside Rexburg, Idaho.
Lori and Chad both are now charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder in connection with the two deaths — and Lori’s prosecution is on hold, after a judge ruled that she waspsychologically incompetentto stand trial.
Chad Daybell, left, and Lori Vallow.Rexburg Police Department ; Madison County Sheriff’s Office/AP/Shutterstock
Lori and Chad have entered pleas of not guilty to all charges against them. Alex, who died in 2019, was not charged.
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“My mom and dad have written Lori in prison, and the letters that they’ve got back from Lori are that Lori has not changed at all her stand or her, uh, persona,” Adam says in the podcast. “Apparently she’s not talking to anybody. So at this point, she can’t defend herself because she doesn’t answer any of the questions that they ask her.”
Adam Cox, left, with brother Alex Cox.Adam Cox/Courtesy Universal Studio Group Audio
Chad’s children havepublicly defended their father, and suggested that Lori and Alex worked together to frame him.
But the indictments that charge Lori and Chad with the murders of J.J. and Tylee nonetheless allege that between Oct. 26, 2018 and June 9, 2020, the couple “did endorse and espouse religious beliefs for the purpose of encouraging and/or justifying” the killings.
Lori Said Children Had Become ‘Zombies’
Lori also apparently had asked her future husband togauge her children’s “dark” and “light” spirits, allegedly telling a friend that her children had become “zombies,” and that she was on a religious mission with Chad “to rid the world of ‘zombies’” months before the children’s remains were found.
Joshua “J.J.” Vallow, at left, and his sister Tylee Ryan.
No manner of death is revealed in the indictment that charges Chad with first-degree murder in Tammy’s death, nor in the indictments charging Chad and Lori with first-degree murder and conspiracy to murder in the deaths of Lori’s children.
J.J., who had autism, was last seen Sept. 23, 2019, at his school in Idaho before Lori withdrew him and told the principal she was considering home-schooling. The last known image of Tylee was captured Sept. 8, 2019, while she was on a day trip to Yellowstone National Park with her mother, brother and Alex Cox, according to a court filing.
Chad’s trial, now set for November, is likely to be pushed into 2022,reports East Idaho News. Both he and Lori currently are jailed in Fremont County.
source: people.com
