Vallow–Daybell doomsday murders
The Vallow–Daybell doomsday murders consist of a series of killings—including child murder, filicide, and spousal murder—committed by an American couple, Lori Vallow Daybell and Chad Daybell. Chad and Lori led a Mormon religious sect described in the media as a "doomsday cult." The murders started when Lori's estranged husband, Charles Vallow, was shot dead by her brother Alex Cox on July 11, 2019, in Chandler, Arizona. Next, Lori's daughter, Tylee Ryan, and adopted son, Joshua Jaxon "J. J." Vallow, disappeared from their home in Rexburg, Idaho on September 9 and 23, 2019, respectively. Their remains were found on June 9, 2020. They had been buried on a property owned by Chad, who was Lori's lover at the time of their deaths and had become her husband by the time their bodies were found. On October 2, 2019, Lori's nephew-in-law Brandon Boudreaux survived a murder attempt in Gilbert, Arizona. On October 19, Chad Daybell's wife Tammy was murdered at their home in Rexburg. Lori's brother Alex Cox, who is believed by authorities to have participated in all the crimes, died before he could be brought to trial.
At the time of the murders, Chad and Lori were members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. However, their beliefs had deviated significantly from mainstream Mormonism. Chad was an apocalyptic author and publisher who claimed to have visions of the future and to have lived through multiple past lives, and prophesied the world would end in July 2020. Lori had come to share his fringe beliefs; she became convinced that she was a deity destined to play a role in the coming apocalypse and that her family was getting in the way of her mission. Lori was later nicknamed "Doomsday Mom" by the media.
The case was set in motion by the children's disappearances. Tylee was last seen alive on September 8, 2019, and J.J. on September 22, 2019. In late November 2019, after police questioned Lori about J.J.'s whereabouts, she and Chad abruptly vacated their homes in Idaho and left for Hawaii. As police searched for J.J., they discovered that Tylee was also missing. Investigations revealed that Tylee and J.J.'s disappearances had been preceded and followed by the suspicious deaths of Lori and Chad's respective spouses and by the attempt on Brandon Boudreaux's life. Lori and Chad had married two weeks after the death of Chad's first wife Tammy. After the children's disappearances became known, Tammy's body was exhumed by law enforcement. She was autopsied and her death was ruled a homicide.
On February 20, 2020, Lori was arrested for desertion and non-support of her children. On June 9, police discovered the remains of Tylee and J. J. during a search at Chad's property. Chad was then arrested. On May 25, 2021, he and Lori were charged with the first-degree murders of Tylee, J.J., and Tammy. Prosecutors said that the couple had conspired with Cox to commit the murders as part of their apocalyptic beliefs, but also to remove obstacles to their affair and to collect life insurance money and the children's Social Security benefits, using religion to justify their crimes.
Lori and Chad were tried separately. On May 12, 2023, Lori was found guilty of all charges related to the killings of Tylee, J.J., and Tammy. On July 31, she was given multiple consecutive life imprisonment sentences without the possibility of parole. On May 30, 2024, Chad was also found guilty of all charges. On June 1, he was sentenced to death. After her sentencing in Idaho, Lori was extradited to Arizona to stand trial there twice, first for the murder of Charles Vallow and then for the attempted murder of Brandon Boudreaux. Lori acted as her own attorney during both of her Arizona trials, causing multiple incidents with the court. On April 22, 2025, she was found guilty of conspiring to murder Charles Vallow. On June 12, she was found guilty of conspiring to murder Brandon Boudreaux. On July 25, she was given two additional life sentences. Both Chad and Lori have appealed their sentencings.
Background
Chad Daybell
Chad Daybell was born on August 11, 1968, in Provo, Utah, to a Mormon family and grew up in the neighboring city of Springville. He was accepted and enrolled at Brigham Young University after high school. One year into college, he applied to be a missionary, for which he spent two years in New Jersey. He then resumed his studies and graduated from BYU with a B.A. in journalism. Chad married Tamara "Tammy" Douglas on March 9, 1990; they had five children.Chad worked for a time as a copy editor for the Ogden Standard-Examiner. At various times during and after his studies, he supported himself by working as a gravedigger, then as the cemetery sexton for Springville.
Chad's first religion-themed novel, An Errand for Emma, was published in 1999 by the Springville-based publisher Cedar Fort, Inc. He eventually left his employment at the cemetery to focus on his writing. In 2001, he published One Foot in the Grave, a non-fiction book that chronicled his experiences working in cemeteries. In 2004, Chad and his wife founded Spring Creek Book Company, which he used to self-publish his beliefs regarding the end times as well as other religion-themed books aimed at a Mormon audience.
By the end of the 2000s, the Daybells were facing financial problems. At that time, Chad's publishing business provided an annual income of approximately $2,000. Both spouses had to work part-time jobs to supplement that income, with Chad being employed again as a cemetery sexton. Eventually, Chad salvaged his company and found an audience among people concerned by the Second Coming of Jesus, becoming a popular author and speaker in some radical Mormon circles. He published dozens of fiction and non-fiction books, by himself or other authors.
Chad's novels often depicted apocalyptic situations and dystopian futures, and featured characters based on his own family. In a memoir called Living on the Edge of Heaven, he claimed to have had two near-death experiences that allowed him to receive supernatural visions from "beyond the veil." A recurring theme in Chad's writings was a supernatural voice giving instructions and advice to him or to his characters. He commented: "I don't fictionalize any of the events portrayed . I'm really not that creative... My torn veil allows information to be downloaded into my brain from the other side. The scenes I am shown are real events that will happen." Chad was also a regular contributor to "Another Voice of Warning", a Mormon paid forum where he would discuss his near-death experiences and thoughts on the future.
Over time, Chad's religious beliefs became increasingly extreme. Jason Gwilliam, the husband of Tammy's sister, later recalled that Chad's views had started changing around 2006 and 2007, as he became "hyper-focused on preparing for end of times." In 2010 or 2011, Chad started claiming he had visions about how the end of the world would occur. In 2013, he began prophesying there would be earthquakes, war, and destruction in the Americas.
During the 2010s, Chad became the publisher of apocalyptic author and self-proclaimed clairvoyant Julie Rowe. She and Chad made similar prophecies about the end times and claims about their own connections to the "spirit world." Both were popular among Mormon "preppers" who believed the end of the world to be imminent and considered regrouping in tent cities to await doomsday. Suzanne Freeman, another author published by Chad, later said that she had stopped working with him in the 2010s over concerns about his radicalization and his deviation from Mormon teachings, becoming convinced that his beliefs were dangerous.
In 2015, Chad claimed he heard the "voice" telling him to relocate to Rexburg, Idaho. He and Tammy moved there from Springville that June. Chad said that he had had a vision that Utah would be devastated by an earthquake in 2015.
Lori Vallow Daybell
Lori Ryan Daybell, also referred to as Lori Vallow Daybell, was born Lori Cox on June 26, 1973, in Loma Linda, California. She grew up in a Mormon family. Her parents were tax protesters who adhered to sovereign citizen ideology and were in a conflict with the IRS for about two decades. In 1992, at the age of 19, Lori married her high school boyfriend, but the marriage ended in divorce shortly afterwards. In October 1995, Lori married again and had a son named Colby in 1996, before divorcing in 1998. She worked for some time as a hairdresser. In 2004, she was a contestant in both the Mrs. Texas beauty pageant and on the game show Wheel of Fortune.In 2001, Lori married Joseph Anthony Ryan Jr., who gave his name to Colby. The couple's daughter, Tylee, was born in 2002. Lori and Ryan divorced in 2005, subsequently engaging in a bitter custody battle during which she accused him of sexually assaulting both children. Ryan eventually lost equal custody. Lori's brother Alex Cox attacked Ryan in 2007, claiming he had been abusive to Lori and the children; Cox served ninety days in jail for the incident. In 2020, Colby claimed during an interview that as a child, he had been sexually abused by Ryan.
In 2018, Ryan was found dead in his apartment from what was determined to be arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease. After Lori's arrest in 2020, and after a recording surfaced in which she mentioned wanting to kill Ryan "like Nephi killed," police reviewed Ryan's death. Nothing was found to suspect foul play.
In February 2006, Lori married Leland Charles Anthony Vallow, who commonly went by the name Charles. In 2013 the couple adopted Charles' grandnephew, Joshua Jaxon "J.J." Vallow, as the boy's birth parents were unable to care for him. Because of his biological parents' substance abuse, J.J. was born with drugs in his system and spent time in the neonatal intensive care unit. As a baby, he was taken care of for nearly a year by his grandparents, Kay and Larry Woodcock, before being adopted by Charles. J.J. was eventually diagnosed with autism.