Idaho cult mum Lori Vallow says her children are ‘very happy and busy’ in heaven as she’s jailed for life without parole
1 August 2023, 05:32 | Updated: 1 August 2023, 09:37
A mother who murdered her two children and conspired to murder her husband’s ex-wife has said her children are ‘very happy and busy’ in heaven.
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Lori Vallow from Idaho was sentenced to life in prison without parole over the murders of her two children Joshua, 7, and Tylee, 16.
She denied killing her kids, making vague assertions to their “accidental” deaths during the course of her trial at Fremont County Courthouse.
During the trial, she claimed that Jesus “knows [her] and Jesus understands [her]” while mental health evaluations said she suffered from “hyper religiosity” and that she and her fifth husband Chad Daybell were obsessed with doomsday prophesies.
She claimed she have previously gone to heaven when she briefly "died" during labour and so had "access to heaven and the spirit world".
Vallow and Daybell believed people could become zombies possessed by Satanic spirits.
She refused to comply with a full psychiatric analysis which may have reduced her sentence.
Mental health practitioners also claimed Vallow has an "unspecified personality disorder with histrionic and narcissistic features," according to the judge.
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A statement by Vallow’s eldest son Colby Ryan said: "My children will never know their uncle, their aunt or grandfather, or even their grandmother," he said in the statement.
"Tylee and JJ brought so much light into this world. With their lives stolen, I'd like to share this: I believe nothing could or ever will be the same."
Tammy Daybell, Chad’s previous wife, was found dead in October 2019 in what investigators determined was a murder after an autopsy.
Vallow married Daybell weeks later and prosecutors successfully made the case that Vallow was involved in Tammy’s death in a scheme to allow them to be together.
Chad Daybell, a self-published author of doomsday fiction, is awaiting trial for the same charges as Lori Vallow.
Joshua’s grandmother, Kay Woodcock, cried during her impact statement at the sentencing on Monday.
Ms Woodcock told the court: "The grief my family and I have endured is immeasurable as Lori cruelly took my big brother Charles, my adorable grandson JJ, and my beautiful niece Tylee, and sweet Tammy — whose family I've come to know and love."
Woodcock concluded: "Lori is undeniably a monster."
