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An Idaho district judge on Monday determined murder suspect and “cult mom” Lori Vallow Daybell competent to stand trial, according to court documents.
After spending about nine months in an Idaho mental hospital, Fremont District Judge Steven Boyce said in a Monday order that Daybell is “returned to competency and is fit to proceed” in her murder trial, which was temporarily halted when she was committed to a mental health facility in June.
“Defendant is to be transferred from the Idaho Department of Health and remanded to the custody of the Fremont County Sheriff to be transported and brought before this court,” the order reads.
Lori Vallow glances at the camera during her March 6, 2020 hearing in Rexburg, Idaho.
(John Roark/The Idaho Post-Register via AP, Pool)
Daybell and her new husband, Chad Daybell, were indicted late May 2021 on murder and conspiracy charges, among others, in connection with the deaths of several people, including Lori’s two children, officials have said.
LORI VALLOW MURDER CASE PROCEEDINGS SUSPENDED AS COURT SAYS SHE ‘LACKS FITNESS TO PROCEED’
The pair is at the center of a tangled case that involves several suspicious deaths as well as a bizarre apocalyptic religious belief that prosecutors claim the couple designed to justify the murders of 7-year-old Joshua “J.J.” Vallow, a 17-year-old Tylee Ryan and 49-year-old Tammy Daybell.
Lori Vallow Daybell, front, second right, and her defense team wait to leave the courtroom during her hearing on Friday, March 6, 2020, in Rexburg, Idaho.
(John Roark/The Idaho Post-Register via AP, Pool)
LORI VALLOW, CHAD DAYBELL ‘DOOMSDAY’ MURDERS: A TIMELINE OF EVENTS
Vallow and Daybell were each indicted on multiple counts each of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and grand theft by deception, first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder related to the deaths of JJ and Tylee, officials announced at the time.
The children were missing for several months — when police say the couple lied about the children’s whereabouts and then slipped away to Hawaii — before their bodies were found buried on Chad Daybell’s property in rural Idaho.
This file photo provided Friday, March 6, 2020, by the Madison County Sheriff’s Office shows Lori Vallow, also known as Lori Daybell.
(Madison County Sheriff’s Office via AP, File)
The couple was also charged in the death of Chad’s previous wife, Tammy Daybell, having raised suspicions after he and Lori married two weeks later. Lori was also charged in connection with the 2019 shooting death of Charles Vallow, her estranged spouse.
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Lori reportedly believed she was “a god assigned to carry out the work of the 144,000 at Christ’s second coming in July 2020,” according to divorce documents Charles Vallow filed before his death. Chad Daybell has written several apocalyptic novels based loosely on Mormon theology. Both were involved in a group that promotes preparedness for the biblical end-times.
Daybell’s arraignment proceeding will take place on April 19.
Fox News’ Stephanie Pagones and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
