CNN
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Opening statements are set to start Monday in the trial of an Idaho mother who is accused of killing her two children and conspiring to kill her husband’s ex-wife as part of her bizarre religious beliefs.
Lori Vallow Daybell is charged with two counts of first-degree murder and three counts of conspiracy in the deaths as well as grand theft for collecting government benefits on behalf of her children after they were killed, the indictment states.
She has pleaded not guilty to all charges. Jury selection took place last week.
The sensational case, featured in a Netflix true-crime documentary last year, involves the deaths of a number of family members and claims Vallow Daybell and her husband had apocalyptic religious beliefs.
Two of her children from previous marriages, Tylee Ryan, 17, and Joshua “JJ” Vallow, 7, were last seen on different days in September 2019. Shortly after that, she married Chad Daybell, whose ex-wife Tammy Daybell had died several weeks prior.
In late November 2019, relatives asked police in Rexburg, Idaho, to do a welfare check on JJ because they hadn’t talked to him recently. Police didn’t find him at the family’s house but did see Vallow Daybell and Daybell, who said JJ was staying with a family friend in Arizona, according to authorities.
When police returned the next day to serve a search warrant, the couple was gone. They were ultimately found in Hawaii in January 2020.
In June 2020, law enforcement officials found the remains of Tylee and JJ on Daybell’s property in Fremont County, Idaho, and Vallow Daybell and Daybell were indicted on murder charges in May 2021.
According to the indictment, Daybell, Vallow Daybell and her brother Alex Cox conspired to kill the children and Daybell’s ex-wife.
The indictment notes Vallow Daybell and Daybell “did endorse and teach religious beliefs for the purpose of justifying” the killings of JJ, Tylee, and Tammy Daybell. In particular, Daybell and Vallow Daybell exchanged texts about Tammy Daybell “being in Limbo” and “being possessed by a spirit named Viola,” according to the indictment.
Those close to the couple said they had been involved in strong religious ideologies.
Arizona police released body camera footage from January 2019 of Vallow Daybell’s ex-husband saying he could not get in touch with the children. He said their marriage had rapidly deteriorated and “she thinks she’s a resurrected being and a god.”
In addition, Daybell was connected to a religious doomsday prepper website which describes itself as a “series of lecture events focusing on self-reliance and personal preparation.” The publishers of the site said they decided to pull content featuring either Daybell or Vallow Daybell in light of the children’s disappearance.
Vallow Daybell was initially ruled not mentally fit to stand trial, but a judge reversed the determination last year.
The trials of Vallow Daybell and Daybell will be held separately. Vallow Daybell won’t face the death penalty if convicted, a judge ruled last month. Both have pleaded not guilty to the charges.
She has separately been charged in Arizona with conspiracy to commit murder in the July 2019 death of her estranged husband Charles Vallow. He was fatally shot by her brother Alex Cox, who later died in December 2019.
CNN has reached out to prosecutors regarding those charges.
