A phone call between “cult mom” Lori Vallow and her former best friend was played in court during her ongoing trial for the murders of two of her children.
The trial of Ms Vallow, 49, continues at the Ada County Courthouse in Boise, Idaho, almost three years after she was charged with killing her son Joshua “JJ” Vallow and daughter Tylee Ryan and conspiring to murder her doomsday preacher’s husband Chad Daybell’s first wife.
On Thursday, prosecutors played a phone conversation between Mr Daybell, Ms Vallow and her then-best friend Melanie Gibb, who was on the stand testifying for the state. In the early December 2019 call, which she recorded secretly, Ms Gibb delved into the couple’s bizarre cult beliefs and later confronted them for asking her to lie to the police about JJ’s whereabouts.
Ms Vallow claimed that she was trying to protect her son because his grandmother, Kay Woodstock, was trying to “kidnap him.” She then reassured Ms Gibb that JJ — who investigators believe had already been killed months earlier along with Tylee — was “safe and happy.”
“I’m just not telling anybody so that nobody has to say where he is or get questioned where he is so I can keep him as safe as possible,” Ms Vallow said on the call.
The former friends then proceeded to quote scriptures at each other, with Ms Gibb telling Ms Vallow that she has been deceived by Satan and that “God doesn’t work in darkness.”
“If you really loved me, you would not have told the police I had JJ with me,” Ms Gibb said.
Ms Vallow responded: “You know me, Mel. This sounds like you have been influenced by somebody dark and obey dark things.”
The 20-minute call ended with Ms Vallow scolding Ms Gibb for “not having the behaviour of someone that sees Jesus Christ” after Ms Gibb called her out for believing in zombies and engaging in bizarre rituals.
Ms Gibb testified under oath that Mr Daybell called her a few days before Thanksgiving 2019 and said that the Rexburg Police Department would be calling her and she should not answer. He told her the police were questioning Ms Vallow about JJ’s whereabouts and when Ms Gibb asked whether he was with his grandparents, Mr Daybell sounded nervous and answered no.
Ms Vallow had told officers that JJ was with Ms Gibb watching Frozen 2 when they questioned her in November of that year.
Ms Gibb said that Ms Vallow asked her to take photos of random kids at the movies and send them to the police, who Ms Vallow described as “dark and translated beings”.
When Rexburg police called, Ms Gibb did not answer because she “wasn’t sure what in the world to do,” she told the court.
Ms Gibb said she eventually spoke to police at the end of November and said JJ had not been with her.
She also told the court that while visiting Ms Vallow in Rexburg in September 2019, Ms Vallow told her that JJ had an evil spirit in him. Ms Vallow reportedly said JJ’s behaviour was more difficult and he would say things like, “I love Satan.”
Ms Gibb said Ms Vallow also told her JJ would climb up on the fridge and on top of the cabinets and was acting aggressively.
“Lori tried to explain how he was changing into a more negative type of demeanour,” Ms Gibb testified, adding that he seemed like a typical seven-year-old with autism. In her eyes his behaviour was normal.
Ms Gibb said that she saw no signs of Tylee while visiting and was told the 16-year-old had moved in with roommates at the BYU-Idaho dorms.
She asked about Tylee’s belongings and was told they were in storage, Ms Gibb said.
Tylee and JJ’s bodies were found buried in a pet cemetery on Mr Daybell’s property on 9 June 2020.
JJ’s body was found buried close to a tree on the property, the court heard on Tuesday. The little boy, who had autism, was still dressed in his red pyjamas and a pull-up night diaper.
His arms were wrapped in duct tape and his head was wrapped in a white plastic bag with thick layers of duct tape around it. He had been partly covered in a blue children’s blanket before wood panelling and three white stones were placed on top of him in the shallow grave.
Jurors were shown graphic photos of the burial site and the little boy’s autopsy in court while it emerged that Tylee’s body was so badly burned that an autopsy was impossible. She had been dismembered, burned and her body parts were dispersed around the grounds.
Prosecutors also allege that Ms Vallow and Mr Daybell conspired with Ms Vallow’s brother Alex Cox to murder Tammy, JJ and Tylee as part of their doomsday cult beliefs – but also for financial purposes so that they could collect Tammy’s life insurance money and the children’s social security and survivor benefits.
As part of their cult beliefs, the couple believed in a “rating system of light and dark” for how they ranked the spirits of the people around them.
Over time, this evolved into the belief that some people – including the children – were “zombies” and the only way to get rid of the zombies was for the human body to be destroyed. JJ, Tylee and Tammy aren’t the only deaths surrounding the doomsday cult couple.
In July 2019 – two months before the children’s disappearance – Ms Vallow’s fourth husband Charles Vallow was shot dead by Cox.
At the time, Cox claimed Vallow attacked him with a baseball bat and it was ruled self-defence.
On 11 December 2019, Cox also died suddenly at the age of 51. His death was also ruled natural causes, with indications of a blood clot wedged in the arteries of his lungs. However, the overdose drug Narcan was also found in his system.
Now, Ms Vallow is also facing charges in Arizona of conspiring with Cox to murder Vallow.
