Lori Vallow‘s hair was found on duct tape wrapped around the corpse of her seven-year-old son, according to new evidence presented at the start of the fifth week of her murder trial.
Ms Vallow is in court facing charges of murdering her two children Joshua “JJ” Vallow and Tylee Ryan, 16, as well as Tammy Daybell, 49, the late wife of her fifth husband Chad Daybell.
Prosecutors 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.
On Monday morning, Ms Vallow’s DNA was entered into evidence in the case against her in Ada County Courthouse in Boise, Idaho.
In testimony heard late last week about the processing of plastic and duct tape used to wrap the body of JJ before he was buried in Mr Daybell’s backyard, it was noted that a hair was found stuck to the tape.
Testifying before the court on Monday, DNA analyst Keeley Coleman of Bode Technology in Virginia explained the process for testing the hair for DNA and comparing the findings with samples from Ms Vallow, her late daughter Tylee, and her friend Melanie Gibb.
DNA from the hair was found not to match either Tylee or Ms Gibb, but was found to be a match for Ms Vallow.
Ms Coleman testified that the chances of finding a match were one in 71 billion.
“The partial DNA profile matched the DNA profile provided for Lori Vallow Daybell,” Ms Coleman said. “The probability of randomly selecting a random individual in relation to that profile one is 71 billion.”
Ms Vallow’s defence argued in cross-examination of Ms Coleman that only a small portion of the full DNA sequence had been examined because the hair did not yield a full DNA profile and therefore the results could be interpreted as inconclusive.
During a brief redirect from the prosecution, Ms Coleman was asked to explain about the statistic she mentioned in her initial testimony.
“That means if I were to stick my hand into a hat of DNA profiles, I would expect to see this profile one in 71 billion times.”
In testimony last week, fingerprints from Ms Vallow’s brother Mr Cox were found on the plastic that JJ was wrapped in. He was suffocated with a plastic bag over his head and duct tape over his mouth. The tape also bound his feet and wrists.
His body was found buried near a pet cemetery on Mr Daybell’s property. His sister Tylee’s remains were found nearby in a shallow grave having been first burned in a firepit.
The trial continues.
