Who is Lori Vallow and where is she now? Sins of Our Mother explained

The disappearance of two of her children, Tylee Ryan, 16, and Joshua “JJ” Vallow, seven, in September 2019 shook the nation and led to a month long search. But it wasn’t until June 2020 that police found the remains of Tylee and JJ at a property in Idaho that belonged to Vallow’s fifth husband, Chad Daybell.

After a lengthy trial, Vallow was convicted of their murders in May 2023, along with conspiracy to murder her husband’s ex-wife, Tammy.

On Monday 31st July 2023, Vallow appeared at Fremont County Courthouse in St Anthony, Idaho for sentencing.

She was jailed for life without the possibility of parole for the murders of her two children and conspiring to kill her husband’s former wife.

Vallow’s case was the subject of Netflix’s Sins of Our Mother, which aired in September 2022.

Directed by Skye Borgman (I just Killed My Dad), the three-part documentary tells the story mainly through the eyes of Vallow's surviving son, Colby Ryan. Vallow's mother, Janis Cox, also features, explaining how she went from defending her daughter to believing those accusing her of wrongdoing "were right".

In an interview with E! News, Borgman said: "Lori Vallow has many faces. That of a mother, sister, wife… and liar. I don’t know if we will ever know exactly what motivated Lori to commit such unspeakable crimes. But to formulate any answer we must look at Lori through the eyes of the people who knew her best."

As Lori Vallow is sentenced, here’s everything you need to know about the tragic case, and where she is now.

Who are Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell?

Vallow, born Lori Cox, grew up in San Bernardino, California, and married five times.

By the time she met her fourth husband, Charles Vallow, she had two children, Colby and Tylee Ryan, and had become a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, more commonly known as the Mormon Church. The pair adopted Charles's grand-nephew, Joshua Jaxon JJ Vallow.

The documentary paints a picture of a seemingly perfect mother at this point, with her son Colby telling the camera: "We had a wonderful family before this happened."

However, during her marriage to Charles, Vallow became entangled with a novelist and fellow Mormon Chad Daybell, who held fanatical, apocalyptic beliefs.

The pair met for the first time in 2018 and things quickly devolved from there. A few months later in 2019, Vallow grew noticeably distant from her family members and by the end of the year, only Vallow, Daybell and Colby Ryan were still alive.

A series of grim events led up to this point. In February 2019, Charles Vallow filed for divorce and an order of protection against his wife, who he claimed had threatened to murder him.

He was later killed by Lori’s brother, Alex Cox, who claimed it was self-defence after Charles had attacked him.

And that was only the beginning. In September 2019, Lori’s children JJ (7) and Tylee Ryan (17) went missing and, the following month, Daybell's wife Tammy died of "natural causes", it was initially reported.

Two weeks later, Lori Vallow and Daybell fled to Hawaii, leading the authorities to suspect that Tammy may not have died in her sleep after all.

In 2019, Alex Cox was then found dead at his home in Arizona; he is believed to have died due to blood clots and high blood pressure.

It was in January 2020 that walls really started to close in on Vallow, as JJ's grandmother requested a welfare check on her grandson.

Lori was ordered by the authorities to prove that her children were safe and was later arrested in February 2020. She was charged with two felony counts of desertion and nonsupport of dependent children, as well as three misdemeanors: resisting or obstructing officers, criminal solicitation to commit a crime, and contempt of court.

In June of that year, the bodies of JJ and Tylee were discovered by the authorities in a shallow grave in the Daybell family's back garden.

Lori Vallow: Where is she now?

Following the discovery of human remains in their back garden, two of the initial charges against Lori – two felony counts of desertion and non-support of dependent children – were dropped. She was then charged with obstruction or concealment of evidence regarding her children's remains.Chad Daybell was arrested and charged with felony murder.

In May 2021, they were both charged with conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, first-degree murder, and grand theft by deception for the deaths of Tylee, JJ, and Tammy.

At that time, Lori was declared mentally unfit to stand trial. Both Vallow and Daybell pleaded not guilty, with their cases to be tried together in January 2023, with the hope Vallow would then be deemed competent.

Vallow’s trial went ahead, and on 12 May 2023, she was found guilty of the charges. On Monday 31st July 2023, Lori Vallow was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the murder of her two children. Vallow was given a third life sentence for conspiring to kill her husband’s ex-wife, Tammy, with each sentence to be served consecutively.

Daybell is still awaiting trial on the same murder charges. His trial date in Boise, Idaho, has been set and if found guilty, he could face the death penalty, according to the Idaho Statesman.

During Vallow’s sentencing, 7th District Judge Steven Boyce said: “I don’t think to this day you have any remorse for the effort and heartache you caused for others who looked for your children when you knew where they were and knew they were dead.”

Before her sentencing, Vallow addressed the court, saying that a near-death experience allowed her to communicate with the “spirit world”. She then told the judge that she knew for a fact that her children and Tammy Daybell were happy in heaven. She added that Tylee and JJ have communicated with her that they are happy after their deaths.

During her trial, Vallow shared her belief that her children had to be destroyed so they could go to heaven. She allegedly believed her son and daughter were zombies, and that she was a goddess sent to usher in the biblical apocalypse.

Vallow faces two other cases in Arizona - one on a charge of conspiring with her brother to hill her fourth husband, Charles Vallow, and one of conspiring to kill her niece’s ex-husband. Charles was shot and killed in 2019, while her niece’s ex-husband survived an attempt at his life that same year.

The Maricopa County Attorney's Office plans to extradite Vallow to Arizona now that she's been sentenced in Idaho and after she's transferred to the Idaho Department of Correction. Vallow is being held at the Madison County Jail in Rexburg.

“The extradition can take from several weeks to several months,” the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office previously said in a statement.

Sins of Our Mother is available to watch on Netflix now. If you're looking for more to watch, check out our TV Guide. Check out our Documentaries hub for all the latest news.

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