The Cult Mother
Lori Vallow is the mother of two children that have been missing since September. She has been reported to be completely mentally unstable and has wild delusions of grandeur that led her up to this moment. However, it is believed that her husband, Chad Daybell, pushed her to do what she is suspected to have done.
Doing it for the Kids
Although nothing final has been decided in Lori Vallow’s court case, we are starting to learn the real story through her intermitted confessions. After missing court in January and failing to provide evidence that her children were still alive, Vallow has been in holding. None of these accusations are set in stone, but it is safe to assume that Vallow’s involvement with a doomsday cult could be the reason behind her missing children...
Chad and Tammy
Lori Vallow’s story started in 1990 when her future husband Chad Daybell married a woman named Tammy. Tammy was wealthy and impressionable, and Chad had some wild ideas for what the future might have in store for humanity. Tammy was infatuated with Chad’s ideas, and she funded his career as a writer to help promote his outlandish beliefs.
The Edge of Heaven
With Tammy’s funding, Chad was able to start the Spring Creek book Company. This was a privately owned publishing company that only released Chad’s books chronicling his outlandish theories about the downfall of society. These books were deeply rooted in religious ideology, most were overtly racist and xenophobic, and all of them detailed both “scientific” and fictional theories about how the world would end. Together, Tammy and Chad had five children and moved to Salem, Idaho in 2015…
The Secret Affair
Three years after Tammy and Chad moved to Idaho, another Idaho resident named Lori Vallow’s husband died of mysterious circumstances. The man who died was named Joseph Ryan. Joseph had distanced himself from Lori because he found out that she had a secret online relationship with a man named Chad Daybell. As you know, this Chad Daybell was also married, and his wife Tammy was against this love affair as well.
The Death of Joseph Ryan
Joseph Ryan was found dead in his apartment that he rented several weeks after he served Lori Vallow their divorce papers. Ryan took his then 15-year-old daughter, Tylee Vallow, with him into his apartment. But, when authorities came for the welfare check that led to them finding his dead body, Tylee was already back in her mother’s custody…
Preparing a People
Shortly after Joseph Ryan was found dead, Chad Daybell and Lori Vallow met in person for the first time. Evidently, they were both involved with a secret cult called “Preparing a People.” Although it is not confirmed, it is assumed that the context of Chad Daybell’s novels inspired this group of people to come together.
Banned from the Podcast
Chad Daybell and Lori Vallow were first recorded together on the cult’s podcast, which is called “Time to Warrior Up.” They discussed doomsday theories and exposed their unhinged nature to the public. This was outside of the podcast network’s guidelines, and they were asked to never return. However, this first meeting most likely set all of the events that were to come in motion…
The Covert Marriage
Chad and Lori continued their online love affair, despite Tammy being openly against it. Within the two years until now, Lori remarried to a man named Charles Vallow (from whom she took her last name). This marriage was presumed to be a diversion from Lori to prove that she and Chad did not have any extramarital relationship going. Lori even went as far as to invite both Tammy and Chad to her wedding. Tammy declined the offer.
Raising Suspicion
It wasn’t long after Lori and Charles Vallow married that Charles filed for divorce. He went to his lawyers and claimed that Lori was a narcissist and she threatened him with physical violence. In addition to that, he attempted to expose her expanding doomsday cult ideology to the authorities. He claimed that Lori called herself a “god” and she regularly scared him and his family…
The Life Insurance Policy
When the divorce papers started to come through, Charles tried to take Lori off of his life insurance plan. Evidently, when Charles showed up to Lori’s house, he was “physically threatening her and her family.” Lori instructed Tylee to handle a metal baseball bat and protect her mother. While Charles was leaving the house, he was shot in the back by Lori’s brother and killed.
The shooting was ruled as self-defense, despite not having any proof that there was anything to defend themselves from. Both Lori and her brother were acquitted, and Lori decided to make some serious changes in her life. She picked up her life and took two of her five children (Tylee and JJ) to live in Salem, Idaho. Coincidentally, this was also where Chad Daybell was living.
An Affair Accusation
Although Chad and Lori did not interact in person frequently, they were communicating online almost daily. Their communications got more heated, and they began planning to run away with one another. Lori claimed that this was strictly fantasy, but what happened afterward would prove otherwise.
The Disappearance of Tylee
Shortly after their final correspondence, Tylee went “missing” outside of Yellowstone National Park. Surveillance footage showed Lori’s brother (the man who shot Lori’s ex-husband) escorting Taylee and JJ to a remote location near the entrance of the national park. Security footage then showed Lori’s brother and JJ casually walking out of the park roughly one hour later. Tylee was nowhere to be found…
The Ring Sees All
Tylee went missing on September 8th, 2019, but she wasn’t reported missing until September 18th. Coincidentally, JJ also disappeared one day before Tylee went missing. The last anyone had seen of JJ was via a Ring security footage camera that was attached to one of their neighbor’s front porches. There were no other sources regarding his whereabouts. He was reported missing the same day that Tylee was reported.
The Lies Don't Stop
When the authorities contacted Lorie, she acted devastated and sobbed uncontrollably. She was completely inconsolable and she did not communicate any useful information with the authorities that came to her home. However, when the authorities questioned her neighbors (some of which had already asked Lorie about her missing daughter), they said Lorie stated that her daughter had gone to Louisiana to attend a bible camp…
Gone in a Flash
Without telling the authorities, it was reported that JJ returned to school for one day on September 23rd, 2019. His teachers were not alerted about the ongoing case due to a criminal mishandling of evidence. They had just assumed he was taken away for vacation (students do not need a reason to not show up in school in Salem, Idaho) and had returned. However, when faculty members clued into his situation, it was too late. After school was over he was never seen or heard from again.
Contacting the Faculty
Lori contacted the school district and claimed that he was in school for a day because he had run away and wanted to try school again. According to her, the school system was the reason he “ran away,” and she had decided to homeschool him from then on. We do not know why nobody thought that this was strange, but that was the last time JJ was seen…
Rent and Deciept
The day after JJ went to school, Lori and her brother signed the lease to an enormous storage unit outside of Salem county. There was security footage showing that Lori and her brother had taken 9 trips back and forth to the unit in one day. They carried everything from cribs, beds, and baby blankets to gun cases, safes, and dismantled bicycles to this unit. However, the police were contacted when Lori’s card was declined for fraud. They obtained a warrant to search the unit and found some terrifying evidence…
Guns in the Unit
The police discovered a ton of illegal gun cases, all lacking documentation. It’s presumed that these guns were purchased with funds allocated through Chad Daybell and his cult. The police also found two collaged blankets made for JJ and Tylee. These blankets had a collection of pictures of them stitched together in a confusing and ominous way. When questioned, Lori claimed that she had no idea who made those blankets or why they were there…
Lock Her Up
Lori and her brother were thrown in jail and placed on a $55,000 bond. Meanwhile, Chad Daybell and his relationship with Tammy started to get violent. Suddenly and unexpectedly, Tammy’s life started getting threatened by all the members of her husband’s cult…
Threatening Tammy
At 2:30 PM on October 9th, 2019, Tammy called the police to report that someone had been shooting at her car with a paintball gun when she got into it. The police claimed that they went to the area and found no evidence of someone doing so. When Tammy arrived home at 8:30, she was shot in the head and neck multiple times by a paintball gun coming from the same location she had reported earlier...
The Death of Bordreaux
Strangely, members of Lori’s family that were outspoken about their distaste for Lori’s behavior started getting threatened as well. Brandon Boudreaux, who is Lori’s niece’s ex-husband, was particularly outspoken about Lori’s involvement in the doomsday cult. Boudreaux was found shot dead in his car the morning after Tammy had been threatened…
Tammy's Passing
On October 19th, Tammy Daybell was found dead in her home. Her husband, Chad Daybell, was not home. The authorities stated that Tammy died of natural causes, and the family refused to give her an autopsy. Chad Daybell then posted bail for Lorie and her brother…
Fleeing the Scene
Chad broke Lorie out of jail after Tammy’s funeral. Just three and a half weeks after his wife died, Chad and Lorie got married. The police thought that this whole situation was totally fishy, so they went to seek out Chad and Lorie after their ceremony. They were confronted and fled to an unknown location. The local police put a warrant out for their arrest, but they were nowhere to be found…
Getting Caught
Meanwhile, JJ and Tylee were still missing. Lorie did not seem particularly worried about their absence, which was a massive red flag for authorities. However, after the Salem, Idaho warrant was instituted, Lorie and Chad were discovered in Honolulu using fake names and passports to get around…
Heading in on Fraud Charges
Chad had used the money from Tammy’s bank account to purchase them fake identities and flights to Hawaii. They would have gotten away with fleeing Idaho too if they acted intelligently. They were caught outside of a bar in Hawaii when Lorie confronted a police officer for questioning her ID. They didn’t know that their identities were nationally known…
"I Don't Know Where My Kids Are"
Lorie and Chad were brought back to Idaho and placed into custody immediately. When questioned about her children, Lorie denied all responsibility. She stated that her ambivalence was a “panic response” and that she was mourning the disappearance of her children “differently than others...”
Denying Involvement
When Chad was questioned about the disappearance of the children, he denied all knowledge of the event. However, when the authorities got into Chad’s Facebook messages, they found that he was perfectly knowledgable of the fact that the children were missing. Chad was then detained for the suspicion of the murder of his wife Tammy, and for his potential involvement in the disappearance of Lori’s children…
Don't Do the Crime...
This couple has been in custody since February. Nobody knows where their children are, and nobody has any leads. They are both looking at some serious jail time in the future unless they are able to clear their names. Unfortunately, all signs point to them committing the crimes.