The trial of ‘cult mom’ Lori Vallow began with jury selection Monday in Boise, Idaho.
Vallow, 49, is accused of killing her two children, Tylee Ryan and JJ Vallow, as well as her now-husband’s ex-wife, Tammy Daybell. She has pleaded not guilty.
Vallow’s fifth husband, Chad Daybell, is charged with the same crimes. They were initially supposed to be tried together, but the cases were severed last month when Vallow refused to join Daybell in waiving her right to a speedy trial.
Prosecutors will seek life in prison without parole for Vallow. Judge Steven Boyce ruled in late March that Vallow will not face the death penalty if convicted.
Though Vallow was originally charged in the eastern Idaho town of Rexburg, the trial was moved 200 miles west to Boise in an attempt to find unbiased jurors.
Tylee, 16, and J.J, 7, were last seen alive in September 2019. During a November 2019 welfare check at the Vallow-Daybell home, Rexburg police said the parents lied about where the children were and skipped town the next day.
Vallow was arrested in February 2020 in Hawaii and extradited back to Idaho. Investigators found Tylee and J.J.’s remains on Daybell’s property four months later.
Before the children disappeared, friends and relatives were worried about their well-being and Vallow’s state of mind. Her fourth husband, Charles Vallow, said in divorce filings that his wife told him “she was a God assigned to carry out the work of the 144,000 at Christ’s second coming in July 2020 and that if [he] got in the way of her mission, she would murder him.”
One of Vallow’s friends told police that she spoke of “zombies” under the influence of evil spirits, and referred to Tylee and J.J. as “zombies” multiple times.