In 2019 text messages revealed in court on Friday, Chad Daybell called Lori Vallow Daybell “my goddess lover” months before Chad’s wife Tammy was killed.
The text from Chad, sent on July 26, 2019, reads, “Every few weeks I get to escape and have amazing adventures with my Goddess lover, but then I have to return to my place under the stairs, feeling trapped. But I sense permanent freedom is coming!”
Nearly three months later, on Oct. 19, 2019, Tammy died. Her manner of death was initially ruled as “natural causes,” and no autopsy was done, but now authorities believe she was asphyxiated, and now Chad and Lori are accused of conspiring to murder her.
The text was shared at Lori’s murder trial: She is accused of murdering her children, Joshua “J.J.” Vallow, 7, and Tylee Ryan, 16, as well as conspiracy to commit murder in Tammy’s death.
Chad, who also faces charges in connection with all three deaths, is being tried separately at a later date. Both Chad and Lori have pleaded not guilty to all charges.
On Thursday, Lori’s former friend, Melanie Gibb, testified about comments Lori allegedly made about Tammy and her slain children before they were reported missing.
Gibb testfied that Lori believed that people existed on a scale of “light” and “dark” — with those that “signed contracts” with Jesus Christ being light and those who did the same with Satan as dark.
According to Gibb, Lori believed Tammy had been taken over by a Satanic, “dark” spirit weeks before her death, around the time she suspected Chad was having an affair. Chad had told Lori that Tammy “would be passing away early in her life.”
Gibb also testified that Lori and Chad would meet at motels and hotels while Chad was married. But Lori believed their alleged affair was okay: “She felt it was according to God’s will,” Gibb testified, adding that Lori believed their alleged dalliances were justified because they’d been married together in previous lives and had a mission together.
According to Gibb, Lori told her in September 2019 that J.J. had become “dark” that month, and that Tylee had become dark earlier that year.
In November of that year, the children were reported missing and were never seen alive again.
J.J. and Tylee were last seen in September 2019, and on June 9, 2020, the remains of the siblings were found on a property belonging to Chad.
Among the long list of witnesses for the trial, Rexburg, Idaho, police detective Ray Hermosillo testified and provided a graphic account of how authorities discovered the remains of Lori’s children.
Lori’s trial is ongoing. In March, it was ruled that Lori, who spent time in a psychiatric treatment facility before being deemed fit for trial, would not face the death penalty in the slayings. She faces life in prison if convicted.