ADA COUNTY, Idaho — Money. Power. Sex.
That's what this case is all about, according to Idaho prosecutors in the murder trial against Lori Vallow, or Lori Vallow Daybell.
The web of intricacies in Lori Vallow's life has been ongoing for over four years, as soon as Vallow's children Tylee Ryan, 16, and JJ Vallow, 7, went missing from Rexburg in September of 2019.
Their bodies were later found buried on Chad Daybell's property in June of 2020. Daybell is Vallow's husband -- each are charged in the homicides of the children along with grand theft and the conspiracy to commit murder. Vallow and Daybell are also charged with the murder of Tammy Daybell, Chad Daybell's previous wife, who was killed in October of 2019 by asphyxiation.
So according to the prosecution, how did it happen?
Opening statements
Opening statements began Monday -- the prosecution will first present its case, as the state is the one who has the burden of proof in a court of law.
It all started in 2018, when Lori Vallow met Chad Daybell at a religious conference in Utah where he was speaking about his books, as he was an author at the time. When they met, they were both married to other people -- Lori Vallow to Charles Vallow, and Chad Daybell to Tammy Daybell.
The Vallows lived in Arizona, and the Daybells lived in Rexburg.
Fremont County Prosecutor Lindsey Blake told the jury in her opening statement, "Chad and Lori began teaching people about a rating system of light and dark -- this theory evolved," she said. “If somebody is dark an evil spirit can come in, push the real person out and take over the body."
According to prosecutors, Vallow and Daybell began "casting" which is "prayer and energy work" to get rid of the "dark." Blake said this didn't work, so the two believed the "dark evolved" so much until the person became a zombie.
"The common theme was that the body had to be destroyed," Blake said. She indicated these people who Vallow thought were "dark" were her two children, and Tammy Daybell.
"What was left of Tylee was found. Charred remains. That's what was left of Tylee. You will hear it was a mass of bone and tissue," Blake said. "Tylee's DNA was recovered on a pickaxe and shovel later located on Daybell’s property."
Blake told the jury that when JJ was found, he was wrapped in garbage bags with duct tape around his head and hands.
They "had their whole lives ahead of them," Blake told the jury.
The prosecution said Vallow would do whatever it took to get to Daybell so the two could live their ideal life together.
"The defendant used money power and sex or the promise of those things to get what she wanted. What she wanted was money, power, sex," Blake said.
The prosecution's basic premise was that Vallow, while holding these beliefs, still wanted the social security benefits coming from Tylee Ryan, who was collecting benefits because she lost her father, Charles Vallow, in a shooting in the summer 2019. Alex Cox, Lori Vallow's brother, claimed he shot Charles Vallow in self defense -- but that's something the jury in this case doesn't know.
While the children were still declared missing, Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell eloped in Hawaii on Nov. 5, 2019.
At that point, Blake said, Daybell wanted to add Vallow to his life insurance policy. Blake told the jury that when he did, he and Vallow both said they had no minor children that would be included in the policy.
"Lori never mentioned kids to anyone she met in Chad's life," Blake said.
The prosecution also mentioned Cox, who they said believed in the teachings of Vallow and Daybell and "would do anything for Lori." When police came looking for JJ Vallow at the time he was reported missing by his grandmother, "Lori was less than forthcoming," Blake said.
Blake told the jury that Lori Vallow told family JJ Vallow was with her niece, but then told her niece JJ Vallow was with his grandmother, Kay Woodcock. Woodcock was the one who reported JJ Vallow's disappearance to police after she didn't hear from him for a month.
"The defendant refused to disclose where JJ was, but claimed he was happy,” Blake said.
In the defense's opening statements, they said Vallow was a loving mother -- a responsible one, with a vivacious smile, who people wanted to be around.
The defense claimed that Vallow had an alibi when her kids went missing and Tammy Daybell was found dead. This notice of alibi was only disclosed recently.
Vallow's defense attorney Jim Archibald told the jury that the charges mean the prosecution "isn't sure what really happened."
"But they want you to be sure," Archibald said. "If you have any kind of reasonable doubt you must find her not guilty."
Archibald said Vallow was in her own apartment in Rexburg when the children went missing -- Archibald claims the two kids died in Cox's apartment instead. He also stated Vallow was in Hawaii when Tammy Daybell died in October of 2019.
"When there is a lack of evidence, a law calls that 'not guilty'," Archibald said. "You said you would be impartial... You said you would have an open mind."
First witnesses
Kay Woodcock, JJ Vallow's grandmother, was the first to take the stand Monday.
She said the last words her grandson told her and her husband Larry Woodcock were over Facetime, a little over a month before he was reported missing on Aug. 10, 2019.
"I gotta go mama, I gotta go papa."
Woodcock said this FaceTime lasted only 30 seconds. These FaceTimes were getting more and more short-lived, and it seemed like "someone was holding the camera," Woodcock said on the stand.
Eventually, they stopped altogether -- and so did Woodcock's contact with Lori Vallow.
Prosecutors showed Woodcock a picture of her grandson on the stand Monday, where they asked her, "Who is this?"
"That is our beautiful grandson," Woodcock said through tears.
JJ Vallow was originally going to be adopted by the Woodcocks since Kay Woodcock's son could not take care of him -- but Lori and Charles Vallow came to the Woodcocks and asked if they could adopt him instead. Charles Vallow was Kay Woodcock's brother, and they were very close, she said. So knowing they could give an autistic boy a good home, the Woodcocks agreed.
Kay Woodcock described Lori Vallow as a "doting" mother, who was engaged with her children.
"She was a doll," Woodcock said.
The Vallow couple eventually split up, and Woodcock recalls Lori Vallow being out of touch for 58 days. Woodcock later told the defense she believed this lack of contact meant "she didn't care about her son."
When Charles Vallow was shot and killed in the summer of 2019 and JJ Vallow went to live with his adoptive mother, Woodcock still could not get into much contact with Lori Vallow. Woodcock stated that only at one point did Vallow text her about Charles Vallow's life insurance, of which Woodcock was the beneficiary of -- because Lori Vallow was removed from the policy.
Woodcock arranged to buy a plane ticket to pick up her grandson and fly him to Louisiana where the memorial was taking place, and initially Lori Vallow agreed, Woodcock said. But when the time came, there was radio silence from Lori Vallow. Neither she or JJ Vallow ended up attending the memorial.
One day, Woodcock accidentally logged into Charles Vallow's email account on Nov. 8, 2019 after he had died by plugging her computer into his old printer. She said she woke up at 4:30 a.m. and "something was telling her" to work on the printer. It was then she found his Amazon account, which showed an order being shipped to Lori Vallow's address in Rexburg.
"I saw browses for beach wedding dresses, bathing suits, men's large size linen tops, pants and wedding rings," Woodcock said. She indicated these searches were on Oct. 2, 2019 -- 17 days before Tammy Daybell died.
Brandon Boudreaux, the second and last witness of the day, took the stand late afternoon. Boudreaux is the ex-husband of Lori Vallow's niece, Melani Pawlowski. He stated that his ex-wife "looked at (Lori) kind of less like an aunt figure and more like a mom figure. She was always wanting to be like her."
Boudreaux said his family and the Vallow's would often hang out and spend holidays together. Boudreaux said he "watched Tylee grow up" and that JJ Vallow loved playing with his sons.
Eventually, Pawlowski became very involved in religion around the fall of 2018, he said. She began going to religious groups outside of the church, going to the temple every single day and talking about the end of the world.
“She was focusing on the idea that the world could end soon and we had a disagreement about buying thousands worth of food for storage," Boudreaux said.
Their relationship escalated to the point where Pawlowski accused Boudreaux of being gay because "God told her" and said she believed he hacked into Vallow's computer, which seemed out of the blue, he said. Pawlowski later told Boudreaux she didn't want him speaking to Charles Vallow, even though the two were friends at the time, he told prosecutors. The Boudreaux couple later divorced in July of 2019.
Prosecutors asked about a shooting in Arizona on Oct. 2, 2019, where someone pointed a gun at Boudreaux from inside a jeep and shot at his window, shattering it. The defense originally didn't want this testimony allowed, but prosecutors told the judge this was the beginning "of a trend of eliminating spouses" leading to the incidents that occurred in Idaho.
When Boudreaux told police about the shooting, he said he recalled that Charles Vallow bought Tylee Ryan a jeep that looked very similar to the one he witnessed the day of the shooting. He claimed that because he had just moved into a new home, the only people that could have known his location and routine were his neighbors and his ex-wife, Pawlowski.
The children were still missing at this point.
But, some people believed Cox was the one that tried to hurt Boudreaux.
“The vehicle that was involved in the shooting belonged to Charles Vallow," A private investigator in Arizona, Rich Robertson previously told KTVB. "It was a green Jeep Cherokee with Texas license plates. He recognized that as his former in-law and he suspected Charles Vallows' killer, Alex Cox, was the one driving that jeep.”
Robertson said "Lori Vallow certainly got Melani involved in this."
"By all accounts, the Vallow and the Boudreaux marriages were all idyllic. They were loving couples, they had picture-perfect families. They were like something out of a magazine until they got involved in this kind of cult situation and things started going off the rails," Robertson said.
However, the jury does not know this information, either.
Boudreaux said during testimony he was later called to identify JJ Vallow when the bodies of him and his step-sister were found in Chad Daybell's backyard.
Through tears, Boudreaux said, "It was a very overwhelming task."
Court will resume Tuesday, with the next witness being Rexburg Police Detective Ray Hermosillo.
For live updates, click here to view our live blog, or follow Alexandra Duggan on Twitter @dugganreports.
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