True Crime // The Complete Story

The Doomsday Mom

How Lori Vallow Daybell and Chad Daybell’s apocalyptic beliefs left a trail of death from Arizona to Idaho, and how justice finally caught up with them.

Part 1 of 9 · Who’s Who & The Case at a Glance

On November 26, 2019, a Rexburg, Idaho, police officer knocked on the door of a townhouse to check on a 7-year-old boy named Joshua “JJ” Vallow. His grandparents in Louisiana, Kay and Larry Woodcock, had asked for the welfare check because they had not been able to reach him. His mother, Lori Vallow, told officers that JJ was staying with a family friend, Melanie Gibb, in Arizona. That wasn’t true. Gibb didn’t have JJ. Nobody outside a small circle of people knew where he was, or where his 16-year-old sister, Tylee Ryan, had gone either.

Instead of helping police find her children, Lori left Idaho with her new husband, Chad Daybell, a little-known author of apocalyptic novels whose first wife had died suddenly just weeks earlier. Within days, the couple was in Hawaii. Within months, the disappearance of JJ and Tylee had become one of the most closely followed missing-children cases in America.

The truth, when it finally came out, was worse than almost anyone had imagined. On June 9, 2020, investigators searching Chad Daybell’s rural property in Salem, Idaho, found the remains of both children buried in his yard. Prosecutors would later argue that the children were killed as part of a web of religious beliefs about “zombies,” dark spirits, and the end of the world, along with something much more ordinary: money.

By the time the legal battles ended in 2025, Lori Vallow Daybell had been convicted in three separate trials in two states. Chad Daybell had been sentenced to death. And the case had been tied to the deaths of Lori’s fourth husband, Charles Vallow, Chad’s first wife, Tammy Daybell, and an attempted shooting of a man in Arizona.

This nine-part series tells the whole story, from Lori’s early life to her final sentencing and the appeals still moving through the courts today. Every fact in it comes from court testimony, police records, and news reporting from outlets that covered the case from the beginning, including EastIdahoNews.com, KSL, the Associated Press, NPR, Court TV, and others. You’ll find the full list of sources at the end of Part 9. Direct quotes appear as they were reported.

The People at the Center of the Case

The Vallow Daybell case involves an unusually large cast, spread across several states and two decades. Here are the people you need to know.

Lori Vallow DaybellBorn Lori Norene Cox in 1973 in Southern California. Married five times. Mother of Colby, Tylee, and JJ. Now serving life without parole.

Chad DaybellUtah-raised author and small publisher of end-times fiction who claimed to have visions. Lori’s fifth husband. Sentenced to death in 2024.

Tylee RyanLori’s daughter, born September 24, 2002. Last seen alive at Yellowstone National Park on September 8, 2019. She was 16.

Joshua “JJ” VallowBorn May 25, 2012. Adopted by Lori and Charles Vallow. Charles’s great-nephew and Kay Woodcock’s grandson. Last seen in September 2019. He was 7.

Tammy DaybellChad’s wife of nearly 30 years and mother of their five children. Died October 19, 2019. Her death was later ruled a homicide by asphyxia.

Charles VallowLori’s fourth husband and JJ’s adoptive father. Shot and killed by Lori’s brother, Alex Cox, in Chandler, Arizona, on July 11, 2019.

Alex CoxLori’s older brother, fiercely loyal to her. Shot Charles Vallow and, prosecutors said, played a central role in the other crimes. Died of natural causes in December 2019.

Brandon BoudreauxEx-husband of Lori’s niece, Melani. Someone fired a rifle at him outside his Gilbert, Arizona, home on October 2, 2019. He survived.

Kay & Larry WoodcockCharles Vallow’s sister and her husband, and JJ’s grandparents. Their request for a welfare check helped break the case open.

Colby RyanLori’s oldest son and the only one of her children still alive. He testified against his mother.

Melanie GibbLori’s close friend and a member of their religious circle. She became a key witness for the prosecution.

Zulema PastenesAnother member of the group and Alex Cox’s widow. She testified about the “castings” the group performed.

The Case at a Glance

Oct. 2018 Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell meet at a religious conference in St. George, Utah.
Jul. 11, 2019 Alex Cox shoots and kills Charles Vallow in Chandler, Arizona, and claims self-defense.
Sept. 8, 2019 Tylee Ryan is seen alive for the last time, on a family trip to Yellowstone.
Sept. 2019 JJ Vallow is last seen in Rexburg, Idaho. Police and witnesses put it on Sept. 22. The indictment says Alex Cox took him on Sept. 23.
Oct. 2, 2019 A rifle shot is fired at Brandon Boudreaux in Gilbert, Arizona.
Oct. 19, 2019 Tammy Daybell dies at home. Her death is first ruled natural, and no autopsy is done.
Nov. 5, 2019 Chad and Lori marry on a beach in Kauai, Hawaii.
Nov. 26, 2019 Rexburg police conduct a welfare check on JJ. Lori lies about where he is.
Dec. 12, 2019 Alex Cox dies in Arizona. His death is ruled natural (blood clots in his lungs).
Feb. 20, 2020 Lori is arrested in Kauai.
Jun. 9, 2020 The children’s remains are found on Chad Daybell’s property. Chad is arrested.
May 12, 2023 An Idaho jury finds Lori guilty on all counts.
May 30, 2024 An Idaho jury finds Chad guilty on all counts. On June 1, 2024, the jury sentences him to death.
Apr. & Jun. 2025 Arizona juries convict Lori of conspiring to murder Charles Vallow and Brandon Boudreaux.
Jul. 25, 2025 Lori receives two more life sentences in Arizona.

How This Series Is Organized

The case is long and complicated, so we’ve told it in order, one chapter per page:

Part 1Who’s Who & The Case at a Glance (you are here)

Part 2Lori Before Chad: five marriages, three children, and a bitter custody war

Part 3Chad Daybell, the visions, and the beliefs that bound them

Part 4The death of Charles Vallow

Part 5The vanishing: Yellowstone, Rexburg, and the death of Tammy Daybell

Part 6The search: lies, Hawaii, an arrest, and the discovery in Salem

Part 7Lori’s Idaho trial and sentencing

Part 8Chad Daybell’s trial and death sentence

Part 9The Arizona trials, the aftermath, and where everyone is now

A note on this story: This case involves the deaths of two children. Some later chapters describe evidence that came out at trial, including how the children’s remains were found. We’ve stuck to what was reported in court and in the press, without graphic embellishment.

Continue to Part 2Lori Before Chad: Five Marriages, Three Children, and a Bitter Custody War