The Doomsday Mom: The Complete Story of Lori Vallow Daybell and Chad Daybell

Chad Daybell’s trial began nearly four years after he was arrested in his own yard. Jury selection opened on April 1, 2024, in the same Ada County courtroom in Boise where Lori had been convicted, with the same judge, Steven Boyce, and the same prosecutors, Lindsey Blake and Rob Wood. Unlike Lori, Chad faced the possibility of the death penalty. His attorney was John Prior.

Opening Statements

Opening statements came on April 10, 2024. Rob Wood described Chad as a “seemingly ordinary man” who wrote books about the apocalypse, and argued that he “made sure that no person and no law would stand in his way.” What drove the killings, Wood told jurors, was the pursuit of “sex, money and power.”

Prior laid out a very different story. He called Lori a “beautifully stunning woman” who drew Chad into an “inappropriate” relationship. The real danger, he suggested, was Alex Cox, who “was Lori’s protector” and would “do anything and everything” for her. “Don’t be distracted by speculation,” Prior told the jury.

The Evidence Against Chad

Many of the same witnesses from Lori’s trial testified again. Melanie Gibb told jurors that Lori began talking about people turning “dark” in early 2019, that the first was Charles Vallow, and that Lori got the idea from Chad. Zulema Pastenes repeated what Chad had told her about past lives and his prediction that JJ would “die young.”

FBI investigator Rick Wright walked the jury through Alex Cox’s phone data: on Chad’s property the morning of September 9, 2019; behind the Daybell home on September 23, JJ’s first day absent from school; and at a church near the Daybell home around 10 p.m. on October 18, 2019, the night Tammy died.

The medical testimony was central, because Chad was the only defendant charged with Tammy’s murder. Dr. Erik Christensen, the retired Utah chief medical examiner who examined Tammy after her body was exhumed, testified that she died of asphyxia and that her death was a homicide. He said bruises on her arms appeared to have happened shortly before death, and that one person could have held her down while another suffocated her.

Dr. Lily Marsden testified that the bruises on Tammy’s arms and chest were “acute” and could indicate one or two people were present. “Asphyxia is a diagnosis of exclusion; and in our opinion, we did thoroughly exclude the other potential causes of death,” she said.

Forensic pathologist Dr. Garth Warren again described the children’s deaths. “I determined the cause of death to be asphyxia,” he said of JJ. Of Tylee: “I determined the cause of death to be homicide from unspecific means.”

The Defense: Blame Alex Cox

Chad’s defense argued that he had been duped and set up as the “fall guy.” Prior told jurors that Alex Cox had his own motive to kill JJ and Tylee, because the children had witnessed him shoot Charles Vallow. The defense also argued that Melanie Gibb was the real religious ringleader, that Tammy died of natural causes, and that investigators had locked onto Chad and ignored other possibilities.

Two of Chad’s children testified for the defense. His daughter Emma Murray said that it was she, not her father, who objected to an autopsy for her mother, and that Tammy had been anemic and bruised easily. “I know the grief he felt was real,” she said. Under cross-examination, prosecutors showed her a life insurance form bearing Chad’s signature.

Chad’s son Garth testified that Tammy’s health had been declining, and that he heard nothing unusual the night she died even though his bedroom was next to his parents’. He accused investigators of pressuring him: “They were telling me my story was untrue and I needed to change it.”

Chad did not testify. The defense rested after calling 11 witnesses.

“Tammy Had to Die”

Prosecutors told jurors that Chad had been the one assigning death to the people around him. As the Deseret News reported, Blake said Chad told the group that “Tammy had to die,” “Tylee has to die,” and “JJ has to die.”

Jurors also saw a “blessing” Chad gave Alex Cox in November 2019, in which he told him: “You’ve already assisted us in ways that can never be repaid. And you will continue to do so.”

On May 30, 2024, after about seven hours of deliberation over two days, the jury found Chad Daybell guilty on every count, including the first-degree murders of Tammy Daybell, Tylee Ryan, and JJ Vallow, conspiracy to commit each of those murders, and insurance fraud.

Life or Death

The same jury then had to decide whether Chad should be executed. In the penalty phase, Rob Wood argued: “The murder of Tylee Ryan was especially heinous, atrocious or cruel.”

Prior pleaded for Chad’s life by blaming Lori once more. He described her as “The bomb” that hit a “small town boy.” “If it wasn’t for that trajectory coming in and changing his path, is this where we would be going?” he asked jurors. Chad presented no mitigating evidence and declined to make a statement to the court.

The jury deliberated for almost six hours on Friday, May 31, and about two more hours on Saturday, June 1. They unanimously found that the murders were “especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel, manifesting exceptional depravity,” and returned a sentence of death.

Within the hour, Judge Boyce formally sentenced Chad to death. “The jury has made a finding that it would be appropriate to impose the death penalty,” he said. “The evidence has already demonstrated on the record the seriousness of what’s occurred.” Chad also received 15 years on each of the insurance fraud counts. According to the Deseret News, he took the sentence “without emotion.”

“We have lost three individuals, and the state cannot help but bring them back,” Lindsey Blake said. “The best we can do is try to bring justice.”

The Families Speak

At the sentencing hearing, the families of all three victims addressed the court.

“The only way I could describe the impact of their lives being lost is like a nuclear bomb dropping,” Colby said. “It’s not an overstatement to say that I lost everything.” He added: “I lost the ability to watch Tylee and JJ grow up. I lost my relationship with my little brother which took years to build.”

Kay Woodcock spoke about the grandson she lost. “There is a hole in my heart and in the hearts of every member of my family,” she said. “I can’t express just how much I wish for more time to create memories.”

Tylee’s aunt, Annie Cushing, remembered a moment of connection with her niece: “She was a walled garden, but in that interaction, she let me in.”

Tammy’s family spoke too. Her sister, Samantha Gwilliam, said: “She is dead, and others who were supposed to stand up for her, protect her, and love her did not.” Her brother Michael Douglas said, “I have had my peace stolen,” and “I failed to protect Tammy.” Another brother, Matthew Douglas, told the courtroom: “You’re all on the outside looking in.”

Death Row

After the sentencing, Chad was booked into the Idaho Maximum Security Institution. Within days, Prior filed a notice of appeal to the Idaho Supreme Court. It raised issues including the grand jury indictment, the exclusion of a defense doctor’s report, and the judge’s denial of a motion for acquittal. Judge Boyce ordered that “Two qualified attorneys with the State Appellate Public Defender shall be appointed to represent Daybell on appeal and the pursuit of any post-conviction relief.” Later in 2024, citing the enormous trial record of about 16,800 transcript pages, Boyce extended the deadline for post-conviction filings.

The house in Salem where JJ and Tylee were buried was sold in 2024, and the new owners said they planned to tear it down.

In 2025, Idaho lawmakers made the firing squad the state’s primary method of execution. As of this writing, Chad Daybell’s appeals are ongoing, and no execution date has been set.