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Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell: Inside the Doomsday Cult That Shocked the World · 10 Minute Murder | Bingeable True Crime Stories

• 0:28
  Speaker 1: Welcome to ten Minute Murder, where today's story is proof
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: that the apocalypse seems to be a great excuse for
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: the worst decisions. Meet Laurie Valo, former beauty queen, devoted mom,
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: and someone who really took the phrase the End is
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: near a little too seriously. Laurie had a pretty standard
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: hobby collecting husbands, but things took a sharp left turn
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: when she met Chad Dabell, a guy who looked at
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: the Book of Revelation and thought, what if I made
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: this weirder? Chad fancied himself not the fun kind with
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: the crystal ball, but the kind. They claimed to have
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: seen the end of the world in a vision, and
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: he also claimed to have been married to Laurie in
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: several past lives. Kind of like a Hallmark movie right together.
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: They weren't just preparing for doomsday. They were also gathering followers,
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: making wild spiritual claims, and turning the people around them
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: into collateral damage. This is a story where missing kids,
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: exhumed bodies, and a lot of unexplained deaths start piling
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: up faster than Laurie's divorce papers, and it all happens
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: under the warm glow of a woman who claims she
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: could talk to angels, though not necessarily the ones you'd
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: want to meet strap in because by the time we're done,
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: you'll wonder if the end of the world isn't such
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: a bad option. After all, this is ten minute murder.
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: In nineteen seventy three, Laurie Cox was born to Mormon
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: parents in San Bernardino County, California. She got married for
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: the first time at nineteen years old, but swiftly divorced
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: her new husband, marrying another man three years later. The
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: next marriage resulted in a son, who the couple named Colby,
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: but three years later Lurie was divorced for the second time.
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: Laurie married again in two thousand and one and had
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: another child, a daughter they named ty Lee. This time.
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: During her next divorce, she and her third husband had
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: a vicious custody battle over Colby and ty Lee, and
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: Laurie claimed that her husband Ryan had molested both children. Finally,
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: in two thousand and six, Laurie met her fourth husband,
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: Charles Vallow, and they adopted a third child, Jj. This
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: marriage seemed more stable than any of Lourie's previous relationships,
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: and in twenty fifteen, she and Charles were still together.
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: It was during this time that Laurie became increasingly interested
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: in a particular book series, a series called Standing in
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  Speaker 1: Holy Places by an author named Chad day Bell. Chad's
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: novels followed a religious theme, which made sense. Like Laurie,
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: he also had a Mormon upbringing and had spent two
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: years as a missionary. His first novels were more mainstream,
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: but after a while he found a real niche with
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: radical Mormons who were interested in reading about the second
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: Coming of Jesus Christ. According to Chad, his books weren't
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: actually non fiction. Instead, he gave credit to near death experiences,
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: which caused him to be able to quote see Beyond
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: the Veil. He stated that the plot of his books,
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: depicting dystopian post apocalyptic events, accurately predicted the future. By
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: twenty fourteen, Chad claimed to be receiving prophetic visions about
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: how the world would soon end because of war and
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: massive earthquakes, and in his personal life he became less
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: focused on his wife and his five kids and more
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: focused on preparing himself for the end of days. At
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: the end of twenty eighteen, Laurie went to an event
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: where she was able to meet her favorite author in person,
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: both of them being married with children. Laurie flirted with
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: Chad and he reciprocated, telling her that they had definitely
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: been married in past lives. Before long, Chad had created
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: a religious group, which he called the Church of the Firstborn,
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: and Laurie was one of his loyal followers. In early
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: twenty nineteen, Laurie disappeared for almost two months after telling
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  Speaker 1: her husband Charles that she believed he was possessed by
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: a dark spirit named Ned Schneider. It's not funny, but
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: it's kind of funny. Laurie also told Charles that she'd
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: kill him if he interfered with her spiritual mission. In response,
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  Speaker 1: he filed for divorce and applied for a protective order,
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: but only a month later, he changed his mind and
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: decided that he wanted to give their marriage another shot.
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: When Charles discovered that Laurie was cheating on him with Chad,
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: he emailed Chad's wife, Tammy, hoping to expose the affair. However,
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: Tammy never responded. Instead, she blocked Charles and deleted his email.
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  Speaker 1: A few days later, Charles went to Laurie's house to
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: pick up their adopted son JYJ. Laurie's brother, Alex Cox,
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: was there. The two men got into an argument, resulting
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  Speaker 1: in Alex fatally shooting Charles. Alex later claimed that Charles
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: had started hitting him with a baseball bat, so he'd
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: pulled out his gun in self defense. Ultimately, Alex never
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: faced charges for Charles's death. In August twenty nineteen, Laurie
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  Speaker 1: moved herself and her children to Rexburg, Idaho. During this time,
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: her neglect of her youngest son, seven year old j J,
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  Speaker 1: began to show. JJ required a service dog for autism,
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  Speaker 1: and Laurie sold the dog. During the move, she would
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: leave him unsupervised for hours at a time, and when
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: others tried to confront her about it, she was dismissive. Meanwhile,
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: sixteen year old ty Lee was never enrolled in any
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: schools after the move to Idaho. The last time anyone
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: saw Tylee was the eighth of September when she visited
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: Yellowstone National Park with her family. JJ was last seen
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: on the twentieth of September, and the following day he
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: was absent from school. Three days later, Laurie contacted the
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  Speaker 1: school and told him that she was going to start
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: homeschooling JJ. Although Tylee's half brother Colby received several VENMO
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: payments and texts from her, she never answered any of
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: his calls, and Colby became worried about his youngest sister's
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: well being. Several other members of the family also became
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: concerned about the children, but never received a convincing answer
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: about where they were. Throughout twenty eighteen, Lourie's niece Melanie
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: had fallen for her aunt's preachings about the end of
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  Speaker 1: the world, and she started trying to prepare for the apocas.
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  Speaker 1: Her husband, Brandon Bordeaux, wasn't so convinced. In fact, he
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: believed that Laurie was a cult leader, and he thought
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: that Tylee and JJ's disappearance may be due to foul play.
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: In October twenty nineteen, Brandon was driving his car home
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: when someone shot him from inside a jeep. Luckily, the
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: bullet missed and Brandon was able to identify the vehicle.
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: It was Tylee's car. He believed that the driver was
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: Laurie's brother, Alex Cox. That same month, Chad's wife, Tammy Dabell,
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  Speaker 1: passed away. According to Chad, his wife had tragically suffered
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: from seizures and issues with her blood pressure, causing her
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: to die in her sleep, but none of this was
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: documented in Tammy's medical records. Chad didn't seem surprised at
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: all by his wife's death. In fact, earlier that year,
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: he'd spoken openly about a prophetic vision that Tammy would
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: soon die. Chad's neighbors noticed his unusual behavior about Tammy's
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: sudden death. Her funeral was so quick and so well
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: organized that they got the impression that it had been
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: thoroughly planned. Chad's friends and relatives reported that at the funeral,
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: it seemed like Chad wasn't sad, but that he was
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: trying to convince everyone that he was. Less than twenty
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: four hours after Tammy's perfectly planned funeral, CHADDA Bell took
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: Laurie to meet his five grieving kids and told his
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: neighbors quote, I've met the woman I'm going to marry.
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: He didn't waste any time following through. They got married
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: two weeks later. Chad justified his decision by explaining that
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: while he'd been at the cemetery where Tammy had been buried,
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: he had a vision of his dead wife's spirit urging
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: him to move on. In December twenty nineteen, Laurie's niece
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  Speaker 1: Melanie reported that her aunt and Chad had both asked
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: her to lie to the cops and say that she
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: had been taking care of Jaj. While police in Idaho
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: and Arizona started searching for the missing boy, they discovered
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: that he wasn't alone. His sister, ty Lee had also vanned.
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: The investigation into Lauri and Chad started to heat up,
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: resulting in Tammy's body being exhumed and an autopsy finally
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: being performed. Chad had been lying when he said that
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: his wife died of natural causes. In fact, the autopsy
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: found that she'd been asphyxiated. The authorities made an official
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: announcement Tylee and jj were missing, and a public plea
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: was issued for anyone who knew information about the case
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: to come forward. Laurie and Chad continued their bizarre behavior,
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: not showing any concern for the missing children, and making
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: things incredibly difficult for the authorities. The day after the
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: initial announcement, there was a follow up. Laurie Valo and
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: Chad Daybell were named as persons of interest, and the
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: police believed that the disappearances may be connected to Tammy
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: Day Bell's death. Before long, Laurie and Chad's friends and
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: family were coming forward to the media with stories about
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: the couple's strange religious beliefs. In early twenty twenty, Laurie
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: was arrested and charged with two felonies and three misdemeanors
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: relating to Tyley and Jay Jay's disappearance. Chad meanwhile traveled
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: back to Idaho. People who talk to him about the
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: missing children noticed that he always referred to ty Lee
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: using past tense, as if he knew that she was
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: no longer alive. Investigators searched Chad da Bell's property, finding
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: human remains buried in the garden, in an area nicknamed
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: the Pet Cemetery, where Chad would bury deceased dogs and cats,
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: as well as the skeletal remains of family pets. Two
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: human bodies were found, a teenage girl and a young boy.
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  Speaker 1: While the search was being carried out, Chad tried to
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: call Laurie in prison to give her a warning, and
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: then he attempted to flee the scene, but was caught
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: and arrested for attempting to conceal evidence Tylee had been
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: burned and somebody had tried to dismember her, fracturing her
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: bones and removing her hands. Although Tilee's cause of death
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: could not be determined, her brother Jay jay I'd been
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: asphyxiated and then carefully wrapped in plastic. After being found
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: guilty of the deaths of her children, Laurie gave a
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: public statement saying, quote Jesus Christ knows that no one
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  Speaker 1: was murdered in this case. Accidental deaths happen, suicides happen,
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: fatal effects from medication happen. She also claimed to have
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: spoken to her dead children, informing the courts that JJ
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: and Tylee were happy and extremely busy in heaven. That
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: is ten Minute Murder for today brief and bingeable true crime.
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: I'm Joe. I'm the host, and thank you for taking
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: the time to listen to the podcast. If you're a
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: new listener, As always, I encourage you to subscribe wherever
• 11:48
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• 11:51
  Speaker 1: and check out ten Minute Murder dot com for all
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: things related to the podcast. Quick email from someone that
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: wants to remain anonymous, Joe, what do you think are
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: the big miscarriages of justice? And that is a big question.
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: You got an hour because I could probably talk about
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: this for an hour, but I will give you two.
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: First of all, there's no P in hamster. Say that
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: word out loud and tell me there's not a P
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: in that word, and then try to spell it. No P,
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: where's the P? But to be serious, I think the
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: biggest miscarriage of justice is anytime someone is put to
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: death in this country when we don't know one hundred percent,
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: without a doubt, that they are guilty. There are too
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: many cases, There are too many times where years later
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: you find out, oh, maybe they weren't guilty after all.
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: If there's even a shadow of a doubt and they're
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: on death row, stop it. I mean you can stop it.
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: You can always restart it again. Do that as many
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: times as it takes, because why would you kill someone
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: that's not guilty. I've said this before. I am not
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: a proponent of the death penalty. I understand the people
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: that are proponents of it, and I get it, I
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: totally get it, but I personally am not a proponent
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: of the death so I don't think it should ever happen. However,
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: if you're going to do it, you gotta be sure
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: and not just but you know, by the normal standards
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: of being sure about something, you have to know without
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: a doubt. For example, I've done a story on this
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: case George Stenny Junior. He was a fourteen year old
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: African American boy convicted of the murders of two white
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: girls in Alkalou, South Carolina in nineteen forty four. The
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: trial lasted a few hours. It was an all white jury.
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: They deliberated for ten minutes and sentenced him to death
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: at fourteen years old. Seventy years after his execution, in
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: twenty fourteen, his conviction was vacated because he had not
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: received a fair trial, had no credible evidence linking him
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: to the crime, and his defense there wasn't one. If
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: you don't know about this case, please go back and
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: search the archives to find this story about George Stenny Junior.
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: It's deeply troubling, and I don't think that our justice
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: system has evolved much since that time. So what is
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: the biggest miscarriage of justice I can think of? It's
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: that case. That's the first one that comes to my mind.
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: All right, that's gonna do it. That is your episode
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: for today. Thank you for listening to ten minute murder