Latest / The conspiracy / The Horrifying Vallow-Daybell Cult Murders

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The Horrifying Vallow-Daybell Cult Murders · The conspiracy

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: The quiet streets of Rexburg, Idaho, once seemed like the
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: last place where horror could take root. But behind closed doors,
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: in the shadows of suburban homes, a story was unfolding,
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: a story so twisted it blurred the line between faith
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  Speaker 1: and fanaticism, love and obsession, and life and death. It's
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: a descent into the world of apocalyptic visions, secret packs,
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  Speaker 1: and chilling disappearances, a world where those closest to you
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: could suddenly be branded as something less than human, and
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: where that judgment carried a deadly cost. We're pulling back
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: the veil on the case that shook a community, that
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  Speaker 1: gripped a nation, and revealed just how dark belief can
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: become when it turns into something else entirely crime, conspiracy, cults,
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: serial killers, and murder, all things that I lived to consume,
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: and I know you do too, you sick, twisted, beautiful,
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: intellectually minded. Today we are talking about an absolutely crazy
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: case that I had not heard about, and it didn't
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: happen long go, but it is highly disturbing. So without
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: further ado, let's unbuckle our Seatbelt's go mock five down
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: the highway, slam on the brakes and bust to the
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: windshield into these doomsday cult murders together. Chad guy day
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  Speaker 1: Bell was born in Provo, Utah and raised in the
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  Speaker 1: nearby city of Springville. He grew up in a Mormon
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  Speaker 1: family and served a two year mission in New Jersey
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  Speaker 1: in his youth and after high school, he attended Brigham
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  Speaker 1: Young University or BYU, where he studied journalism, and while
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  Speaker 1: at BYU, Chad married Tammy Douglas on March ninth, nineteen ninety,
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  Speaker 1: and the couple eventually had five children and settled into
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  Speaker 1: an ordinary family life. Now in the early nineteen nineties,
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  Speaker 1: Chad worked as a sexton, which is essentially a grave
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  Speaker 1: digger for a church at a cemetery in Spa build
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  Speaker 1: to help pay for college, and he later said he
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: had two near death experiences as a young man which
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: profoundly influenced him, and those experiences, according to Chad, heightened
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  Speaker 1: his spiritual beliefs and gave him supposed insight into the afterlife,
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  Speaker 1: themes that would feature in his later writings as we
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  Speaker 1: will see. So. After graduating from BYU with aba in journalism,
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  Speaker 1: Chad took a job as a copy editor for a
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  Speaker 1: local newspaper in Ogden Utah and colleagues from that time
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  Speaker 1: recall him as quiet and unremarkable, ouch because he did
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: not openly discuss any unusual spiritual experiences then. But Chad's
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  Speaker 1: real ambitions lay in writing, so in two thousand and
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  Speaker 1: one he published his first book, One Foot in the Grave,
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  Speaker 1: a collection of bizarre stories from his grave digging days.
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  Speaker 1: And finding modest success in the niche market of later
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  Speaker 1: day Saint or LDS fiction, Chad and Tammy started a
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  Speaker 1: small publishing company called Spring Creek Book Company to self
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  Speaker 1: publish his novels, and he wrote Doomsday themed religious novels,
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  Speaker 1: including a series about the end of the world, blending
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  Speaker 1: LDS theology with apocalyptic scenarios What is this Sounding Like?
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  Speaker 1: Say It with Me? Cull and By the mid twenty tens,
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  Speaker 1: Chad had also begun publishing books by other aspiring LDS authors,
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  Speaker 1: notably near death experience accounts, and in twenty fourteen he
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  Speaker 1: published author Julie Rose Visionary Experiences, and around that time
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  Speaker 1: confided that the events in his own novels were based
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  Speaker 1: on visions he claimed to have had. So Chad's growing
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  Speaker 1: fixation on end times prophecies coincided with a major life change,
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  Speaker 1: and in twenty fifteen, claiming he received a personal revelation,
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  Speaker 1: he uprooted his entire family from Utah and moved to Salem, Idaho,
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  Speaker 1: and Tammy got a job as an assistant librarian there,
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  Speaker 1: and they relocated their publishing business as well. And friends
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  Speaker 1: would later note that Chad's personality had grown increasingly weird
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  Speaker 1: and obsessed with apocalyptic ideas around this time. Say it
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  Speaker 1: with me, cult screaming, future cult leader, isn't it? But still,
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  Speaker 1: those who knew him say there were few obvious red flags,
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  Speaker 1: and former neighbors and friends mostly saw him as a religious,
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  Speaker 1: but soft spoken family man and author, and no one
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  Speaker 1: could have predicted that within a few years Chad Day
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  Speaker 1: Bell would be at the center of a string of
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  Speaker 1: suspicious deaths and murders. So Laurie Noreene Valo da Bell
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  Speaker 1: was born on June twenty sixth, nineteen seventy three in
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  Speaker 1: the Loma Linda, California, formerly known with the last name Cox,
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  Speaker 1: and she was also raised in a Mormon family, but
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  Speaker 1: her upbringing was unusual because her parents were anti tax
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  Speaker 1: protesters aligned with sovereign citizen ideology, often clashing with the
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  Speaker 1: irs and As a young woman, Laurie was very attractive,
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  Speaker 1: outgoing and for a time worked as a hair stylist,
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  Speaker 1: and she also dabbled in the spotlight because in two
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  Speaker 1: thousand and four she competed in the Missus Texas beauty
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  Speaker 1: pageant and even appeared on the game show Will of Fortune.
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  Speaker 1: I still love that game show. But Laurie's personal life
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  Speaker 1: was turbulent. She would marry young at nineteen, to her
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  Speaker 1: high school boyfriend in nineteen ninety two, but that first
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  Speaker 1: marriage ended in a quick divorce. Her second marriage came
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  Speaker 1: a few years later in October nineteen ninety five, when
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  Speaker 1: she went a man named William le Joia, and they
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  Speaker 1: had a son, Colby, born in nineteen ninety six. So
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  Speaker 1: by nineteen ninety eight, that marriage, too had failed. Not
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  Speaker 1: a great track record, and in two thousand and one,
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  Speaker 1: Laurie married for a third time to Joseph Anthony Ryan Junior,
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  Speaker 1: who became a stepfather to Colby and gave the boy
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  Speaker 1: his last name. So Laurie and Joseph had a daughter
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  Speaker 1: together named Tyleie Ryan, born in two thousand and two,
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  Speaker 1: and this third marriage was highly bitter for the two
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  Speaker 1: of them, and they would divorce in two thousand and five,
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  Speaker 1: amid a resentful custody battle during which Laurie accused Joseph
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  Speaker 1: of Colby and Tyly, and in two thousand and seven,
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  Speaker 1: Laurie's brother Alexander or alex Cox, actually attacked Joseph, claiming
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: he had been a bef to Laurie and the kids.
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: Now alex Cox served ninety days in jail for then,
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  Speaker 1: and years later Colby would confirm that he had indeed
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  Speaker 1: been mild as a child, though the claim had not
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  Speaker 1: been fully proven, and tragically, Joseph died from arteriosclerotic cardiovascular
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  Speaker 1: disease in twenty eighteen, and police briefly re examined Joseph's
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  Speaker 1: twenty eighteen death for foul play, but found nothing suspicious
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  Speaker 1: and closed the case. And Laurie's fourth marriage would tie
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  Speaker 1: her to the Valow family as we know her today,
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  Speaker 1: and in February two thousand and six, she married Charles Valo,
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  Speaker 1: a businessman from Arizona, and Charles was a devout Catholic
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  Speaker 1: who converted to Laurie's LDS faith after their wedding, and
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  Speaker 1: together they raised Laurie's two children, Colby and Tyley, and
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  Speaker 1: in twenty thirteen, the couple lovingly adopted charles grandnephew, Joshua
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  Speaker 1: Jackson or JJ Valo, who was then a baby. So
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  Speaker 1: JJ was the biological grandson of Charles's sister Kay Woodcock
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  Speaker 1: and Kay's husband Larry. Now the Woodcotts had cared for
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  Speaker 1: JJ as an infant, and the baby was unfortunately born
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  Speaker 1: drug exposed due to his biological parents' substance appeal, and
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  Speaker 1: this was before the Valows adopted him. Of course, so
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  Speaker 1: JJ had special needs and required a constant loving routine,
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  Speaker 1: and he would be later diagnosed with autism. But by
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  Speaker 1: all accounts, Charles and Laurie provided a very stable home
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  Speaker 1: for little JJ, and Laurie was a loving mother to
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  Speaker 1: both Tylee and JJ in those early years. So the
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  Speaker 1: family lived in the suburbs of Phoenix, Arizona, and even
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  Speaker 1: spent a few idyllic years in Kawai, Hawaii, running a
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  Speaker 1: small business, before returning back to Arizona around twenty seventeen.
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  Speaker 1: But beneath the appearance of normalcy, however, Laurie's priorities were
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  Speaker 1: shifting dramatically by the twenty tens, and she became increasingly
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  Speaker 1: obsessed with the doomsday prophecies and extremist religious teachings, and
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  Speaker 1: friends and family later noted that Laurie's personality started to
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  Speaker 1: change and she began insisting she had a divine purpose
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  Speaker 1: and that darkness surrounded those who opposed her. And these
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  Speaker 1: growing radical beliefs, combined with Chad day Bell's influence once
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  Speaker 1: the two eventually met, would set Laurie on a dark
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  Speaker 1: path that few could have imagined. So Laurie Valo first
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  Speaker 1: cross paths with Chad day Bell in October of twenty
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  Speaker 1: eighteen at a religious conference in Saint George, Utah. And
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  Speaker 1: the event was part of a preparedness and prophecy focused
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  Speaker 1: series called Preparing a People, and it attracted LDS Church
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  Speaker 1: members interested in end times teachings, and Chad was one
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  Speaker 1: of the speakers at this conference, presenting his apocalyptic theories
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  Speaker 1: and promoting his novels about the end of the world
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  Speaker 1: and all of his you know, afterlife prophecies that he's
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  Speaker 1: been having, and Laurie would attend with the friend Melanie
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  Speaker 1: Gibb and another associate, Zulemma Pastenis, and Laurie at this
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  Speaker 1: point had already been reading Chad's fiction and was a
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  Speaker 1: fan of his doomsday podcast appearances, and when she heard
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  Speaker 1: him speak in person, she was immediately drawn in by
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  Speaker 1: his charisma and unconventional prophetic claims, and according to later testimony,
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  Speaker 1: when Laurie and Chad were introduced at the conference, it
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  Speaker 1: was as if a spark ignited a just giant shit
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  Speaker 1: storm of a spark, a spark that would start a
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  Speaker 1: damn forest fire. So they would spend the weekend talking
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  Speaker 1: intensely about spiritual visions and their belief that they had
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  Speaker 1: met before in previous lifetimes, and flattered and intrigued, Laurie
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  Speaker 1: absorbed Chad's every word, just gobbled it up. Despite the
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  Speaker 1: fact that both of them were married to other people
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  Speaker 1: at the time, Laurie to Charles Vallow and Chad to
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  Speaker 1: Tammy Davell, they formed an instant secret connection, and it's
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  Speaker 1: reported that during their very first conversation, Chad declared Laurie
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  Speaker 1: was an eternal being of great significance. I've been told
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  Speaker 1: my eyes look pretty, but not that that might get
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  Speaker 1: me just kidding note when these people are literally insane.
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  Speaker 1: But this kind of flattery and grand destiny just immediately
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  Speaker 1: appealed to Laurie, who already had a few screws loose,
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  Speaker 1: if you know what I mean, and who already begun
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  Speaker 1: to view herself as someone with a special role in
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  Speaker 1: the end times. So in the weeks and months following
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  Speaker 1: that initial meeting, Laurie and Chad's relationship escalated quickly and
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  Speaker 1: in alarming secrecy, and they began corresponding regularly. So it
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  Speaker 1: started as discussions about scripture and Chad's unusual beliefs, soon
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  Speaker 1: turned into open affection, and by late twenty eighteen, Chad
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  Speaker 1: and Laurie did their best to see each other, despite
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  Speaker 1: living in different states and still being married to other people,
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  Speaker 1: and Chad being in Idaho and Luri being in Arizona.
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  Speaker 1: But Chad would visit Arizona to see Laurie under various pretenses,
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  Speaker 1: and Laurie made trips north to Idaho as well, And
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  Speaker 1: it was during this period that Chad, who fancied himself
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  Speaker 1: a prophet, claimed he had received revelations about Laurie very convenient,
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  Speaker 1: very convenient Chad, and he told her that she was
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  Speaker 1: an exalted god like being appointed to carry out a
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  Speaker 1: special mission in the coming apocalypse, and that he, Chad,
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  Speaker 1: had been her husband in multiple past lives. Ah Man
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  Speaker 1: it goes like, so far beyond narcissism to think this
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  Speaker 1: of yourself, to just like come up with this and
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  Speaker 1: try to convince somebody else of this, and then you
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  Speaker 1: just got to meet somebody equally as narcissistic of you
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: as you and probably just not well. But it's bonkers
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  Speaker 1: to me anyway. According to Laurie's close friend Melanie Gibb,
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  Speaker 1: Chad and Laurie firmly believed they had been eternally bonded
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  Speaker 1: and sealed by God, transcending their current marriages. How convenient
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  Speaker 1: for them. I don't think you can put that on
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: divorce papers for a cause, but all right, so there
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  Speaker 1: are fair intensified as Chad's prophecy grew more fantastical and
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: convinced Laurie that they had a grand destiny together to
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  Speaker 1: lead their righteous after society's imminent collapse. And I communicated
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: in code and sometimes used burner phones to hide their
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: frequent contact and Laurie's husband, Charles Valo, discovered the affair
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: in early twenty nineteen and confronted Laurie about it, but
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: she dismissed his concerns. Again, how convenient for her, just
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  Speaker 1: being like, nah, it's crazy that's crazy. I'm just an
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  Speaker 1: all knowing being who's been eternally connected to this random
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  Speaker 1: man from Idaho I don't know, or Arizona, I don't know.
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  Speaker 1: And in fact, Charles grew so alarmed by Laurie's radical
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  Speaker 1: talk and infidelity that he filed for divorce in February
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  Speaker 1: of twenty nineteen, actually citing that Laurie believed she was
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  Speaker 1: a god preparing for Christ's second coming and had threatened
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  Speaker 1: to kill him if he stood in her way. I
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  Speaker 1: wonder what section you got to put that under. I'd
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  Speaker 1: like to see that paperwork. But Laurie managed to delay
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  Speaker 1: the divorce by persuading Charles to reconcile shortly after, but
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: the damage was done and she was fully emotionally invested
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  Speaker 1: in Chad Daybell by then, and as their secret romance grew,
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: Chad bolstered Laurie's devotion by weaving an elaborate spiritual narrative
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  Speaker 1: around it, and he told Laurie that she had been
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: a celestial goddess in previous eras and that he had
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: been her divine consort, and at one point Chad claimed
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: Laurie was once married to the ancient biblical figure James
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: the Less, who he also claimed to be in that
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: past life, and that Laurie herself had been various historical
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: figures of great spiritual significance, including and not limited to
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: the wife of the Angel Moroney, a key figure an
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: LDS scripture. And he also said he was able to
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: see their past lives together and that heavenly beings had
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: brought them for a higher purpose. This bad man, there's
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: just so much bullshit. It's just crazy. It's crazy. But
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: they're living in a little fantasy world and that would
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: be fine if they weren't evil, which they are. For Laurie,
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: who had long been devoted but never particularly famous or powerful,
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: these claims were intoxicating because you know, narcissist, and she
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: embraced the role Chad gave her wholeheartedly, and by mid
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: twenty nineteen, Laurie and Chad were deeply entangled emotionally, spiritually,
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: and even conspiratorially because both still had spouses at home.
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: Yet they were making plans for their future together, and
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: they even discussed that certain people close to them might
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: need to die because evil spirits were inhabiting them and
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: blocking their mission evil and this is basically just a
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: terrifying foreshadowing of what was to come. So, in short,
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: what began as an affair rooted in fringe religious obsession
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: quickly evolved into a dangerous pact, and Chad and Laurie
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: love story would soon live a trail of broken lives
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: and deaths in its wake. While researching these very heavy
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: stories and after researching them, I usually need something to
• 15:12
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• 15:15
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• 15:18
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• 15:21
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• 16:53
  Speaker 1: Bell and Lori Vallo didn't form a formal church, if
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: you will, but they crafted a personalized belief system so
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: extreme that it essentially functioned like a cult within their circle,
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: and their doctrine was a distorted offshoot of mainstream LDS
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: or Mormon teachings blended with New Age mysticism and apocalyptic fanaticism.
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: Say it with Me, And central to Chad and Laurie's
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: theology was the looming end of the world. What do
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: we What do we know about every single cult we've
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: ever gone over is that there's always an end of
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: the world prophecy because that's convenient for the narrative, because
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: you've got to be afraid of something that's coming. So
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: you got to believe in what there's people are saying,
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: otherwise you're gonna die in the doomsday or whatever is.
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: It's just it's like it's dominant. It's just it keeps happening.
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: How does this keep happening? There's so many videos about it.
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: Just no, Just know, if somebody comes at you and
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: they're like, hey, by the way, you gotta believe in
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: me because the aliens are coming back, and I'm I'm
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: Jesus two point zero and this is gonna happen, and
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: you've got to give me ten thousand dollars to leave
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: your whole family. It's a cult. Anyway, Chad often prophesied
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: that the final apocalypse was imminent, and at one point
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: he pinpointed July twenty second, twenty twenty as the date
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: the world would end. Ah the significant date every single
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: cult leader does. It's always a date. But he claimed
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: to have special prophetic gifts, including visions of future destruction
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: and the ability to discern people's spiritual identities. And Chad
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: told followers and Lauri fervently believed that he had lived
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: thirty one past lives on various earth like planets, and
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: Laurie had lived twenty one past lives, five of those
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: with Chad as her spouse. And this idea of reincarnation
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: or multiple mortal probations is far outside orthodox Mormon doctrine,
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: but Chad insisted it was true and necessary for achieving exultation,
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: which is external glory. And one of the most disturbing
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: aspects of their belief system was a cosmology of light
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: versus dark spirits, and Chad taught that every person was
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: either inhibited by a light spirit aligned with Jesus Christ
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: or a dark spirit aligned with Satan, and he even
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: devised a numeric rating system to score an individual's spiritual
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: lightness or darkness on a scale, and with those deeply
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: dark considered to be under demonic influence. And according to Chad,
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: if someone was taken over by a particularly evil entity,
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: their true spirit was forced out and their body was
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: then inhabited by a demon, so essentially rendering them a
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: zombie in Chad and Laurie's terminology, and they taught that
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: these zombies looked like normal people but were no longer
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: truly alive, and the possessing dark spirit would need to
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: be driven out or destroyed. And frighteningly, Chad and Laurie
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: concluded that the only shore way to eradicate a zombie
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: was to kill the host body, thereby releasing the person's
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: original spirit from limbo and killing the evil spirit as well.
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: So this lethal doctrine effectively turned certain people in their
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: lives into targets for elimination under a twisted religious justification.
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: And Chad also claimed to receive continuous revelations through a
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: veil to the spiritual world, and he told followers he
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: could open portals to other realms and communicate with angels
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: and even deceased beings to get instructions. How convenient for
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: Chad also what cult leader's name is Chad? If I
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: ever follow a Chad, hit me over the head.
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: All right.
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: And Laurie soon declared she too had a direct line
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: to God, and she believed she was a prophesied exalted
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: goddess sent to lead the righteous in the end times,
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: and that as such, she was not subject to earth
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: wak consequences quote, she couldn't be held responsible for her
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: actions on Earth unquote. One friend reported Laurie believed, isn't
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: that convenient? Wouldn't it be nice to just steal from
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: your local Walmart, get caught and be like, I'm not
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: an earthly being. I'm I'm a goddess from another planet
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: and I've lived thirty one lives. None of these rules
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: apply to me. And they're just like, oh got it,
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: I got it. Enjoy the sunglasses and sweater. That's fine.
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: Who are these people? But they're bout talked about certain
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: faithful people being translated beings, essentially having transcended to a
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: higher spiritual level that gave them powers like not needing
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: to eat or the ability to teleport. I will needless
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: to say, these ideas are not taught by any official
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: LDS doctrine. Rather Chad and Laurie just cherry picked religious
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: concepts and rewrote them to the extreme, as one religious
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: scholar observed, so to outsiders, the Dabell Valo leaf system
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: sounded like wild fiction, like it does to you and I,
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: I hope. But within their echo chamber, Chad in particular
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: was very persuasive, like we see with a lot of cults.
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: But when you're in that and when you're like feeling
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: as low as low, you have like nothing to your name,
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: you're not close with family, you don't have anyone, and
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: somebody's just lifting you up saying you're like an like
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: an extraterrestrial goddess being. You're gonna be like, oh my god, really,
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: I don't know. I'm saying like crazy and insane and
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: all that kind of stuff, and it is. But I
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: also have extreme sympathy for people that don't harm people.
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: I don't have any sympathy for Laurent Chad, by the way.
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: I think they're evil pieces of shit. But you know,
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: I digress. But anyway, Chad, he was persuasive. He spoke
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: with calm conviction about secret church history, lost scriptures, and
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: his own visions, and Laurie became his most ardent disciple
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: and then an equal partner in promoting these radical beliefs.
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: They began performing prayer rituals they called castings, essentially exorcism ceremonies,
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: where a group would pray and use energy to expel
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: evil spirits from identified, quote unquote dark individuals. These sessions
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: often targeted people close to Luri whom she had begun
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: to view as obstacles or threats, and those people were
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: her husband, Charles, and even her own children for example.
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: So through twenty nineteen, Chad and Laurie increasingly lived in
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: a self constructed world of prophecy and paranoia, where they
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: alone knew God's true plan and where extreme actions could
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: be not only justified, but divinely mandated. So Chad and
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: Laurie's fringe ideas didn't emerge in a vacuum. They were
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: nurtured by an existing network of doomsday preachers and prepper conferences,
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: and in the LDS community, there was a circuit of podcasts, books,
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: and lecture series under themes like Preparing a People that
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: catered to those fascinated by End of Day's prophecy. So
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: it didn't just come from anywhere. It was, you know,
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: the LDS was preaching this to some capacity, but Chad
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: and Laurie just took it to the extreme. So Chad
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: became a minor celebrity in these circles, and he spoke
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: at events that appeared on podcasts discussing his near death
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: experiences and end of time's visions, attracting followers who found
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: him insightful or at least entertaining. And The Preparing a
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: People Organization, which was essentially a media slash podcast group,
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: hosted many of these conferences and initially featured Chad prominently,
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: and Lauri Bellow, for her parts, eagerly jumped into this world.
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: So around twenty seventeen to twenty eighteen, she was increasingly
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: reading books on LDS prophecy and listening to podcasts by
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: excommunicated LDS members who claimed special knowledge at the end times.
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: And it was through these channels Laurie met individuals like
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: Melanie Gibb, who co hosted a podcast with her, and
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: Zulemma pastenis sorry if I'm saying your name wrong, who
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: shared or at least tolerated these extreme spiritual discussions. So
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: Laurie was soon co hosting podcasts alongside Chad and others
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: spreading their doctrine to online audiences, and on these shows,
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: they spoke about urgent preparedness, spiritual warfare against demons, and
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: coming transformation of the world, and they started referring to
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: a select group of believers as the Church of the Firstborn,
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: which Chad claimed to lead as the head prophet. How
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: convenient for Chad, and it's important to note this was
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: not an official church, but rather in informal sect or
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: group that recognized Chad's authority. So within this inner circle,
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: a small but devoted following formed by late twenty eighteen
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: and into twenty nineteen, and participants included Laurie's brother Alex Cox,
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: Lourie's niece Melanie Pelowski, mel Lenny Gibb, and Zulemma Pastenis,
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: among others, and they would meet to discuss spiritual revelations,
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: perform the aforementioned casting ceremonies, and reinforce each other's belief
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: in Chad and Laurie's special roles. And Laurie and Chad
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: taught their followers how to detect if someone was possessed
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: by a dark spirit or the so called zombies, and
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: would even identify specific people as being taken over by evil,
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: and disturbingly, by mid twenty nineteen, they had labeled several
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: people close to them dark or zombies, including Laurie's husband
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: Charles Vallow, Laurie's children Tylee and JJ, and Chad's wife Tammy,
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: and Laurie's nephew in law Brandon Bardreau. This all just
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: sounds like a very convenient ploy to get the people
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: closest to them and who are in the way out
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: of the way aka fighting evil, and to the group,
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: these individuals were obstacles to God's plan and perhaps better
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: off dead. And Alex Cox in particular, was deeply influenced
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: and he believed wholly in the threat of demonic possession
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: and saw himself as Laurie's protector or warrior, ready to
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: deal with these zombies if necessary. The movement around Chad
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: and Laurie had all the hallmarks of a cult. As
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: we know, we have a charismatic duo claiming exclusive truth,
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: apocalyptic urgency, dehumanization of outsiders as evil, and the encouragement
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: of extreme measures for a higher cause. And as one
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: commentator put it, Chad and Laurie essentially created a quote
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: unquote Mormon fanfic a radicalized, fictionalized spin on LDS beliefs
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: taken to violent extremes. So by the time twenty nineteen
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: rolled around, this doomsday cult mindset had fully consumed them
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: and their core followers, and it was only a matter
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: of time before these beliefs turned into action with deadly,
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: deadly consequences. All right, let's step away from the heavy
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: stuff for a minute and talk about something that everyone does,
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: and that's eating. For me, putting the best food into
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: my body has been really important lately. And one of
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: my favorite things to eat is seafood. And when was
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: the last time you truly trusted seafood you brought home?
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: I know, I questioned it every single time, from nutrition
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: and taste to sustainability until I discovered Wild Alaskan Company.
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: Wild Alaskan Company is the best way to get wild caught,
• 28:33
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• 28:38
  Speaker 1: And trust me, you have not tasted fish this good.
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: And I'm very particular with fish. I'm from British Columbia, Canada. Okay,
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: we got good fish up there, and opening my first
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: box was like Christmas morning. Each portion perfectly vacuum sealed
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: and clearly labeled. And I started personally with the Saockye
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: salmon that is my favorite. Just pan seared it with
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: lemon and butter, and the color alone was incredible, that
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: deep red you only get from wild fish, and the
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: flavor was nothing like the bland stuff from the grocery store.
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: This actually tastes like the ocean in the best way possible.
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: And here's what matters. It's one hundred percent wildcot, never farmed,
• 29:16
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• 29:22
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• 29:25
  Speaker 1: those omega threes we all need. And every order supports
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: sustainable harvesting practices in Alaska, which is incredibly important. And
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: though I love sakey salmon my go to lately, he's
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: actually been Pacific halibit. It's firm, meaty and perfect for grilling,
• 29:39
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• 29:41
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• 29:45
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• 29:48
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• 29:50
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• 29:53
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• 29:56
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• 29:59
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• 30:03
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• 30:09
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• 30:13
  Speaker 1: so much to Wild the Alaskan company for sponsoring this
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: episode and supporting this channel, and let's get back to it.
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: So twenty nineteen saw an escalation of events around Chad
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: day Bell and Lourie Valo as people close to them
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: began to die or disappear under suspicious circumstances, and the
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: timeline of key incidences is as follows. So in early
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: twenty nineteen, Laurie's marriage to Charles was rapidly deteriorating, as
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: we know, and in January of twenty nineteen, police were
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: called when Charles grew concerned about Loriie's mental state because
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: she had made bizarre claims about being a divine being
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: and vanished for nearly two months, abandoning her kids and
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: her husband, only to return as if nothing happened. And
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: in February of twenty nineteen, Charles Vallow filed fe divorce,
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: and he told court that Laurie believed she was a
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: god preparing for the Second Coming and that the apocalypse
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: was near, and that she had threatened to kill him
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: if he interfered with her mission. And although Charles later
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: withdrew the divorce petition hoping to reconcile, he confided in
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: family that he feared for his safety and Laurie's behavior
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: was growing more and more extreme under Chad's influence, and
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: she even told Charles he had become a dark spirit
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: named Ned Schneider who had taken over his body. I
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: didn't really realize these zombies had like names. It's strange,
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: but okay. But these ominous accusations just set the stage
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: for what was to come next. So, on a summer
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: morning in Chandler, Arizona, Laurie's brother Alex Cox, shot and
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: killed Charles Fallow, Laurie's fourth husband, and the official story
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: given to police was that Charles had come to pick
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: up JJ, his kid at Laurie's house, gotten into a
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: confrontation and hit Alex with a baseball bat, leading Alex
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: to Charles in supposed self defense, and Laurie and Tyly
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: were present in the house at the time of this altercation,
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: though allegedly Tyley had left the house with JJ before
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: the shooting occurred. But after the shooting, Laurie made no
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: effort to call nine one one, and it was Alex
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: who phoned the police about forty three minutes later, by
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: which time Charles lay dead on the floor, and investigators
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: found Lourie's demeanor strangely casual, and she was described as
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: smiling and joking while police processed the scene in attitude
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: one detective described as quote unquote oddly nonchalant, given her
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: husband had just been killed. And no charges were filed
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: against Alex at the time, as police initially accepted the
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: self defense claim. However, subsequent evidence deeply undercut that story,
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: and text messages that were later uncovered show Laurie had
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: encouraged Alex days earlier to be Nephi, who was a
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: Book of Mormon figure who righteously killed an evil man,
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: and this was apparently referring to Charles and Zulemma, Alex's
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: future wife. But at the time girlfriend testified that when
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: she asked Alex how he felt about killing Charles, he
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: said he didn't feel bad quote zulemma, he was a
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: zombie unquote. A man lost his life because this monster
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: bitch convinced her brother that he was a zombie. What
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: is happening? And this was not long ago, this was
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: a few years ago. But this indicates Alex was acting
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: under the shared belief that Charles was possessed by a
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: dark entity and that killing him was justified, divinely justified,
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: even merciful in some up way. And Charles' death ruled
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: self defense in twenty nineteen would later be revisited by authorities.
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: So after Charles's death, the dominoes continued to fall quickly. See,
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: Laurie had access to one million dollars in life insurance
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: that Charles carried, or so she thought, because unbeknownst to her,
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: Charles had changed the beneficiary to his sister, Kay Woodcock
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: in early twenty nineteen, explicitly because he feared Laurie might
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: kill him for the money, Which just makes this whole
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: thing even more sad. Like, I know that they had
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: motive because he was a zombie or something, but I'm
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: sure the money probably helped with that. And for her
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: to do that and just to figure out there's no
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: money in it is just I mean, I'm glad she
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: got no money out of it, but like God, just
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: this world is filled with evil people. So within weeks
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: of Charles's shooting, Laurie dramatically altered her life, and by
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: late August twenty nineteen, Laurie left Arizona and moved to Rexburg, Idaho,
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: bringing Tylie who's sixteen at the time, and JJ who
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: was seven at the time, and Alex Cox with her
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: and Chad Daybell lived just outside Rexburg, and it appears
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: Laurie was relocating to be near Chad and joined their households,
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: and they told friends they were gathering in Rexburg because
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: it would be a place of refuge during the coming apocalypse.
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: So Laurie rented a townhouse in Rexburg with Alex Cox,
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: indicating they continued to operate as a team, and Alex
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: would eventually move into his own townhouse adjacent to Laurie.
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: But shortly after the move to Idaho, Lourie's two children,
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: who were the last major obstacles to the couple's future,
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: vanished under mysterious circumstances. Tyler Ryan, who was sixteen, was
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: last seen on September eighth, twenty nineteen, and on that day, Laurie, Alex, Tylie,
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: and JJ took a day trip to Yellowstone National Park,
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: and a photograph of them at the park entrance is
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: the final image of Tyley alive in Data from Alex
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: Cox's cell phone shows that early the next morning, September ninth,
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: Alex was at Chad Daybell's backyard property for roughly two hours,
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: specifically in the area of the day Bell family pet cemetery,
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: and that same morning, Chad sent a curious text to
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: his wife, Tammy, claiming he had shot a raccoon and
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: buried it in the pet cemetery. Investigators now believe this
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: was Chad's cover story for why he had dug a
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: grave on the property. In reality, on September ninth, Tyler's
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: life had likely already been taken murdered by Alex and
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: or Chad, and buried landstinely in Chad's yard, and Tyler's
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: remains would later be found burned at the site. Just disgusting.
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: I'm just like, I'm I can't believe these people exist.
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: I cannot believe these people exist. Yeah, it's horrifying, and
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: my heart goes up to Tylie and the family that
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: actually loves her and Umber twenty second, twenty nineteen, JJ
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: Vaalo was seen alive for what would be the last time. JJ,
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: a seven year old, had been attending school in Rexburg.
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: Laurie enrolled him on September third, but withdrew him after
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: just three weeks, saying she would homeschool him, and on
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: September twenty second, JJ was at Laurie's apartment when friends
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: Melanie Gibb and her boyfriend were visiting, and they later
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: reported that Alex Cox carried a seemingly sleeping JJ into
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: the house that night, and by the next morning, September
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: twenty third, JJ was gone, and Laurie told visiting friends
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: that Alex had taken JJ away because the boy had
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: been misbehaving, but in truth, investigators believed JJ was killed
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: that night of September twenty second, expectated by Alex Cox,
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: and phone records show Alex went to Chad's property again
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: on September twenty third for only a short period, likely
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: to bury Ja Ja's body in a shallow grave. So,
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: with Tylie and JJ now missing, Laurie began a campaign
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: of deceit to pretend everything was fine. She never reported
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: her children missing by the way. Instead, she just lied
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: to everyone about their whereabouts, and Laurie told some people
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: that Tylee was away at BYU and told others that
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: JJ was with relatives back in Arizona. And in late
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: September twenty nineteen, Laurie even asked her friend Melanie Gibb
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: to tell police if asked, that JJ was staying with
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: her in Arizona. So it's not just their mother, it
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: is friends. Is adults co conspirating together about the murder
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: of children. And this falsehood was tested in late November
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: when police indeed came knocking. So not long after the
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: children vanished, another violent act struck someone connected to Laurie,
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: and that was Brandon Burdreau, the ex husband of Lourie's
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: niece Melanie, and on October second, in Gilbert, Arizona, Brandon
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: was shot at in front of his home by someone
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: driving a Jeep registered to late Charles Fallow, and the
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: bullet narrowly missed Brandon's head and he survived and called
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: police identifying the vehicle. And Brandon had been vocal that
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: Melanie fell in with Laurie's cult and that he feared
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: for his life and authority suspect Alex Cox was the
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: trigger man in the attempted murder, likely on Luri and
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: Chad's orders using Charles Jeep, and this was part of
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: what prosecutors later described as Lourie's pattern eliminate people seen
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: as dark or as obstacles, and Brandon might have been
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: perceived as a dark influence keeping Melanie from fully joining
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: Lourie's fold, and he was also the beneficiary of a
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: life insurance policy that Melanie might gain if he died.
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: Just cult, classic cult, just gathering people's money and gathering
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: people to do their bidding, just just evil. And Melanie
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: had embraced Laurie in Chad's teachings, and she abruptly moved
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: to Rexburg in October to be closer to them. So,
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: while Brandon survived, the shooter was not immediately caught, and
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: this incident would remain unsolved until the broader case unraveled.
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: So on the evening of October ninth, the Chad's wife,
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: Tamara or Tammy day Bell, had a frightening encounter, and
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: she called nine point one and reported that a masked
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: man approached her in her driveway and shot at her
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: with what she thought was a paintball gun, so Tammy
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: was shaken but unharmed as the gun apparently misfired or
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: just missed, and she posted about the incident on Facebook,
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: describing the mass figure and asking if anyone knew of
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: teenagers playing pranks, and investigators now believe this was Alex
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: Cox's first attempt to murder Tammy on behalf of Chad
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: and Laurie, and cell phone records place Alex in the
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: vicinity of the day Bell Home that night, and Laurie, Zulema,
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: and Melanie were together when they received a phone call
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: informing them of the tempt and Zulema recalled Laurie reacting
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: with anger, saying, quote, he can't do anything right unquote,
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: likely referring to Alex failing to kill Tammy. So this
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: foiled attempt was a grim, grim foreshadowing because ten days later,
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: tragedy would strike and Tammy Dabll, aged forty nine, died
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: suddenly in her sleep on October nineteenth at the day
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: Bell Home in Salem, Idaho, and Chad claimed Tammy had
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: retired the night before with a terrible cough and just
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: never woke up, and when he called nine one one,
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: he described it as a peaceful death, but Tammy was
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: allegedly a very healthy, active woman, so this was incredibly shocking. Nevertheless,
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: the Fremont County Coroner initially ruled Tammy's death natural, and
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: this was without an autopsy, based on Chad's account that
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: she had been ill, which is insane giving the overall
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: numerous deaths that are happening around this fan. But Tammy's
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: body would be buried in Springville, Utah, on October twenty second,
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: and the family held a brief memorial in Idaho as well.
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: At the time, no one suspected foul play for some reason,
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: except perhaps those in Chad and Laurie's inner circle, of course,
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: because Laurie had been telling friends for months that Chad's
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: wife would die early, and she even confidently stated Tammy
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: would be out of the picture soon, and Chad had
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: supposedly foreseen Tammy's death, and now it appeared those predictions
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: came true he murdered her. So investigators believe Tammy was
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: murdered by exitiation, and likely Chad and Alex conspired to
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: make it happen. And when Tammy's body was exhumed in
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: December of twenty nineteen, a later autopsy concluded she died
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: by homicidal vacation, not a health issue. So just two
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: weeks after Tammy's death, Chad day Bell and Lourie Vallo
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: were married in an idyllic beach ceremony in Kawaii, Hawaii.
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: Married two weeks after. Just not suspicious. I know that
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: she was exhumed and they found it out later, but
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: my god, they're just screaming we killed her, and how disrespectful.
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: It's again just evil, evil, evil, evil, evil, evil people.
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: And the destination wedding was small and quiet, and Laurie
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: supported a white dress and a new ring. And significantly,
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: Lurie had purchased her wedding ring on October second, weeks
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: before Tammy even died, and that ring was ordered via
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: Charles Valows Amazon account, her late husband's Amazon account. These
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: people can't get more disgusting. I can't, I can't. It
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: was just an eerie detail showing all sorts of premeditation.
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: And for Chad to remarry so quickly was shocking to
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: those who knew him, because Tammy had been his wife
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: of twenty nine years, and yet within days he was
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: exchanging vows with Lourie on a Sunny Beach in Hawaii
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: and back in Idaho, Chad told neighbors that Laurie was
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: an empty nester with no young kids, and Laurie claimed
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: Tyley had died years earlier, which are blatant falsehoods to
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: cover up the absence of their children, their deceased children.
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: And in a final twist to twenty nineteen's cascade of
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: suspicious deaths, Alex Cox himself died on December twelfth, twenty nineteen,
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: at the age of fifty one. And earlier that month,
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: events had started catching up with Laurie and Chad, and
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: Alex had married Zelemma past Dennis on December first, and
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: they were in the Phoenix area, specifically Gilbert, Arizona, and
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: on December eleventh, news broke that Tammy Da Bell's body
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: had been exhumed for an autopsy, and Chad and Laurie
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: reportedly called Alex that day, informing him and perhaps panicking
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: about what might be found. You know the consequences of
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: their actions, and according to Zelemma's later account, that night,
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: Alex was extremely upset and mumbled to her quote, I
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: think I'm being their fall guy. Unquote, Yeah, you're their puppet.
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: You idiot, which I have no sympathy for him either.
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: He murdered kids in less than twenty four hours later
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: after he said that to his new wife. Alex collapsed
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: in his new wife's bathroom and died, and the cause
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: was officially blood cloths in his lungs complicated by high
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: blood pressure, and the Maricopa County Medical Examiner ruled Alex's
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: death natural causes. However, given the extraordinary pattern of deaths
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: around Lori, some have wondered if Alex was poisoned or
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: if stress simply caught up with him. I'm gonna guess
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: he was murdered. But what do I know. I can
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: only put the pieces together, you know, one plus one
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: equals two, I think. But either way, Alex died with
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: many secrets, and Zelemma mentioned that a few days prior,
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: Alex told her he had hidden a bag of money
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: in their closet and case anything happens to me, it's
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: as if Alex foresaw that the walls were closing in
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: on him. So by the end of twenty nineteen, Chad
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: and Laurie had left a wake of tragedy. Laurie's husband,
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: Charles was dead Laurie's two children were missing and unbeknownst
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: to anyone, then murdered, and Chad's wife, Tammy was dead
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: and Alex, who had likely carried out two of those killings,
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: was now dead as well. But authorities were finally on
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: their trail, thanks in large part to concerned family members
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: asking tough questions, so the stage was set for the
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: investigation to break the case open. So after months of
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: deceit and evasion by Chad and Laurie, the disappearance of
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: the two children, JJ and Tylee became impossible to hide,
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: and law enforcement, spurred by worried relatives, began a intense
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: investigation in early twenty twenty that would ultimately expose the
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: couple's horrific deeds. So extended family sound the alarm. Kay
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: and Larry Woodcock, JJ's grandparents had grown increasingly worried after
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: not hearing from the normally bubbly seven year old for months,
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: and Kay Woodcock, Charles Vallow's sister, knew something was very,
• 47:13
  Speaker 1: very wrong when Laurie cut off all communication, and on
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: November twenty sixth of twenty nineteen, prompted by the Woodcocks,
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: the Rexburg Police Department performed a welfare check at Laurie's
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: townhouse in Idaho looking for JJ, and Laurie coolly told
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: officers that JJ was safe in staying with a friend,
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: Melanie Gibb in Arizona, so police would reach out to
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: Melanie Gibb, who would lie to police on behalf of
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: Lourie because Laurie told her to do so, But luckily,
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: she soon recanted and revealed that JJ was not with
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: her at all, and by the next day, November twenty seventh,
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: the Rexburg police returned with a search warrant, only to
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: find that Laurie and Chad had fled and the couple
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: took off from Idaho, leaving behind all of Laurie's kids
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: belongings and later were traced to Hawaii, and this abandonment
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: of their homes and children's stuff raised every red flag
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: for investigators. Finally, so on December twentieth, twenty nineteen, police
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: publicly announced that JJ and Tylie were missing and in danger,
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: and this press release and subsequent plea for tips generated
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: a huge outpouring of information from the public and the
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: mysterious case of the Doomsday mom, as the media dubbed
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: Louri and her missing kids dominated headlines, and investigators revealed
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: that they believed the children's disappearance was linked to Tammy
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: day Bell's suspicious death, and Chad and Laurie, through a lawyer,
• 48:34
  Speaker 1: issued a statement on December twenty third, denying wrongdoing and
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: professing their love for their kids, but notably did not
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: produce the children or say where they were suspicious, and
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: as a year ended, police were openly criticizing LORII and
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: Chad's lack of cooperation, calling it astonishing and pleading with
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: them to do the right thing, but remember their evil
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: pieces of shit. So the search intensified and the FBI
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: became involved, and on January third, twenty twenty, investigators, with
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: the FBI's assistance, rated Chad day Bells Salem, Idaho property
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: for the first time, seizing computers, cell phones, journals, and
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: documents as evidence. And on January seventh, Larry and K
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: Woodcock flew to Rexenberg and held a very emotional press
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: conference offering twenty thousand dollars in reward for any information
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: leading to JJ and Taily's safe return, and the Woodcocks
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: implored anyone with knowledge to come forward, with Larry famously
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: pleading quote all I want is just to see those children, unquote.
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: And this public appeal kept the pressure on law enforcement
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: and on Chad and Lourie, who remained in hiding in Hawaii.
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: So authorities finally pinned down Lori and Chad's location in Kawahi, Hawaii,
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: and police in Kwai served Lorii on January twenty fifth
• 49:51
  Speaker 1: with the court order from Idaho demanding that she produced
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: JJ and Tyley within five days to prove they were alive.
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: And well, why is it five days? Why isn't it immediately?
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: These are kids. I don't understand our judicial system, I
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: really don't. But this was essentially a last chance given
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: to Laurie, and if it was all a misunderstanding, she
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: could clear it up by simply showing the children. The
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: deadline of January thirtieth came and went, and Laurie failed
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: to present the kids to the authorities. And during this
• 50:20
  Speaker 1: Hawaii period, East Idaho news reporter Nate Eaton dramatically confronted
• 50:25
  Speaker 1: Lauri and Chad in a parking lot, asking them, point blank,
• 50:28
  Speaker 1: can you tell.
• 50:29
  Speaker 3: Me where your kids are? Where are your kids? Your comment?
• 50:34
  Speaker 3: They've been missing for four months. You have nothing to say.
• 50:36
  Speaker 3: You're over here in Hawaii, where are your children?
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: And the clip of Laurie smirking and stonewalling went viral
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: Evil Bitch, further painting her in the public eye as
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: either delusional or nefarious. But with Laurie defying the court order,
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: Idaho authorities prepared to move against her, so Kawhi police,
• 50:57
  Speaker 1: acting on an Idaho warrant, arrested Lorie on February twentieth,
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: and in early March twenty twenty, Laurie was flown back
• 51:04
  Speaker 1: to Rexburg in handcuffs, where crowds and media awaited her arrival.
• 51:08
  Speaker 1: But despite arrests, Laurie still refused to disclose the fate
• 51:11
  Speaker 1: or whereabouts of JJ and Tyly and Chad, who was
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: not immediately arrested, continued to support her, but suspicion was
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: mounting that the children had met a grim and especially
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: as no verified sightings of them had occurred since September.
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: But still, investigators held out hope that they might find
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: the kids alive as they continued gathering evidence, but as
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: we know, they wouldn't. So during the spring, the case
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: quietly progressed as prosecutors in law enforcement built their case
• 51:40
  Speaker 1: and they combed through digital data and newly obtained evidence,
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: and in April of twenty twenty, a letter from the
• 51:46
  Speaker 1: Idahoa Attorney General became public revealing that Laurie and Chad
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: were now under investigation and not just for desertion, but
• 51:54
  Speaker 1: for conspiracy to commit murder in the case of Charles Valow,
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: Tylee JJ and Tammy day Bell. And this was a
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: strong signal that authorities suspected Chad and Laurie of being
• 52:05
  Speaker 1: behind multiple deaths. And meanwhile, Laurie remained jailed, unable to
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: post her lowered one million dollar bail bond, and Chad
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: had quietly returned to Idaho yet to be arrested. And
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: the investigations breakthrough came on June ninth, Acting on new evidence,
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: likely a combination of Alex's cell phone GPS data and
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: Chad's odd texts about the raccoon, the FBI, Rexburg Police
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: and Fremont County Sheriff's Office swarmed Chad day Bell's property
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: with a search warrant and they focused on areas of
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: interest in the yard identified via technology and previous searches. Now,
• 52:40
  Speaker 1: within a few hours, investigators made that gruesome discovery, and
• 52:45
  Speaker 1: that was the human remains buried in a shallow grave
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: on Chad's land. So by midday, as this news broke,
• 52:51
  Speaker 1: Chad day Bell attempted to flee, and he got in
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: his suv and drove off, but officers stopped him about
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: a mile away and took him into custody, and the
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: remains were sent to the lab for identification, and on
• 53:03
  Speaker 1: June thirteenth, the heart wrenching confirmation came to the public,
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: and that was that the remains were those of seven
• 53:09
  Speaker 1: year old Jj Vaalo and sixteen year old Tyley Ryan,
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: and the way in which they were buried matched the
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: disturbing activities implied by Alex's September phone pings and Chad's
• 53:19
  Speaker 1: texts about shooting a raccoon. For months, Chad and Laurie
• 53:23
  Speaker 1: had lied to everyone as their children's bodies lay hidden
• 53:27
  Speaker 1: in Chad's backyard. But the discovery answered the agonizing question
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: of where the kids were, but raised another and that
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: was why, And this was a question that would be
• 53:37
  Speaker 1: addressed in court, and a memorial was later set up
• 53:40
  Speaker 1: on the fence just down the road from Chad Daybell's
• 53:42
  Speaker 1: property in Salem, Idaho, where the remains of Tiy and
• 53:45
  Speaker 1: Jj were recovered and the memorials, photographs, flowers, and a
• 53:50
  Speaker 1: sign reading justice for Tiley and JJ were witness to
• 53:53
  Speaker 1: the end of a desperate search and the beginning of
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: a quest for justice. So on June ninth, immediately after
• 53:59
  Speaker 1: the mains were found, police booked to Chad day Bell
• 54:02
  Speaker 1: into Fremont County jail, and for a brief time both
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: Luri and Chad sat in Idaho's jails, accused but not
• 54:09
  Speaker 1: yet formally charged with murder. But now with the children's
• 54:12
  Speaker 1: bodies recovered, the case shifted fully into criminal prosecution phase
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: and the mystery was over and the task now was
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: to hold those responsible to account. And the heinous nature
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: of these crimes philicide and spousal murder driven by bizarre
• 54:27
  Speaker 1: cult beliefs would ensure that the trials to come garnered
• 54:31
  Speaker 1: international attention. So from the outset, the Valoda Bell case
• 54:35
  Speaker 1: was one fueled and followed by a massive online audience.
• 54:39
  Speaker 1: Both Chad and Laurie had notable digital footprints that played
• 54:42
  Speaker 1: into this investigation and public fascination. Chad had an extensive
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: online presence through his doomsday fiction and prepper community activities,
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: and he appeared on podcasts, spoke in YouTube videos from
• 54:56
  Speaker 1: preparing a people conferences and moderated forums about antime prophecies,
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: and through these channels he reached a wide audience of
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: LDS fringe enthusiasts. Even before his crimes, and Chad co
• 55:08
  Speaker 1: hosted a podcast and gave interviews where he calmly discussed
• 55:11
  Speaker 1: his visions of the apocalypse, and these recordings later became
• 55:14
  Speaker 1: key for investigators to understand his mindset and for the
• 55:18
  Speaker 1: public to hear in his own voice the extreme beliefs
• 55:21
  Speaker 1: that underpinned the murders and Laurie, allegedly, as her accounts
• 55:25
  Speaker 1: have since been deleted, two had been active on social media,
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: though in a different way because prior to things falling apart,
• 55:33
  Speaker 1: Laurie's Facebook and Instagram accounts painted a picture of a fun,
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: loving mom, and she shared smiling photos of Tylely and
• 55:39
  Speaker 1: JJ on family trips and posts about her faith. But
• 55:42
  Speaker 1: after meeting Chad, Lurie's social media shifted and she posted cryptic,
• 55:46
  Speaker 1: spiritual messages, and by late twenty nineteen, she had gone
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: mostly dark online, but still digital evidence of their activities
• 55:54
  Speaker 1: was everywhere, and one particularly important aspect was the digital
• 55:58
  Speaker 1: trail of their travel and when Lauri and Chad abruptly
• 56:02
  Speaker 1: left Idaho and flew to Hawaii in late twenty nineteen.
• 56:05
  Speaker 1: They left a trail of electronic records, things like airline bookings,
• 56:09
  Speaker 1: hotel check ins, and social media snapshots, and remarkably, they
• 56:13
  Speaker 1: appeared almost carefree in Hawaii, seemingly untroubled by the storm
• 56:17
  Speaker 1: building around them, and Laurie even made inquiries about renting
• 56:21
  Speaker 1: a place in Hawaii for long term, as if planning
• 56:24
  Speaker 1: a new life, as if the consequences wouldn't catch up
• 56:28
  Speaker 1: with them. All the while, her children were nowhere in sight,
• 56:32
  Speaker 1: and she knew that they were gone. And photos of
• 56:35
  Speaker 1: Lauri and Chad and Hawaii surfaced on social media and
• 56:37
  Speaker 1: news sites, enraging the public because how could these two
• 56:41
  Speaker 1: relax in paradise while refusing to say where their kids were.
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: So these images and posts became a huge source of pressure.
• 56:48
  Speaker 1: Law enforcement was monitoring their online moves as well, and
• 56:52
  Speaker 1: one could say that Chad and Laurie's own social media
• 56:55
  Speaker 1: trail helped incriminate them, as it showed Laurie basking and
• 56:58
  Speaker 1: wedding bliss when she claimed her kids were safe elsewhere,
• 57:02
  Speaker 1: and Chad and Laurie's online communications provided evidence as well,
• 57:07
  Speaker 1: and investigators subpoened their cloud data finding correspondence between the two,
• 57:11
  Speaker 1: where they discussed spiritual justifications for getting rid of obstacles,
• 57:16
  Speaker 1: and found that Chad had texted Laurie love stories in
• 57:19
  Speaker 1: the days after Charles's death, essentially chapters of a steamy
• 57:24
  Speaker 1: James and Elena romance novel paralleling their affair. And they
• 57:28
  Speaker 1: also found that Lauri used Charles's Amazon account to shop
• 57:31
  Speaker 1: for things like a wedding ring and transactions timestamped while
• 57:36
  Speaker 1: Tammy was still alive. And all these digital breadcrumbs became
• 57:40
  Speaker 1: a crucial part of the evidence that authorities pieced together
• 57:43
  Speaker 1: to reveal the conspiracy, and the online religious community that
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: initially supported Chad and Laurie also turned on them as
• 57:50
  Speaker 1: the scandal broke, and websites and forums that had once
• 57:53
  Speaker 1: hosted Chad's writings suddenly disavowed them. Oh no, don't want
• 57:58
  Speaker 1: karma to bite them, but in my opini, they're just
• 58:00
  Speaker 1: as bad, and podcasts that Laurie and Chad appeared on
• 58:04
  Speaker 1: were removed or flooded with comments from horrified listeners once
• 58:07
  Speaker 1: the news of the missing children spread. So while the
• 58:10
  Speaker 1: internet and social platforms helped them gain influence at first.
• 58:14
  Speaker 1: In the end, those same platforms amplified their downfall, spreading
• 58:18
  Speaker 1: awareness and outrage about their crimes at lightning speed, and
• 58:22
  Speaker 1: as the case gained notoriety, thousands of citizens sleuths across
• 58:27
  Speaker 1: the country took to the Internet to help unravel the mystery.
• 58:30
  Speaker 1: Because this was a true crime saga that played out
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: in real time on social media, and Facebook groups dedicated
• 58:35
  Speaker 1: to finding JJ and tyly sprang up almost overnight in
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: late twenty nineteen, and these groups quickly amassed members who
• 58:42
  Speaker 1: traded theories, shared public documents, and kept the spotlight on
• 58:46
  Speaker 1: the missing kids. So these Facebook communities just became a
• 58:49
  Speaker 1: crowdsourced research hub and read It was another platform buzzing
• 58:53
  Speaker 1: with activity, and a subreddit dedicated to the case featured
• 58:57
  Speaker 1: detailed timelines and analysis compiled by users, some of whom
• 59:01
  Speaker 1: had investigative or legal backgrounds and could provide insight into
• 59:05
  Speaker 1: court procedures and charges, and contributors on Reddit painstakingly pieced
• 59:10
  Speaker 1: together the family tree, explained to lds, doctrinal references that
• 59:13
  Speaker 1: popped up, and even crowdsourced to timeline of events, and
• 59:17
  Speaker 1: they debated motives and means, all while keeping the case
• 59:20
  Speaker 1: in the public eye, so every development, from indictments to
• 59:24
  Speaker 1: court hearings to leak documents was immediately dissected by thousands
• 59:28
  Speaker 1: of eyes, and nothing Lori or Chad did escaped notice
• 59:32
  Speaker 1: once this internet army mobilized. So this groundswell of online
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: interest had real impacts, and it likely pressured law enforcement
• 59:41
  Speaker 1: and prosecutors to act swiftly and transparently, knowing the public
• 59:45
  Speaker 1: was closely watching, and the social media fervor also meant
• 59:49
  Speaker 1: that potential witnesses or people with information were more likely
• 59:52
  Speaker 1: to come forward, and Laurie's friend Melanie Gibb, who had
• 59:55
  Speaker 1: initially lied for Lori, contacted police in early December of
• 59:59
  Speaker 1: Time twenty nineteen to admit Laurie had asked her to
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 1: lie about JJ's whereabouts, and Melanie's crucial information about that
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 1: was a turning point that helped police zero in on
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 1: Lori's deception, and though not confirmed, it's plausible that seeing
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 1: the case everywhere and people clamoring for truth gave her
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 1: the push to do the right thing. But not all
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 1: citizens sleuthing was helpful. In some Internet vigilantes started spreading
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 1: rumors and misinformation, which is a common pitfall in high
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 1: profile cases, and by and large, however, the Facebook and
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 1: Reddit communities kept their focus on facts, often sharing links
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 1: to official documents and credible news sources, and the true
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 1: crime community's mobilization ensured that national media and thus authorities
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 1: couldn't drop the ball in the case. So citizen sleuths
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 1: had followed Valo and da Bell as they traveled to Hawaii,
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 1: sharing updates with their followers and law enforcement, and ultimately
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 1: helping lead to her arrests, which is insane and awesome.
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 1: It was very much a twenty first century phenomenon. So
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 1: the successful prosecution of Lori Vallo and Chad Daybell hinged
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 1: heavily on a mountain of digital evidence, because investigators gathered
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 1: an extraordinary array of electronic data, which, when webbing together,
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 1: created an incontrovertible tapestry of guilt because these people were idiots, thankfully,
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 1: and cell phone GPS and location data was perhaps the
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 1: most damning technological evidence because the FBI Cellular Analysis Survey
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 1: Team otherwise known as CAST, poured over Alex Cox's phone records,
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 1: and these records provided timestance and GPS coordinates showing exactly
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 1: where Alex's phone was during critical moments, and Alex's phone
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 1: placed him in Chad's backyard for two hours on the
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 1: morning of September ninth, as we know, which lined up
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 1: with the burial of Tyley, and on September twenty third,
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 1: Alex's phone pinged near Chad's pond for only seventeen minutes,
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 1: correlating with the timeframe of JJ's burial, and this kind
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 1: of hard data was presented in court via detailed maps,
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 1: which were essentially tech eyewitnesses to the crimes, and without it,
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 1: Chad and Laurie might have continued to claim ignorance about
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 1: what had happened to the kids, But it's hard to
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 1: argue with a GPS dot showing your co conspirator's phone
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 1: in your yard right when a murder likely occurred. Not
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 1: to mention, text messages, emails, and even metadata from photos
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 1: also played a huge role in the case, as investigators
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 1: recovered a text Chad sent to Tammy on September ninth
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 1: about burying a raccoon. As we know, that harmless sounding
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 1: message became sinister in contexts, establishing that Chad was trying
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 1: to cover up activity on his property, and police also
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 1: found textas changes between Louri Chad and Alex discussing people
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 1: by code names or referring to evil spirits, and in
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 1: one haunting set of messages, Laurie and Chad muse about
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 1: to quote a perfectly orchestrated plan to take the children unquote,
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 1: suggesting premeditation of the murders and Charles Valow's old emails,
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 1: like the once to Tammy's and Lourie and Chad's texts
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 1: under aliases were all recovered through search warrants, and these
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 1: provided direct insight into their plotting and state of mind.
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 1: In financial records, access digitally offered more proof of motive
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 1: because investigators showed that after Charles' death, Laurie immediately attempted
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 1: to claim his life insurance, only to find the beneficiary
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 1: had been changed to Kay Woodcock, as mentioned before. Similarly,
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 1: they documented Chad's rush to increase Tammy's life insurance in
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 1: September of twenty nineteen to the maximum allowed, and Laurie
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 1: also kept collecting Social Security benefits that were issued for
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 1: Tylee and JJ from the deaths of Joseph Ryan and Charles, respectively,
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 1: even after the children were dead. You're a disgusting human being.
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 1: But this just established a financial motive and beyond religious reasons,
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 1: they stood to gain money from these deaths, and these
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 1: digital financial logs painted a picture of greed and surveillance
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 1: footage from various locations filled in more blanks, and investigators
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 1: obtained CCTV video from the self storage facility in Rexburg
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 1: where Laurie had hastily rented a unit in October of
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 1: twenty nineteen, and the footage showed Lauri, Alex and Chad
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 1: in various combinations, visiting the unit multiple times, dropping off
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 1: a number of different things, including boxes and children's items
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 1: like bikes and scooters and more. And this indicated Laurie
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 1: was stashing the kid's belongings, perhaps to hide evidence of
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 1: their absence, and police later found that storage unit untouched,
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 1: full of JJ and Tyley's keepsakes abandoned. So this whole case,
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 1: Lauri and Chad's case was very much a twenty first
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 1: century investigation because without the cell phone records, computer forensics,
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 1: and online paper trail, this might have remained a circumstantial case.
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 1: And with them, a law enforcement was able to assemble
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 1: a meticulous chronology and motive for each crime. And if
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 1: there is a art in this tragic saga. It is
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 1: embodied by Kay and Larry Woodcock, the grandparents of little
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 1: JJ Valo, and Kay is the biological grandmother of JJ,
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 1: and she's Charles Valo's sister, and she and Larry cared
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 1: for JJ as an infant before Charles and Laurie adopted him,
• 1:05:17
  Speaker 1: and the Woodcocks adored JJ and remained very involved in
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 1: his life even after adoption, and it was Kay Woodcock's
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 1: early suspicion that first alerted the world that JJ and
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 1: Tyley were in danger. And in the months after charles
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 1: July twenty nineteen death, Laurie had all but cut off
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 1: the woodcox from contact with JJ, offering one thin excuse
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 1: after another. But by late summer of twenty nineteen, Kay
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 1: said something was a miss and at first she thought
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 1: Laurie might be having in a breakdown or hiding the
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 1: kids due to some custody dispute, But as weeks turned
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 1: into months with only vague updates, Kay's worry deepened, and
• 1:05:54
  Speaker 1: come fall, Kay began reaching out to authorities in both
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 1: Arizona and Idaho, reporting that she couldn't reach her grandson.
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 1: So it was Kay's tenacity that directly led Rexburg police
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 1: to perform the late November twenty nineteen welfare check that
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 1: exposed the lies about the children's whereabouts and when the
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 1: children's remains were discovered in June twenty twenty, Kay and
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 1: Larry were absolutely devastated, yet even in their grief, they
• 1:06:19
  Speaker 1: stood front and center at press briefings, and while it
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 1: wasn't the outcome they had hoped, at least now they
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 1: could lay the kids to rest. And the Woodcocks continued
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 1: to be pillars of strength during Lourie's trial in twenty
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 1: twenty three, and they attended nearly every single hearing, and
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 1: Kay even took the witness stand to recount how Charles
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 1: had confided in her before his death that he feared
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 1: Laurie's cult like ideas, and Larry gave a powerful victim
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 1: impact statement, telling her directly.
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 2: I surely wish I was there to look the murderers
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 2: and the eyes I'm unable to. I will say this, murderous,
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 2: you are nothing your murderer, you are narcissus, psychopath, delusional, barger.
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 1: All you need to say, well said, and the woodcocks
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 1: unwavering fight for truth not only cracked the case open,
• 1:07:16
  Speaker 1: but kept the memory of JJ and Tyly alive to
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 1: the public, and then there's Colby Ryan. And Colby Ryan
• 1:07:22
  Speaker 1: is Lourie's eldest child born from her second marriage and
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 1: the older half brother to Tylie and adoptive brother to JJ.
• 1:07:29
  Speaker 1: And Colby's role in this tragedy is complex because he
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 1: loved his mother, yet ultimately he became a key figure
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 1: in questioning her and aiding investigators, and initially when suspicions
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 1: first arose, Colby defended Lourie. Yet Laurie had told Colby
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 1: a variety of lies. At one point, she claimed Tylee
• 1:07:49
  Speaker 1: was busy at college and that JJ was with his grandparents,
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 1: and Colby just wanted to believe her, But by late
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 1: twenty nineteen he grew alarmed, and he realized he hadn't
• 1:07:58
  Speaker 1: actually spoken to Tyler in a really long time, and
• 1:08:02
  Speaker 1: the last texts he got from Tyler's phone in the
• 1:08:04
  Speaker 1: fall were strangely stilted, not in her voice, and full
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 1: of odd excuses. So Colby told police that when he
• 1:08:12
  Speaker 1: expressed worry in text to Tylie, he got brief replies
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 1: saying she was safe but busy, which struck him as
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 1: very unlike his sister, and those messages were likely Lurie
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 1: or someone else impersonating Tyly after she was already dead,
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 1: and as twenty twenty began and Laurie refused to tell
• 1:08:30
  Speaker 1: anyone where the kids were, Colby publicly broke his silence,
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 1: and in media interviews, a distraught Colby pleaded with Laurie
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 1: to do the right thing and tell what happened, and
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 1: he recorded heart wrenching YouTube videos addressing his mom, saying
• 1:08:44
  Speaker 1: she wasn't the same person and begging her to save
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 1: her children's lives by revealing the truth. And these public
• 1:08:50
  Speaker 1: statements from Colby were significant, and they undercut Laurie's narrative
• 1:08:54
  Speaker 1: that everything was fine, but Colby would fully cooperate with investigators,
• 1:08:59
  Speaker 1: and perhaps cos most dramatic contribution came in mid twenty
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 1: twenty when he agreed to participate in a recorded jailhouse
• 1:09:05
  Speaker 1: phone call with Lourie once she was arrested, and this
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 1: call was later played for the jury at Laurie's trial,
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 1: and in it, Colby emotionally confronts his mother, demanding she
• 1:09:16
  Speaker 1: tell him if his siblings are alive, and Laurie evades
• 1:09:19
  Speaker 1: and offers bizarre religious platitudes. At one point, Colby tells
• 1:09:23
  Speaker 1: her that God will punish her for the things that
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 1: she has done, and Laurie shockingly just laughs on the
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 1: phone because you know she's fing evil and that disturbing
• 1:09:32
  Speaker 1: audio let's jurors hear Laurie's coldness and detachment in her
• 1:09:36
  Speaker 1: own voice, and Colby telling her, I don't know a
• 1:09:39
  Speaker 1: murderous mother drove home how far into delusion Laurie had sunk,
• 1:09:43
  Speaker 1: but he no longer knew who she was, and it
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 1: was powerful evidence of Laurie's lack of remorse or accountability,
• 1:09:50
  Speaker 1: just strengthening the prosecution's case that she was the mastermind,
• 1:09:55
  Speaker 1: not an unwitting dupe of Chad. So by the time
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 1: of Laurie's twenty twenty three trial, Colby was firmly in
• 1:10:01
  Speaker 1: the role of survivor advocate, and he took to the
• 1:10:04
  Speaker 1: stand as a witness for the state, introducing the family
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 1: to the jury and describing the love he had for
• 1:10:09
  Speaker 1: Tylei and JJ, painting a human picture of the victims
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 1: beyond the grizzly details, and he recounted how Laurie had
• 1:10:16
  Speaker 1: been loving mom when he was younger, but how around
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 1: twenty eighteen he saw radical change as she got into
• 1:10:22
  Speaker 1: Chad's teachings, and his testimony about Lurie's personality shift and
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 1: the way she'd start talking about zombies and evil spirits
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 1: just set the stage for understanding the motive, and he
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 1: expressed grief and also anger, saying that Tyley and JJ
• 1:10:36
  Speaker 1: deserved so much better, and in the end, Colby, having
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 1: lost his entire family, stood as a figure of resilience
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 1: and his willingness to confront his mother and cooperate with
• 1:10:47
  Speaker 1: the law enforcement was crucial in achieving justice for his siblings,
• 1:10:51
  Speaker 1: showing even for within Laurie's family, there were those who
• 1:10:55
  Speaker 1: would hold her accountable. So Laurie was initially charged for
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 1: two counts of felony child desertion for willfully abandoning Tiley
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 1: in JJ and misdemeanors for obstruction, lying to police, solicitation,
• 1:11:09
  Speaker 1: and contempt of court. And at our extradition hearing in Hawaii,
• 1:11:13
  Speaker 1: Laurie notably appeared unmoved, and she ultimately waived extradition and
• 1:11:18
  Speaker 1: was flown back to Idaho on March fifth, twenty twenty,
• 1:11:21
  Speaker 1: under armed guard, and in her initial Idaho court appearance,
• 1:11:24
  Speaker 1: the judge reduced bail from five million to one million
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 1: after the defense emphasized Laurie's low flight risk as she
• 1:11:31
  Speaker 1: was prominent in the public eye but unable to postpond.
• 1:11:34
  Speaker 1: As we know, Laurie remained in jail. Importantly, at this point,
• 1:11:37
  Speaker 1: she was not yet charged with murder or conspiracy to murder,
• 1:11:41
  Speaker 1: as the authorities were still assembling that case. Chad will
• 1:11:44
  Speaker 1: be booked on two felony counts of concealment of evidence
• 1:11:48
  Speaker 1: and or destruction of evidence for hiding the bodies of
• 1:11:51
  Speaker 1: Tiley and JJ and in his first court appearance, Chad's
• 1:11:54
  Speaker 1: bail was also set to one million dollars. With both
• 1:11:57
  Speaker 1: Louri and Chad behind bars by mid twin and prosecutors
• 1:12:01
  Speaker 1: moved methodically to upgrade charges as new evidence came in
• 1:12:04
  Speaker 1: and grand juries convened, and initially Lauri and Chad faced
• 1:12:08
  Speaker 1: a somewhat convoluted list of charges. Laurie had child desertion,
• 1:12:13
  Speaker 1: obstruction and related counts, while Chad had evidence concealment, and
• 1:12:17
  Speaker 1: over the summer of twenty twenty, additional charges were attacked
• 1:12:20
  Speaker 1: on and in June, Laurie was also charged with conspiracy
• 1:12:23
  Speaker 1: to conceal evidence once it was clear she and Chad
• 1:12:26
  Speaker 1: acted together, so everyone anticipated more serious charges pending the
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 1: completion of Tammy's autopsy and further investigation, and in early
• 1:12:34
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty one, authorities in Freemont County where Tammy died,
• 1:12:37
  Speaker 1: and Madison County where the kids were killed, coordinated to
• 1:12:41
  Speaker 1: present the case to a grand jury. So on May
• 1:12:44
  Speaker 1: twenty fourth, twenty twenty one, in Idaho, grand jury indicted
• 1:12:47
  Speaker 1: lour Valo and Chad day Bell on multiple counts of
• 1:12:50
  Speaker 1: first degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder, and finally
• 1:12:55
  Speaker 1: directly accusing them of killing seventeen year old Tily and
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 1: seven year old JJ and forty nine year old Tammy
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 1: day Bell. And this was a sweeping indictment, covering all
• 1:13:04
  Speaker 1: three murders, as well as related charges of insurance fraud
• 1:13:08
  Speaker 1: for Chad collecting Tammy's life insurance and grand theft for
• 1:13:11
  Speaker 1: Laurie continuing to draw Social Security benefits on the kids
• 1:13:15
  Speaker 1: after their deaths. And at a press conference on May
• 1:13:17
  Speaker 1: twenty fifth, prosecutors made the stunning announcement public outlining how Laurie, Chad,
• 1:13:22
  Speaker 1: and Alex Cox now deceased, conspired in a plot driven
• 1:13:26
  Speaker 1: by radical beliefs in greed. Essentially, they alleged that Laurie
• 1:13:30
  Speaker 1: and Chad used their cult like religious teachings to justify
• 1:13:34
  Speaker 1: murdering Laurie's children and Chad's wife, in part to remove
• 1:13:38
  Speaker 1: obstacles to their relationship and also to collect financial benefits.
• 1:13:42
  Speaker 1: And Laurie, still in jail, and Chad, who by then
• 1:13:45
  Speaker 1: had also remained incarcerated, both had initial court appearances on
• 1:13:49
  Speaker 1: these new charges and pleaded not guilty believe it or not,
• 1:13:54
  Speaker 1: almost like their narcissistic, psychopathic assholes or something. And in Idaho,
• 1:13:59
  Speaker 1: these murder charges made them eligible for the death penalty,
• 1:14:02
  Speaker 1: which the state quickly signaled it would pursue, at least
• 1:14:06
  Speaker 1: for Chad. However, shortly after the indictment there was a
• 1:14:10
  Speaker 1: pause in proceedings for LORII, and in June twenty twenty one,
• 1:14:13
  Speaker 1: Lori Valo was declared incompetent to stand trial by a
• 1:14:17
  Speaker 1: psychological evaluator, and the judge agreed that Laurie was not
• 1:14:21
  Speaker 1: currently able to assist in her own defense, so on
• 1:14:24
  Speaker 1: June eighth, twenty twenty one, she was committed to the
• 1:14:27
  Speaker 1: Idaho Department of Health and Welfare for restorative treatment, and
• 1:14:31
  Speaker 1: the details of her mental condition weren't made public, but
• 1:14:34
  Speaker 1: it was reported that she might have been diagnosed with
• 1:14:36
  Speaker 1: a depressive or delusional disorder, and this commitment meant to
• 1:14:40
  Speaker 1: delay until she could be deemed fit, essentially hitting pause
• 1:14:44
  Speaker 1: on Laurie's case. But Chad's case meanwhile proceeded on track,
• 1:14:48
  Speaker 1: and his attorneys entered not guilty please on his behalf
• 1:14:51
  Speaker 1: on all counts and started the long process of pretrial motions,
• 1:14:55
  Speaker 1: and for about ten months Laurie underwent treatment, and by
• 1:14:58
  Speaker 1: April eleventh, twenty twenty two, the court found Lorie Valo
• 1:15:01
  Speaker 1: competent to stand trial, almost like she was stalling or
• 1:15:05
  Speaker 1: something because she's evil or something, and she was returned
• 1:15:09
  Speaker 1: to the county jail to face her charges, and at
• 1:15:12
  Speaker 1: her arrayment on April nineteenth, twenty twenty two, Laurie refused
• 1:15:16
  Speaker 1: to enter a plea standing mute, so the judge entered
• 1:15:19
  Speaker 1: a not guilty plea for her on all counts. Now
• 1:15:22
  Speaker 1: with both defendants on the same page, legally, the case
• 1:15:25
  Speaker 1: moved toward a joint trial until another twist separated them again,
• 1:15:30
  Speaker 1: and prosecutors initially planned to try Laurie and Chad together
• 1:15:34
  Speaker 1: in one big trial, giving the overlapping evidence, and they
• 1:15:37
  Speaker 1: even announced in mid twenty twenty two that they would
• 1:15:40
  Speaker 1: seek the death penalty for Laurie as well, just as
• 1:15:43
  Speaker 1: they would for Chad. However, Chad's team wanted more time
• 1:15:47
  Speaker 1: to prepare given that they had nothing to go on
• 1:15:50
  Speaker 1: because he's guilty, and Chad waived his right to a
• 1:15:53
  Speaker 1: speedy trial, while Laurie asserted hers. So this led Chad's
• 1:15:57
  Speaker 1: lawyer to successfully argue in late twenty two twenty two
• 1:16:00
  Speaker 1: that the cases should be severed and Tad's trial would
• 1:16:03
  Speaker 1: be postponed and Lourie's would proceed first in twenty twenty three. Additionally,
• 1:16:08
  Speaker 1: just weeks before Laurie's trial in twenty twenty three, the
• 1:16:11
  Speaker 1: judge removed the death penalty as a possibility for her,
• 1:16:14
  Speaker 1: citing that her defense didn't have adequate time to review
• 1:16:17
  Speaker 1: some late arriving DNA evidence if a death sentence was
• 1:16:21
  Speaker 1: on the table, so Laurie would be tried for her life,
• 1:16:24
  Speaker 1: but with a maximum penalty of life imprisonment rather than execution.
• 1:16:28
  Speaker 1: So the decision to hold separate trials meant that Laurie
• 1:16:31
  Speaker 1: Valoda Bell went before a jury in twenty twenty three
• 1:16:34
  Speaker 1: and Chad day Bell would follow with his in twenty
• 1:16:36
  Speaker 1: twenty four and each trial was its own media spectacle,
• 1:16:39
  Speaker 1: revealing the disturbing details to the entire world. But Laurie's
• 1:16:42
  Speaker 1: trial commenced in early April of twenty twenty three in Boise, Idaho,
• 1:16:46
  Speaker 1: and the prosecution painted Laurie as a woman driven by money,
• 1:16:50
  Speaker 1: power and sence, and who used her doomsday cult beliefs
• 1:16:53
  Speaker 1: to manipulate those around her into removing any obstacle to
• 1:16:57
  Speaker 1: what she wanted. And over the course of four weeks,
• 1:16:59
  Speaker 1: the state called roughly sixty witnesses and jurors heard heart
• 1:17:03
  Speaker 1: wrenching testimony from law enforcement describing the condition of Tyley
• 1:17:07
  Speaker 1: and JJ's remains, and they saw photos of the Pet
• 1:17:10
  Speaker 1: Cemetery burn pit where Tyleie's bones had been reduced to nothing.
• 1:17:15
  Speaker 1: And the graphic nature of this evidence was such that
• 1:17:17
  Speaker 1: Laurie at one point asked to be excused from the
• 1:17:20
  Speaker 1: courtroom when photos were shown, and that request was luckily
• 1:17:25
  Speaker 1: denied by the judge because she should have to look
• 1:17:28
  Speaker 1: at what she did to her children. And perhaps most
• 1:17:30
  Speaker 1: damning was Laurie's own recorded jail call that we talked
• 1:17:33
  Speaker 1: about before with Colby, where her indifferent attitude and bizarre
• 1:17:36
  Speaker 1: laughter at being accused of murder likely made a poor
• 1:17:39
  Speaker 1: impression on the jury, and Laurie's defense notably called no
• 1:17:43
  Speaker 1: witness of their own because they didn't have any she's
• 1:17:47
  Speaker 1: an evil person, but their whole defense was that Chad
• 1:17:50
  Speaker 1: Dabell had a dark influence on Laurie, but this would
• 1:17:53
  Speaker 1: fall flat because she's an adult woman who can make
• 1:17:57
  Speaker 1: her own decisions. And on May twelfth, twenty three, the
• 1:18:00
  Speaker 1: jury found Laurie Valoda Bell guilty on all counts, including
• 1:18:04
  Speaker 1: the murders of Tylee and JJ and conspiracy in Tammy's
• 1:18:08
  Speaker 1: murder plus grand theft, and the evidence of her active
• 1:18:12
  Speaker 1: participation in leadership in the conspiracy was overwhelming, and Laurie
• 1:18:16
  Speaker 1: showed little reaction as the verdict was read, and in
• 1:18:20
  Speaker 1: late July twenty twenty three, she was sentenced to life
• 1:18:23
  Speaker 1: in prison without the possibility of parole, receiving five separate
• 1:18:26
  Speaker 1: life sentences, three to be served consecutively for the murders
• 1:18:30
  Speaker 1: and two concurrently for conspiracy, and at her sentencing, Judge
• 1:18:34
  Speaker 1: Stephen Boise admonished her in scathing terms, saying, quote, you
• 1:18:38
  Speaker 1: chose the most evil and destructive path possible unquote, and
• 1:18:43
  Speaker 1: he said, describing how she justified the killings by going
• 1:18:47
  Speaker 1: down a bizarre religious rabbit hole, and Laurie, in a
• 1:18:51
  Speaker 1: rambling statement, still professed her innocence and said bizarrely that
• 1:18:55
  Speaker 1: her children were happy in heaven and no one was
• 1:18:58
  Speaker 1: actually murdered, remarks that only reinforce the perception that she
• 1:19:03
  Speaker 1: remains deeply delusional or in denial. Quote Jesus Christ knows
• 1:19:08
  Speaker 1: that no one was murdered in this case. Accidental deaths happen.
• 1:19:13
  Speaker 1: It's happened. Fatal side effects from medications happen, unquote, just
• 1:19:19
  Speaker 1: batshit man. Following her Idaho conviction, Laurie was extradited to
• 1:19:23
  Speaker 1: Arizona to finally face charges for charles murder and the
• 1:19:26
  Speaker 1: attempt on Brandon bur Drew, where she would eventually also
• 1:19:30
  Speaker 1: be found guilty of both in twenty twenty five, adding
• 1:19:33
  Speaker 1: additional life sentences. And she was found guilty for conspiring
• 1:19:37
  Speaker 1: to murder Charles on April twenty second and for conspiring
• 1:19:40
  Speaker 1: to murder Brandon on June twelfth, and she was given
• 1:19:43
  Speaker 1: two additional life sentences on July twenty fifth. And then
• 1:19:46
  Speaker 1: there was Chad in Chad Daybell's trial took place about
• 1:19:49
  Speaker 1: a year after Laurie's in April and May of twenty
• 1:19:53
  Speaker 1: twenty four, also in Boise, due to the change of venue,
• 1:19:56
  Speaker 1: and Chad, unlike Laurie, had the death penalty on the tab,
• 1:20:00
  Speaker 1: which raised the stakes significantly, and his defense strategy diverged
• 1:20:04
  Speaker 1: from Laurie's and they squarely pinned most of the blame
• 1:20:07
  Speaker 1: on Laurie and Alex In. In opening statements, Chad's lawyer
• 1:20:11
  Speaker 1: painted him as a misguided religious man who was seduced
• 1:20:14
  Speaker 1: and controlled by Laurie, arguing that Laurie was the mastermind
• 1:20:18
  Speaker 1: and that Chad was guilty, perhaps of being foolish, but
• 1:20:21
  Speaker 1: not murder. What not murder even though there's like a
• 1:20:26
  Speaker 1: thousand pieces of evidence, and the prosecution, by contrast, portrayed
• 1:20:30
  Speaker 1: Chad as equally culpable and driven by base motives and
• 1:20:33
  Speaker 1: emphasizing the insurance money he gained from Tammy's death, and
• 1:20:37
  Speaker 1: many witnesses and much of the evidence was similar to
• 1:20:40
  Speaker 1: Laurie's trial given the overlap. And One new element in
• 1:20:43
  Speaker 1: Chad's trial, though, was the focus on Tammy's murder, and
• 1:20:47
  Speaker 1: jurors heard from Chad and Tammy's children, Emma and Garth,
• 1:20:51
  Speaker 1: about how their mother's health had gotten worse near her death. However,
• 1:20:54
  Speaker 1: jurors also heard from Tammy's family and friends about how
• 1:20:58
  Speaker 1: shocked they were at her son death considering how healthy
• 1:21:01
  Speaker 1: she had seemed leading up to it, reinforcing the homicide finding.
• 1:21:05
  Speaker 1: And they also heard of Chad's behavior after Tammy's death,
• 1:21:08
  Speaker 1: like moving in with Laurie and their marriage days after,
• 1:21:12
  Speaker 1: which undercut any notion of him as a passive pawn.
• 1:21:16
  Speaker 1: So on May thirtieth of twenty twenty four, after deliberation,
• 1:21:18
  Speaker 1: the jury found Chad day Bell guilty on all counts
• 1:21:22
  Speaker 1: as well and the first degree murders of Tylee, JJ
• 1:21:25
  Speaker 1: and Tammy, plus conspiracy and insurance fraud. So having seen
• 1:21:28
  Speaker 1: the same mountain of evidence, they did not buy the
• 1:21:31
  Speaker 1: idea that Chad was just Laurie's victim, and the trial
• 1:21:34
  Speaker 1: then proceeded to a penalty phase because the death penalty
• 1:21:37
  Speaker 1: was sought, and on June first, twenty twenty four, the
• 1:21:41
  Speaker 1: judge formally sentenced Chad day Bell to death for the
• 1:21:44
  Speaker 1: three murders, plus additional years for the other charges, and
• 1:21:48
  Speaker 1: Chad reportedly showed little emotion as the sentence was handed down.
• 1:21:52
  Speaker 1: Because he's a narcissistic psychopath, evil monster, and he was
• 1:21:56
  Speaker 1: transferred to the Idaho Maximum Security Institution and placed on
• 1:21:59
  Speaker 1: death row, where he belongs, and Idaho hadn't actually conducted
• 1:22:03
  Speaker 1: an execution in many years, but Chad's sentence sent a
• 1:22:07
  Speaker 1: strong message given the heinousness of his crimes, and as
• 1:22:11
  Speaker 1: of twenty twenty five, Chad is appealing his conviction and
• 1:22:13
  Speaker 1: a sentence to Idaho Supreme Court, a process that could
• 1:22:17
  Speaker 1: take years. But in the meantime, he remains behind bars,
• 1:22:20
  Speaker 1: destined to live out his days in the shadow of
• 1:22:23
  Speaker 1: the crimes he once thought were divinely sanctioned. And I
• 1:22:27
  Speaker 1: say good riddance. And these people deserve to rot, rot
• 1:22:32
  Speaker 1: and think about all the things they have done wrong.
• 1:22:36
  Speaker 1: So that is that for this case, heart wrenching case.
• 1:22:41
  Speaker 1: My heart goes out to the victims' families and to
• 1:22:44
  Speaker 1: the children and to the spouses. I it's just horrible, horrible.
• 1:22:51
  Speaker 1: But please let me know what other cases you want
• 1:22:54
  Speaker 1: me to deep dive into. I always read the comments
• 1:22:57
  Speaker 1: and until I see you next time, stay safe by