Convicted child killer Lori Vallow Daybell sent a message to her surviving son via a journalist at CrimeCon over the weekend, a message that Colby Ryan said was “her way” of saying she is “basically godly.”
East Idaho News journalist Nate Eaton read the message during a panel he hosted at the Denver convention, saying he had cleared it with his panelists, which included Ryan.
“If you talk to Colby, please tell him that ‘I love you very much, NO MATTER WHAT,’ all caps,” Eaton said, reading the message. “You can ask him about Matthew 25.”
Matthew 25 contains two parables, the Parable of the 10 Virgins and the Parable of the Talents, which Pope Francis called “the ‘protocol’ by which we will be judged at the end of the world.”
Eaton asked Ryan what he thought she meant by her message.
“It’s her trying to talk about the wicked and the good being sifted apart, basically. So it’s her way of trying to say she is still good and, basically, godly,” Ryan said.
Eaton asked if Ryan wanted to talk with his mother again, and when he shook his head no, he said the panel would continue without talking about her, to loud applause.
Vallow Daybell was convicted of murder and conspiracy in multiple deaths, including her other two children, 16-year-old Tylee Ryan and 7-year-old JJ Vallow, her fifth husband’s first wife, Tammy Daybell, and her fourth husband, Charles Vallow, as CrimeOnline has reported. She was also convicted of conspiracy in the attempted murder of her niece’s ex-husband, Brandon Boudreaux.
Her fifth husband, Chad Daybell, was convicted in the deaths of the two children and his first wife. He has been sentenced to death, while Vallow Daybell was sentenced to multiple life sentences to be served consecutively.
Colby Ryan was the son of Vallow Daybell and her second husband, William Lagioia, but was later adopted by her third husband, Joe Ryan. He later said he considered Charles Vallow his father.
Tylee Ryan was the daughter of Vallow Daybell and Ryan, and JJ Vallow was the son of Vallow Daybell’s niece who was adopted by the Vallows because his parents could not take care of him.
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[Featured image: Colby Ryan and Nate Eaton at CrimeCon/Instagram. Inset: Lori Vallow Daybell during her sentencing hearing in Phoenix on July 25, 2025. (AP Photo, Pool)]