Idaho prosecutors during opening statements that Chad Daybell and Lori Vallow Daybell labeled anyone they wanted out dead as zombies or dark-spirited.
Chad Daybell is currently on trial for killing his first wife, Tammy Daybell, and Vallow Daybell’s two children in 2019. J.J. Vallow and Tylee Ryan, 7 and 16, were reportedly found buried on Chad Daybell’s property nine months after their disappearances; Ryan’s remains were dismembered and charred, while J.J. was in a plastic bag.
Madison County Prosecutor Rob Wood said the couple, who married weeks after Tammy Daybell’s death, created an alternate reality that permitted them to kill anyone who they thought was in their way.
“In his thirst for sex, power and money, Chad created an alternate reality where he called themselves James and Elaina.”
“The evidence will show this was a convenient narrative to dehumanize people who stood in their way. This narrative gave them the pretext to remove people from the world for their good,” Wood explained, per East Idaho News.
Vallow Daybell was sentenced last July to life without parole for the September 2019 slayings of her two children. She also got a life sentence for conspiring Tammy Daybell’s murder in October 2019. Her death was initially ruled natural but later deemed a homicide.
Vallow Daybell is awaiting trial in Arizona for killing her fourth husband, Charles Vallow, in July 2019. Vallow Daybell’s brother, Alex Cox, fatally shot Charles Vallow and claimed self-defense. Cox died — reportedly of natural causes — in December 2019, months after J.J. Vallow and Ryan’s disappearances. Idaho prosecutors claimed Cox was also involved in the slayings.
During opening statements, Wood showed texts from Cox in which he mentioned being “afraid he was going to be Chad and Lori’s fall guy.”
The trial continues…
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[Feature Photo: Chad Daybell/Ada County Sheriff’s Office]
