The Curious Case of Lori Vallow

By Pete Dove

 Her orange and white striped jump suit beneath long, blonde, flowing locks suggests a children's entertainer, a professional party host for a gathering of eight-year olds. In a different setting, we could expect to hear the screams of joy and laughter, the party poppers going off, the moms and dads enjoying a glass of wine in the middle class kitchen of their middle class homes, bi-fold doors open to the gardens where the children have been placed to avoid the slightest risk of custard pie foam on the couch.
Thank God it isn't raining, smile the benevolent hosts, trying and failing to fix an ironic grin on their faces. Truly, in their hearts, they thank God it is not raining.
That Lori Vallow does look like a children's entertainer, dressed in bright hoops that extend even to her sneakers, is of course the properly ironic matter here. Painfully ironic. Because Vallow is suspected of one of the worst crimes a mother could possibly commit, although the charges, while hardly throw-away, are of a slightly less serious nature. Clearly, unspoken words tell that the public believe that she is guilty of something far more horrific.
A mother betraying her children. More than that? The words are on everybody's lips, sympathy settles in the hearts of very, very few.
But what if she's innocent?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trellis Publishing
• Release date: Jul 14, 2021
• ISBN: 9781393090410

Book preview

THE CURIOUS CASE OF LORI VALLOW

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PETE DOVE

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LORI VALLOW

SAMANTHA SCOTT

ANNIE MONAHAN

VALENTINES DAY MURDERER

BARBARA STAGER

JAMILA M’BAREK

JUDY BUENOANO

INTERNET BLACK WIDOW

WENDI ANDRIANO

Guilty Before Trial

But what if she’s innocent?

Standing behind the green topped table, her attorneys dressed smartly in two-piece suits, she doesn’t look innocent. It takes less than a microsecond for any observer to be clear against who they should direct their ire. But then, that’s the plan, isn’t it?  The game?  Make everybody present, every person who reads a paper, or sees coverage on TV, see transparently and without the merest hint of a shadow of a doubt who the guilty one is here. 

Her orange and white striped jump suit beneath long, blonde, flowing locks suggests a children’s entertainer, a professional party host for a gathering of eight-year olds.  In a different setting, we could expect to hear the screams of joy and laughter, the party poppers going off, the moms and dads enjoying a glass of wine in the middle class kitchen of their middle class homes, bi-fold doors open to the gardens where the children have been placed to avoid the slightest risk of custard pie foam on the couch.

Thank God it isn’t raining, smile the benevolent hosts, trying and failing to fix an ironic grin on their faces.  Truly, in their hearts, they thank God it is not raining.

That Lori Vallow does look like a children’s entertainer, dressed in bright hoops that extend even to her sneakers, is of course the properly ironic matter here.  Painfully ironic.  Because Vallow is suspected of one of the worst crimes a mother could possibly commit, although the charges, while hardly throw-away, are of a slightly less serious nature.  Clearly, unspoken words tell that the public believe that she is guilty of something far more horrific.

A mother betraying her children.  More than that?  The words are on everybody’s lips, sympathy settles in the hearts of very, very few.

But what if she’s innocent?

Because we need a small rider for this particular story.  At the time of writing, the 5 feet 6-inch-tall, lightly built and blue-eyed Lori Vallow is guilty of nothing.  She is awaiting trial, due to take place in May 2020, and faces charges of child abandonment, resisting and obstructing an officer, the solicitation of a crime and contempt of court.  By the time this report is read, she could be behind bars facing an unpleasant stay as a vulnerable inmate – the law of the prison jungle dictates that crimes against children are the most despised.  Crimes against your own children the top of that particularly unpleasant pile.

Or she could be free.  The re-appearance of those children could wipe away every crime on the charge sheet, even the more minor ones which do not directly relate to her children.  Public sympathy could turn in an instant and the Idaho courts may decide it is in nobody’s interest to pursue allegations against her.

It is just that it seems very unlikely that the children will suddenly turn up.  Certainly. J.J., her son, is only seven and as such very much subject to the decisions of others. But Tylee is seventeen.  Almost an adult.  A girl old enough to hold a driving license.  It is very hard to entertain the notion that somewhere she is waiting patiently out of sight, while her mother is dragged through the courts and the agony of public hatred.

This is an astonishingly complicated case.  And a very unusual one. 

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The last time that Lori Vallow’s children were seen was on September 23rd of 2019.  The family lived in Idaho, but shortly after this date Vallow and her husband Chad Daybell left for Hawaii.  ‘Fled’ being the word more widely used to describe their departure.

It does not seem as though the couple tried to hide themselves away on the Pacific Islands, either to grieve or out of guilt.  Indeed, once there they appeared to enjoy the life of a couple experiencing a well-deserved get away.  Shopping, island hopping, enjoying the sites.  Nevertheless, when police on the islands approached them, to ask about the whereabouts of Tylee and JJ, the answer given was that the kids were safe and well.  Nothing to worry about at all, officer.

Whatever faults criminal investigators might or might not possess, gullibility tends to feature rarely on any list.  The police wanted proof of Vallow’s claim and asked for the whereabouts of the children to be revealed, so that it could be known officially that they were safe.  Vallow refused to cooperate, was arrested and extradited to Idaho.

Sean Bartholick is an attorney who has represented both Daybell and Vallow in the case, and as such one of the very few to raise arguments in favor of the couple.  He said, prior to the case coming to court: ‘Chad Daybell was a loving husband and has the support of his children in this matter.  Lori Daybell is a devoted mother and resents assertions to the contrary.  We look forward to addressing the allegations once they have moved beyond speculation and rumor.’

Then, there are plenty of very unusual circumstances surrounding this case.  Firstly, both Vallow and her husband claim to be members of a Doomsday organisation – many consider it more of a cult – called Preparing a People.

Lori had met Chad Daybell at a meeting of the religious organisation.  Relatives believe that Lori quickly became fascinated by Chad’s near-death experiences and shared his fascination for the afterlife and the end of the world.

It should be noted that the association itself claims that it is an educational provider, which delivers lectures to interested parties to help them prepare for the second coming of Jesus Christ, and that it is not a cult, nor a group which people can join.  Certainly, the current case involving two of its advocates is doing the establishment little good.

In court filings from more than a year before, relating to another case, the uncertain state of Vallow’s mind becomes clear – she is either suffering from mental health issues or attempting to build a strong argument that she is undergoing such anguish.  She ‘has recently become infatuated, at times obsessive, about near-death experiences and spiritual visions,’ argued her former, and now deceased, husband, Charles, in seeking a protection order against her.  ‘She is sealed (eternally married) to the ancient Book of Mormon prophet Moronie and has lived numerous lives on numerous planets prior to this current life,’ the submissions continue. In one of those past lives, she claims to have been the grandmother of Joseph Smith, the Mormon Church’s founder, who lived from 1805 to 1844.

She also, claim the filings, believes that her purpose on Earth is to create a new holy city, and she had been charged with this duty by God.  This made her, apparently, a ‘translated being who cannot taste death.’ 

The submissions appeared in February 2019 after Charles filed for divorce from Lori.  He was also granted an order of protection from her.  He went on to explain that his ex-wife saw herself as a Christ figure who referred to herself in the third person, as Mother.  ‘Mother believes that she is receiving spiritual revelations and visions to help her gather and prepare those chosen to live in the New Jerusalem after the Great War as prophesied in the Book of Revelations,’ he continued.

We should not have long to wait.  This war will result from Christ’s second coming, which she believes will happen in July 2020. 

Subsequent to filing his concerns, Charles’ home was ransacked, and his truck stolen from an airport parking lot.  Then, shortly afterwards Charles was shot dead by Lori Vallow’s brother, Alex Cox.  In an astonishing series of events, he then too died in December of 2019. He was the second of Vallow’s five husbands to die prematurely.  Daybell’s wife, who is also the mother to his five children, also died in suspicious circumstances.  This was just a couple of weeks prior to Daybell, an author of religious literature associated with the Church of the Latter Day Saints, marrying Vallow, who is a part time podcaster. The likelihood of connections between these deaths and the missing children is too coincidental to ignore, although, as we have to keep on stating, at the time of writing, no charges have been brought regarding these matters, and those charges which Lori Vallow faces are still to be heard in court. 

There is more.  Brandon Boudreaux married into the Vallow family and explained how Lori’s extreme religious beliefs have caused her problems.  ‘I don’t know what happened to those kids, but I know there’s people who do and they’re not talking...I love them both, I hope they’re safe.  They’re both just innocent and they didn’t deserve to be involved in any of this,’ he said.

Lori Vallow and her latest husband (he is her fifth) certainly hold some unorthodox beliefs. (Indeed, she and Chad Daybell have both been expelled not only from the Preparing for a People group, but also the Church of the Latter Day Saints.  In each case, their claims to be prophets has caused understandable unrest among the hierarchy of the organisations.) 

In a more recent court case relating to her niece, Melani Pawlowski, many of these worringly odd convictions emerged.  It seems possible that they extend into some of Vallow’s wider family.  The case in question here was a bitter custody battle between Melani and her ex-husband, Bourdeaux, in which numerous allegations were thrown out about not only Melani, but other members of the extended family, including Lori.

‘Melani is involved in a cult where numerous members, adults and children alike have been being killed off like flies,’ he alleged in his court filing. 

He also says that Melani is aware of what happened to the children but is simply refusing to help the investigation.  Her new husband, Ian Pawloski, has also allegedly had concerns about his wife.  ‘She says sometimes children are full of light and then just like that they go dark,’ he is accused of saying.

So, are these just the words of a worried, or bitter, man desperately trying to gain custody of his children?  Or are his concerns not only genuine, but symptomatic of the kind of frightening cult more readily seen on the pages of a Stephen King blockbuster?

Boudreaux, it seems, was subject to an attempt on his own life in October of 2019.  He was in Gilbert, Arizona returning home from a visit to the gym when a Wrangler Jeep pulled up.  He alleges that a rifle complete with silencer emerged from the rear of the vehicle, and a shot was fired which shattered his door window, missing his head by inches.

Police investigated and discovered that the Jeep was registered to Charles Vallow.  He, of course, had been dead for three