“Doomsday cult” mom Lori Vallow Daybell, who was found guilty of murdering her two kids, denied being responsible for their death in a new prison phone call with her oldest son.
Vallow Daybell, 51, is serving life in prison at the Maricopa County Jail in Arizona for the murders of her children Tylee Ryan and Joshua “JJ” Vallow, as well as Tammy Daybell, the former wife of her husband, Chad Daybell.
Chad Daybell was sentenced to death in June for his role in the same crimes.
Colby Ryan and his mother Lori Vallow Daybell. Vallow Daybell was convicted of murdering Ryan’s siblings. Ryan shared a phone call with her to his podcast.
YouTube/AP Photo
Vallow Daybell is also awaiting trial on conspiracy to commit murder charges in relation to Charles Vallow, her fourth husband, and Brandon Boudreaux, her former nephew-in-law.
On Sunday, Vallow Daybell’s oldest son Colby Ryan released an episode of his The Scar Wars podcast featuring a nearly hour-long phone call with who he claims is his mother.
This was the first time the mother-son duo had spoken in four years after Colby Ryan emotionally testified against her during her murder trial. In a jail call shortly after Tylee and JJ’s brutally dismembered bodies were found in a pet cemetery in the yard of Chad Daybell’s Idaho home, Colby Ryan called her a “murdering mother.”
“I’m going to let you know right now it is very, very hard to listen to,” Colby Ryan prefaced his latest phone call with Vallow in a teaser YouTube video.
During the call, Colby Ryan grills his mother on the murders and her religious beliefs. During her murder trial, prosecutors called witnesses who claimed she and Chad Daybell conspired to kill the two children and his first wife because they wanted to overcome any obstacles to their own relationship.
The prosecution also said the couple justified their killings by creating an apocalyptic belief system where evil spirits can possess people and turn them into “zombies.” The only way to save someone’s soul is for them to die.
Vallow Daybell has denied killing her kids and claimed on Colby Ryan’s podcast that Tylee was to blame for her brother’s death. She alleges Tylee was mad at her after the family moved to an apartment and then accidentally killed JJ, then herself.
“What if Tylee was holding JJ down and trying to get him not to scream and be loud in an apartment? What if she held him down too long and realized afterward what she had done?” Vallow Daybell said on the phone to an astonished Colby Ryan.
“When I came in on that scene and they were gone, I thought Tylee did it to get back at me. I thought it was all my fault. I thought she was mad at me, and that’s what happened.”
Upon finding her dead kids, Vallow Daybell claimed she “ran out” of the apartment and someone else did something with their bodies.
“I wasn’t aware what happened to them after I left that scene,” she said. “Their spirits were gone from their bodies. They were already in heaven.”
Chad Daybell (left) and Lori Vallow Daybell (right). The pair were convicted of killing two of her children and Daybell’s first wife.
AP Photo
Vallow Daybell at one point asked Colby Ryan if Tylee had come to him in a dream after her death.
“Because she visited and told me plenty of things and the very first thing she told me was I’m sorry Mom for being such a brat,” Vallow Daybell laughed as Colby Ryan stared with a blank expression into the camera.
She added elsewhere, “The reason Tylee and JJ visited me right after that is to tell me it wasn’t my fault. I was blaming myself 100 percent. I didn’t want anyone to know what Tylee had done to JJ. I wanted to continue to protect Tylee as her mother who has been trying to protect her for her whole life.”
Once the phone call abruptly ended due to poor service, Colby Ryan broke down into tears.
“My sister did not kill my brother. She didn’t. And to put it on her is so unfair,” Ryan sobbed. “It’s so unfair to Tylee. She would never do that.”
He added, “I guess I have to accept how delusional my mom is. There’s no even slight evidence that Tylee did that and it just hurts to blame her.”
Do you have a story Newsweek should be covering? Do you have any questions about this story? Contact LiveNews@newsweek.com
