Lori Vallow Daybell was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the murders of her two children, JJ and Tylee. She was also sentenced for conspiring to murder Tammy Daybell, the first wife of her husband, Chad Daybell.
When she had the chance to speak before receiving her sentence, Lori refused to take any accountability. Instead, she gave an incredibly narcissistic and (arguably blasphemous) speech that “Jesus knows me” and that He “knows that no one was murdered”.
In this speech, Lori claimed that her two kids had come down from Heaven to assure her that she “didn’t do anything wrong”. She also claimed that Tammy Daybell, her “eternal friend”, had visited her to bring “peace and comfort”.
As others have said in comments about Lori’s speech, I can only imagine how disgusted the victims’ families and friends were, hearing this drivel.
Judge Steven Boyce saw through all of Lori’s nonsense and called her out on her sheer lack of remorse when he handed down her sentence.
I’m relieved that Lori will spend the rest of her days behind bars, unable to bring harm to anybody else. And while I, of course, feel anger at her crimes, I also feel incredibly disappointed at her refusal to admit to any of her wrongdoings.
Analyzing the Timeline
I found this timeline of the events leading up to the murders of JJ, Tylee, and Tammy. Per the timeline, Lori and Chad met each other in 2015, and Lori started reading Chad’s religious books around this time. Chad’s writings tended to focus on the end of the world.
When they met again at a conference in 2018, they shared a belief that they’d met and married each other in a previous life. They took to referring to each other as “James” and “Elena”.
They also shared a disturbing belief that people could become “zombies”. Not undead zombies, but possessed by something evil, and rendered “dead” in their eyes.
Lori and Chad came to believe that JJ, Tylee, and Tammy were zombies.
Projecting Adultery Guilt
The timeline makes it clear that Lori and Chad, despite both being married at the time, had been committing adultery long before they were married.
There are two disturbing points in the timeline about their adultery:
- At one point, Lori accused her then-husband, Charles, of infidelity.
- 10 days before her brother, Alex, shot and killed him, Charles told Lori that he was going to tell Tammy Daybell about the affair.
Not only did Lori partake in adultery, violating one of the Ten Commandments, she most likely guaranteed her husband’s death when he told her his intentions. How vile.
But Charles, in a way, had the last laugh. He named Kay Woodcock, JJ’s biological grandmother (and Charles’ sister), as the beneficiary of his $1 million life insurance policy. Charles ensured that Lori wouldn’t receive a dime of it.
According to this timeline, Lori only found out about this after Charles’ death.
Serves her right.
Tough Calls
Both Colby Ryan, Lori’s son, and Summer Shiflet, her sister, called her while she was in jail. They both confronted Lori over her refusal to tell their family anything about what had happened to JJ and Tylee.
Here’s Colby’s call first:
Here are some quotes from their call that stood out to me:
(In response to Colby confronting her about murdering her children)
Lori: “I didn’t. I’m sorry that you feel that way.” [This is a classic narcissist response.]
Colby: “After everything you’ve tried to tell me, you can tell me, right now, that Jesus Christ, the Savior of the World, is on your side? You tell me that, with all of the conviction in your heart, that Jesus Christ is on your side. Please.”
Lori: “I can tell you that.”
Lori (in an extremely patronizing tone): “One day, you will know what actually happened.”
Colby: “You’re right, ’cause you know what, Mom? God will show everything into the light. You’re absolutely right. He will convict the people who act in His name with PURE BLASPHEMY.”
Lori: *laughs in response*
Lori: “Go ahead and judge me, the whole world has. The whole world has judged me. They don’t know, and you don’t know. You don’t know what I’ve been through, and you didn’t even give a crap what they’ve been through. Nobody does, except for me.”
Colby: “SAY IT. Tell me that this was done in Jesus’ name.”
Lori: “…You don’t know what happened.”
Colby: “You had enough condemnation for the whole entire eternity, but you’re telling me that you’re going to stand in front of Jesus Christ, and you’re going to be fine?”
That last quote from Colby is chilling but accurate. He warned Lori that she’s risking eternal condemnation, Hell, for what she’s done, and her refusal to own up to any of it.
Does Lori seriously not think that what she’s done counts as blasphemy? And I wonder, was she laughing out of nervousness because she ultimately knows that Colby was right?
I can only imagine everything that Colby has felt throughout this nightmare. He had incredible courage to confront his mother and call her out on her lies. I can tell that he successfully got under her skin by the way she snapped about “judging me”.
(On an unexpectedly humorous note, Colby refers to Chad Daybell as “Peter Griffin” at one point in this call. I cackled.)
Here’s Summer’s call:
Some particularly heartwrenching quotes from their call:
Lori: “You have no idea what happened.”
Summer: “You’re right, nobody does, BECAUSE YOU SAID NOTHING!”
Lori (after Summer demands that she tells the truth): “I would love to.”
Summer: You didn’t want to in October, November, December, January, or February when you weren’t in jail! Why didn’t you tell us then? You didn’t call me when Alex [their brother who may have helped commit the three murders] died – which now I’m glad he’s gone, if he was a part of this – but you didn’t call to tell me Alex died, or that your kids are gone, NOTHING?! You don’t think that’s gonna cause pain throughout our entire family?!”
Lori: “You don’t think I’m in pain?”
Summer: “No, I don’t! I ‘think’ you were dancing on the beach, having a great time! Getting married, and you took pictures to prove it! Your kids don’t deserve a burial, but you need to get wedding pictures?! You don’t think that’s upsetting?!”
Lori: “Nobody knows, I’m sorry honey…”
Summer: *Scoffs* ‘Then nobody knows, except for you and the Lord!”
Lori: “Yeah, ask Him.”
Summer: “I have! And guess what? I don’t have one Scripture that says it’s ok for children to be THROWN AWAY LIKE GARBAGE IN THE GROUND. And that that’s ‘ok’! There is NOTHING in the Scriptures that is godly about hurting a child! NOTHING!”
I am so sorry for the grief and anguish Summer has felt, knowing how much she loved her sister. And I am so proud of her for calling Lori out like this.
It baffles me that Lori likewise told Summer, “You have no idea what happened.” And then having the audacity to suggest that God supports her version of the “truth”. She really is determined to avoid accountability.
I also found this recorded phone call from Lori’s best friend, Melanie Gibb, calling Chad’s number in December 2019:
My golly, that was impressive on Melanie’s end. Especially these parts:
Melanie: “I was wondering why you told the police he (JJ) was with me.”
Lori: “I just needed to use-(oops, Freudian slip!) have somebody that, like, so I wouldn’t have to tell them where he really was, because they were going to tell Kay (JJ’s grandma) where he is.”
Melanie: “Is JJ safe?”
Lori: “He is safe. And happy.”
Melanie: “I asked Al (Alex Cox) at one point, your brother, if…if I I wanted to know, you know, like, where he (JJ) was, and he said I do not want to know, and that he could not be found. So what does that mean?”
Lori: “…I don’t know why he would say that, but it’s the same story, like, I *stutters* I don’t even want Al to know, I don’t want anybody to know so that nobody has to be worried about it.”
Melanie: “…But that’s not how God works, He doesn’t work in darkness.”
Lori: “I agree with you 100%, and that’s what the Lord is doing for me, exactly what He’s doing for me.”
Melanie: “Oh, just…it just says here-“
Lori: “We have not opened the door for darkness, Mel. Darkness is knocking on the door all the time, because that’s the way the dark works with the light. And, I promise you, that I have done nothing wrong in this case.”
At one point in their call, Melanie gently warns Lori that she’s acting similar to Korihor, the Book of Mormon’s anti-Christ. As you can imagine, Lori was highly displeased. Melanie shook her up in one of the best ways possible.
Melanie’s questions caused Lori to lose her composure. Lori kept desperately spouting lies, but you could tell that she wasn’t at all prepared for Melanie’s responses.
And wow, how disturbing is it that Lori calmly lied about JJ being “safe”, knowing that he’d been dead for over a month at the time of this call. Perhaps him being in Heaven, no thanks to them murdering him, was “safe” enough in her eyes?
Cherry-Picking Arrogance
It was abundantly clear to us all that Lori Vallow Daybell was guilty. She also made it clear with her sneers and smirks of smug satisfaction that she doesn’t feel one bit of remorse. And yet, she tried to convince Judge Boyce and others that she was innocent with her pre-sentence statement.
Here are some quotes from it that stand out to me:
“I do not fear death, but I look forward to it.”
“Jesus knows me. And Jesus understands me.”
“Jesus Christ knows the truth of what happened here. Jesus Christ knows that no one was murdered in this case.”
(Quoting what JJ supposedly said to her as a spirit) “You didn’t do anything wrong, Mom. I love you. And I know you loved me every minute of my life.”
Lori also quoted the following Bible verses:
“When they continued to question Him, He straightened up and said to them, ‘Let him who is without sin among you be the first to cast a stone at her.'”
John 8:7
“You judge according to the flesh; I judge no one. But even if I do judge, My judgment is true, because I am not alone; I am with the Father who sent Me.”
John 8:15-16
When I looked up John 8:15, the Bible site I used gave the following verse as a cross-reference:
“But the LORD said to Samuel, ‘Do not consider his appearance or height, for I have rejected him; the LORD does not see as man does. For man sees the outward appearance, but the LORD sees the heart.'”
1 Samuel 16:7
Lori must know what Jesus was saying in John 8:15. Yes, people judge according to outward appearances, but God sees the heart and judges according to that. We can try and hide our true intentions from the world, but we can’t hide from God.
Do you know what’s extremely ironic about Lori cherry-picking John 8:7? The woman in question was a woman caught in adultery. A sin that Lori continually participated in, and had the gall to project onto her then-husband Charles.
Remember what Jesus says to the woman after the Pharisees leave?
“Then Jesus straightened up and asked her, ‘Woman, where are your accusers? Has no one condemned you?’
‘No one, Lord,’ she answered. ‘Then neither do I condemn you,’ Jesus declared. ‘Now go and sin no more.'”
John 8:10-11 (part bolded for emphasis)
Lori conveniently ignored this crucial part of the passage for her own purposes. Oh yes, Jesus does know her. He knows her sins, and He knows more than anybody else that she kept on sinning in violation of what He told the woman in John.
Oho! And guess what: I can quote the Bible, too!
“But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come:
For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power.
And from such people turn away!”
2 Timothy 3:1-5 (parts bolded for emphasis)
Lori, for all the wrong reasons, reminds me of Judge Claude Frollo from Disney’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Her claim that she did nothing wrong calls to mind this bit of dialogue from the beginning of the movie:
Frollo: “My conscience is clear!”
The Archdeacon: “You can lie to yourself and your minions! You can claim that you haven’t a qualm!
But you NEVER can run from nor hide what you’ve done from the EYES!
The very eyes of Notre Dame!”
Frollo and the Archdeacon, “The Bells of Notre Dame”
Sin Amounts to Nothing
The most bitterly ironic thing out of this nightmare is that Lori and Chad both exchanged everything for nothing. They threw away multiple lives, shattered families, lusted after each other, and spread lies to avoid facing accountability. For nothing.
Because now, after all of their malevolent plotting and cruel actions, they’ll never get to see each other ever again. Whether Chad gets life in prison as well or receives the death penalty, “James and Elena” (their supposed past-life names) will forever be parted.
And frankly, that’s justice after everything they’ve done.
This is what sin is: some sort of temporary high that only ever amounts to long-term consequences. Lori and Chad built a life together on a foundation of multiple sins, and now, that foundation has been permanently destroyed.
I hope that knowledge breaks them for their own good. Maybe then they would finally show remorse.
Featured Image by Enrique Meseguer from Pixabay
Quis ut Deus? 